This is Frank Chorba reporting books of interest to the PCA/ACA from
December 31, 1995 and the January/February 1996 New York Times Book
Reviews. The date of each review is indicated following the reviewer's
remarks.
Yale University:
THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE: PUBLIC OPINION AND DEMOCRACY
by James S. Fishkin
(A political scientist criticizes current survey methods. Mr. Fishkin
concludes the book with his remedy: a "deliberative pool." The idea
is to assemble a representative sample of the American public --
a "hypothetical society," Mr. Fishkin says -- put them in one room
and have them hash out issues in greater depth than most citizens
would have time to do. Then, invite the candidates into the room
with them so the people have an even better opportunity to have
their say. Mr. Fishkin plans to do just that. "The Voice of the
People" is something of a rationale for the National Issue
Convention, a project he and his university (Texas) organized
that took place in Austin during mid-January. Jan. 14, 96)
Beacon:
DOUBLE VISION: REFLECTIONS ON MY HERITAGE, LIFE, AND PROFESSION
by Ben H. Bagdikian
(This is two books in one: a memoir and an informal history of
how journalism in the US has changed since World War II. Mr.
Begdikian offers a critique of the American news media, which he
believes to be transfixed by power and privilege. "A better
central theme for our reporting," he says, "is what politics and
economics do to advance or defeat social justice. The conventions
of our trade claim that social justice is in the eye of the
beholder and therefore cannot be objective reporting. But in a
democracy, is basic social justice really a matter of personal
opinion?" Feb. 4, 96)
Harcourt Brace & Company:
THE FROZEN REPUBLIC: HOW THE CONSTITUTION IS PARALYZING DEMOCRACY
by Daniel Lazare
(Historian rather than a political scientist or a first year
Congressman, Mr. Lazare doesn't offer a set of instructions for
redrafting the Constitution. But he conveys his point about the
ways in which our idolatrous worship of the Document deprive us
of the courage to imagine a future that doesn't look like one
of the Disney Company's inventions of the American Past. Feb. 4, 96)
Jason Aronson:
THE NEW INFORMANTS: THE BETRAYAL OF CONFIDENTIALITY IN PSYCHOANALYSIS
AND PSYCHOTHERAPY by Christopher Bollas and David Sundelson
(This is an eyeopening and provocative book. Mr. Bollas, a British
psychoanalyst, and David Sundelson, an American lawyer, survey,
analyze and attack the trend away from secrecy. They attribute the
erosion partly to the let-it-all-hang-out standard of contemporary
culture, which as they see it militates against keeping
"salvation secret" and leads psychiatrists to reveal the details
of their patients' psychic life to biographers or reporters.
Dec. 31. 95)
The Free Press:
GOING NEGATIVE: HOW ATTACK ADs SHRINK AND POLARIZE THE ELECTORATE
by Stephen Ansolabehere and Shanto Iyengar
(The book is about why nasty political campaign commercials work --
and why. By the authors account, it is not so much what negative
advertising persuades viewers to do that matters; it is what it
persuades them not to do. Such ads encourage viewers to opt out
of the electoral politics altogether, and they are used strategically
by candidates who believe they would benefit from low turnout.
"Political advertising -- at least as it is currently practiced --
is slowly eroding the participatory ethos in America." Jan. 14, 96)
MANHOOD IN AMERICA: A CULTURAL HISTORY by Michael Kimmel
(Surveying literature and popular entertainment as well as economic
and political trends from the early 19th century to the present,
the author has produced a concise, incisive and long-neglected
history of men. This is the story of an idea -- masculinity --
that different men internalize differently. Mr. Kimmel sets out
to redefine masculinity for a new century. Dec. 31, 95)
Oxford University Press:
FETISH: FASHION, SEX AND POWER by Valerie Steele
(Ms. Steele, a cultural historian who teaches at the Fashion
Institute of Technology in New York City, sets out a classification
system to sort true sexual fetishists from the rest of humanity.
Why? Because, She says, the line between the "normal" and the
"perverse" is blurring, especially over the last 30 years. Jan.
14, 96)
THE OXFORD HISTORY OF THE PRISON: THE PRACTICE OF PUNISHMENT IN
WESTERN SOCIETY edited by Norval Morris and David J. Rothman
(Although many people probably assume that imprisonment has long
been the dominant means of criminal punishment, it actually
played a minor role until the 19th century. In colonial America,
for example, the most widely used sanctions were fines, whippings,
mechanisms of shame (branding, letter wearing, ear cropping, the
pillory and the stocks), banishment and the ultimate "banishment" --
the gallows. Feb. 11, 96)
McGraw-Hill:
THE AMERICAN CITY: WHAT WORKS, WHAT DOESN'T by Alexander Garvin
(This facinating and almost formidably knowledgable book, a kind of
one-volume Encyclopedia Urbanica that closely examines 250
neighborhoods, parks, building programs and projects in 100
contemporary American cities, is -- and here's a counter-
intuitive twist for the post-urban 90's -- largely a collection
of dazzling and ultimately inspiring success stories. Feb. 4, 96)
Miramax Books:
SPIKE, MIKE, SLACKERS & DYKES: A GUIDED TOUR ACROSS A DECADE OF
AMERICAN INDEPENDENT CINEMA by John Pierson
(Mr. Pierson races the reader through mazes of alleyways and up
the vertiginous escalators that have led both him and independent
films from obscurity to the big time. Mr. Pierson is someone few
outside the film industry are aware of. Yet without him Americans
would not have heard so soon from Spike Lee, Michael Moore, Richard
Linklater and a host of other directors whose unconventional
visions brought the lives of blacks, the unemployed, homosexuals,
hoop dreamers and other marginalized Americans to the screen.
Feb. 4, 96)
Nan A. Talese/Doubleday:
FEMINISM IS NOT THE STORY OF MY LIFE: HOW TODAY'S FEMINIST ELITE HAS
LOST TOUCH WITH THE REAL CONCERNS OF WOMEN by Elizabeth Fox-Genovese
(What Makes a Woman a Woman? The author says that feminists don't
have the answer. Jan. 14, 96)
Columbia University:
XY: ON MASCULINE IDENTITY by Elisabeth Badinter
(Ms. Badinter examines masculinity from a historical and
psychological perspective, lingering on how society's and man's
attitudes toward homosexuality have changed over the years.
Feb. 4, 96)
Alfred A. Knopf:
DANCING ON THE CELING: STANLEY DONEN AND HIS MOVIES
by Stephen M. Silverman
(Stanley Donen, a former dancer, co-directed three films with
Gene Kelly. Two of them, "On the Town" and "It's Always Fair
Weather," are among the most innovative musicals of their time.
The third, "Singin in the Rain," may be the greatest musical of
all time. As a solo director, Mr. Donen was responsible for
"Seven Brides for Seven Brothers," "Funny Face," "Indiscreet,"
"Charade" and "Two for the Road." Feb 4, 96)
ARGUING ABOUT SLAVERY: THE GREAT BATTLE IN THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS
by William Lee Miller
(Slavery was once so volatile an issue that Congress argued over
whether it could even be discussed. Between 1835-1844, the US House
of Representatives battled over the "gag rule" -- whether Congress
could even discuss the subject of slavery and whether "the sacred
right of petition" so central to republican government included the
right to petition against human bondage. This engaging book should
succeed in making the gag rule controversy more widely known. In
the end, Mr. Miller seems to conclude that the anti-gag-rule effort
aroused widespread support because more Americans were willing
to struggle in defense of their own freedoms of political
expression than against the denial of black Americans. Jan. 14, 96)
W. W. Morton & Company:
HOW MANY PEOPLE CAN THE EARTH SUPPORT? by Joel E. Cohen
(The author, a biologist, ponders future population growth. The
answer appears to be about one trillion. The conclusion is based
on hundreds of pages of analysis and mathematics. Jan. 14, 96)
GOD'S CHINESE SON: THE TAIPING HEAVENLY KINGDOM OF HONG XIUQUAN
by Jonathan D. Spence
(In the 19th century, a messianic visionary tried to build a
paradise in China. Hong Xiuquan established a rival capital to
Beijing by taking the city of Nanjing and proclaiming it his
"earthly paradise." The so-called "Taiping Rebellion" was suppressed
in 1864 when imperial forces surrounded Nanjing and blasted their
way through the city's thick walls. "Not one of the 100,000 rebels
in the city was taken, but in many cases gathered together and
burned themselves." Zeng Guofan, the general who led the imperial
army, wrote to the Emperor. "Such a formidable band of rebels has
been rarely known from ancient times to the present." Feb. 4, 96)
AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM: A DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD by Seymour Martin
Lipset
(What is it that makes America different from the rest of
the world? Central to Lipset's American exceptionalism is the
idea of a definable American Creed, "a set of dogmas about the
nature of a good society," deriving mostly from the Revolution.
These include liberty, egalitarianism, individualism, populism
and laissez-faire. To buttress his argument, he uses copious
survey data to demonstrate how different America is from other
nations. For example, in 1992 just 38 percent of Americans agreed
that government should reduce the difference in income between
rich and poor, compared with 65 percent of Britons, 66 percent of
Germans, and 80 percent of Italians. Feb. 11, 96)
Rutgers University:
AMERICAN PLASTIC: A CULTURAL HISTORY by Jeffrey L. Meikle
(A scholar offers a history of plastic in America. The reviewer
concludes that "In the end the reader learns a lot about plastic,
but very little about America. Jan. 14, 96)
Simon & Schuster:
A PIECE OF THE ACTION: HOW THE MIDDLE CLASS JOINED THE MONEY CLASS
by Joseph Nocera
(The author shows how computers, credit cards and mutual funds
charged the American economy, opening up financial opportunities to
people whose dreams had preveiously kept pace with their paychecks.
Jan. 14, 96)
IT TAKES A VILLAGE: AND OTHER LESSONS CHILDREN TEACH US
by Hillary Rodham Clinton
(Mrs. Clinton summarizes studies about how children develop physically,
mentally and spiritually, and presents various models of the village,
or "civil society," taking seriously the needs of children and a
society's own responsibility to meet those needs. Feb. 11, 96)
Owl/Holt:
AN HONOURABLE DEFEAT: A HISTORY OF GERMAN RESISTANCE TO HITLER,
1933-1945 by Anton Gill
(Always small in number, they were even fewer by the end of the
war. But the Germans who tried to undermine the Riech -- from
clergymen to soldiers -- enjoyed moral if not substantive
victories. Jan. 14, 96)
Henry Holt & Company:
FACING THE EXTREME: MORAL LIFE IN THE CONCENTRATION CAMPS
by Arthur Denner and Abigail Pollak
(This is a study of concentration camps that compares the Nazi
and the Stalinist experiences. Feb. 11, 96)
St. Martin's Press:
THE RISE AND FALL OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE by Lawrence James
(Mr. James's book reflects a dual conviction, albeit one more
controversial than he supposes: Empire not only shaped Britain and
made it a multiracial country, but stimulated its people's
sense of superiority and racial arrogance, as well as their
liberal and humanitarian sense of responsibility and mission.
"What matters most today is that the British Empire transformed the
world," he says, shaping the "present-day democracy, economy and
political life of North America and much of Asia, the Middle East,
Africa and the Pacific." Jan. 14, 96)
Random House:
FUHRER-EX: MEMOIRS OF A FORMER NEO-NAZI by Ingo Haaselbach with
Tom Reiss
(This is a report from inside Germany's neo-Nazi movement by a one-
time leader. More than simply the story of one tragically mis-
guided hoodlum, it is, perhaps unintentionally, an insightful study
of how and why young people are drawn to groups dedicated to the
violent propagation of hatred. Feb. 4, 96)
WE ALL GOT HISTORY: THE MEMORY BOOKS OF AMOS WEBBER
by Nick Salvatore
(Mr. Salvatore chronicles a black Civil War veteran's life.
Feb. 4, 96)
Little, Brown & Company:
STORMING THE GATES: PROTEST POLITICS AND THE REPUBLICAN REVIVAL
by Dan Balz and Ronald Brownstein
(The book examines the Republicans' 1994 Congressional victory.
The authors describe how, after the cold war's end, Republican
conservatives, led by Newt Gingrich, forged a powerful new
coalition among the Christian right, the advocates of term
limits and property rights, the foes of gun control and business
regulation, and Ross Perot supporters around the "central
goal of limiting Federal power." Feb. 4, 96)
NO INTERMISSIONS: THE LIFE OF AGNES DE MILLE by Carol Easton
(De Mille was a choreographer who specialized in sentimental comedy.
She was loved for her wholesome subject matter, nostalgia,
patriotism, cute girls, and nice fellers. In 1944, she had three
hit musicals running on Broadway. In all, she choreographed some
15 musicals and 21 ballets. In between, she wrote 12 books. In
ballet, she was one of the makers -- together with Antony Tudor
and Jerome Robbins -- of midcentury realism, the fusion of ballet
technique with vernacular movement and modern psychology. Feb 11, 96)
Scribner:
ABOVE THE LAW: SECRET DEALS, POLITICAL FIXES AND OTHER MISADVENTURES
OF THE US DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE by David Burnham
(The book represents a skeptical look at the priorities of
Federal law enforcement. The central thesis is that the Justice
Department, with alarming regularity over the years, has made
decisions about which cases to investigate based on a case's
political consequences rather than on impartial considerations of
law and justice. Feb. 4, 96)
University of Georgia Press:
DAUGHTERS OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION: WOMEN, WORK, AND FICTION IN THE
AMERICAN 1930s by Laura Hapke
(How female wage earners were vilified in the 1930's. The author
demonstrates that working women, whether industrial workers or
professionals, were scapegoats for the widespread economic and
psychological conflicts and tensions felt by women and men alike in
an era of hardship and uncertainty. Feb. 4, 96)
Vicarious:
OUR TIMES: THE ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF THE 20TH CENTURY
edited by Lorraine Glennon
(The book includes 29 researchers, 5 picture researchers and 18
writers. They have attacked the design problem of presenting
a whole century in bits and pieces of text and pictures in two
ways: both by book and by CD-ROM. The result is, among other
things, a textbook illustration of what each medium offers
that the other can't, and of why the CD-ROM is a fascinating
novelty that almost always ends up reconfirming the miracle of
a truly good book. Feb. 11, 96)
University of Chicago Press:
THE SCANDAL OF PLEASURE: ART IN AN AGE OF FUNDAMENTALISM
by Wendy Steiner
(The problem with art, Wendy Steiner says, is that too many
ideologues insist on taking it literally. This is a splendid
rebuttal of those on the left and right who think that the
pleasures induced by art are trivial or dangerous. Dec. 31, 95)
SEND YOUR REQUEST TO REVIEW A BOOK listed above for the Journal of Popular
Culture or the Journal of American Culture to Peter Rollins
(rollins@osuunx.ucc.okstate.edu.)
SEND queries regarding the Journal of Radio Studies (JRS) to Frank
Chorba (zzchor@acc.wuacc.edu) or call 913-231-1010-1380.
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