Small Press Bk Rev-Winter 99, Pt. 1
HenryBerry
Winter 1999 - Part 1
Current Interest
Nation and Race: The Developing Euro-American Racist Subculture by Jeffrey
Kaplan and Tore Bjorgo. Northeastern University Press, 360 Huntington Ave. -
416CP, Boston, MA 02115. 1998. 287 pp. $50.00 hardcover (1-55553-332-9). $20.00
trade paper (1-55553-331-0). chapter notes; index.
(cultural studies; extremist groups)
Ten authors, most of them from European universities, present a view of
extremist right-wing groups--the sorts usually described as "hate groups" in
the United States and Europe. As some of the essays note specifically, such
extremist ideas and related provocative, often violent, behavior are passing
from the U.S. to Europe; this besides the traditional flow of extremisms such
as Nazism and fascism from Europe to the U.S. This melding of extremisms is the
general topic of all of the essays, though most of them focus on one particular
extremism or a category such as religious extremism. The convergence of Nazism,
of European origin, with the Satanism appearing in the U.S. in recent decades
is one such phenomena examined. The perspectives of the European authors will
be of special interest to American readers, few of whom realize the dimensions
of this phenomenon. Although categorized in the conventional categories of
sociology or political sciences, the book falls into the growing field of
cultural studies--in this case global cultural studies. The place of
rock-and-roll and the Internet in the spread and melding of the right-wing
extremist groups are among the aspects of popular culture arising in the
essays. In focusing on the formation and spread of the right-wing groups, these
essays also generally present a picture of social developments in this time of
the weakening of the nation-state and the formation of a global culture.
Erotic Innocence - The Culture of Child Molesting by James R. Kincaid. Duke
University Press, Box 90660, Durham, NC 27708-0660. 1998. 364 pp. $24.95
hardcover (0-8223-2177-7). b+w photographs; notes; index.
(child abuse)
Drawing in celebrity scandals involving Woody Allen and Michael Jackson, among
others, notorious child murderers and molesters, and cultural icons such as
Marilyn Monroe and Shirley Temple, Kincaid engages in a wide-ranging analysis
and evaluation of the inter-relationship between children and adults.
Presenting the central role of show business, advertising, and fashion in
creating images of children, Kincaid goes beyond this to delve into the
memories, yearnings, repressions, and ideals of adult society at play in the
show business, etc. Kincaid is a Professor of English at the U. of Southern
California. His timely study is both illuminating and unsettling. And
interested in reaching solutions to the anxious-ridden and frequently harmful
relationship of children and society as well as exposing its volatile,
sometimes lurid, sources, the author regularly proposes behavior and
perspectives for bringing about a wholesome relationship.
Freedom and Virtue - The Conservative/Libertarian Debate edited by George W.
Carey. Intercollegiate Studies Institute, PO Box 4431, Wilmington DE
19807-0431; 800-526-7022. 1998. 251 pp. $24.95 hardcover (1-882926-19-6).
(collected essays; political thought)
Although conservatives and libertarians are in general agreement that
individual liberties are threatened by the growth of the modern state with its
bureaucratization and centralization of authority, these two groups of the
political right nonetheless maintain differences on fundamental political
questions such as the place of religion in the order of the state, the exercise
of liberty, and the purpose of the state. Editor Carey adds new essays shedding
light on this debate involving leading thinkers from both groups to the essays
from the earlier edition published in 1984. L. Brent Bozell, Robert Nisbet,
Richard Weaver, M. Stanton Evans, and Russell Kirk are among those contributing
essays. In attempting to clarify and to some degree resolve the differences
between conservatives and libertarians, the essays also inevitably shed light
on contemporary society.
Younger Voices, Stronger Choices - Promise Projects Guide to Forming
Youth/Adult Partnerships by Loring Leifer and Michael McLarney. Promise
Project, 301 E. Armour - Suite 605, Kansas City, MO 64111. 1997. 92 pp. $14.95
trade paper; 8-1/2" x 11" (0-9658035-0-3). charts; forms.
(children; social activity)
The adult free-lance writer Loring Leifer and the high-school senior Michael
McLarney were commissioned by the Kansas City organization Promise Project to
put together this work on how adults and younger persons can work together to
introduce the latter to the "real world" beyond school, as well as accomplish
something. The authors's recommendations move beyond the idea of younger
persons as interns or onlookers so that they are involved in decisions and
contribute to outcomes of activities. Consultants, lobbyists, advisors, board
members, and service providers are some of the roles either adults or younger
persons can take with respect to each other. At times, the authors engage in
almost bantering exchange; and in general the book has a light, self-help
touch. While it has this tone, Leifer's and McLarney's book is nonetheless a
sober, substantive, and a timely, handbook on the important matter of spanning
the generation gap and integrating younger persons into the broader society.
Whatever Happened to the Year of the Woman? - Why Woman Still Aren't Making It
to the Top in Politics by Amy H. Handlin, Ph.D. Arden Press, PO Box 418,
Denver, CO 80201. 1998. 208 pp. $24.50 trade paper (0-912869-22-4). resources;
notes; bibliography; index.
(women's studies; politics)
Heralded as "The Year of the Woman," 1992 was supposed to mark a breakthrough
for women in politics. This didn't turn out to be so, however. Handlin explores
the difficulties women continue to face in politics from women who hold
political positions from the Congressional to the grass-roots level. Political
biographies and vignettes of the political activism of the number of women
politicians are used to bring into focus the range of difficulties they face,
from the typical "business-as-usual" syndrome to being regarded as outsiders to
being continually critiqued on the basis of appearance. Handlin is a Senior
Fellow for the Study of Public Issues and professor of marketing at Monmouth
U., NJ, who takes an unerring look at the lot of women in politics after years
of supposed advancement.
Breasts - The Women's Perspective on an American Obsesssion by Carolyn
Latteier. Haworth Press, 10 Alice St., Binghamton, NY 13904-1580; email:
dot...@haworthpressinc.com. 1998. 208 pp. $--.-- trade paper (1-56023-927-1).
notes; bibliography; index.
(women's studies)
Latteier considers the changing place of the breast of woman in Western culture
from ancient times until today--from an iconic feature of mythology,. religious
or secular symbol, sex object, to political statement, among other
perspectives. At times, Latteier's treatment gets very personal, as she
explores her thoughts about her own breasts and ponders their place in her
identity. In recounting the myths and lore and reflecting on her own thoughts,
the author also treats the ambiguous, and sometimes perverse, regard of the
breast, as when it is affected by Puritanism or ideas about obscenity. A
freelance journalist with a degree in American Studies and an interest in
gender studies, Latteier does not derive a cultural or psychological theory of
the breast, but presents an informative and thought-provoking multi-faceted
survey of this potent, persistent feature of the imagery and psyche of Western
culture.
Flesh of My Flesh - The Ethics of Cloning Humans, A Reader edited by Gregory E.
Pence. Rowan and Littlefield Publishers, 4720 Boston Way, Lanham, MD 20706;
email: dchr...@rowmanlittlefield.com. 1998. 172 pp. $12.95 trade paper
(0-8476-8982-4). chapter notes; index.
(anthology; cloning)
A medical ethicist for 20 years, Editor Pence was one of the small minority of
bioethicists to publicly oppose President Clinton's ban on human cloning.
Despite his feelings on the issue, the 13 articles he collects present a
variety of analyses of cloning and perspectives on it. James Watson's early,
1971, article "Moving Toward the Clonal Man: Is This What We Want?' from the
Atlantic Monthly is reprinted. A few other articles from previous decades are
also found for a historical overview of cloning. Most of the articles are from
1997, however--when the much-publicized cloning of a sheep by Scottish
scientists was reported along with many news articles on how advanced cloning
had become. In addition to the articles by knowledgeable and thoughtful authors
such as Stephen Jay Gould, Leon Kass, and George Johnson, the 1997 report
Cloning Human Beings of the National Bioethics Commission is included. Pence's
collected articles provide a good introduction to the scientific, social, and
ethical issues of this subject which is sure to be of concern for a long time.
They're Watching You - The Age of Surveillance by Tony Lesce. Loompanics
Unlimited, PO Box 1197, Port Townsend, WA 98368. 1998. 130 pp. $12.95 trade
paper (1-55950-175-8). b+w photographs; illustrations; chapter notes.
(surveillance; privacy)
Lesce surveys the many ways government and private organizations are able to
put persons under surveillance these days. With the sophistication of
electronic equipment, cameras, and various kinds of detectors, such
surveillance can be ingenious. Prevention of crime and terrorism are the main
reasons for government surveillance. Private organizations use surveillance to
protect proprietary matter as well as keep an eye on competitors, and sometime
to try to learn their secrets. Protecting property and monitoring customers are
other reasons businesses use surveillance. Lesce also includes the gathering of
data from customers and similar activities to amass marketing information as a
sort of surveillance. He makes his point that surveillance is ubiquitous; and
he tells how it threatens privacy, can be used for manipulation or even
blackmail, and could even in the extreme result in a totalitarian state. With
such negative aspects of surveillance in mind, Lesce closes with some guidance
on how to reduce it in one’s life.
Investing In Our Children - What We Know and Don't Know about the Costs and
Benefits of Early Childhood Interventions by Lynn A. Karoly et al. RAND, 1700
Main St., Santa Monica, CA 90407-2138. 1998. 182 pp. $15.00 trade paper
(0-8330-2530-9). tables; footnotes; bibliography.
(public policy; children's issues)
Eight individuals from prestigious universities are listed as authors with
no indication of who contributed what to what parts of the text. Nonetheless,
the text is well-focused and well-structured. It's the data, conclusions, and
recommendations of a study by the nonprofit institution RAND; presumably it was
the eight authors who conducted the study. The book makes the case for
intervention--government mainly, but it could be private too--in the lives of
children from birth to age three. Such intervention would involve health care,
education, recreation, and if necessary care for a child for healthy emotional
development and family counseling. The authors make their case, supported by a
number of charts and tables, on the practical grounds that early childhood
intervention would mean a great financial savings for society by reducing crime
and medical problems in bringing about healthier, balanced, and more capable
individuals. This perspective has been put forth elsewhere--but this
well-researched and cogent RAND study records and explains the facts supporting
this position.
The Millennium Myth - The Ever-Ending Story by Sean M. O'Shea and Meryl A.
Walker. Humanics Publishing Group, 1482 Mecaslin St. N.W., Atlanta, GA 30309;
email: huma...@mindspring.com. 1998. 198 pp. $16.95 trade paper
(0-89334-273-4). illustrations; chapter bibliographies.
(millenium 2000)
A very readable survey of the lore and social outlooks and phenomena relating
to the notion of the millennium from earliest times right up to contemporary
cults in America as the year 2000 approaches. The authors not only give an
account of the origins of the idea of the millennium in Western mythology and
religion and follow how this idea is intertwined with Western history, but also
look to Asian, Indian, and Middle Eastern religions as other sources of it. A
couple of chapters deal with the millennium in American society, rooted in
Native American religions and Puritanism. Combining a comprehensive survey with
interesting historical facts and frequent mention of how the notion of the
millennium affected people of different places and eras psychologically, the
authors, both educators with advanced degrees, present an informative, engaging
book on this subject of keen current interest for many.
Art
Selected Letters of Sergei Prokofiev edited and translated by Harlow Robinson.
Northeastern University Press, 360 Huntington Ave. - 416CP, Boston, MA 02115.
1998. 368 pp. $40.00 hardcvoer (1-55553-347-7). footnotes; index.
(modern music; collected letters)
Robinson is Chair of the Dept. of Modern Languages at Northeastern U. The
letters have been selected from various sources, which are cited in footnotes.
Many are from Russian editions of Prokofiev's letters; some of the letters have
never been published before. Robinson has selected those letters that he found
"most accessible, representative, and enlightening." And he edited many letters
liberally to remove discussions of financial matters and highly technical
musical analysis. Prokofiev wrote to all types of persons--childhood friends,
musicians, dancers, theatrical and movie directors, singers, conductors, other
composers. Robinson's aim was that the letters of this volume "lead to a
greater understanding of Prokofiev's frequently misunderstood life [and]
provide an insight into his creative processes and aesthetic principles."
The Architecture of Diplomacy - Building America's Embassies by Jane C.
Loeffler. Princeton Architectural Press, 37 E. 7th St., New York, NY 10003.
1998. 318 pp. $27.50 hardcover (1-56898-138-4). b+w photographs; illustrations;
appendices; notes; bibliography; index.
(architecture)
Loeffler begins with the U. S. embassy in Morocco in 1821. But her focus is on
the U. S. embassies constructed in many countries around the world during the
Cold War, when the U. S. was in an ideological contest with the Soviet Union
and embassies had an important part in projecting the ideals and presence of
democracy. Such embassies not only had to be functional, but also aesthetic.
Loeffler relates the influence major architects of modernism such as Walter
Gropius, Eero Saarinen, and Edward Stone had on the diplomatic architecture.
Much of the story of the Cold War embassies involves U. S. politics--especially
prerogatives and partisanships in Congress--and considerations and
controversies about the location of an embassy in a foreign capital--subjects
which Loeffler also covers. The author is a scholar in the fields of
architectural history and American civilization. She's written an informative
book on the various facets of this overlooked topic. Readers will see that
embassies are not just buildings to house bureaucrats, but have a prominent
place in international affairs, entailing among other matters relations with a
foreign government and impressions on foreign populations as well as the
representation and dissemination of democratic values.
Turning the Feather Around - My Life in Art by George Morrison as told to
Margot Fortunato Galt. Minnesota Historical Society Press, 345 Kellogg Blvd.
West, St. Paul, MN 55102-1906. 1998. 203 pp. $40.00 hardcover; 8-1/4" x 9-1/4"
(0-87351-359-2). $24.95 trade paper; 8-1/4" x 9-1/4" (0-87351-360-6). color/b+w
photographs; illustrations; notes; bibliography.
(painting; regional art; Native American artist)
Paintings of Morrison's are in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago,
the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Heard Museum, among others. He is a
Native America who describes himself as "an artist who happens to be an
Indian." From his paintings, you can't tell he's an Indian; although some of
his sculptures from his later years call to mind totem poles and other Native
American craftwork. The book has a generous sampling of Morrison's abstract
paintings in two different styles--geometric, linear compositions and
amorphous, organic, free-floating figures. Morrison's biography runs along with
the chronological sampling of his art work. The biographical material is
diary-like, conversational, not introspective or analytic. He does not delve
into modern art controversies, art history, or travails he may have
experienced. In an easy-going tone, he discloses the sources and influences for
his art,charts the turns of his artistic career, and recounts significant
episodes and relationships in his life. Although not a major modern artist,
Morrison shows himself to be a committed and serious , as well as skilled and
appealing, artist.
Annie Sprinkle: Post-Porn Modernist - My 25 Years as a Multimedia Whore by
Annie Sprinkle. Cleis Press, PO Box 14684, San Francisco, CA 94114;
cl...@aol.com. 1998. 215 pp. $24.95 trade paper; 8-1/2" x 11" (1-57344-039-6).
b+w photographs; illustrations; bibliography; filmography; index.
(performance art)
Annie Sprinkle's outrageousness is on full display. "We utilize sexually
explicit words, pictures, performances to communicate our ideas and
emotions"--from The Post-Porn Modernist Manifesto, which also asserts "And with
this love of our sexual selves we have fun, heal the world and endure." Just
what ideas and emotions Sprinkle and the other post-porn modernists are meaning
to communicate are unclear in their unbridled sexual antics resembling Marx
Brothers' skits. By her uninhibited public presentation of her body--sometimes
as a provocative statue-like object, sometimes as an object for
exploration--Sprinkle aims to raise the subjects of gender, AIDS education,
body art, and obscenity and censorship. Sprinkle is not as clever as Karen
Finley (who really isn't that clever), not as thought-provoking--Sprinkle is
more aggressive. Like Findley, Sprinkle is a very active, leading performance
artist, whose particular kind of art is amply represented.
Dreamland Japan - Writings on Modern Manga, Japanese Comics for Otaku by
Frederik L. Schodt. Stone Bridge Press, PO Box 8208, Berkeley, CA 94707; email:
s...@netcom.com. 1998. 360 pp. $16.95 trade paper (1-880656-23-x). color
photographs; illustrations; resources; bibliography; index.
(Japanese popular art; comic-book art)
"Modern Japanese manga is a synthesis: a long Japanese tradition of art that
entertains has taken on a physical form imported from the West." That "physical
form" is comic books; although in the comic-book form Japanese illustrators
have retained some of the calligraphy and deft strokes characteristic of
Japanese art, and as expected the Japanese physical, especially facial,
appearances. In turn, manga has inspired the "anima" style of art (actually
little different from comic-book and similar popular art) of many computer and
other popular and some commercial artists. Manga has become a recognizable and
influential art, a vein of the globalization of American culture. Schodt
presents a fine, wide-ranging introduction to manga; which also goes beyond
just the Japanese illustration in its study of the social, artistic, and
psychological origins of particular genres and particular artists, with one
chapter on the leading manga artist Osamu Tezuka. This is Schodt's fourth book
on modernistic Japanese culture.
Biography/Autobiography
Jesuit Saints and Martyrs - Short Biographies of the Saints, Blessed,
Venerables, and Servants of God of the Society of Jesus, Second Edition by
Joseph N. Tylenda, S.J. Loyola Press, 3441 N. Ashland Ave., Chicago, IL 60657;
800-621-1008. 1998. 484 pp. $14.95 trade paper (0-8294-1074-0). illustrations;
appendices; index.
(Catholicism; reference)
The Servants, Venerables, and Blessed of the subtitle are stages of the process
by which individuals may ultimately be canonized as Saints in Catholicism. This
second edition (first edition, 1984) adds 19 new entries dealing with 24
newly-included Jesuits, plus updates entries for others whose stages have
changed. All told, there are 347 Jesuits in 179 entries from all regions of the
world and all times since the founding of the religious order in the 16th
century. Tylenda sticks to the historical circumstances of the lives of the
numerous Jesuits, in many cases ending with martyrdom. He does not use their
lives and examples as occasions to preach about religious virtues or values,
but lets the conduct of the individuals speak for itself as representing and
confirming extraordinary, and often uncompromising, religious faith. At the end
of many sections, Tylenda adds a short prayer reflecting the particular virtues
or values seen with a particular Jesuit or simply commemorating him.
A True Republican - The Life of Paul Revere by Jayne E. Triber. U. of
Massachusetts Press, Amherst, MA 01004. 1998. 324 pp. $29.95 hardcover
(1-55849-139-2). b+w photographs; illustrations; notes; bibliography; index.
(Colonial America)
Based on extensive reading of primary and secondary sources, including Masonic
records and Revere's personal and business papers, Triber's biography illumines
how republicanism, Freemasonry, and patriotism came together in the life of
Paul Revere to make him a notable figure of American history yet at the same
time representative of political passions and ideas forming at the time that
became the foundation of the United States. Triber also relates Revere's
activities as an outstanding artisan, particularly a silversmith, and as a
leading political activist. The author, an independent scholar, does not simply
examine the familiar aspects of Revere's life, but explores it and the
influences on it to give an exceptional understanding of it as well as the
restive and ambitious New England society of the 18th century. Roughly 80 pages
of notes; about 25 pages of bibliography. A biography of an important figure of
early American that is both expansive and intricate.
The Small Press Book Review is posted quarterly on the Internet newsgroup
alt.books.reviews. SPBR reviews noteworthy books in all fields from small
presses and independent publishers, including university presses. Inquiries and
review copies can be sent to Henry Berry, PO Box 176, Southport, CT 06490;
203-332-7629 phone/fax; email: henry...@aol.com.