December 1997
We welcome review copies of books by alumni. The books are donated to the Swarthmoreana section of McCabe Library after they have been noted for this column.
Carl Abbott '66, Sy Adler, and Margery Post Abbott '67, Planning a New West: The Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, Oregon State University Press, 1997. What happens when a coveted landscape becomes a battleground for two visions of the American West? In examining the origins and implementations of the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, this book reveals an experiment in mediating between the old and new Wests.
Margery Post Abbott '67, A Certain Kind of Perfection, Pendle Hill Publications, 1997. This anthology of the writings of 31 Quaker authors spans three centuries and demonstrates the driving force within Quaker spirituality--the call to holiness and obedience that unites all those who call themselves Friends.
Christine (Parker) Ammer '52, The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms, Hough-ton Mifflin, 1997. This dictionary contains nearly 10,000 idioms and phrases, such as "get down to brass tacks" and "get a load of"; phrasal verbs, such as "take off" and "pick up"; figures of speech, such as "mad as a hatter"; and everyday metaphors, such as "snow job" and "spin doctor."
Dean Baker '80 (ed.), Getting Prices Right: The Debate Over the Consumer Price Index, M.E. Sharpe, 1998. This book presents the work at the center of the debate over the accuracy of the consumer price index--the congressionally appointed Boskin Commission--and critically evaluates its findings and implications.
Ruth Bardon '80 (ed.), Selected Short Stories of William Dean Howells, Ohio University Press, 1997. This collection of the short fiction of American realist William Dean Howells contains the texts of 13 stories, each with a critical analysis, plus an annotated story list and a chronology of Howells' life and works.
Michael Calingaert '55, European Integration Revisited: Progress, Prospects, and U.S. Interests, Westview Press, 1996. This book focuses on the successes and failures of efforts of the European Union to achieve greater economic and political integration, the prospects for the future, and the implications of present and prospective developments for the United States.
Amitai Etzioni and David E. Carney '94 (eds.), Repentance: A Comparative Perspective, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1997. Using the world's religious teachings on repentance as its major touchstone, this book tackles questions in the current debate on repentance, restitution, and reconciliation in contemporary civic society.
Peter S. Cohan '79, The Technology Leaders: How America's Most Profitable High-Tech Companies Innovate Their Way to Success, Jossey-Bass Inc., 1997. Looking at leading companies as models for success, among them Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, and Intel, Cohan provides a blueprint for change to teach mana-gers, investors, and competitors alike how to become tomorrow's technology leaders.
William A. Cohen '85, Sex Scandal: The Private Parts of Victorian Fiction, Duke University Press, 1996. By viewing 19th-century fiction alongside the most alarming public scandals of the day, Cohen exposes both the scandalousness of this literature and its sexiness.
Eric T. Dean Jr. '72, Shook over Hell: Post-Traumatic Stress, Vietnam, and the Civil War, Harvard University Press, 1997. Based on archival research in the records of mental institutions and the service records of Civil War soldiers, this book debunks the notion of the Vietnam War as exceptional in the number and degree of its psychiatric casualties.
Marc Egnal '65, Divergent Paths: How Culture and Institutions Have Shaped North American Growth, Oxford University Press, 1996. Focusing on three geographic regions that were settled by 1750--the eight northern and six southern U.S. colonies and French Canada--this book argues that culture and institutions shaped the divergent paths of the North, on the one hand, and the South and French Canada, on the other.
Jeanne M. (McKee) Jacobson '53, Content Area Reading: Integration with the Language Arts, Delmar Publishers, 1998. Written primarily for undergraduates and graduate education students studying content area instruction, this text links theory and practice while describing proven strategies. Jacob E. Nyenhuis and Jeanne M. Jacobson, A Dream Fulfilled: The Van Raalte Sculpture in Centennial Park, Hope College, 1997. This history chronicles the planning, building, and placement of a statue to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Holland, Mich. Jeanne M. Jacobson, Elton J. Bruins, Larry J. Wagenaar, Albertus C. Van Raalte: Dutch Leader and American Patriot, Hope College, 1996. Beginning with the founding of Holland, Mich., by Dutch colonist Albertus Van Raalte, this history follows the story of the town and its citizens from 1847 to the pres-ent day.
Ruth Rehmann, translated by Christoph Lohmann '58 and Pamela (Fezandie) Lohmann '61, The Man in the Pulpit, University of Nebraska Press, 1997. This autobiography by German novelist Ruth Rehmann re-examines her childhood and the father--a stern, imposing Lutheran minister--whose apolitical stance in the face of Nazi aggression provided unsatisfactory moral guidance for his family and parishioners.
Richard Martin '67, Word-robe, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1997. This catalog, published in conjunction with the exhibition Wordrobe at the Metropolitan Museum of Art this fall, presents examples of clothing created over the last two centuries that combines text with textile.
Rachel Pomerantz (nom de plume), Cactus Blossoms, Targum/Feldheim, 1997. This novel, a sequel to Pomerantz's Wildflowers, is set against the backdrop of Saddam Hussein's terrifying threats, as Barbara and Chaim Silber face the battle for the right to raise their foster son in a Torah life.
Nicole (Fischer) Hahn Rafter '62, Creating Born Criminals, University of Illinois Press, 1997. In this social history, Rafter demonstrates that we need to know how eugenic reasoning worked in the past and the danger posed by the dominance of a theory that interprets social problems in biological terms and difference as biological inferiority.
Keith Reeves '88, Voting Hopes or Fears?: White Voters, Black Candidates & Racial Politics in America, Oxford University Press, 1997. Based on research examining white voters' attitudes toward black candidates and racial framing of campaign news coverage, this book documents racial discrimination against black candidates and offers remedies for the problem.
Robin Ridington '62 and Dennis Hastings, Blessing for a Long Time: The Sacred Pole of the Omaha Tribe, University of Nebraska Press, 1997. A blend of ethnography, ethnohistory, and Omaha Indian poetics, this book tells the story of their sacred pole&emdash;the center of much of Omaha religious and secular life&emdash;and the campaign waged with Harvard's Peabody Museum to return it to the tribe.
William J. Weston '82, Presbyterian Pluralism: Competition in a Protestant House, University of Tennessee Press, 1997. Focusing on the heated ideological struggles that occurred within this country's Presbyterian Church during the late 1800s and early 1900s, this book offers an explanation of how diverse viewpoints can be accommodated within a religious institution.
Nancy Hope Wilson '69, Old People, Frogs, and Albert, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1997. Young Albert doesn't like seeing the old people at Pine Manor on his way home. In this chapter book for young readers, Albert learns to transcend his fears when a valued friend enters the Manor.
Melissa F. Zeiger '78, Beyond Consolation: Death, Sexuality, and the Changing Shapes of Elegy, Cornell University Press, 1997. Starting with the story of Orpheus and Eurydice and focusing on 19th- and 20th-century poetry, Zeiger examines modern transformations of poetic elegy, particularly as they reflect historical changes in the politics of gender and sexuality.
Copyright Swarthmore College 1998