Books from Brooks Library

Films: Documentaries, Discoveries of Our Ancestry and Ancient Civilizations

2010-05-07T15:05:00.000-07:00

The Real Eve (DVD): a Granada production for the Discovery Channel

Mitochondrial DNA is passed from mother to children, both male and female, unchanged and it mutates at a predictable rate; i. e., the more the genetic mutations in the DNA, the more ancient the origin of the population. Using these facts, some scientists are studying mitochondrial DNA to try to trace back the origins of the human race. Using this method, the scientists have traced the human race to one female in Africa several million years ago. Then they traced the migration patterns of her descendants as they spread across the earth.

The Real Eve is a fascinating documentary presenting a new and controversial theory of human evolution. It does what all good documentaries do, it makes you think, and it entertains at the same time. I enjoyed it very much and anyone interested in human evolution would probably enjoy it also.

Time Life's Lost Civilizations (DVD): by Time-Life Video and Television

Never before could you get this close to 7,000 years of history. Digital effects technology and dramatizations re-create rituals and events, from the bloodletting of Maya kings and a pharaoh's last journey to the secret pleasures of a Roman empress. Original location cinematography in 25 countries takes you from Cuzco in Peru to Petra in Jordan, from ancient Mesopotamia to modern Tibet. Computer graphics restore Egypt's pyramids and the Great Wall of China.

Public Relations, Marketing: How to Create a Design Strategy

2010-04-23T12:52:00.000-07:00

Building Design Strategy: Using Design to Achieve Key Business Objectives (BOOK): edited by Thomas Lockwood & Thomas Walton

How can design be used to solve business problems?

That’s the question answered by Building Design Strategy. Mark Dziersk, EunSool Kwon, Arnold Levin, Laura Weiss, and many more top-name contributors share their experience and insights exploring topics on a full range of modern issues including; thinking ahead, adapting to challenges, developing tangible strategies, using design to convey ideas, choosing worthwhile projects to help growth, and using design to create fiercely loyal customers.

Film: Class Lecture from Yale Literature entitled "Introduction to Dante"

2010-04-20T15:10:00.000-07:00

Lecture Description

Professor Mazzotta introduces students to the general scheme and scope of the Divine Comedy and to the life of its author. Various genres to which the poem belongs (romance, epic, vision) are indicated, and special attention is given to its place within the encyclopedic tradition. The poem is then situated historically through an overview of Dante's early poetic and political careers and the circumstances that led to his exile. Professor Mazzotta concludes by discussing the central role Dante's exile was to play in his poetic project.

Course Description

The course is an introduction to Dante and his cultural milieu through a critical reading of the Divine Comedy and selected minor works (Vita nuova, Convivio, De vulgari eloquentia, Epistle to Cangrande). An analysis of Dante's autobiography, the Vita nuova, establishes the poetic and political circumstances of the Comedy's composition. Readings of Inferno, Purgatory and Paradise seek to situate Dante's work within the intellectual and social context of the late Middle Ages, with special attention paid to political, philosophical and theological concerns. Topics in the Divine Comedy explored over the course of the semester include the relationship between ethics and aesthetics; love and knowledge; and exile and history.

History, Political Science: Spain, the Age of Revolution, the Nationalist Movement, and the British Monarchy and Ireland

2010-04-20T14:43:00.000-07:00

A History of Spain (BOOK): by Simon Barton

Simon Barton provides a highly readable and up-to-date analysis of the historical development of Spain from its origins to modern times. Today, as Spain has become firmly integrated into the political and economic structures of the European Union, the long-held notion that the country's 'historical destiny' has been somehow out of step with those of its neighbours no longer seems valid. Barton probes the extent to which Spain should be regarded as an exceptional case and provides a clear and balanced account of its strikingly rich and diverse history.

Aristocracy and Its Enemies in the Age of Revolution (BOOK): by William Doyle

Since time immemorial Europe had been dominated by nobles and nobilities. In the eighteenth century their power seemed better entrenched than ever. But in 1790 the French revolutionaries made a determined attempt to abolish nobility entirely. "Aristocracy" became the term for everything they were against, and the nobility of France, so recently the most dazzling and sophisticated elite in the European world, found itself persecuted in ways that horrified counterparts in other countries.

Bulmer Hobson and the Nationalist Movement in Twentieth-Century Ireland (BOOK): by Marnie Hay

Bulmer Hobson (1883-1969) abandoned the pacifism of his Ulster Quaker roots to become a key leader in the Irish nationalist movement in the period leading up to the 1916 Easter Rising. Sidelined at a critical time and maligned by some republican colleagues, Hobson has not been the subject of a published study until now. This book outlines and assesses Hobson’s nationalist career in the period 1900-16, exploring his contributions to the Gaelic League, the Gaelic Athletic Association, the Sinn Féin movement, Na Fianna Éireann and the Irish Volunteers. It also examines his lesser-known activities as a publisher, civil servant and economic propagandist in the years after the Rising.

Franks, Northmen, and Slavs: Identities and State Formation in Early Medieval Europe (BOOK): edited by Ildar H. Garipzanov, Patrick J. Geary & Przemyslaw

In recent decades, historians attempting to understand the transition from the world of late antiquity with its unitary imperial system to the medieval Europe of separate kingdoms have become increasingly concerned with the role of early medieval gentes, or peoples, in the end of the former and the constitution of the latter. Eleven specialists examine here the role of ethnic identity in the formation of medieval polities on the periphery of the Frankish world in the eighth through eleventh centuries.

Somewhere in the Sand: In Search of Timbuktu (BOOK): by Chris Berggren

Chris and his fellow adventurers embark on a wild, four-month journey as they travel the world. Together, they climb Mount Sinai, ride donkeys through the Valley of Kings and party every step of the way. The young men become addicted to adventure, and it isn't long before they are plotting their next trip - this time to Timbuktu, a place of seemingly mythical proportions in the West African country of Mali. Before long, their group gets larger in number, and soon, a small army of nine is making plans to head to Africa. They don't know what to expect, but then again, they don't care. Once in Africa, they will need to navigate the desert, deal with corrupt officials and stomach extreme images of hardship and poverty. Along the way, they find quite a bit of adventure but also quite a bit of trouble. Through it all, this group of adventure junkies finds out that the perfect place to quench their thirst for excitement is Somewhere in the Sand.

The Amaroc News: The Daily Newspaper of the American Forces in Germany, 1919-1923 (BOOK): by Alfred E. Cornebise

The peacetime doughboy had little desire to be part of an occupying force in Germany. Nobody did. Not the French, not the Belgians, not the British. The Germans decidedly did not want them there. Yet American soldiers at least had the Amaroc News, a highly colorful newspaper that gave them a blend of the concerns of most young American men—women, sports, jobs, travel, education. But it gave them more: soldiers who read Amaroc came away with an expanded sense of the world’s events and of America’s changing position in the international picture.

The British Monarchy and Ireland: 1800 to the Present (BOOK): by James Loughlin

A broad-ranging political and social history of the relationship of the British monarchy with Ireland from 1800 to the present. James Loughlin demonstrates how this relationship was shaped by the personalities of individual monarchs and by government policies in Ireland, especially during the nineteenth century when the state sought to quell Irish demands for independence.

The Russian Civil War, 1918-22 (BOOK): by David Bullock

The Russian Civil War was the most important event of its kind in the 20th century. It changed the lives of over half a billion people and dramatically shaped the political, human and economic geography of Europe, the Far East and Central Asia. Over a tempestuous four-year period the Communist Red Army and the loosely formed, anti-Bolshevist White Army battled in a war that would totally transform the vast Eurasian heartland and lead to Communist revolutions worldwide as well as the Cold War. David Bullock offers a fresh perspective on this conflict, examining the forces of both sides, the intervention of non-Russian forces, including American, Canadian, British, and Japanese troops, and the involvement of female soldiers and partisans.

The military story of massed infantry and cavalry actions, mechanized warfare with tanks, armored cars and trains, and air combat, all along rapidly shifting fronts, is told against the incredible backdrop of political and social revolution. It is an account that is interwoven with tragedy - 30 million people died during the Civil War - and the author skillfully places the battles in the context of human suffering as he explores the cruel sacrifice of a huge population on the altar of political power.

The absorbing text includes dramatic first-hand accounts, and is vividly illustrated with carefully selected previously unpublished photographs. This new insight into history's most significant civil war, which

began 90 years ago, will be welcomed by all students of history seeking a compact account of the conflict that brought into being a new superpower - the USSR - and its threatening ideology.

Art: Ceramics, Prehistoric Art, & Jewlery

2010-04-20T14:10:00.001-07:00

Ceramics of Shimaoka Tatsuzo: Living National Treasure of Japan, A Retrospective 2000 (BOOK): by Martha Longenecker & Rob Sidner

Shimaoka began making pottery in 1939 as a student at the Tokyo Institute of Technology's Department of Ceramics. During Shimaoka's freshman year, he visited Hamada in Mashiko and was granted apprenticeship upon graduation. Shimaoka joined Hamada's workshop from 1946-49. Four years later, he built his own, independent kiln adjacent to his teacher's in Mashiko.

Gilded Vessel: The Lustrous Art and Life of Beatrice Wood (BOOK): by Garth Clark

Beatrice Wood turned to ceramics late in life at age 40, but still managed to work behind a potter's wheel for nearly 65 years. Influenced by the Dada movement, her lusterware pottery, with its rich and decadent palette of shimmering gold and silver, vindian greens, incandescent pinks, and intense purples, has captivated generations of collectors. Gilded Vessel is not so much a biography as a celebration of the life and ceramic artistry of Beatrice Wood. Glorious color pictures reveal the iridescent beauty of her pottery, while black-and-white photographs document the life, loves and luster, of a woman New York Times Magazine hailed as one of the great lives of the 20th century.

Image and Audience: Rethinking Prehistoric Art (BOOK): by Richard Bradley

There have been many accounts of prehistoric 'art', but nearly all of them begin by assuming that the concept is a useful one. In this extensively illustrated study, Richard Bradley asks why ancient objects were created and when and how they were used. He considers how the first definitions of prehistoric artworks were made, and the ways in which they might be related to practices in the visual arts today Extended case studies of two immensely popular and much-visited sites illustrate his argument: one considers the megalithic tombs of Western Europe, whilst the other investigates the decorated metalwork and rock carvings of Bronze Age Scandinavia.

Loud Bones: The Jewelry of Nancy Worden (BOOK): by Michelle LeBaron & Susan Noyes Platt

Nancy Worden's work explores the cultural dynamics that shape contemporary social and political agendas, emphasizing the female experience in the United States. Her jewelry is forceful, unapologetic, demanding, and gripping; often humorous, sometimes painful, but never timid. This is the first scholarly examination of her career.

The Art of Peter Voulkos (BOOK): by Rose Slivka & Karen Tsujimoto

This volume examines the work of Peter Voulkos, an influential figure in American ceramics.

The Way Jews Lived: Five Hundred Years of Printed Words and Images (BOOK): by Constance Harris

The author presents through pictures and text a social history of Jewish life and art in the last 500 years. Each chapter relates the brief history of a period, devoting particular attention to events concerning Jewish life.

Archaeology, Theater, History: How to Avoid Archaeological Disasters, Repatriation and Reburial, and Chinese Theater During the Revolution

2010-04-16T11:05:00.000-07:00

Avoiding Archaeological Disasters: A Risk Management Approach (BOOK): by Darby C. Stapp and Julia G. Longenecker with contributions by Roderick Sprague

You think it can’t happen to you, but it can. One day, months into your construction project, your front end load operator runs into bones and wooden slats. Your county coroner says it is not a crime scene, and refers you to the local archaeology department. The archaeologist tells you that it is a very important discovery. Work stops. Archaeological discoveries happen all the time in the course of projects. Most are manageable, some are less so, and some are mismanaged, wasting time and money. If you are not prepared, the consequences can be disastrous. This book is for project engineers, project managers, construction managers, the staff of affected government agencies, and archaeological consultants. In its pages you receive enough information, enough archaeological perspective, to intelligently work with the various parties involved in your project and avoid an archaeological disaster.

Reburying the Past: The Effects of Repatriation and Reburial on Scientific Inquiry (BOOK): by Elizabeth Weiss

In this book, the author puts forth what one can learn from the study of human remains, how human remains have been obtained, the ethical dilemmas surrounding working with human remains, and the legal and political complexities of repatriation and reburial. The author intends to introduce readers to a fascinating realm of science rarely covered in the media, as opposed to the more popular fields of anthropology (e.g. forensics, archaeology, paleoanthropology).

Voices Carry: Behind Bars and Backstage During China's Revolution and Reform (BOOK): by Ying Ruocheng and Claire Conceison

"A gem, not to be missed by any student of Chinese culture or politics. . . . The passages on prison are among the most detailed and vivid we have in the literature. And throughout the volume there is a refreshing bluntness. . . . Voices Carry has been a major project for Conceison, a labor of love, persistence, and understanding. She has gone to great lengths to offer context in endnotes for readers who may need them. It is hard to think of any US-PRC literary collaboration more complex and valuable than this one, or to think of a personal cultural bridge between the PRC and the West as active and influential as Ying . . . it is quite clear Ying had his faults, but I found the book totally engaging." --Modern Chinese Literature and Culture

"A must-read for anyone interested in the performing arts. Furthermore, [celebrated Chinese actor Ying Ruocheng's] life touched on fascinating aspects of Chinese history and society seldom discussed. What happened to the Manchus after the 1911 revolution? What was it like being a Catholic in those years? How did (and perhaps does) the government collect information on foreigners? How does it treat its political prisoners? How are personnel decisions made? This book is one man's attempt to make sense of cataclysmic events." --China Review International

Films: Casino Royale, James Bond, Daniel Craig

2010-04-14T15:15:00.000-07:00

Recently promoted to 00 status, James Bond takes over his first mission in which he faces a mysterious private banker to world terrorism and poker player, Le Chiffre. Along with a beautiful Treasury agent and the MI6 man in Montenegro, Bond takes part in a high stakes poker game set up by Le Chiffre in order to recover a huge sum of his clients' money he lost in a failed plot that the British spy took down. 007 will not only discover the threatening organization behind his enemy, but the worst of all truths: to not trust on anyone.

Films: Drama with Tom Hanks, in depth Documentaries, and Action with Jet Li

2010-04-09T11:43:00.001-07:00

The Green Mile (DVD): Tom Hanks, The story about the lives of guards on death row leading up to the execution of black man accused of child murder & rape who has the power of faith healing. [1999]

Generation M: Misogyny in Media and Culture (DVD): Despite the achievements of the women's movement over the past four decades, misogyny remains a persistent force in American culture. In this important documentary, Thomas Keith, professor of philosophy at California State University-Long Beach, looks specifically at misogyny and sexism in mainstream American media, exploring how negative definitions of femininity and hateful attitudes toward women get constructed and perpetuated at the very heart of our popular culture.

Hero (DVD): Jet Li, A fearless warrior rises up to defy an empire and unite a nation. With supernatural skill, and no fear, the soldier embarks on a mission of revenge against the fearsome army that has massacred his people. To achieve the justice he seeks, he must take on the empire's most ruthless assassins and reach the enemy he has sworn to defeat. The story of the First Emperor of China, who is on the brink of winning a war-torn land during the dawn of the Qin dynasty over 2,000 years ago. Three opponents are determined to kill the King, but the warrior stands in their way. [2002]

Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People (DVD): This groundbreaking documentary dissects a slanderous aspect of cinematic history that has run virtually unchallenged form the earliest days of silent film to today's biggest Hollywood blockbusters. Featuring acclaimed author Dr. Jack Shaheen, the film explores a long line of degrading images of Arabs--from Bedouin bandits and submissive maidens to sinister sheikhs and gun-wielding "terrorists"--along the way offering devastating insights into the origin of these stereotypic images, their development at key points in US history, and why they matter so much today.

Art: Art and Gender in the Spanish Empire, Delirious New Orleans, & Silk Fabrics in Italian and Northern Paintings

2010-02-24T21:30:00.000-08:00

Creating the Cult of St. Joseph: Art and Gender in the Spanish Empire (BOOK): by Charlene Villasenor Black

Creating the Cult of Saint Joseph is a refreshing and stimulating contribution to the fields of Spanish and Latin American art history and cultural studies. Villaseñor's combination of colonial and gender theories with art-historical analysis is sure to yield interesting results in future studies of religious art in the Spanish Empire. Her bibliography is an impressive collection of archival material, primary religious texts, and wide-ranging secondary sources; it promises to become an indispensable research tool for students of the period.—Marta Bustillo, CAA Reviews

Among this book's strengths are its engaging prose, impressive corpus of visual images, and emphasis on the connection between St. Joseph's cult and societal and religious ideals in the early modern Hispanic world. . . . This book offers fresh insight into the dissemination and popularity of the cult of St. Joseph in early modern Spain and colonial Mexico.—Joseph F. Chorpenning, Sixteenth Century Journal

In detail and with an abundance of sources, both graphic and literary, this book follows the major stages of growth in Josephine piety. . . . This book shows the need to study religious art not only on its own aesthetic terms but also as a key participant in and articulator of great (often too great) social, cultural, and religious themes in a given time and place.—Reverend Alvaro Silva, Religion and the Arts

Delirious New Orleans: Manifesto for an Extraordinary American City (BOOK): by Stephen Verderber

"Delirious New Orleans makes the argument that this collection of vernacular architecture serves as cultural touchstones, and that its presence is a necessary component to this great American city. " Kevin Alter, School of Architecture, University of Texas at Austin "As well as providing a superb record of New Orleans's endangered urban fabric, Delirious New Orleans is also a meditation on "placemaking", something he feels modern architects and town planners have ignored...Verderber's evocative, even loving, descriptions of these structures and artefacts and his striking images create a memorable celebration of the built environment of New Orleans and reflect a deep understanding of place. He hopes his study is not a eulogy but a blueprint for a soon-to-be-reborn city...Whether it continues to fulfil this role in the future will depend on whether the authorities listen to the communities they are supposed to represent and to "preservation warriors" such as Verderber; and whether placemaking triumphs over placelessness."—P.D. Smith, Times Literary Supplement

Merchants, Princes and Painters: Silk Fabrics in Italian and Northern Paintings, 1300-1550 (BOOK): by Lisa Monnas

Covering a period that witnessed the flowering of the Renaissance and the major expansion of the Italian silk industry, this volume examines the Italian silk fabrics depicted in paintings from Italy, England and the Netherlands over the course of 250 years. Lisa Monnas offers a masterly evaluation of these paintings as source material for classifying surviving textiles, giving particular attention to the identification of historic textile types and their weave structure.

Monnas examines a wide range of subjects, including silk as a marker of social status, the material possessions of artists and their ownership of textiles as props, the involvement of painters in silk design, and the repetition and transfer of patterns. She considers the evidence of paintings not only for the veracity with which the silks are depicted but also for their value as a historic source concerning the use of fabrics.

Film: The Last Samurai, Tom Cruise

2010-02-16T11:00:00.000-08:00

DVD: In Japan, Civil War veteran Captain Nathan Algren trains the Emperor's troops to use modern weapons as they prepare to defeat the last of the country's samurais. But Algren's passion is swayed when he is captured by the samurai and learns about their traditions and code of honor.

Philosophy & Religion: Shia-Sunni the Story of the Split in Islam, Riddle of Influence, & Ecotherapy

2010-02-15T10:46:00.001-08:00

After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Shia-Sunni Split in Islam (BOOK): by Lesley Hazleton

Narrative history at its most compelling, After the Prophet relates the dramatic tragic story at the heart of the ongoing rivalry between Shia and Sunni Islam.

Even as Muhammad lay dying, the battle over his successor had begun. Pitting the family of his favorite wife, the controversial Aisha, against supporters of his son-in-law, the philosopher-warrior Ali, the struggle would reach its breaking point fifty years later in Iraq, when soldiers of the first Sunni dynasty massacred seventy-two warriors led by Muhammad's grandson Hussein at Karbala. Hussein's agonizing ordeal at Karbala was soon to become the Passion story at the core of Shia Islam.

Hazleton's vivid, gripping prose provides extraordinary insight into the origins of the world's most volatile blend of politics and religion. Balancing past and present, she shows how these seventh-century events are as alive in Middle Eastern hearts and minds today as though they had just happened, shaping modern headlines from Iran's Islamic Revolution to the civil war in Iraq.

Beauvoir and Sartre: The Riddle of Influence (BOOK): edited by Christine Daigle and Jacob Golomb

"This collection of essays is a remarkable achievement. It allows readers access to the exciting domain of existential philosophy, fiction, autobiography, and more." –Shannon M. Mussett, Utah Valley University

Bettelheim: Living and Dying (BOOK): by David James Fisher

"... A historical gold mine for research into the history of psychoanalysis. ... This collections of essays is valuable both for Fisher's interpretative insights and the publication of several primary documents in the history of European and North American psychoanalysis."–Journal of the History of the Behavioural Sciences, Vol. 45 (s), Spring 2009

"An important and engaging book ... provides rich and intriguing perspectives on this extraordinary and complicated man, including personal accounts by the author who served as confidante to Bettelheim in the years just prior to Bettelheim's suicide. ... this fine books, overall, is a balanced portrait, written with care, style, and thoughtfulness, about a man whose contributions continue to await the widespread recognition they are due."–Clinical Social Work 37 (2009)

Conflict and Creativity at Work: Human Roots of Corporate Life (BOOK): by Albert Low

This book Contributes to the tide of activism that is calling for higher ethical standards and corporate social responsibility within the corporate world. It offers a new way to look at a company, work, a product and company organization. To compete in the West we must revise the present antiquated corporate philosophy that asserts that the interests of the stockholder are the only interests that the corporation can legally serve and adopt policies that promote corporate social responsibility.

Ecotherapy: Healing with Nature in Mind (BOOK): edited by Linda Buzzell and Craig Chalquist foreword by David W. Orr

In the 14 years since Sierra Club Books published Theodore Roszak, Mary E. Gomes, and Allen D. Kanner’s groundbreaking anthology, Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing the Mind, the editors of this new volume have often been asked: Where can I find out more about the psyche-world connection? How can I do hands-on work in this area? Ecotherapy was compiled to answer these and other urgent questions.

Ecotherapy, or applied ecopsychology, encompasses a broad range of nature-based methods of psychological healing, grounded in the crucial fact that people are inseparable from the rest of nature and nurtured by healthy interaction with the Earth. Leaders in the field, including Robert Greenway, and Mary Watkins, contribute essays that take into account the latest scientific understandings and the deepest indigenous wisdom. Other key thinkers, from Bill McKibben to Richard Louv to Joanna Macy, explore the links among ecotherapy, spiritual development, and restoring community.

As mental-health professionals find themselves challenged to provide hard evidence that their practices actually work, and as costs for traditional modes of psychotherapy rise rapidly out of sight, this book offers practitioners and interested lay readers alike a spectrum of safe, effective alternative approaches backed by a growing body of research.

Essentials of Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Assessment (BOOK): by Naomi L. Quenk

From the Author: This is the only book available (other than the 1998 MBTI Manual) that focuses exclusively on Form M, the new standard form of the MBTI. It is an excellent resource for people who want to increase their comfort and skill in using the MBTI with clients. It has detailed guidelines for introducing and explaining each dichotomy, including questions to ask that will help people identify their preferences. What is most distinctive about the book, however, is that it provides comprehensive descriptions of clients and therapists of different types and how type influences the counseling process. Included are: what brings different types to counseling, what approaches they prefer, and what they expect to achieve from therapy. Similar information is covered for counselors regarding their preferred therapy styles and the kinds of client with whom they most enjoy working. The assets and pitfalls that are likely to occur for different client-therapist combinations are also described.

Political Science: Government Debt, Ethics & International Affairs, and the Problem of Political Marketing

2010-02-06T17:45:00.000-08:00

Democracy's Debt: The Historical Tensions Between Economic and Political Liberty (BOOK): by M. Lane Bruner

It is an undeniable fact that economic circumstances can directly impact political affairs, that wealth is easily translated into political influence, and that political movements and constitutional arrangements can directly influence economic environments. There is no consensus, however, on how to best manage the tensions between the production and maintenance of wealth and the just and responsible exercise of political power.

In an in-depth analysis of these historic tensions, Professor of Communication M. Lane Bruner surveys the history of argumentation related to wealth and statecraft, and, more important, the actual economic and political practices in republican polities of the past to compare arguments to policies. The overriding goal of the study is to analyze which forms of governance have provided the most useful guides for the reform of contemporary institutions in charge of global governance.

Ethics & International Affairs: A Reader (BOOK): edited by Joel H. Rosenthal, Christian Barry

The third edition of "Ethics & International Affairs" provides a fresh selection of classroom resources, ideal for courses in international relations, ethics, foreign policy, and related fields. Published with the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, this collection contains some of the best contemporary scholarship on international ethics, written by a group of distinguished political scientists, political theorists, philosophers, applied ethicists, and economic development specialists. Each contributor explores how moral theory can inform policy choices regarding topics such as war and intervention, international organizations, human rights, and global economic justice. This book provides an entry point into these key debates and offers a platform for further discussion. It was published in cooperation with the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs.

Innovations in Human Resource Management: Getting the Public's Work Done in the 21st Century (BOOK): edited by Hannah S. Sistare, Myra Howze Shiplett… etc

Human resource management is experiencing profound change, new challenges, exciting accomplishments, and much uncertainty. The public service has moved away from the old days of 'personnel management' concerned mostly with processing 'personal action' paperwork, to a system where public employees are managed as human capital to get the work of the government done more effectively and efficiently. This volume brings together the latest thinking on human resource management in the public service, presented by distinguished thought leaders in the field. While it focuses primarily on federal government policies and practices, the principles, conclusions, and recommendations translate readily to state and local government, and to the private sector as well.

Media, Culture and Society in Putin's Russia (BOOK): edited by Stephen White

An international collection of papers focused on media, culture and society in post-communist Russia. Contributors deploy a wealth of primary data in examining the kinds of issues that are central to our understanding of the kind of system that has been established in the world’s largest country after a period of far-reaching change.

Rightward Bound: Making America Conservative in the 1970s (BOOK): edited by Bruce J. Schulman & Julian E. Zelizer

Rightward Bound brilliantly demonstrates how American conservatism emerged as a full-blown movement in the 1970s and, in the process, created the United States of the twenty-first century. It is a wonderful book!—Laura Kalman, University of California, Santa Barbara

A new generation of American historians demonstrates that the decade of the 1970s proved the crucial seed time for the rise of modern American conservatism. There was nothing inevitable about the nation's march to the right, which makes this book all the more fascinating and necessary for those who want to understand twenty-first century America.—Nelson Lichtenstein, author of Wal-Mart: The Face of Twenty-First-Century America

Rightward Bound is the most comprehensive and incisive history to date of the conservative mobilization that surged through and transformed the United States in the 1970s. It will prove essential reading for anyone seeking to understand conservative ideologies, institutions, and organizing strategies as well as the complexities of politics and culture in late twentieth-century America.—Gary Gerstle, Vanderbilt University

The Economics of Immigration: Theory and Policy (BOOK): by Orn B. Bodvarsson & Hendrik Van den Berg

Written as a both a reference for researchers and as a textbook on the economics of immigration. It is aimed at two audiences: (1) researchers who are interested in learning more about how economists approach the study of human migration flows; and (2) graduate students taking a course on migration or a labor economics course where immigration is one of the subfields studied. The book covers the economic theory of immigration, which explains why people move across borders and details the consequences of such movements for the source and destination economies. The book also describes immigration policy, providing both a history of immigration policy in a variety of countries and using the economic theory of immigration to explain the determinants and consequences of the policies. The timing of this book coincides with the emergence of immigration as a major political and economic issue in the USA, Japan Europe and many developing countries.

The Problem of Political Marketing (BOOK): by Heather Savigny

Based upon analysis of existing theoretical literature and current political practice this book addresses both the use of marketing and its impact (real and potential) upon democracy by answering the following:

* Why have politicians adopted political marketing? What are the contextual factors that have led to this?
* How does the political marketing literature model this activity?
* What are the underlying assumptions of these models?
* How does political marketing affect democracy?
* How is political marketing best conceptualized and understood in light of this critical analysis?

Language and Literature: English: African Culture & Melville's Art, Carribbean Female Bodies & Literature, and a Study on the Perception of Slavery

2010-02-05T10:47:00.000-08:00

African Culture and Melville's Art: The Creative Process in Benito Cereno and Moby-Dick (BOOK): by Sterling Stuckey

Although Herman Melville's masterworks Moby-Dick and Benito Cereno have long been the subject of vigorous scholarly examination, the impact of African culture on these works has received surprisingly little critical attention. Presenting a groundbreaking reappraisal of these two powerful pieces of fiction, Sterling Stuckey reveals how African customs and rituals heavily influenced one of America's greatest novelists.

Allegories of Desire: Body, Nation, and Empire in Modern Caribbean Literature by Women (BOOK): by M.M. Adjarian

This book explores the relationship between famous and fictional Caribbean female bodies to literary and historical writing.

Calls and Responses: The American Novel of Slavery Since Gone With the Wind (BOOK): by Tim A. Ryan

In this comprehensive, groundbreaking study, Tim A. Ryan explores how American novelists since World War I have imagined the institution of slavery and the experience of those involved in it. Complicating the common assumption that authentic black-authored fiction about slavery is starkly opposed to the traditional, racist fiction (and history) created by whites, Ryan suggests that discourses about American slavery are--and have always been--defined by connections rather than disjunctions. Ryan contends that African American writers didn't merely reject and move beyond traditional portrayals of the black past but rather actively engaged in a dynamic dialogue with white-authored versions of slavery and existing historiographical debates. The result is an ongoing cultural conversation that transcends both racial and disciplinary boundaries and is akin to the call-and-response style of African American gospel music.

Critical Theory: The Major Documents (BOOK): by Edgar Allen Poe edited with introduction, notes, and textual variants by Stuart Levine and Susan F. Levine

“A solid resource for scholars of Poe. Highly recommended”—Choice

"Poe's quotations and misquotations are assiduously identified and corrected. Obscure references are made clear, and connections among a variety of Poe's writings are drawn. Poe's playfulness, even in criticism, repeatedly comes through, as does his occasional tendency to lapse into unfairness merely to make a point or to put the punch line on a joke. There is still a need, over one hundred years after Poe's death, for traditional scholarship of this kind. . . . This new volume is clearly the most authoritative edition of the works presented, and it is likely to remain so for sometime."—Poe Studies

Films: Oldies like Anchors Away and High Society, Paradise Now a Film about Terrorists, and The Candidate

2010-02-04T13:39:00.001-08:00

Anchors Aweigh (DVD): Joe and Clarence are two navy sailors who have a few days leave in Hollywood. All Joe wants to do is to have a good time and meet up with his girl, the unseen Lola. Clarence on the other hand just wants to get a girl. They soon meet a little boy who ran away from home and wants to join the navy. They take him home and soon meet his young beautiful singer-wannabe aunt Susan. Clarence develops a crush on her, so he asks Joe to help him get Susan to like him. Soon Joe gets himself caught in between a promise to Susan to meet a big time music producer, and trying to get Clarence ready for their date. The only problem is, Joe doesn't know the music producer and he's string to fall in love with Susan himself. So what’s a guy to do?

Dog Day Afternoon (DVD): In August, 1972, Sonny Wortzik robbed a bank. 250 cops, the F.B.I., 8 hostages and 2,000 onlookers will never forget what took place.

High Society (DVD): C.K. Dexter-Haven, a successful popular jazz musician, lives in a mansion near his ex-wife's Tracy Lord's family estate. She is on the verge of marrying a man blander and safer than Dex, who tries to win Tracy's heart again. Mike Connor, an undercover tabloid reporter, also falls for Tracy while covering the nuptials for Spy magazine. Tracy must choose between the three men as she discovers that "safe" can mean "deadly dull" when it comes to husbands and life.

Ninotchka (DVD): Only the royal suite at the grandest hotel in Paris has a safe large enough for the jewels of the Grand Duchess Swana. So the three Russians who have come to sell the jewels settle into the suite until a higher ranking official is dispatched to find out what is delaying the sale. She is Ninotchka, a no nonsense woman who fascinates Count Leon who had been the faithful retainer of the Grand Duchess. The Grand Duchess will give up all claim to the jewels if Ninotchka will fly away from the count. But can one count on a count?

Paradise Now (DVD): The story places two close friends, Palestinians Said and Khaled, recruited by an extremist group to perpetrate a terrorist attack in Tel-Aviv, blowing up themselves. However, things go wrong and both friends must separate in the border. One of them, maintaining in his purpose of carry the attack to the end, and the other will have his doubts about it.

Rosewood (DVD): A dramatization of a 1923 horrific racist lynch mob attack on an African American community.

Running in High Heels (DVD): A film about the difference between what women say and do in politics, Running in High Heels follows the campaign of a woman running for State Senate in New York City as women around her from the left and right of the spectrum try to explain how women can be the majority of the population at 52% but run nothing.

The Candidate (DVD): Californian lawyer Bill McKay fights for the little man. His charisma and integrity get him noticed by the Democratic Party machine and he is persuaded to run for the Senate against an apparently unassailable incumbent. It's agreed he can handle it his own way, on his own terms. But once he's in the race and his prospects begin to improve, the deal starts to change.

James E. Brooks - The Library Namesake

2010-02-01T11:44:00.000-08:00

James E. Brooks - President, Central Washington University, 1961-1978

After earning his master’s and Ph.D. degrees in geography at the UW, James Brooks taught at Central Washington University, Eastern Washington University, and Portland State University—where he was assistant to the president—before becoming president of Central Washington University, where he had earned his B.A. After stepping down as president, he continued on the faculty until 1994, except for two years as interim president at Yakima Valley College. Last year, Central honored Brooks by naming its library—built during his presidency—the James E. Brooks Library.


	James Brooks at the dedication of the university library named in his honor. Photo byGreg Kummer.

What surprised you most during the first year of your presidency?

I knew most of the circumstances at Central. But I was a bit surprised at how much my focus on the academic aspects, such as strengthening the arts and sciences, could be diverted to other pressing issues. An example: our campus consisted of 100 acres in a scattered, disjointed pattern located in a mostly residential area. It took years to consolidate and increase the campus to 350 acres.

What was the most satisfying aspect of your presidency?

I believe the greatest pleasure for any president is having her/his institution accomplish a great deal over time. When you have had continued support of trustees, faculty, students and the general public, and good planning has showed results as excel-lent projects and programs are in place, is there any better satisfaction for a president?

What was the most challenging issue you had to address?

Without a doubt, it was developing an excellent faculty, one that truly cared for students, and improving our academic offerings as we grew rapidly in enrollment.

Did your UW education help prepare you for leadership?

Leadership requires confidence in yourself. The members of the Geography Department helped me develop that. I was given encouragement, guidance, and positive reinforcement on many occasions. Yes, I benefited from taking classes across campus, my professors were good teachers, and I enjoyed my fellow graduate students, but the help I was given personally was very important in my life and career.

Published in Autumn 2004 in the UW A&S, Leaders in Higher Education. Online.

Film: The Magnificent Seven, Yul Brynner, Eli Wallach, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson

2010-01-24T19:42:00.000-08:00

DVD: The citizens of a small Mexican farming village hire seven gun fighters to defend them from a ruthless and exploitative group of bandits led by Calvera. As Calvera's next raid approaches, the peasants and the gun fighters work together to prepare to defend the village.

History: Alexander the Great, Japanese Concerntration Camps in the US, USO Hostesses During World War II & Hamas vs Fatah

2010-01-19T12:27:00.000-08:00

Alexander the Great: A New History

(BOOK): edited by Waldemar Heckel and Lawrence A. Tritle

Written by leading experts in the field
Looks at a wide range of diverse topics including Alexander’s religious views, his entourage during his campaign East, his sexuality, the influence of his legacy, and his representations in art and cinema
Discusses Alexander’s influence, from his impact on his contemporaries to his portrayals in recent Hollywood films
A highly informed and enjoyable resource for students and interested general readers

Concentration Camps on the Home Front: Japanese Americans in the House of Jim Crow (BOOK): by John Howard

Without trial and without due process, the United States government locked up nearly all of those citizens and longtime residents who were of Japanese descent during World War II. Ten concentration camps were set up across the country to confine over 120,000 inmates. Almost 20,000 of them were shipped to the only two camps in the segregated South—Jerome and Rohwer in Arkansas—locations that put them right in the heart of a much older, long-festering system of racist oppression. The first history of these Arkansas camps, Concentration Camps on the Home Front is an eye-opening account of the inmates’ experiences and a searing examination of American imperialism and racist hysteria.

From Habsburg Neo-Absolutism to the Compromise, 1849-1867 (BOOK): by Agnes Deak translated by Matthew Caples

In 1848, Francis Joseph became Emperor of the Hapsburg Monarchy, and the Russian army helped the Austrians take control of Hungary. The Austrian Council of Ministers ordered the arrest of all political and military officers of the Revolution and dissolved the Hungarian Kingdom. A planned constitution promised extensive rights to national minorities, and the October Diploma of 1860 suggested more convocations of the Imperial Parliament. However, in 1861 Francis Joseph suspended all constitutional organizations, introduced military jurisdiction, and appointed a governor as head of state. After he was crowned King of Hungary, though, Francis Joseph approved the Law of Compromise, and Hungary became independent with regard to public law and internal self-government. The Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy was then born.

Good girls, Good food, Good fun: The Story of USO Hostesses During World War II (BOOK): by Meghan K. Winchell

Think of saddle-shoed coeds jitterbugging with the boys. The dance could be as sexually evocative then as grinding is now. It was all in a night's work for the thousands of young American women who volunteered to host soldiers in United Service Organizations clubs during WWII. The USO's domestic mission was to steer idle troops away from liquor, prostitutes and venereal disease, offering instead homemade cookies and wholesome smalltown girls. In constructing a portrait of wartime sexuality through the lens of the USO's American ideal of women, Winchell highlights what she views as the USO's middle-class prejudices. But she also offers studies of leadership in minority women's lobbying for such issues as canteen integration and access for women soldiers. Winchell, an assistant professor of history at Nebraska Wesleyan University, can't seem to let impressive research speak for itself, and her insightful observations are couched in the academic language of race, class, gender and the economics of women's work. The hostesses should have been the voice of this book—sometimes, they manage to be heard.

Hamas vs. Fatah: The Struggle for Palestine (BOOK): by Jonathan Schanzer

Schanzer, director of policy at the Jewish Policy Center and counterterrorism analyst for the Office of Intelligence and Analysis at the U.S. Department of Treasury, investigates the conflict between rival Palestinian factions with nuance and detail as he exposes the long-broiling tensions and violent eruptions between Fatah and Hamas—even as the two sides attempted to pretend that the Palestinians were still united under one flag. The author posits that only by rejecting the platforms of both parties will the Palestinian people begin to break the self-destructive cycle and provides a concise historical survey from the founding of the Muslim Brotherhood—the template for many Islamist groups—in 1928 to the recent conflict in Lebanon and a thorough comparison of Fatah's and Hamas's leadership. Neophytes to the tangled world of Palestine's internal conflict will be treated to a serious, no-frills account; those readers more familiar with the issues will enjoy how Schanzer weaves a web of connectivity between the Palestinian conflict with Israel, the conflicts involving Lebanon, the rise of al-Qaeda and American complicity.

Imperial Germany, 1871-1918 (BOOK): edited by James Retallack

The German Empire was founded in January 1871 not only on the basis of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck's "blood and iron" policy but also with the support of liberal nationalists. Under Bismarck and Kaiser Wilhelm II, Germany became the dynamo of Europe. Its economic and military power were pre-eminent; its science and technology, education, and municipal administration were the envy of the world; and its avant-garde artists reflected the ferment in European culture. But Germany also played a decisive role in tipping Europe's fragile balance of power over the brink and into the cataclysm of the First World War, eventually leading to the empire's collapse in military defeat and revolution in November 1918.

Iran's Intellectual Revolution (BOOK): by Mehran Kamrava

Since its revolution in 1979, Iran has been viewed as the bastion of radical Islam and a sponsor of terrorism. The focus on its volatile internal politics and its foreign relations has, according to Kamrava, distracted attention from more subtle transformations which have been taking place there in the intervening years. With the death of Ayatollah Khomeini a more relaxed political environment opened up in Iran, which encouraged intellectual and political debate between learned elites and religious reformers. What emerged from these interactions were three competing ideologies which Kamrava categorises as conservative, reformist and secular. As the book aptly demonstrates, these developments, which amount to an intellectual revolution, will have profound and far-reaching consequences for the future of the Islamic republic, its people and very probably for countries beyond its borders. This thought-provoking account of the Iranian intellectual and cultural scene will confound stereotypical views of Iran and its mullahs.

Film: Breakfast at Tiffany's, Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard

2010-01-14T11:59:00.000-08:00

Breakfast at Tiffany's (DVD): Audrey Hepburn, George Peppard, Patricia Neal, Buddy Ebsen, Martin Balsam, Vilallonga, John McGiver, Mickey Rooney

Holly Golightly is an eccentric New York City playgirl determined to marry a Brazilian millionaire. Her next-door neighbor, a writer, is "sponsored" by a wealthy patroness. Guessing who's the right man for Holly is easy; seeing just how romance blossoms is one of the enduring delights of the film.

Films: Comedys Caddyshack, Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Blues Brothers & Beverly Hills Cop

2010-01-14T11:18:00.000-08:00

Beverly Hills Cop (VHS): Eddie Murphy, Lisa Eilbacher, Steven Berkoff, Judge Reinhold, Ronny Cox

Detroit cop Axel Foley is delighted when he receives a surprise visit from his best friend Mikey Tandino, who lives in California. Not long after Mikey arrives in Detroit, Mikey is killed, right in front of Axel, by a man named Zack. Axel follows Zack to Beverly Hills, California, where Beverly Hills police department Lieutenant Andrew Bogomil assigns Detective Billy Rosewood aworks for Jenny's boss, Victor Maitland, the man who owns the art gallery. Maitland is a drug kingpin who is using the gallery as a front, and Maitland had Zack kill Mikey after Maitland accused Mikey of stealing some of Maitland's bonds. With the help of Jenny, Billy, and Taggart, Axel does what he can to make sure Maitland and Zack won't kill any more people.

Big Business (REEL): Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, James Finlayson

Laurel and Hardy are Christmas tree salesmen in California. James Finlayson refuses to buy a tree from them and this leads to private war which literally brings the house down.

Billy Madison (VHS): Adam Sandler, Bradley Whitford, Josh Mostel, nd Rosewood's partner, Sergeant John Taggart, to keep an eye on Axel. Axel visits his friend Jenny Summers, who works in an art gallery. With Jenny's help, Axel discovers that Zack Bridgette Wilson, Norm MacDonald, Darren McGavin

He's heir to the Madison Hotel millions, but the only subjects Billy has studied are babes and booze. But when Brian Madison informs his goofball son that he plans to turn over his Fortune 500 company to vice president/weasel Eric Gordon, Billy makes the bet of his life. He's going back to school with hilarious results.

Blazing Saddles (DVD): Cleavon Little (Bart), Gene Wilder (Jim), Slim Pickens (Taggart), David Huddleston (Olson Johnson), Liam Dunn (Rev. Johnson), Alex Karras (Mongo)

Never give a saga an even break! Blazing Saddles is an iconoclastic, not-politically-correct parody; one of the 1970s most successful and popular films. Every clichéd element from every Western ever made is turned upside down and inside out, while retaining all the familiar caricatures--eh, characters--of the genre: a dance-hall girl, a gunslinger, a sheriff, and a town full of pure folk. Mel Brooks redefined film comedy, and proved that even sophomoric, scatological humor could be used to ridicule prejudice, injustice, and apathy.

The Blues Brothers (VHS): John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, James Brown, Cab Calloway, Ray Charles, Carrie Fisher, Aretha Franklin, Henry Gibson

Chase comedy featuring musical performances by various blues artists, including the Blues Brothers Band, as an ex-convict and his brother attempt to raise the tax money for their former orphanage, wreaking havoc across Illinois on their "mission from God."

Bob Roberts (VHS): Tim Robbins, Giancarlo Esposito, Ray Wise, Gore Vidal, John Cusack, Peter Gallagher, Susan Sarandon, Fred Ward

"Tim Robbins stars as Bob Roberts, a radical folksinger turned senatorial candidate, in this satirical comedy that blends his campaign trail with singing, music videos and scandal"--container

Breakfast at Tiffany's (DVD): Audrey Hepburn, George Peppard, Patricia Neal, Buddy Ebsen, Martin Balsam, Vilallonga, John McGiver, Mickey Rooney

Bringing Up Baby (DVD): Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Charlie Ruggles, Walter Catlett, Barry Fitzgerald, May Robson, Fritz Feld

An heiress determined to catch a zoologist uses her pet leopard, Baby, to get his attention.

Bud Abbott & Lou Costello meet Frankenstein (DVD): Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Lon Chaney, Bela Lugosi, Glenn Strange, Lenore Aubert

A comic horror film in which Abbott and Costello encounter Frankenstein's monster, Dracula and a mad scientist.

Caddyshack (VHS): Chevy Chase, Rodney Dangerfield, Ted Knight, Michael O'Keefe and Bill Murray

Danny Noonan is a young caddy at Bushwood Country Club who has no idea about where his future will lead. His best chance at getting his life on track is to earn a caddy scholarship from Judge Elihu Smails, the owner of the Country Club. Al Czervik is a rude, and overly eccentric millionaire who has interests in purchasing Bushwood. Judge Smails shows a quick disliking towards Al and soon there is a conflict between the Judge and Al, the Judge and Danny, and even between the Judge and Ty Webb the charming golfer who is slowly helping Danny figure out his real goals. On the outside of this is Carl Spackler the Golf Course Grounds keeper, who's goal is eliminate a rampaging gopher who is chewing up holes throughout the golf course.

Anthropology: Summercamps, Gender Gaming & Museums and Indigenous Perspectives on the Matter

2010-01-14T10:32:00.000-08:00

A Manufactured Wilderness: Summer Camps and the Shaping of American Youth, 1890-1960 (BOOK): by Abigail A. Van Slyck

Since they were first established in the 1880s, children’s summer camps have touched the lives of millions of people. Although the camping experience has a special place in the popular imagination, few scholars have given serious thought to this peculiarly American phenomenon. Why were summer camps created? What concerns and ideals motivated their founders? Whom did they serve? How did they change over time? What factors influenced their design? To answer these and many other questions, Abigail A. Van Slyck trains an informed eye on the most visible and evocative aspect of camp life: its landscape and architecture. She argues that summer camps delivered much more than a simple encounter with the natural world. Instead, she suggests, camps provided a man-made version of wilderness, shaped by middle-class anxieties about gender roles, class tensions, race relations, and modernity and its impact on the lives of children. Following a fascinating history of summer camps and a wide-ranging overview of the factors that led to their creation, Van Slyck examines the intersections of the natural landscape with human-built forms and social activities.

Anthropological Futures (BOOK): by Michael M. J. Fischer

In Anthropological Futures, Michael M. J. Fischer explores the uses of anthropology as a mode of philosophical inquiry, an evolving academic discipline, and a means for explicating the complex and shifting interweaving of human bonds and social interactions on a global level. Through linked essays, which are both speculative and experimental, Fischer seeks to break new ground for anthropology by illuminating the field’s broad analytical capacity and its attentiveness to emergent cultural systems.

Becoming Human: Innovation in Prehistoric Material and Spiritual Culture (BOOK): edited by Colin Renfrew & Iain Morley

The Upper Palaeolithic era of Europe has left an abundance of evidence for symbolic activities, such as direct representations of animals and other features of the natural world, personal adornments, and elaborate burials, as well as other vestiges that are more abstract and cryptic. These behaviours are also exhibited by populations throughout the world, from the prehistoric period through to the present day. How can we interpret these activities? What do they tell us about the beliefs and priorities of the people who carried them out? How do these behaviours relate to ideologies, cosmology, and understanding of the world? What can they tell us about the emergence of ritual and religious thought? And how do the activities of humans in prehistoric Europe compare with those of their predecessors there and elsewhere? In this volume, fifteen internationally renowned scholars contribute essays that explore the relationship between symbolism, spirituality, and humanity in the prehistoric societies of Europe and traditional societies elsewhere. The volume is richly illustrated with 50 halftones and 24 color plates.

Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombat: New Perspectives on Gender and Gaming (BOOK): edited by Yasmin B. Kafai

Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombat brings together new media theorists, game designers, educators, psychologists, and industry professionals, including some of the contributors to the earlier volume, to look at how gender intersects with the broader contexts of digital games today: gaming, game industry and design, and serious games. The contributors discuss the rise of massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) and the experience of girl and women players in gaming communities; the still male-dominated gaming industry and the need for different perspectives in game design; and gender concerns related to emerging serious games (games meant not only to entertain but also to educate, persuade, or change behavior). In today's game-packed digital landscape, there is an even greater need for games that offer motivating, challenging, and enriching contexts for play to a more diverse population of players.

Campus Recreational Sports Facilities: Planning, Design, and Construction Guidelines (BOOK): by National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association

The focus on campus recreational facilities continues as university administrators and campus recreation professionals increasingly recognize participation in recreational sport programs and activities as a key determinant of student recruitment, retention, and satisfaction. The significance of campus recreational facilities in an institution's success has led many institutions to evaluate possibilities for new or renovated recreational spaces. For assistance in these construction and renovation projects, campus recreational professionals and others can look to the advice, guidance, and best practices in Campus Recreational Sport Facilities: Planning, Design, and Construction Guidelines.

Contesting Knowledge: Museums and Indigenous Perspectives (BOOK): edited by Susan Sleeper-Smith

This interdisciplinary and international collection of essays illuminates the importance and effects of Indigenous perspectives for museums. The contributors challenge and complicate the traditionally close colonialist connections between museums and nation-states and urge more activist and energized roles for museums in the decades ahead.

The institutions examined in these pages range broadly from the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington DC; the Oneida Nation Museum in Oneida, Wisconsin; tribal museums in the Klamath River region in California; the tribal museum in Zuni, New Mexico; the Museum of the American Indian in New York City; and the District Six Museum in Cape Town, South Africa.

Dancing from the Heart: Movement, Gender, and Cook Islands Globalization (BOOK): by Kalissa Alexeyeff

"Dancing from the Heart" is the first study of gender, globalization, and expressive culture in the Cook Islands. It demonstrates how dance in particular plays a key role in articulating the overlapping local, regional, and transnational agendas of Cook Islanders. Kalissa Alexeyeff reconfigures conventional views of globalization's impact on indigenous communities, moving beyond diagnoses of cultural erosion and contamination to a grounded exploration of creative agency and vital cultural production. Central to the study is a rich and textured ethnographic account of contemporary Cook Islands dance practice. Based on fieldwork, in-depth interviews, and archival research, it offers an engrossing analysis of how Cook Islands social life is generated through expressive practices.

A Coincidence of Desires: Anthropology, Queer Studies, Indonesia (BOOK): by Tom Boellstorff

The case studies contained in A Coincidence of Desires speak to questions about the relation of sexualities to nationalism, religion, and globalization. They include an examination of zines published by gay Indonesians; an analysis of bahasa gay—a slang spoken by gay Indonesians that is increasingly appropriated in Indonesian popular culture; and an exploration of the place of warias (roughly, “male-to-female transvestites”) within Indonesian society. Boellstorff also considers the tension between Islam and sexuality in gay Indonesians’ lives and a series of incidents in which groups of men, identified with Islamic fundamentalism, violently attacked gatherings of gay men. Collectively, these studies insist on the primacy of empirical investigation to any queer studies project that wishes to speak to the specificities of lived experience.

Art: Creating Cultural Significance & Robert Irwin

2010-01-12T10:48:00.000-08:00

Moment to Monument: The Making and Unmaking of Cultural Significance (BOOK): by Ladina Bezzola Lambert & Andrea Ochsner

Why do certain works of art make it into the canon while others just enjoy a brief moment of recognition, if at all? How do moments produce monuments, and why are monuments erased from our cultural memory in only a moment? Taking into account the cultural processes of creating, storing, remembering and forgetting that are omnipresent and have an immense influence on how we perceive artifacts and cultural events, the essays in this collection analyze the phenomenon of cultural production, transmission and reception from various angles, drawing on approaches from both literary and cultural studies. With its transdisciplinary approach, this book uniquely responds to an everyday cultural phenomenon that so far has not received wide-ranging attention.

Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees: Over Thirty Years of Conversations with Robert Irwin (BOOK): by Lawrence Weschler

"Robert Irwin, perhaps the most influential of the California artists, moved from his beginnings in abstract expressionism through successive shifts in style and sensibility, into a new aesthetic territory altogether, one where philosophical concepts of perception and the world interact. Weschler has charted the journey with exceptional clarity and cogency. He has also, in the process, provided what seems to me the best running history of postwar West Coast art that I have yet seen."—Calvin Tomkins

Technology and Magazines: What Next?

2010-01-12T10:26:00.000-08:00

Is this the future of magazines? I wouldn't mind trying one.

Film: Love in the Time of Cholera,Javier Bardem & Giovanna Mezzogiorno

2010-01-11T22:37:00.000-08:00

Based on the best selling novel by Gabriel García Márquez.(DVD)

At the end of the 19th century in Cartagena, a river port in Colombia, Florentino Ariza falls in love at first sight of Fermina Daza. They secretly correspond and she eventually agrees to marry but her father discovers their relationship and sends her to distant relatives. When she returns some years later, Fermina agrees to marry Dr. Juvenal Urbino, her father's choice. Their fifty year marriage is marked by roughly equal amounts of love and anger. Fermina's marriage devastates Florentino, but his mother throws a willing widow into his bed and he discovers that sex is a very good pain reliever. He begins to number and describe each of his women, beginning with #1, the widow, and eventually has over 600 names and notes. He also decides to be as successful and rich as Dr. Urbino and, when the doctor dies suddenly, immediately renews his courtship of Fermina.

Films: Foreign Films, Documentaries, and Romance

2010-01-08T11:28:00.000-08:00

Flores de Otro Mundo (DVD): la participacion de Television Espanola Produccions La Iguana y Alta Films presentan guion, Iciar Boll

En el pequeño pueblo de Santa Eulalia los solteros organizan una fiesta a la que acude un autocar de mujeres casaderas. Damián, Alfonso y Carmelo buscarán establecer relación con Patricia, una muchacha dominicana, Marirrosi, una enfermera de Bilbao y Milady, una joven cubana.

Patricia, a woman from Dominican Republic, needs a home and an economic security that her illegal status in Madrid does not provide her. Milady, twenty, born in Havana and dying to travel the world. Marirosi has a job, a home, and the most complete solitude... just like Alfonso, Damián and Carmelo, men from the St. Eulalia, a village lacking both marrying women and future. A bachelors' party forces the encounter between them and the beginning of this bittersweet story of sharing a living.

Food, Inc. (DVD): Michal Pollan, Eric Schlosser

Documentary - The current method of raw food production is largely a response to the growth of the fast food industry since the 1950s. The production of food overall has more drastically changed since that time than the several thousand years prior. Controlled primarily by a handful of multinational corporations, the global food production business - with an emphasis on the business - has as its unwritten goals production of large quantities of food at low direct inputs (most often subsidized) resulting in enormous profits, which in turn results in greater control of the global supply of food sources within these few companies. Health and safety (of the food itself, of the animals produced themselves, of the workers on the assembly lines, and of the consumers actually eating the food) are often overlooked by the companies, and are often overlooked by government in an effort to provide cheap food regardless of these negative consequences. Many of the changes are based on advancements in science and technology, but often have negative side effects. The answer that the companies have come up with is to throw more science at the problems to bandage the issues but not the root causes. The global food supply may be in crisis with lack of biodiversity, but can be changed on the demand side of the equation.

Ladron que Roba a Ladron (To Rob a Thief) (DVD):

Two former thieves reunite to rob the biggest thief they know: Moctesuma Valdez, a TV infomercial guru who's made millions selling worthless health products to poor Latino immigrants. When none of their affiliates want to go undercover as day laborers to pull off the heist, the two men turn to the real thing for help.

Love in the Time of Cholera (DVD): Javier Bardem, Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Benjamin Bratt, Catalina Sandino Moreno

At the end of the 19th century in Cartagena, a river port in Colombia, Florentino Ariza falls in love at first sight of Fermina Daza. They secretly correspond and she eventually agrees to marry but her father discovers their relationship and sends her to distant relatives. When she returns some years later, Fermina agrees to marry Dr. Juvenal Urbino, her father's choice. Their fifty year marriage is marked by roughly equal amounts of love and anger. Fermina's marriage devastates Florentino, but his mother throws a willing widow into his bed and he discovers that sex is a very good pain reliever. He begins to number and describe each of his women, beginning with #1, the widow, and eventually has over 600 names and notes. He also decides to be as successful and rich as Dr. Urbino and, when the doctor dies suddenly, immediately renews his courtship of Fermina.

Ma Vie en Rose (DVD): Georges Du Fresne, Michele Laroque, Jean-Philippe Ecoffey, Julien Rivière

Ludovic is a young boy who can't wait to grow up to be a woman. When his family discovers the little girl blossoming in him they are forced to contend with their own discomfort and the lack of understanding from their new neighbors. Their anger and impatience cave and Ludovic is sent to see a psychiatrist in the hopes of fixing whatever is wrong with him. A movie that addresses trans-gender and gender issues in general through the eyes of a child.

Solas (Alone) (DVD): Paco de Osca, Antonio Dechant, Ana Fernández, Angel Fernandez

Director Benito Zambrono's SOLAS is a quiet, realistic film that examines relationships between parents and children, the decline of traditional values, and urban anomie. While waiting for her husband to recover in a hospital, a mother (Maria Galiana) stays with her estranged daughter, Maria (Ana Fernandez), who fled her parents rural home in Andalusia because she could no longer bear her father's abusiveness and her mother's passivity. As the daughter struggles to find dignity in her job and her relationships with men, her mother quietly tries to brighten the life of her daughter and an elderly neighbor with only a dog for a companion. Gradually, Maria realizes that behind her mother's passivity is a strength and compassion that is rare in modern Spain. SOLAS, which means alone, is a low-budget film using little-known actors; it's strong and moving, however, with emotionally wrenching performances from the entire cast. Setting a high standard with his feature-film debut, Zambrano suggests that the solution to loneliness and poverty lies in remembering how to care for others.

Speaking in Tongues (DVD): Directors - Marcia Jarmel & Ken Schneider

Documentary - Four students become fluent in second languages while attending public school, with challenging and delightful results.

Education: Teach Well, Live Well & Effective Reading Teachers

2010-01-05T13:36:00.001-08:00

Teach Well, Live Well: Strategies for Success (BOOK): by John Luckner & Suzanne Rudolph

"The information here-knowledge that veteran teachers have acquired through experience-will be a real life-saver for new teachers."—Cynthia A. Givens, Director, The Education Station

"This book is great for a working teacher because it gives just enough background to validate the concepts without overwhelming the practical application."—Sharon Jefferies, Teacher

"This book has suggestions for organization that are invaluable to new or veteran teachers."—Jude A. Huntz, Adult Education Coordinator

"This is an amazing book. I would not hesitate to give this to someone who was starting on a teaching career."—Jane Hunn, Science Teacher

Policy and Performance in American Higher Education: An Examination of Cases Across State Systems (BOOK): by Richard Richardson Jr. and Mario Martinez

Policy and Performance in American Higher Education presents a new approach to understanding how public policy influences institutional performance, with practical insight for those charged with crafting and implementing higher education policy.

Public institutions of higher learning are called upon by state governments to provide educational access and opportunity for students. Paradoxically, the education policies enacted by state legislatures are often complex and costly to implement, which can ultimately detract from that mission. Richard Richardson, Jr., and Mario Martinez evaluate the higher education systems of five states to explain how these policies are developed and how they affect the performance of individual institutions.

Preparing Effective Teachers of Reading: Putting Research Findings to Work for Student Learning (BOOK): Editor Boyce C. Williams

Preparing Effective Teachers of Reading will show educators and administrators (K–12 and higher education) how a higher education initiative used collaboration and partnerships to respond to one of the greatest needs facing the nation—improving the reading achievement of poor and minority children. The book will also provide readers with a forum for understanding scientifically- based reading research (SBRR) and instruction, and the five essential components of reading. In addition, the book will showcase, through evaluation findings and a case study, how diverse geographic, ethnic, and racial institutions are creating national models for bridging the achievement gap in reading, teaching reading, preparing new teachers, and engaging key stakeholders by transforming curricula and syllabi, establishing reading centers, and providing directed teaching and tutoring experiences for candidates.

Promoting Integrated and Transformative Assessment: A Deeper Focus on Student Learning (BOOK): Catherine M. Wehlburg

Assessment plays a key role in institutions of higher education. However, many colleges and universities simply add their assessment plans onto other teaching, learning, service, and research activities in order to prepare for an impending accreditation visit. In this important resource, Catherine M. Wehlburg outlines an integrated and ongoing system for assessment that both prepares for an accreditation visit and truly enhances student learning. This innovative approach can be adapted for use in a wide variety of situations to transform a department or an entire institution.

Recent Innovations in Educational Technology that Facilitate Student Learning (BOOK): edited by Daniel H. Robinson & Gregory Schraw

A volume in Current Perspectives on Cognition, Learning, and Instruction Series Editors Daniel H. Robinson, University of Texas and Gregory Schraw, University of Nevada at Las Vegas Founding Editor James M. Royer, University of Massachusetts The field of educational technology is exploding in terms of innovations being developed daily. Most of these innovations hold fascinating promise but enjoy almost no empirical support. There are educational researchers who have both developed innovations and tested their potential empirically. This book will capture the latest and most promising innovations from the leading educational technologists in the world, including animations, simulations, visualizations, navigation, manipulatives, pedagogical agents, and assessment. This book is appropriate for university courses in educational technology for those wishing to showcase the latest innovations that are accompanied by empirical support.

Education: Higher Education Transformed, Positive Strategies in Behavioral Intervention, & Charter Schools - Hope or Hype

2010-01-05T12:26:00.000-08:00

American Higher Education Transformed, 1940-2005: Documenting the National Discourse (BOOK): edited by Wilson Smith and Thomas Bender

This long-awaited sequel to Richard Hofstadter and Wilson Smith's classic anthology American Higher Education: A Documentary History presents one hundred and seventy-two key edited documents that record the transformation of higher education over the past sixty years.

The volume includes such seminal documents as Vannevar Bush's 1945 report to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Science, the Endless Frontier; the U.S. Supreme Court decisions in Brown v. Board of Education and Sweezy v. New Hampshire; and Adrienne Rich's challenging essay "Taking Women Students Seriously." The wide variety of readings underscores responses of higher education to a memorable, often tumultuous, half century. Colleges and universities faced a transformation of their educational goals, institutional structures and curricula, and admission policies; the ethnic and economic composition of student bodies; an expanding social and gender membership in the professoriate; their growing allegiance to and dependence on federal and foundation financial aids; and even the definitions and defenses of academic freedom.

Behavioral Interventions in Schools: Evidence-Based Positive Strategies (BOOK): edited by Angeleque Akin-Little

This book provides school psychologists, counselors, social workers, school administrators, and teachers with a summary of ecologically sound primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention strategies. The contributors cover fundamentals such as how to conduct a behavioral assessment, how to measure treatment integrity and response to intervention, and how to promote generalization and maintenance of learned positive behaviors. They also discuss prevention measures such as positive behavior support and group contingencies that schools can implement system-wide. Several chapters describe more narrowly focused interventions such as daily report cards and self modeling, while the final section explains how to customize behavioral strategies for special populations such as preschoolers; children with autism, internalizing, or externalizing disorders; and those who have experienced trauma.

Charter Schools: Hope or Hype? (BOOK): by Jack Buckley and Mark Schneider

Schools, prisons, hospitals, governments, and the like should not be run as businesses or following business principles. The reason is simple, most businesses fail. Business methodology more often than not leads to failure. Society should, instead prefer and follow the methods of science, engineering, and democracy.

Charter Schools in Eight States: Effects on Achievement, Attainment, Integration, and Competition (BOOK): by Ron Zimmer

Charter schools now exist in 40 states, but the best charter-school studies to date have focused on individual states. This book examines charter schools in eight states with varied policy contexts. It assesses the characteristics of charter schools' students, their effectiveness in raising student achievement and promoting graduation and college entry, and their competitive effects on student achievement in traditional public schools.

Closed minds?: Politics and Ideology in American Universities (BOOK): by Bruce L.R. Smith, Jeremy D. Mayer, A. Lee Fritschler

Contrary to popular belief, the problem with U.S. higher education is not too much politics but too little. Far from being bastions of liberal bias, American universities have largely withdrawn from the world of politics. So conclude Bruce L. R. Smith, Jeremy Mayer, and Lee Fritschler in this illuminating book.

Congress and the Classroom: From the Cold War to "No Child Left Behind" (BOOK): by Lee W. Anderson

Covering in depth 50 years of American education history, Anderson's scholarly work considers Congress's role in federal government education policies, drawing principally from congressional records but rendering them in surprisingly accessible prose. Following congress from its initial reluctance to involve itself in state educational affairs to its current bipartisan belief in federal education investment, Anderson traces the debate from the Ordinance of 1785 to the landmark National Defense Act of 1958 to the "large-scale compromise" of the No Child Left Behind act, which balances "federal support and high-stakes accountability."

Anderson has an eye for the telling quote, such as then-President Ford's prescient remark that the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 "will remain in effect even though the Congress appropriates far less than the amounts contemplated," cutting to the quick of a persistent problem in all American educational legislation: woeful underfunding. By keeping his analysis to a relatively small segment of the debate that touches so many, and by focusing on the last five decades of enacted legislation, Anderson has crafted a worthwhile and clarifying look at the changing face of federal educational funding.

Negotiating Literacy Learning: Exploring the Challenges and Achievements of Struggling Readers (BOOK): Edited by Janine K. Bixler

Teaching professionals encounter students at varying levels of literacy proficiency and achievement. Negotiating Literacy Learning brilliantly illustrates eight real-life examples of children who struggle with reading, outlining the steps eight master teachers take to diagnose and remediate those problems. The cases shared in this text identify reading difficulties that teachers typically encounter in their classrooms, walking readers through each teacher's method for negotiating learning. Cases are organized in a clear and succinct manner, beginning with assessments followed by an instructional decision-making process to demonstrate a methodology you can follow to ensure that your students reach their literacy potential. This book is for all professionals who believe that teaching requires a commitment to learning from and listening to students in order to improve teaching responses.

Archeology: Archeological Oceanography by Ballard

2010-01-05T11:10:00.000-08:00

Archaeological Oceanography (BOOK): by Robert D. Ballard, editor

The sea floor contains thousands of shipwreck sites, many of them dating to the earliest eras of seafaring, and archeological oceanography is an emerging field, spurred by new and developing technology, that's plumbing the depths (technically 300 feet and below, where scuba divers fear to fin) to explore them. Detailing research excursions from the Institute for Exploration in Mystic, Conn., and the Institute for Archaeology Oceanography at the Univ. of Rhode Island, shipwreck sites include the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, as well as the Titanic and the Bismarck.

In 18 chapters, written by different specialists, the book covers five areas. Part one is a lucid tutorial in technology and techniques, including excavation technology and site conservation procedures. Parts two and three discuss the examination of modern and ancient shipwrecks. Part four describes the study of submerged landscapes occupied by humans at the end of the last ice age, and part five is devoted to Ballard's particular goal of developing remotely operated seafloor observatories, allowing real-time site observation by researchers and students. Theoretical material is shown in clear diagrams, and crisp photographs show underwater "in situ" placements of artifacts. Although highly suitable for a college-level class, this volume makes an informative resource for anyone interested in cutting edge archaeology.

Film: Airplane!, Robert Hayes, Leslie Nielsen

2009-12-08T12:21:00.000-08:00

This is a spoof of the airport disaster movies. When the crew of an airplane are struck by some form of virus, the fate of the passengers depends on an ex-war pilot who is the only one able to land the plane safely! The passengers represent a selection of interesting wacky characters who seem to take every word for its literal meaning.

Standford Biology: Fascinating Lecture

2009-12-01T17:45:00.000-08:00

Lecture Description

Karl Deisseroth is pioneering bold new treatments for depression and other psychiatric diseases. By sending pulses of light into the brain, Deisseroth can control neural activity with remarkable precision. In this short talk, Deisseroth gives an thoughtful and awe-inspiring overview of his Stanford University lab's groundbreaking research in "optogenetics".

Watch it on Academic Earth

Course Description

Learn about the frontiers of human health from seven of Stanford's most innovative faculty members. Inspired by a format used at the TED Conference (http://www.ted.com), each speaker delivers a highly engaging talk in just 10-20 minutes about his or her research. Learn about Stanford's newest and most exciting discoveries in neuroscience, bioengineering, brain imaging, psychology, and more.

Music: Music in the Iraq War and Pete Seeger

2009-12-01T17:03:00.001-08:00

Sound Targets: American Soldiers and Music in the Iraq War (BOOK): by Jonathan Pieslak

Though a part of American soldiers' lives since the Revolutionary War, by World War II music could be broadcast to the front. Today it accompanies soldiers from the recruiting office to the battlefield. For this book, Jonathan Pieslak interviewed returning veterans to learn about the place of music in the Iraq War and in contemporary American military culture in general. Pieslak describes how American soldiers hear, share, use, and produce music both on and off duty. He studies the role of music from recruitment campaigns and basic training to its use "in country" before and during missions. Pieslak explores themes of power, chaos, violence, and survival in the metal and hip-hop music so popular among the troops, and offers insight into the daily lives of American soldiers in the Middle East.

"Sound Targets reveals just how pervasively popular music has shaped contemporary U.S. military culture.... This thoughtful and provocative study will certainly attract a wide audience concerned with music's roles in the time of war." – W. Anthony Sheppard, author of Revealing Masks: Exotic Influences and Ritualized Performance in Modernist Music Theater

To Everything there is a Season: Pete Seeger and the Power of Song (BOOK): by Allan M. Winkler

Folk music has long played a vital role in supporting reform movements in the United States. Radical activists, seeking to counter a variety of abuses in mid-to-late 20th century America, often used music to express their hopes, aims, and goals. In "To Everything There Is a Season": Pete Seeger and the Power of Song, Allan Winkler describes how folk singer Pete Seeger applied his musical talents to improve conditions for less fortunate people everywhere. This book uses Seeger's long life and wonderful songs to reflect on the important role folk music played in various protest movements and to answer such fundamental questions as: What was the source of Seeger's appeal? How did he capture the attention and affection of people around the world? And why is song such a powerful medium?

"Winkler's book is obviously a labor of love.... The book is carefully written by a scholar who identifies with Seeger and his causes.... Winkler's fine book should introduce readers to Seeger and encourage further exploration of Dunaway's scholarship. But of greater significance is the encouragement that Winkler gives his readers to listen and sing along with Seeger's music. Bonus benefits with the Winkler book include a preface by folksinger Tom Paxton and a compact disc of ten Seeger tunes."—History News Network

"Allan Winkler...has written the best brief biography of Seeger in print."--PopMatters
"Winkler pays welcome attention to how Toshi Seeger made possible her husband's life as protester and artist -- a fact that can escape Pete.... Winkler's includes a CD of 10 songs, the indispensable way, after all, of apprehending why Seeger's music sounds the chords of our national life."—The Plain Dealer

Art, Engineering, Photography, History: Computational Fluid Dynamics, Enterprise Engineering, IRA's History, and Controversial Photography Books

2009-12-01T16:37:00.000-08:00

You can find all of these books on the 4th floor in the Technology and Photography section located in the T's. The range of sub-topics is amazing!

Characteristics Finite Element Methods in Computational Fluid Dynamics (BOOK): by Joe Iannelli

This book details a systematic characteristics-based finite element procedure to investigate incompressible, free-surface and compressible flows. Several sections derive the Fluid Dynamics equations from thermo-mechanics principles and develop this multi-dimensional and infinite-directional upstream procedure by combining a finite element discretization with an implicit non-linearly stable Runge-Kutta time integration for the numerical solution of the Euler and Navier Stokes equations. Based on the mathematics and physics of multi-dimensional characteristics, convection as well as acoustics, and inducing by design a controllable multi-dimensional upwind bias that can be locally optimized, the procedure crisply captures contact discontinuities, normal as well as oblique shocks, and generates essentially non-oscillatory solutions for incompressible, subsonic, transonic, supersonic, and hypersonic inviscid and viscous flows with chemical reactions and work, heat and mass transfer.

Enterprise Governance and Enterprise Engineering (BOOK): by Jan A.P. Hoogervorst

Achieving enterprise success necessitates addressing enterprises in ways that match the complexity and dynamics of the modern enterprise environment. However, since the majority of enterprise strategic initiatives appear to fail – among which those regarding information technology – the currently often practiced approaches to strategy development and implementation seem more an obstacle than an enabler for strategic enterprise success.

IRA, the Bombs and the Bullets: A History of Deadly Ingenuity (BOOK): by A.R. Oppenheimer

I was some-what unacquainted with the history of the IRA so I was overwhelmed with the detail and research that went into this comprehensive work. I began to get a real feel for their struggle and the the absolute ingenuity as I worked my way into the book and was able to absorb the intricacies of the campaigns. This isn't a book to take lightly. I takes you into the details and history of the nuts and bolts of the bombings and the challenges. It also gave me a better insight into the whys and what-fors of the "troubles". If you are looking for a thorough explanation of the bombings and the strife, this is a good book to get you grounded in the subject. – David M. Quintana

Katrina: Personal Objects, Photography (BOOK): by Jarret Schecter

Because of government failure, millions viewed political
ineptitude, social inequity and an unpaved America where the streets were lined with anything but gold.
The images in this book show the abandoned and hardest-hit district of the Lower Ninth Ward over two years later, and still counting today.

Vacant and dilapidated, the city is a shadow of its former self. However, in these seemingly lifeless shadows, and through the broken windows of empty houses, one can eerily see the ghostly reflections of life and death in the form of PERSONAL OBJECTS.

These intensely personal items have been abandoned and left, and in most cases, will never be reclaimed.
This small format book touches on the ephemeral, and
surprisingly often beautiful, remnants of belongings that once made up the memories and precious moments of peoples’ lives.

In 1990 Jarret Schecter purchased a Pentax camera. Since then he has traveled the world. Committed to socio-political issues, Schecter believes that photography can bring awareness to social injustices the world faces today. Schecter, born in 1963, lives in New York City

Water in the 21st-Century West: A High Country News Reader (BOOK): by Char Miller

Water in the 21st-Century West captures the range and nature of the arguments that have defined water politics in the region over the past decade. The collection probes the issues and explores creative attempts to find solutions, bringing a focus and clarity to the most contentious environmental issue the West faces. Water in the 21st-Century West will be an essential primer in assessing and mapping the West’s water future.

Why Photography Matters as Art as Never Before (BOOK): by Michael Fried

From the late 1970s onward, serious art photography began to be made at large scale and for the wall. Michael Fried argues that this immediately compelled photographers to grapple with issues centering on the relationship between the photograph and the viewer standing before it that until then had been the province only of painting. Fried further demonstrates that certain philosophically deep problems—associated with notions of theatricality, literalness, and objecthood, and touching on the role of original intention in artistic production, first discussed in his controversial essay “Art and Objecthood” (1967)—have come to the fore once again in recent photography. This means that the photographic “ghetto” no longer exists; instead photography is at the cutting edge of contemporary art as never before.

History: 16th Century Filipino Migration, Mortality/Mourning/Mortuary in Indigenous Australia, Opposition to Irish Home Rule

2009-11-17T19:45:00.001-08:00

Manila Men in the New World: Filipino Migration to Mexico and the Americas from the Sixteenth Century (BOOK): by Floro L. Mercene

The Filipino diaspora is at least four hundred years old. For two-and-a-half centuries, Filipinos by the hundreds traveled yearly to Mexico and the Americas, with many electing to stay and find a new life. The chief means for migration was the Manila galleon that sailed between the Philippines and Mexico to carry on a lively trade in Asian goods in exchange for silver from the Americas and the trappings of civilization from the West. The end of the galleon trade in 1815 did not stop the exodus of Filipinos to foreign lands as they began to discover the lure of other exotic ports in Asia and Europe. This book attempts to answer the question often asked: What happened to those Filipinos who started the diaspora? The answers are important because they fill a gap in the long history of this adventurous race.

Mortality, Mourning and Mortuary Practices in Indigenous Australia (BOOK): edited by Katie Glaskin

Drawing on ethnography of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities across Australia, Mortality, "Mourning and Mortuary Practices in Indigenous Australia" focuses on the current ways in which indigenous people confront and manage various aspects of death. The contributors employ their contemporary and long-term anthropological fieldwork with indigenous Australians to construct rich accounts of indigenous practices and beliefs and to engage with questions relating to the frequent experience of death within the context of unprecedented change and premature mortality.The volume makes use of extensive empirical material to address questions of inequality with specific reference to mortality, thus contributing to the anthropology of indigenous Australia whilst attending to its theoretical, methodological and political concerns. As such, it will appeal not only to anthropologists but also to those interested in social inequality, the social and psychosocial consequences of death, and the conceptualization and manipulation of the relationships between the living and the dead.

Popular Opposition to Irish Home Rule in Edwardian Britain (BOOK): by Daniel M. Jackson

This groundbreaking volume sheds light on the complex realities of British politics prior to 1914, showing that from the start of the Third Home Rule Bill crisis, there was considerable popular interest in the Irish issue. Isolating this movement at the end of the long nineteenth century, where communal and confessional identities were just as powerful as class, and native hostility to Catholicism and Irish migration still prevailed, Daniel Jackson demonstrates the power of the enormous Home Rule protests in Britain. Through studying these massive demonstrations, the author captures the opinions of those made voiceless by history and explores how the Ulster question allowed Conservative politicians to gain popular enthusiasm and bridge the gap between elites and the masses.

Russia's Wars of Emergence, 1460-1730 (BOOK): by Carol B. Stevens

Russia's emergence as a Great Power in the eighteenth century is usually attributed to Peter I's radical programme of Westernising' reforms. But the Russian military did not simply copy European armies. Adapting the tactics of its neighbours on both sides, Russia created a powerful strategy of its own, integrating steppe defence with European concerns. In Russia's Wars of Emergence, Carol Belkin Stevens examines the social and political factors underpinning Muscovite military history, the eventual success of the Russian Empire and the sacrifices made for power.

Sara Baartman and the Hottentot Venus: A Ghost Story and a Biography (BOOK): by Clifton Crais and Pamela Scully

Sara Baartman, a young South African woman brought to London in 1810 and displayed seminude to show off her ample bottom, was named the Hottentot Venus by her captors and managers. Historians Crais and Scully examine the cultural context of Baartman’s exploitation in Europe as Westerners grappled with issues of race and sex and later racialized science. Baartman attracted the attention of prominent British abolitionists and French scientists as well as voyeurs. After five years of researching archives and libraries and conducting genealogical research to uncover some of Baartman’s relatives, the authors also look beyond Baartman’s life as a curiosity and an exhibit to explore her life as a woman. Crais and Scully place Baartman’s contributions in such areas as the rights of the unlawfully detained, global feminism, and later—when her body was returned to South Africa from France—the politics of indigenous identity. Readers who enjoyed African Queen (2007), by Rachel Holmes, will appreciate this further examination of the life of an extraordinary woman. –Vanessa Bush, Booklist

State of Suffering: Political Violence and Community Survival in Fiji (BOOK): by Susanna Trnka

Throughout this book, Trnka focuses on the collective social process through which violence is embodied, articulated, and silenced by those it targets. Her sensitive ethnography is a valuable addition to the global conversation about the impact of political violence on community life.

Harvard Lecture Available Online!

2009-11-17T17:51:00.000-08:00

Check it out at www.academicearth.org

Lecture Description

Part 1 - The Moral Side of Murder: If you had to choose between (1) killing one person to save the lives of five others and (2) doing nothing, even though you knew that five people would die right before your eyes if you did nothing—what would you do? What would be the right thing to do? That’s the hypothetical scenario Professor Michael Sandel uses to launch his course on moral reasoning.

Watch it on Academic Earth

Archives: Digital Collections: Ellensburg History

2009-11-16T14:21:00.000-08:00

<- Barge Hall in 1896. Browse through hundreds of historic photographs on CWU Brooks Library's Digital Archives page.

These publicly available collections highlight the history, nature and culture of Central Washington University, central Washington State, and a collection highlighting the history and art of manuscript illumination.

The public is also welcome to visit our new Archives and Special Collections on the 4th Floor of Brooks Library.

Film: The Breakfast Club (DVD)

2009-11-13T14:02:00.000-08:00

Drama: They were five total strangers, with nothing in common, meeting for the first time. A brain, a beauty, a jock, a rebel and a recluse. Before the day was over, they broke the rules. Bared their souls. And touched each other in a way they never dreamed possible.

Film: Richard III

2009-11-13T13:45:00.001-08:00

Drama: William Shakespeare's classic play is brought into the present with the setting as Great Britian in the 1930s. Civil war has erupted with the House of Lancaster on one side, claiming the right to the British throne and hoping to bring freedom to the country. Opposing is the House of York, commanded by the infamous Richard who rules over a fascist government and hopes to install himself as a dictator monarch.

Law: Maddness, ADHD, Our Changing Constitution, Gun Control

2009-11-13T13:28:00.000-08:00

A Companion to Bordering on Madness, an American Land Use Tale: Cases, Scholarship, and Case Studies (BOOK): by Andrew F. Popper and Patricia E.

The Companion to Bordering on Madness: An American Land Use Tale, Second Edition expands the issues raised in the novel using cases, scholarship and case studies. The text serves as a foundation to understand select doctrine, theory and strategy applicable to conflicts between developers and those who oppose development. Land use is an area in which law and government become personal, direct, immediate, and, quite literally, tangible. Land use cases set the parameters for the structures in which we live, the vistas (or lack thereof) we experience quite literally, the sights, sounds and air that surround us. The mission of this text is to provide a window into this dynamic field.

A Constitution of Many Minds: Why the Founding Document Doesn't Mean What it Meant Before (BOOK): by Cass R. Sunstein

What distinguishes the most important minds is less the answers they offer than the questions they ask. Who but Cass Sunstein would think to ask what unites the arguments and assumptions of traditionalists, populists, and cosmopolitans in constitutional interpretation and elsewhere--and what influences the force of those arguments at different times and in different places? Exploring those questions with his characteristic elegance and insight, Sunstein--the most prolific and significant legal scholar of our time--has written a brilliant book for all seasons. –Laurence H. Tribe, Harvard Law School

ADHD on Trial: Courtroom Clashes Over the Meaning of "Disability" (BOOK): by Michael Gordon

In 2006 Philadelphia, graduate student Jonathan Love sued the organization that publishes the Law School Admissions Test. Love had attained average scores on the test, but claimed he should have been given extra time because he qualified as a person with a disability - and allowances provided by the Americans with Disabilities Act - due to Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. The case, which drew in author psychologist Michael Gordon as an expert witness for the defense, reached federal court and resulted in a precedent-setting ruling still as controversial as the disorder that triggered the trial. In this work, Gordon takes us into the courtroom and behind the scenes with attorneys and experts to look not only at this trial, but more than a dozen others that have involved ADHD or other psychiatric diagnoses, and the questions they raise, including what the real meaning of disability is, how malingering can be an issue with psychological disorders, and what the more far-reaching effects for the public can be if accommodations are provided to people who do not have a legally-defined disability. When does deference to an individual with a disorder like ADHD begin to invade the rights of the non-disabled?

Controversy fills these pages, from discussion of ADHD and the debate over its justifiability as a disability to public reactions regarding the ruling in Love's case and others. Comparisons and contrasts are also raised between the Love trial and earlier cases involving people claiming psychological disabilities who fought actions by The National Board of Medical Examiners, United Airlines, Toyota Motor Manufacturing, the Georgia State Board of Veterinary Medicine, and other organizations. Do the decisions help or harm disability rights and people with disabilities? Gordon offers the insights not only of a psychologist, but a seasoned legal insider who has testified as an expert witness at many of the trials.

Crimes Against Humanity: A Beginner's Guide (BOOK): by Adam Jones

In this compelling overview, Adam Jones outlines the history and current extent of key crimes against humanity, and highlights the efforts of popular movements to suppress them. Using examples ranging from the genocides in Darfur and Rwanda to the sex trade of Eastern Europe and the use of torture in the 'war on terror,' Jones explores the progress made in toughening international law, and the stumbling blocks which prevent full compliance with it. Coherent and revealing, this book is essential for anyone interested in the well-being of humanity and its future.

Essential Concepts & School-Based Cases in Special Education Law (BOOK): by Charles J. Russo and Allan G. Osborne, Jr

Covers IDEA and its accompanying regulations and analyzes cases involving procedural due process, assistive technology, disciplinary sanctions, dispute resolution, antidiscrimination laws, and special services entitlement.

Gun Control: A Documentary and Reference Guide (BOOK): by Robert J. Spitzer

Gun control is one of the most enduringly controversial issues in modern American politics. For the first time this book compiles a comprehensive array of documents that explain and illuminate the historical and contemporary context of the modern gun debate. Bringing together over 50 documents from the colonial era to the present, including early colonial laws, founding documents, letters, political debates, federal and state laws, federal and state court cases, and various political documents, this book is an indispensable reference work for those seeking to understand the origins and modern consequences of American gun policy, including the Second Amendment's right to keep and bear arms. Accompanying commentary and analysis is included to help the reader fully understand the meaning of these documents. Numerous bibliographic sources provide additional resources for interested readers. Ideal for undergraduate and high school students, this collection of primary documents surrounding one of America's oldest controversial issues is a must-have for library shelves.

Contrary to popular impression, gun laws are as old as the country, and reflect the intersection of citizens' personal gun habits and the country's early need to defend itself by citizen militias who were required to arm themselves. The nation's gun policies evolved as its needs and resources changed. Old-style militias gave way to a modern professional American military, and the settling of the American frontier ushered in modern gun laws. In the past century, political assassinations and gun-related mass violence spurred both new gun control efforts and a burgeoning modern gun rights movement. Students will be able to read and analyze primary documents surrounding these events, including the Federalist Papers, early hunting laws, Supreme Court rulings, federal and state regulations, and recent political platform statements. Ideal for undergraduate and high school students, this collection of primary documents surrounding one of America's oldest controversial issues is a must-have for library shelves.

Nazi Crimes and the Law (BOOK): edited by Nathan Stoltzfus and Henry Friedlander

This book examines the use of national and international law to prosecute Nazi crimes, the centerpiece of twentieth-century state-sponsored genocide and mass murder. Its various essays reconstruct the historical setting of crimes sponsored by Nazi Germany and discuss the limitations placed on the national and international judicial forums responsible for prosecuting German perpetrators.

Racism and Equality in the European Union (BOOK): by Mark Bell

The European Union has committed itself to combating racism as a general objective of law and policy. EU legislation requires Member States to introduce laws prohibiting racial discrimination in many aspects of everyday life, including employment, education, healthcare, and housing. Alongside legislation requiring action at national level, the EU institutions have also made periodic commitments to 'mainstream' racial equality: taking anti-racism objectives into account within all areas of EU law and policy.

This book analyses the extent to which the objectives of combating racism and promoting ethnic equality have been effectively mainstreamed throughout a wide range of EU policy fields. It begins by considering what combating racism means in the contemporary context of the enlarged EU. Bell explores what mainstreaming ethnic equality objectives entails, and whether the priorities and instruments differ from those adopted in the earlier mainstreaming of gender equality, or those used on other discrimination grounds. The second part of the book examines the extent to which EU law and policy objectives have, in practice, been integrated, exploring the effects in the key areas of employment, social inclusion (including education, health and housing), immigration, and criminal law.

Storm Center: The Supreme Court in American Politics (BOOK): by David M. O'Brien

With the abortion and school desegregation decisions, O'Brien contends, the Supreme Court has ceased to be Hamilton's "least dangerous branch." Increasingly activist, it has in fact become a "storm center" of national politics. Ever mindful of our judicial past, O'Brien likewise finds the Court is markedly more bureaucratic. His lucid text descibes the inner rules and proceduresthe cost of filings, screening procedures, certiorari petitions, the justices' give-and-take negotiations, their tentative votes and maneuverings, the oral arguments, the growing number of dissents and plurality opinions. O'Brien finds the Court rife with heated personal clashes. Rather than above the battle, it is highly sensitive to external pressures, from the President, Congress, public opinion. This is an illuminating, first-rate primer for those seeking to understand the workings of the Court. Milton Cantor, History Dept., Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst

The Last Trials of Clarence Darrow (BOOK): by Donald McRae

The courtroom has been a dramatic setting for larger-than-life figures throughout history, but few have attained the almost mythical status of Clarence Darrow. A legend in his own time, Variety called him "America's greatest one-man stage draw." Here was a man whose flair for showmanship went hand in hand with a fierce intellect; a man whose shaky moral compass and staggering conceit collided at all turns with an unrivaled eloquence and an overwhelming compassion for humanity.

Darrow had been one of the most revered lawyers in the country, but in 1924 his reputation was still clouded after a narrow escape from a charge of jury tampering in Los Angeles. At the age of sixty-seven he thought his life and career were almost over, until he was offered an impossible assignment—the defense of the teenage "thrill killers" Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb. Darrow then went on to earn even more international acclaim in two other groundbreaking cases: a classic standoff against William Jennings Bryan in the Scopes Monkey Trial in Tennessee, and the Ossian Sweet murder trial in Detroit. Throughout two crammed and dizzying years, this lion of the court held the Western world in awe as he tackled these three starkly different, history-making cases, each in turn dubbed "the Trial of the Century."

But these trials, as important as they were to Darrow, were not the only events that helped rejuvenate him and seal his courtroom legacy. There was also his enduring relationship with Mary Field Parton, his lover and soul mate, a woman whose role toward the end of his career was larger than many have realized. With fascinating new research and discoveries, including her private journals and letters, The Last Trials of Clarence Darrow is an intimate and riveting depiction of this American icon, one of the greatest lawyers this country has ever seen.

History: Lenin's Brain and Other Tales from the Secret Soviet Archives, Poland's Secret War, Asia Relations, Reform After Stalin, Holocaust Recovery

2009-11-12T17:35:00.000-08:00

In the Polish Secret War: Memoir of a World War II Freedom Fighter (BOOK): by Marian S. Mazgaj

Born in the Polish village of Gaj in 1923, Marian Mazgaj was a teenager when Germany invaded his country and launched Poland into the combat of World War II. Too young to join the Polish army, within a few years he became a member of the Sandomierz Flying Commando Unit, a unit which merged with the Jedrus Polish underground group.
This memoir provides a vivid record of Mazgaj's career in the military. The Sandomierz Flying Commando Unit and the Jedrus underground were actively engaged in fighting the Nazi forces in Poland during World War II, and the author provides a first-hand account of the groups' roles in attacking and disarming German military units; destroying the enemy's grain warehouses and receiving air drops of weapons, ammunition, and explosives from the Allies. He also describes the incorporation of his partisan group into the Home Army, whereby he and his comrades became the Fourth Company in the Second Regiment of the Second Division, gaining strength and destroying many more German units.

International Relations of Asia (BOOK): edited by David Shambaugh and Michael Yahuda

Want to know where the Asia region is headed? This comprehensive and well-written volume provides a clear picture of its political, economic, and social dynamics by the top scholars in the field. It is bound to become the most widely used textbook for Asian international relations courses. –Susan Shirk, University of California, San Diego, and former deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific Affairs

Khrushchev's Cold Summer: Gulag Returnees, Crime, and the Fate of Reform After Stalin (BOOK): by Miriam Dobson

Between Stalin's death in 1953 and 1960, the government of the Soviet Union released hundreds of thousands of prisoners from the Gulag as part of a wide-ranging effort to reverse the worst excesses and abuses of the previous two decades and revive the spirit of the revolution. This exodus included not only victims of past purges but also those sentenced for criminal offenses. In Khrushchev's Cold Summer Miriam Dobson explores the impact of these returnees on communities and, more broadly, Soviet attempts to come to terms with the traumatic legacies of Stalin's terror.

Le-natseah et Hitler (in English): The Holocaust is over we must rise from its ashes (BOOK): by Avraham Burg

“An Israeli-born son of Holocaust survivors, Burg addresses a heartfelt plea to his countrymen: remember the past, but do not be its slaves; pathology is neither patriotism nor statescraft. A compelling and eloquent cri de coeur from a veteran of Israel's wars and politics.” -- Howard M. Sachar, bestselling author of A History of the Jews in the Modern World and A History of Israel

"Burg takes a blunt, loving, painful and desperately important look at the state of the Jewish soul today. Anyone who cares about the future of the Middle East and the fate of victimized peoples needs to read this book and think hard." -- J.J. Goldberg, author of Jewish Power: Inside the American Jewish Establishment and Editorial Director of The Forward

“Short of being Prime Minister, Burg could not be higher in the Zionist establishment.” David Remnick, The New Yorker

Lenin's Brain and Other Tales from the Secret Soviet Archives (BOOK): by Paul R. Gregory

The opening of the once-secret Soviet state and party archives in the early 1990s proved to be an event of exceptional significance. When Western scholars broke down the official wall of secrecy that had stood for decades, they gained access to intriguing new knowledge they had previously only had been able to speculate about. In this fascinating volume, Paul Gregory takes us behind scenes and into the archives to illuminate the dark inner workings of the Soviet Union.

He reveals, for example, the bizarre story of the state-sponsored scientific study of Lenin's brain. Originally conceived to "prove" Lenin's genius, the plan was never revealed to the public--for to do so was more than the security-conscious Soviet leadership could have borne. Gregory also exposes the harsh features of Stalin's criminal justice system--in which the theft of state and collective property was punished far more severely than the theft of private property. Indeed, the theft of small amounts of grain was punishable by ten years in the Gulag or a death sentence. The author also illuminates the true story behind the December 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, telling how the ill-conceived incursion was ordered by a Politburo of aging and ill leaders who would not be around to deal with the long-term consequences of their decision.

In addition, the book examines such topics as Stalin's Great Terror, the day-to-day life of Gulag guards, Lenin's repression of "noncommunist" physicians and his purge of intellectuals, the 1940 Soviet execution of 20,000 Poles, and other previously well-concealed tales.

Paul Gregory, a Hoover Institution research fellow, holds an endowed professorship in the Department of Economics at the University of Houston, Texas, and is a research professor at the German Institute for Economic Research in Berlin.

History: Japanese Confinment, Russian Jews, Politically Powerful Women of the 16th Century, Roman Britain in the Iron Age

2009-11-12T16:37:00.000-08:00

A Tragedy of Democracy: Japanese Confinement in North America (BOOK): by Greg Robinson

"A magnificent tour de force. This book will achieve the status not only of the best extant study on the topic, but also the one most widely adopted in college classrooms and purchased by the general public." –Arthur Hansen, Director of the Japanese American Evacuation History Project

Antisemitism and Philosemitism in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries: Representing Jews, Jewishness, and Modern Culture (BOOK): edited by Phyllis Lassner and Lara Trubowitz

This book of essays provides a significant reappraisal of discussions of antisemitism and philosemitism. An outstanding group of contributors from political theory, film, English, gender studies, and history demonstrates that analysis of philosemitic attitudes is as crucial to the history of representations of Jews and Jewish culture as are investigations of antisemitism. The topics include F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby", Hannah Arendt's politics, self-help guides such as "Boy Vey! The Shiksa's Guide to Dating Jewish Men", and contemporary cinema. This pathbreaking book shows the necessity of studying philosemitism as a critical manifestation of antisemitism and as a principle way that Jews have been and still are set apart from non-Jews. These essays will enable us to rethink historical debates surrounding the 'Jewish question'.

Phyllis Lassner teaches Holocaust Studies, Gender Studies, and Writing at Northwestern University. Lara Trubowitz is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Iowa.

Crisis, Revolution, and Russian Jews (BOOK): by Jonathan Frankel

This collection of essays examines the politicization and the politics of the Jewish people in the Russian empire during the late tsarist period. Frankel describes the dynamics of the Russian revolution and the leading role of the intelligentsia as revolutionaries, ideologues, and observers.

Daily Life in Roman Britain (BOOK): by Lindsay Allason-Jones

An introduction to the daily life of the population living in Britain from the end of the Iron Age to the end of the Roman occupation of the country, based on archaeological evidence and supported by contemporary literature and inscriptions.

Debating Women, Politics, and Power in Early Modern Europe (BOOK): by Sharon L. Jansen

The sixteenth century was an age of politically powerful women. Queens, acting in their own right, and female regents, acting on behalf of their male relatives, governed much of Western Europe. Yet even as women ruled—and ruled effectively—their right to do so was hotly contested. Men’s voices have long dominated this debate, but the recovery of texts by women now allows their voices, long silenced, to be heard once again. This book is a study of texts and textual production in the construction of gender, society, and politics in the early modern period. Jansen explores the “gynecocracy” debate and the larger humanist response to the challenge posed by female sovereignty.

Web Information vs the Library's Collection

2009-11-11T16:22:00.000-08:00

Bob Berring, professor at Berkeley Law, talks about the differences between what free legal information on the Web offers versus professionally organized and authoritative legal research.

Film: Dr. No, Sean Connery

2009-11-11T15:53:00.000-08:00

Films: Adveture, Drama, Comedy - Free DVD Rental!

2009-11-11T15:30:00.001-08:00

Being John Malkovich (DVD): John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, John Malkovich (1999)

Comedy: A puppeteer discovers a hidden doorway in his office, which turns out to be a portal into John Malkovitch (the famous actor)'s mind. Upon entering the portal, one gets to be inside Malkovitch's mind for 15 odd minutes. As with any great discovery of this century, the ultimate question immediately arises : 'How can we make money out of this?' He and his co-worker promptly set out to exploit this discovery. It doesn't take long for things to go haywire.

Dr. No (DVD): Sean Connery, Ursula Andress (1963)

Adventure: James Bond (007) is Britain's top agent and is on an exciting mission, to solve the mysterious murder of a fellow agent. The task sends him to Jamacia, where he joins forces with Quarrel and a loyal CIA agent, Felix Leiter. While dodging tarantulas, "fire breathing dragons" and a trio of assassins, known as the three blind mice. Bond meets up with the beautiful Honey Ryder and goes face to face with the evil Dr. No.

Hunting the Hidden Dimension (DVD): James Garner (1997)

Documentary: This movie is a 3D IMAX film, which is exciting to watch no matter what's playing. It featured the first-time ever scanning electron microscope (SEM) movie sequences. These sequences were in synthesized color (recorded with a system patented by David Scharf) and true 3D stereoscopic imaging. The film was engaging and interesting as it used various forms of scientific imaging such as macro and micro-photography and schlieren imaging to convey the story. However, the SEM sequences of insects, which ran over 5 minutes, were the highlite of the film.

Richard III (DVD): Ian McKellen, Annette Bening (1995)

Sin Nombre (DVD): Spanish (2009)

Foreign: Honduran teenager Sayra reunites with her father, an opportunity for her to potentially realize her dream of a life in the U.S. Moving to Mexico is the first step in a fateful journey of unexpected events.

The Breakfast Club (DVD): Emilio Estevez, Paul Gleason, Molly Ringwald (1985)

The Pianist (DVD): Adrien Brody (2002)

Drama/Biography: The true story of Wladyslaw Szpilman who, in the 1930s, was known as the most accomplished piano player in all of Poland, if not Europe. At the outbreak of the Second World War, however, Szpilman becomes subject to the anti-Jewish laws imposed by the conquering Germans. By the start of the 1940s, Szpilman has seen his world go from piano concert halls to the Jewish Ghetto of Warsaw and then must suffer the tragedy of his family deported to a German concentration camps, while Szpilman is conscripted into a forced German Labor Compound. At last deciding to escape, Szpilman goes into hiding as a Jewish refugee where he is witness to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (April 19, 1943 - May 16, 1943) and the Warsaw Uprising (1 August to 2 October 1944)

The Princess Bride (DVD): Cary Elwes, Billy Crystal, Robin Wright Penn (1987)

Adventure/Comedy/Fantasy: A classic fairy tale, with swordplay, giants, an evil prince, a beautiful princess, and yes, some kissing as read by a kindly grandfather.

Physics: Books Your Professors Wish You Read

2009-11-10T17:27:00.001-08:00

An Introduction to Error Analysis: The Study of Uncertainties in Physical Measurements (BOOK): by John R. Taylor

Score a hit! The book reveals the exceptional skill of the author as lecturer and teacher. –The Physics Teacher

A high-quality resource [students] can continue to learn from, even after they graduate. –Physics Today

The need for error analysis is captured in the book's arresting cover shot - of the 1895 Paris train disaster. The early chapters teach elementary techniques of error propagation and statistical analysis to enable students to produce successful lab reports. Later chapters treat a number of more advanced mathematical topics, with many examples from mechanics and optics. End-of-chapter problems include many that call for use of calculators or computers, and numerous figures help readers visualize uncertainties using error bars.

This is a well written book with good illustrations, index and general bibliography...The book is well suited for engineering and science courses at universities and as a basic reference text for those engineers and scientists in practice. –Strain, Journal of the British Society for Strain Measurement

Cosmology (BOOK): by Steven Weinberg

"Time is right for a survey of the physics of what has become a large and well-developed subject. Weinberg has done it, in an impressive fashion. He presents a full and careful assessment of the broad range of physics of modern cosmology, from the tools for measurements of the structure and evolution of the universe we see around us to the puzzles of dark matter and dark energy and the ideas about what the universe was like in the remote past, before it could have been described by the well-tested part of the theory."--Jim Peebles, Princeton University

"This book tackles the main events of today's cosmology: cosmic acceleration observed with supernovae, the exquisite structure of the cosmic microwave background, and the evidence for dark matter. Weinberg pays close attention to the historical development and summarizes the observations with care. He brings deep knowledge of the underlying physics and weaves these threads together into a rich text that will be of great value to astronomers and physicists. The first half of this book is a wonderful introduction to cosmology, suitable for a graduate course or for someone coming into the field from a neighboring region of the scientific forest. The second half is an original development of the theory for the growth of inhomogeneities in the Universe. Everyone who works on cosmology will find something to learn in this book.—Robert P. Kirshner, Harvard University

"Nobel laureate, Steven Weinberg, is known not only for his exceptional contribution to modern physics, but also for his incomparable pen...With his unsurpassed ability to explain even the most difficult mathematical and conceptual steps with a few strokes of his pen, Weinberg takes the reader from the basics of cosmological kinetics and dynamics...to advanced topics."—Mathematical Reviews

In Search of Time: The Science of a Curious Dimension (BOOK): by Dan Falk

Beginning with a 5000-year-old tomb in Drogheda, Ireland, illuminated only at the winter solstice, science writer Falk asks the question, "What is time? The stuff that flows or a dimension, like space?" Falk explores the origins of calendar time, from primitive astronomical observatories to the precision clocks of today.

Though the movement of the heavens provided the basis for years, months, days and even the seven-day week, it wasn't until the Catholic Church needed to date important events like Easter that reconciling the lunar and solar calendars became a major concern; as such, the Church became "one of the strongest supporters of precision astronomy and timekeeping." Falk seamlessly combines science with literary and philosophical observations and digresses to fascinating topics like root notions of past and future, the vagaries of memory and the behavior of birds at breakfast time. Rounding out his multi-course feast, Falk contrasts Newton's notion of "absolute, true, and mathematical" time with Einstein's final words in 1955, "the distinction of past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion," to present modern speculations on black holes and the universe's future.—Publisher’s Weekly

Naming Infinity: A True Story of Religious Mysticism and Mathematical Creativity (BOOK): by Loren Graham and Jean-Michel Kantor

The most unusual book I have read this year. –Alex Beam, Boston Globe

A passionate confluence of mathematical creation and mystical practices is at the center of this extraordinary account of the emergence of set theory in Russia in the early twentieth century. The starkly drawn contrast with mathematical developments in France illuminates the story, and the book is electric with portraits of the great mathematicians involved: the tragic, the unfortunate, the villainous, the truly admirable. The authors offer an account of Infinity that is brief, deft, serious, and accessible to non-mathematicians, and their evocation of the mathematical circles of the period is so intimately written that one feels as if one had lived, worked, and suffered alongside the protagonists. Graham and Kantor have given us an amazing piece of mathematical history. –Barry Mazur, Harvard University

This absorbing book tells astonishing stories about some of the most important developments in mathematics of the past century...Perhaps the most moving section of the book is that dealing with the famous Moscow School of Mathematics in Soviet times. Its origins are traced to the Lusitania seminar established by Egorov and Luzin (the source of the name "Lusitania" is obscure). The enthusiasm that these teachers inspired in their students is clearly conveyed, as is the atmosphere of intellectual excitement, despite the freezing lecture rooms (the rule that lectures could not take place if the room temperature fell below -5C was ignored)...This is a remarkable book, illuminating the history of 20th-century mathematics and its practitioners. The stories it tells are important and too little known. It is clearly a labor of love and deserves a wide audience: it is an outstanding portrayal of mathematics as a fundamentally human activity and mathematicians as human beings.
--Tony Mann (Times Higher Education )

Fifty years ago, C. P. Snow gave a soon-to-be famous lecture on the "Two Cultures" of modern society, the culture of the humanities and the culture of science, and the need to bridge the gap between them. Today we are more likely to hear debates about the alleged gulf between science and religion. Both divides are bridged in this superb book, which takes us from French rationalism at the turn of the 20th century to a thriving center of world-class mathematics in Moscow, where the presiding figures were also devout Russian Orthodox believers of a mystical bent. –John Wilson, Christianity Today

Music: Flute Chamber Music and Sonatas

2009-11-09T16:31:00.000-08:00

French Flute Chamber Music (CD): Tournier, M., Schmitt, F., Pierne, G., Francaix, J., and Roussel, A. by the Mirage Quintet

This lineup of composers comes from Ravel's generation, except for the youngster Francaix, who is 30-40 years younger than the rest. The pieces were all written in the 1920s or 1930s, all of them for flute, harp, and strings.

Though the music exists in that same sound world, subtle differences in the personalities of the composers emerge. Francaix is playful, Roussel muscular, and Schmitt nostalgic and a bit sentimental. Marcel Tournier's Suite, Op. 34 is a special treat. I knew, and enjoyed, the piece from a Hanssler Classic CD with the Linos Harp Quintet, but the Mirage Quintet give the work a forward momentum and depth that really makes it stand out. You can get a feel for this from the Mirage Quintet's YouTube video of the 3rd Movement (Lied: Assez Lent, Avec Melancolie) filmed during the CD recording in Toronto in 2007. [...]

This recording took place under the watchful eyes and ears of the great team of Bonnie Silver & Norbert Kraft, who between them share producer, engineer, and editor functions. Kraft, by the way, is the very same guitarist who completely nailed the Villa-Lobos guitar music for Naxos in 2000. The sound on the new disc is predictably excellent, though some might argue that Robert Aitken's flute is too forward in the mix. It's hard to see how this music could be played or presented any better.

J.S. Bach Bach: The Flute Sonatas (CD): by Stephen Preston, Trevor Pinnock, and Jordi Savall

Bach, Johann Sebastian, 1685-1750