Search

"Volatile States in International Politics" by Eleonora Mattiacci explores the increasing unpredictability of state behavior in world politics. The book combines statistical data and archival frames of reference to explain the concept of "volatility" in international politics, its causes, impact, and potential remedies. The author examines factors that contribute to interstate volatility, such as relative power and resource availability, and proposes novel methods for measuring volatility. The book also provides a detailed assessment of countries engaged in strategic rivalry and explores the prevalence of volatility in interactions between countries with defensive commitments. While the book emphasizes the importance of understanding volatility, it neglects the larger context of the security dilemma and the potential value of creative diplomacy in countering volatility. Overall, "Volatile States in International Politics" is a well-written and valuable introduction to the concept of volatility in international politics. [Extracted from the article]

"George Orwell's Perverse Humanity: Socialism and Free Speech" by Glenn Burgess is a book that explores the relationship between liberalism and socialism in Orwell's work. The author argues that Orwell's vision combines both ideologies and that they are mutually dependent on each other. The book examines Orwell's views on real-world experiences, political violence, and the importance of freedom of speech. However, the book also addresses contemporary issues such as "wokeism" and the debate surrounding cancel culture, although the evidence presented in this regard may be less convincing. Overall, the book provides a comprehensive analysis of Orwell's political thinking and his contributions to the fields of liberalism and socialism. [Extracted from the article]

"Big Bend National Park: Mexico, the United States, and a Borderland Ecosystem" by Michael Welsh is a historical exploration of Big Bend National Park, situated on the border between Mexico and the United States. The book examines the unique landscape of the park, shaped by the Rio Grande river, and the challenges posed by its borderland ecosystem. Welsh discusses the efforts of conservationists, politicians, and scientists in establishing the park and highlights the potential for binational cooperation and collaboration. The book also addresses the tensions between preservation and development in national parks and the need to navigate the changing cultural and political landscape. While the book lacks an examination of the park's future in the face of climate change and public policy, it offers valuable insights for students and scholars interested in national identity, border relations, and environmental protectionism. [Extracted from the article]

"Wayfaring Strangers: The Musical Voyage from Scotland and Ulster to Appalachia" is a book by Fiona Ritchie and Doug Orr that explores the cultural pathways of traditional Scottish and Irish folk music as it traveled to Appalachia. The book examines the influences of Welsh, English, German, Dutch, French, African American, and Cherokee cultures on these songs. It is structured into three main sections and includes photographs, maps, and sidebars covering various topics related to folk music. The authors also exchange letters discussing their perspectives on Old and New World music. The book sheds light on the history of American folk music and its connection to immigrant experiences. It includes a contextual timeline, resource centers, a discography, and a bibliography for further exploration. Scholars and music enthusiasts will find this book to be a valuable resource. [Extracted from the article]

"Finding a Way to the Child: Selected Clinical Papers 1983–2021" is a collection of important papers written by Margaret Rustin, a renowned Child and Adult Psychotherapist. The first volume focuses on Rustin's clinical work and her commitment to close observation in psychoanalytic practice. The book covers various topics, including migration and adolescence, assessment in child psychotherapy, working with children who have experienced abuse and neglect, and parent work. Rustin's writing is engaging and offers valuable insights into the complexities of child psychotherapy. This book is a valuable resource for professionals working with children and families, providing inspiration and guidance for contemporary challenges in the field. [Extracted from the article]

"English Renaissance Manuscript Culture: the paper revolution" by Steven W. May is a book that explores the paper revolution and its impact on manuscript culture during the English Renaissance. May argues that the transition from script to print was not as simple as previously believed and offers correctives to earlier accounts. He also challenges the notion of exclusive coteries and highlights the open and freely circulating nature of texts during this period. May reconstructs the network of manuscript culture through compilers' testimony, textual criticism, biographical research, and handwriting analysis. The book invites further research and emphasizes the importance of understanding the circulation of manuscripts during the English Renaissance. [Extracted from the article]

Sara Austin's book, "Monstrous Youth: Transgressing the Boundaries of Childhood in the United States," explores the portrayal of monsters in mass media and their connection to cultural fears and the changing social boundaries of identity and citizenship. Austin discusses how monsters in popular culture are used by adults to educate or control young people, while young people themselves can embrace and identify with these monstrous figures. The book examines different time periods, including the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, the 1980s, and the 1990s, and analyzes various forms of media such as comic books, picture books, television shows, and movies. Austin's work provides a cultural lens through which to understand and analyze monstrous works of horror and their impact on children. [Extracted from the article]

"Schools and Screens: A Watchful History" by Victoria Cain explores the use of screens and their content in American classrooms from the New Deal Era to Y2K. The book examines the historical and cultural significance of screens in education, focusing on four core issues: citizenship, race, private money, and teachers. Cain discusses the challenges and successes of incorporating film, television, and computers into the education system, highlighting the impact of private funding and the commercialization of educational technology. The book emphasizes the complex and nuanced role of screens in shaping and being shaped by the American education system. [Extracted from the article]

"Reaching Through Time: Finding My Family's Stories" by Shauna Bostock is a highly acclaimed book that aims to educate non-Aboriginal Australians about the historical injustices faced by Aboriginal Australians. Bostock, a Bundjalung historian, writes as an academically trained historian with a strong connection to her family and community. The book tells the compelling stories of her ancestors, connecting them to broader events in Australian history. It also serves as a guide for Indigenous Australians researching their own family histories and advocates for truth-telling and understanding between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians. [Extracted from the article]

Perl was appointed the Auschwitz concentration camp's gynecologist and head of a nine-person hospital for 32,000 women prisoners. Thanks to Phyllis Lassner and Danny M. Cohen, this 2019 edition of an out-of-print 1948 memoir by Dr. Gisella Perl, a Rumanian Holocaust survivor, offers much to learn from. I Was a Doctor in Auschwitz: by Gisella Perl, Introduction by Phyllis Lassner and Danny M. Cohen, Afterword by Eva Hoffman, Lanham, MD, Lexington Books, 2019, 125 pp., $90.00/£69.00 (cloth), $36.99/£28.00 (paper), $35.00/£27.00 (e-book). [Extracted from the article]

(Daws, [3]) Daws is clear that the work of receiving and containing a family's distress cannot be done in a routine way. Parent Infant Psychotherapy for Sleep Problems: Through the Night: by Dilys Daws with Sarah Sutton, London: Routledge, 2020, 2124 pp., RRP £19.99 paper back and eBook, ISBN 978-03-67187-82-8 With Sarah Sutton's expert knowledge, Dilys Daws has condensed and updated her classic "Through the Night", written in [2]. [Extracted from the article]

Almost two years ago I reviewed I The Triumph and Tragedy of the Intellectuals i by Harry Redner in these pages; Redner, in turn, around much the same time had reviewed a book by Beibei Guan and myself on Charles Baudelaire and what we considered mistaken about Walter Benjamin's politicized aesthetics. Much of the brilliance of I Ulysses and Faust i shines through in the aperçus that abound throughout, and one can see that Redner is as thrilled by the works he is reading as he is by the discoveries he makes in undertaking the exploration. Just before his death he had completed a book criticizing the managerial ethos of the university and academic publishing - the very project strikes me as a fitting adieu from Harry to an institution that had provided him, and those who learnt from him, with so much only to evaporate before his eyes. [Extracted from the article]

Bridget Griffen-Foley's book, "Australian Radio Listeners and Television Viewers: Historical Perspectives," explores the experiences of Australian radio and television audiences throughout the twentieth century. Through six historical case studies, Griffen-Foley examines how radio and television stations engaged their audiences through promotions and initiatives, and how listeners and viewers responded. The book draws on primary sources such as fan letters and regulatory records to provide detailed insights into the lives of Australian media consumers. While the book raises many questions, it serves as a valuable resource for future researchers interested in exploring the relationship between Australian society, media consumption, and cultural identities. [Extracted from the article]

"The Art of the Observer: A Personal View of Documentary" by David MacDougall is a book that offers insights into the role of an anthropological director in documentary filmmaking. MacDougall emphasizes the importance of selective observation and the connection between shots in a film. The book also provides a personal account of MacDougall's fifty-year journey as a filmmaker and world traveler. However, some critics argue that MacDougall's perspective may have a colonialist aspect and that his own story restricts his recognition of the significance of his documentary subjects. Overall, the book offers valuable insights into the filmmaking process but may leave readers with feelings of confusion and awkwardness due to unconscious bias in the author's wording. [Extracted from the article]

"Hollis Frampton: Navigating the Infinite Cinema" is a book that focuses on the work of experimental filmmaker Hollis Frampton. The author, Michael Zryd, draws from his own previous scholarship, existing literature on Frampton, Frampton's own writings, and archival materials to explore Frampton's Magellan series. The book examines Frampton's notion of "infinite cinema" and pays attention to the treatment of colonialism in his work. It also discusses themes such as linearity, encyclopedic impulse, and metahistory in Frampton's films. Overall, the book is a valuable resource for understanding Frampton's theories and cinematic goals in the digital age. [Extracted from the article]

Kara Walker is best known for her depictions of sexualized violence and gendered racism during slavery in the form of black paper silhouettes. Scholars such as Salamishah Tillet argue that Walker's art, along with art by some of her post-civil rights contemporaries, offers 'aesthetic interventions' to problematic racial histories as part of a larger project of memory reclamation and justice. Walker's A Subtlety, Or the Marvelous Sugar Baby, an Homage to the unpaid and overworked Artisans who have refined our Sweet tastes from the cane fields to the Kitchens of the New World on the Occasion of the demolition of the Domino Sugar Refining Plant is another such interventionist project. Debuting in the Williamsburg neighbourhood of Brooklyn, New York in May of 2014, A Subtlety explores how a figure like mammy 'survives as a cultural force that influences and reflects a national conscience' (Wallace Sanders [2008]. Mammy: a century of race, gender, and southern memory. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 12). And yet, to say that the historical rootedness of the title, sugar sphinx sculpture, and molasses-covered walls and cherub-faced small figures throughout the installation were ambiguous to some spectators, is an understatement. Hundreds of photographs and videos were uploaded to social media sites with people making gestures towards the figure that some critics deemed highly inappropriate. This paper explores how A Subtlety both understands and undermines representations of Black women's bodies and how Black artists in the African diaspora contend with complex cultural signs of the past in the present. Utilizing studies of Black feminist theory and visual culture, I argue that Walker's A Subtlety – and her art more broadly – offers theoretical and geographic space to ponder where Black pleasure and collective memory can exist in systems of misogynoir, as well as in the Black nostalgic imagination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fashioning James Bond: Costume, Gender and Identity in the World of 007: LLEWELLA CHAPMAN, 2022 London, NY, Bloomsbury Academic pp. xii + 320, illus., £65.00 (cloth), £19.99 (paper) Bond, James Bond, is synonymous with many iconographic elements, from gadgets and guns to megalomaniac foes with dastardly schemes, but the sharp-suited hero and the bikini-clad Bond girl are undoubtedly some of the franchise's most recognizable icons and absolutely central to its ongoing appeal. But despite being organized by Bond, the focus does not rest exclusively on the hero himself and there is plenty of space dedicated to discussing the costuming of those aforementioned Bond girls, later re-labelled Bond women, his bosses and colleagues, as well as the villains and their inevitable henchmen. [Extracted from the article]

"Abortion Care is Health Care" by Barbara Baird provides a historical account of abortion services in Australia from the 1990s to the 2020s. The book argues that although abortion has been effectively pro-choice for decades, access to abortion services remains uneven and inequitable. Baird highlights that the majority of abortion services are provided by private clinics, resulting in limited access for marginalized and disadvantaged women. The book is meticulously researched and provides comprehensive information on providers, laws, regulations, and events in each Australian state and territory. However, it may be more suitable for scholars than a general audience. [Extracted from the article]

"Enacting Anti-Racist and Activist Pedagogies in Teacher Education: Canadian Perspectives" is a book that explores the experiences and perspectives of educators in the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) who work with a diverse student population. The book emphasizes the need for teacher education programs to address issues of racism and privilege, and provides strategies for disrupting deficit thinking and creating inclusive learning environments. The authors, who represent the diversity of the Canadian population, share their personal stories and offer practical suggestions for anti-racist teaching practices. The book is accessible and includes discussion questions, glossaries, and comprehensive bibliographies, making it useful for both professional development and teacher preparation. [Extracted from the article]

Martha Nussbaum has an impressive list of books to her credit, including the great I Not for Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities i (2016), and her latest, I Citadels of Pride: Sexual Abuse, Accountability, and Reconciliation i (2021). Nussbaum's critical inclusion of economic need is a useful correction to the cosmopolitan course, but her treatment of the subject can only go so far as it makes the following assumptions. Lastly, Nussbaum's treatment of the influence of religion is sparing, but religion is a powerful force around the world that can either support cosmopolitan aspirations or drive separation and division. [Extracted from the article]

Much has been written on Video, or more precisely magnetic recording and playback, since its encroachment into mainstream consumer pathways in the late 1970s (although its technological basis can be traced back to 1893 with Valdemar Poulsen and the Telegraphon device): Roy Armes with his I On Video i (1988), Sean Cubitt with I Videography: Video Media as Art and Culture i (1993) and then later forays such as James Moran, I There's No Place Like Home Video i (2002) all offer fascinating select accounts of the technology. Rewind, Replay: Britain and the Video Boom, 1978-92: JOHNNY WALKER, 2022, Edinburgh, UK, Edinburgh University Press, pp. xi + 253, illus., £19.99 (paper) Chapter two then moves into further developmental aspects of the British Video "boom" exploring the beginnings of the video shop and its positioning within a larger British economic framework. [Extracted from the article]

Lynn Spigel's book, "TV Snapshots – An Archive of Everyday Life," offers a fresh perspective on the impact of television on our culture. Instead of focusing solely on what people watched or how they watched, Spigel examines a collection of photographs from the 1950s to the 1970s, featuring people posing in front of their television sets. By analyzing these images, Spigel uncovers insights into the diverse uses of television in the home and the relationships within families. The book also explores the performative aspects of television, with people imagining themselves as TV characters or capturing live events on their screens. Spigel's work provides a new methodology for understanding mid-century TV culture and encourages readers to reflect on their own past experiences with television. [Extracted from the article]

The historiographical debate over the Great War continues. This essential tome is a good example of how the Great War has been instrumentalized over the years by various individuals and groups eager to achieve their political objectives, no matter how reasonable and legitimate they were. [Extracted from the article]

It is unfortunate that Appadurai and Alexander decided to limit the focus to the problems of "late capitalism", as they see it. I came to this book expecting not to like it, but with the hope that I would learn something of value about the nature of failure. Rather, Appadurai and Alexander instead use the phrase to mean a situation when a market system leads to an undesirable outcome. [Extracted from the article]