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Law/legal system (new titles for 2009)
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Monday, 12:42 PM EST by
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Thread started: Jan 28 2009, 9:05 AM EST
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Items in this thread concern the US legal system, the structures, institutions, and issues handled within this system throughout its history, and those who work within it. Reviewers interested in this field might also survey the threads that correspond to the historical era of interest to them, as well as the thematic threads that correspond to their area of political interest (business/economics, environment, etc.). NeoAmericanist journal seeks reviewers for the items listed in this thread, all of which have been posted in 2009. For more information on becoming a reviewer, please follow the “How to Submit A Review” link to the left.
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Patents: How Judges, Bureaucrats, and Lawyers Put Innovators at Risk
By: ,
Monday, 12:42 PM EST
Patent Failure: How Judges, Bureaucrats, and Lawyers Put Innovators at Risk
Authors: James Bessen & Michael J. Meurer
352 pp. | 6 x 9 | 21 line illus. 17 tables.
Princeton University Press
Honorable Mention for the 2008 PROSE Award for Professional and Scholarly Excellence in Law and Legal Studies, Association of American Publishers
In recent years, business leaders, policymakers, and inventors have complained to the media and to Congress that today's patent system stifles innovation instead of fostering it. But like the infamous patent on the peanut butter and jelly sandwich, much of the cited evidence about the patent system is pure anecdote--making realistic policy formation difficult. Is the patent system fundamentally broken, or can it be fixed with a few modest reforms? Moving beyond rhetoric, Patent Failure provides the first authoritative and comprehensive look at the economic performance of patents in forty years. James Bessen and Michael Meurer ask whether patents work well as property rights, and, if not, what institutional and legal reforms are necessary to make the patent system more effective.
Patent Failure presents a wide range of empirical evidence from history, law, and economics. The book's findings are stark and conclusive. While patents do provide incentives to invest in research, development, and commercialization, for most businesses today, patents fail to provide predictable property rights. Instead, they produce costly disputes and excessive litigation that outweigh positive incentives. Only in some sectors, such as the pharmaceutical industry, do patents act as advertised, with their benefits outweighing the related costs.
For more info, NeoAmericanist reviewers should visit:
http://press.princeton.edu/titles/8634.html
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Intellectual studies/history (new titles for 2009)
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Monday, 12:38 PM EST by
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Thread started: Jan 14 2009, 12:03 PM EST
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Items in this thread concern intellectual discussions and debates within the United States, and the development of intellectual thought in the United States throughout its history. Reviewers interested in this theme are also recommended to consult other themes that might overlap. NeoAmericanist journal seeks reviewers for all of the items listed in this thread, all of which have been posted in 2009. For more information on becoming a reviewer, please follow the “How to Submit A Review” link to the left.
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One Hundred Years of Journalism and Mass Communication at Carolina
By: ,
Monday, 12:38 PM EST
Making News: One Hundred Years of Journalism and Mass Communication at Carolina
Author: Tom Bowers
296 pp., 6 x 9, 40 illus., appends., notes, index
University of North Carolina Press
Making News is the story of how the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill grew from a single course in the English department in 1909 to become an international leader in journalism-mass communication education.
Bowers tells of strong leaders who shaped the program through their vision and personality, including one dean who was portrayed in a novel and another dean and a faculty member who were featured in newspaper comic strips. It is a story of how North Carolina newspaper editors pressured the university to change the journalism program and threatened to ask Duke University to start a journalism program if UNC did not change its program. It is a story of a dean whose dedication to academic excellence dramatically changed a school that had paid more attention to practical journalism than to academics. It is a story of another dean who transformed the school and raised millions of dollars to support its drive for excellence. The story is enriched by many personalities, including Graham, Graves, Coffin, Luxon, Adams, Cole, McPherson, Ferlinghetti, Spearman, Shumaker, Sechriest, and Morrison.
For more info, NeoAmericanist reviewers should visit:
http://uncpress.unc.edu/browse/book_detail?title_id=1675
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Urban studies (new titles for 2009)
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Monday, 12:37 PM EST by
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Thread started: Jan 14 2009, 12:10 PM EST
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Items in this thread concern the planning and history of cities, and related issues throughout the history of the United States. NeoAmericanist journal seeks reviewers for all of the items listed in this thread, all of which have been posted in 2009. For more information on becoming a reviewer, please follow the “How to Submit A Review” link to the left. For additional listings pertaining to this theme, please see threads that might overlap.
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The Restoration of Virginia's Eighteenth-Century Capital
By: ,
Monday, 12:37 PM EST
Creating Colonial Williamsburg: The Restoration of Virginia's Eighteenth-Century Capital
Author: Anders Greenspan
240 pp., 6 x 9, 30 illus., notes, bibl., index
University of North Carolina Press
In Creating Colonial Williamsburg, Anders Greenspan examines the restoration and re-creation of the structures and gardens of Virginia's colonial capital beginning in 1926. The restoration was undertaken by the Rockefeller family, whose aim was to promote a twentieth-century appreciation for eighteenth-century ideals. Ironically, those ideals, including democracy, individualism, and representative government, were often promoted at the expense of a more complete understanding of the town's true history. The meaning and purpose of Colonial Williamsburg has changed over time, along with America's changing social and political landscapes, making the study of this historic site a unique and meaningful entry point to understanding the shifting modern American character.
In recent years, financial struggles and declining attendance forced a new interpretation of the town, extending the presentation into the period of the American Revolution, while adding new interpretive approaches such as street theater and a greater emphasis on technology. Over its eighty-year history, says Greenspan, Colonial Williamsburg has grown and matured, while still retaining its emphasis on the importance of eighteenth-century values and their application in the modern world.
For more info, NeoAmericanist reviewers should visit:
http://uncpress.unc.edu/browse/book_detail?title_id=1664
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Race, gender, sexuality (new titles for 2009)
(page: 1 2)
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Monday, 12:35 PM EST by
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Thread started: Jan 14 2009, 11:42 AM EST
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Items in this thread concern issues of race, gender, and/or sexuality pertaining to the United States. Reviewers interested in this field should also survey other threads that could overlap with this theme, as they will certainly find related texts included in other sections. NeoAmericanist journal seeks reviewers for all of the items listed in this thread, all of which were posted in 2009. For more information on becoming a reviewer, please follow the “How to Submit A Review” link to the left. For additional listings pertaining to this theme, please see the original thread: "Race, gender, sexuality."
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Growing Up Chinese American in San Francisco, 1850-1920
By: ,
Monday, 12:35 PM EST
The Children of Chinatown:
Growing Up Chinese American in San Francisco, 1850-1920
Author: Wendy Rouse Jorae
312 pp., 6.125 x 9.25, 20 illus., 10 tables, notes, bibl., index
University of North Carolina Press
Revealing the untold stories of a pioneer generation of young Chinese Americans, this book places the children and families of early Chinatown in the middle of efforts to combat American policies of exclusion and segregation.
Wendy Jorae challenges long-held notions of early Chinatown as a bachelor community by showing that families--and particularly children--played important roles in its daily life. She explores the wide-ranging images of Chinatown's youth created by competing interests with their own agendas--from anti-immigrant depictions of Chinese children as filthy and culturally inferior to exotic and Orientalized images that catered to the tourist's ideal of Chinatown. All of these representations, Jorae notes, tended to further isolate Chinatown at a time when American-born Chinese children were attempting to define themselves as Chinese American. Facing barriers of immigration exclusion, cultural dislocation, child labor, segregated schooling, crime, and violence, Chinese American children attempted to build a world for themselves on the margins of two cultures. Their story is part of the larger American story of the struggle to overcome racism and realize the ideal of equality.
For more info, NeoAmericanist reviewers should visit:
http://uncpress.unc.edu/browse/book_detail?title_id=1662
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History: 1865-1945 (new titles for 2009)
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Monday, 12:30 PM EST by
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Thread started: Jan 14 2009, 11:36 AM EST
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Items in this thread concern the history of the United States from the end of the Civil War, through the First World War and Depression, to the end of the Second World War. NeoAmericanist journal seeks reviewers for all of the items listed in this thread, all of which were posted in 2009. For more information on becoming a reviewer, please follow the “How to Submit A Review” link to the left. For additional listings pertaining to this theme, please see the original thread: "History: 1865-1945".
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A Dangerous Stir: Fear, Paranoia, and the Making of Reconstruction
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Monday, 12:30 PM EST
A Dangerous Stir: Fear, Paranoia, and the Making of Reconstruction
Author: Mark Wahlgren Summers
344 pp., 6.125 x 9.25, 18 illus., notes, bibl., index
University of North Carolina Press
Reconstruction policy after the Civil War, observes Mark Wahlgren Summers, was shaped not simply by politics, principles, and prejudices. Also at work were fears--often unreasonable fears of renewed civil war and a widespread sense that four years of war had thrown the normal constitutional process so dangerously out of kilter that the republic itself remained in peril.
To understand Reconstruction, Summers contends, one must understand that the purpose of the North's war was--first and foremost--to save the Union with its republican institutions intact. During Reconstruction there were always fears in the mix--that the Civil War had settled nothing, that the Union was still in peril, and that its enemies and the enemies of republican government were more resilient and cunning than normal mortals. Many factors shaped the reintegration of the former Confederate states and the North's commitment to Reconstruction, Summers agrees, but the fears of war reigniting, plots against liberty, and a president prepared to father a coup d'état ranked higher among them than historians have recognized.
Both a dramatic narrative of the events of Reconstruction and a groundbreaking new look at what drove these events, A Dangerous Stir is also a valuable look at the role of fear in the politics of the time--and in politics in general.
For more info, NeoAmericanist reviewers should visit:
http://uncpress.unc.edu/browse/book_detail?title_id=1660
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Military (new titles for 2009)
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7 |
Monday, 12:24 PM EST by
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Thread started: Jan 20 2009, 9:18 AM EST
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Items in this thread concern the United States military system, structures, institutions, and those serving within them throughout the history of the country. NeoAmericanist journal seeks reviewers for the items listed in this thread, all of which have been posted in 2009. For more information on becoming a reviewer, please follow the “How to Submit A Review” link to the left. For additional listings pertaining to this theme, please see the originating thread: “Military”.
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An Inside View of Junior Officers in the Vietnam War
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Monday, 12:24 PM EST
Not a Gentleman's War: An Inside View of Junior Officers in the Vietnam War
Author: Ron Milam
256 pp., 6.125 x 9.25, 13 illus., 2 figs., 5 tables, 2 maps, appends., notes, bibl., index
University of North Carolina Press
Wars are not fought by politicians and generals--they are fought by soldiers. Written by a combat veteran of the Vietnam War, Not a Gentleman's War is about such soldiers--a gritty, against-the-grain defense of the much-maligned junior officer.
Conventional wisdom holds that the junior officer in Vietnam was a no-talent, poorly trained, unmotivated soldier typified by Lt. William Calley of My Lai infamy. Drawing on oral histories, after-action reports, diaries, letters, and other archival sources, Ron Milam debunks this view, demonstrating that most of the lieutenants who served in combat performed their duties well and effectively, serving with great skill, dedication, and commitment to the men they led. Milam's narrative provides a vivid, on-the-ground portrait of what the platoon leader faced: training his men, keeping racial tensions at bay, and preventing alcohol and drug abuse, all in a war without fronts. Yet despite these obstacles, junior officers performed admirably, as documented by field reports and evaluations of their superior officers.
More than 5,000 junior officers died in Vietnam; all of them had volunteered to lead men in battle. Based on meticulous and wide-ranging research, this book provides a much-needed serious treatment of these men--the only such study in print--shedding new light on the longest war in American history.
For more info, NeoAmericanist reviewers should visit:
http://uncpress.unc.edu/browse/book_detail?title_id=1649
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Sociology & Anthropology (new titles for 2009)
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Monday, 12:22 PM EST by
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Thread started: Jan 14 2009, 12:33 PM EST
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Items in this thread are concerned with the dynamics, practices, values, and development of social groups and movements in the United States throughout its history. NeoAmericanist journal seeks reviewers for the items listed in this thread, all of which have been posted in 2009. For more information on becoming a reviewer, please follow the “How to Submit A Review” link to the left. For additional listings pertaining to this theme, please see the originating thread: “Sociology & Anthropology”.
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Point Hope, Alaska: Life on Frozen Water
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Monday, 12:22 PM EST
Point Hope, Alaska: Life on Frozen Water
Author: Berit Arnestad Foote
204 pages, 192 halftones, 1 map 9 8/10 x 11
Published August 2009
University of Chicago Press
This book is a window to the daily life and the environment of the Tikigaq, the Inupiaq people of Point Hope, Alaska, as seen in photographs taken by young Norwegian artist Berit Arnestad Foote from 1959 to 1962. In Berit Foote’s days in Point Hope fifty years ago, the ice covered the sea in October and did not clear until July. In recent years, however, the Arctic ice has been changing rapidly, and so are the lives of people in Point Hope and across the North. This book—a call to action as well as a work of art—provides powerful documentation of how profoundly the entire fabric of a community’s life and culture is affected by the ice that surrounds it.
For more info, NeoAmericanist reviewers should visit:
http://www.press.uchicago.edu/presssite/metadata.epl?mode=synopsis&bookkey=8364753
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Politics & policy (new titles for 2009)
(page: 1 2)
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Oct 30 2009, 11:41 AM EDT by
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Thread started: Jan 27 2009, 9:26 AM EST
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Items in this thread concern the political systems, structures, institutions, and issues of the United States throughout its history. Reviewers interested in this field might also survey the threads that correspond to the historical era of interest to them, as well as the thematic threads that correspond to their area of political interest (business/economics, environment, etc.). NeoAmericanist journal seeks reviewers for the items listed in this thread, all of which have been posted in 2009. For more information on becoming a reviewer, please follow the “How to Submit A Review” link to the left. For additional listings pertaining to this theme, please see the originating thread: “Politics (systems/institutions).”
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Leadership Style from George Washington to Andrew Jackson
By: ,
Oct 30 2009, 11:41 AM EDT
Inventing the Job of President: Leadership Style from George Washington to Andrew Jackson
Fred I. Greenstein
2009 | 176 pp. | 6 x 9 | 7 halftones. (Ebook also available)
Princeton University Press
From George Washington's decision to buy time for the new nation by signing the less-than-ideal Jay Treaty with Great Britain in 1795 to George W. Bush's order of a military intervention in Iraq in 2003, the matter of who is president of the United States is of the utmost importance. In this book, Fred Greenstein examines the leadership styles of the earliest presidents, men who served at a time when it was by no means certain that the American experiment in free government would succeed.
In his groundbreaking book The Presidential Difference, Greenstein evaluated the personal strengths and weaknesses of the modern presidents since Franklin D. Roosevelt. Here, he takes us back to the very founding of the republic to apply the same yardsticks to the first seven presidents from Washington to Andrew Jackson, giving his no-nonsense assessment of the qualities that did and did not serve them well in office. For each president, Greenstein provides a concise history of his life and presidency, and evaluates him in the areas of public communication, organizational capacity, political skill, policy vision, cognitive style, and emotional intelligence. Washington, for example, used his organizational prowess--honed as a military commander and plantation owner--to lead an orderly administration. In contrast, John Adams was erudite but emotionally volatile, and his presidency was an organizational disaster.
For more info, NeoAmericanist reviewers should visit:
http://press.princeton.edu/titles/8985.html
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International relations (new titles for 2009)
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Oct 30 2009, 11:35 AM EDT by
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Thread started: Apr 7 2009, 8:47 AM EDT
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Items in this thread concern the United States and its relationships with other countries (political, military, cultural, economic, etc.). Reviewers interested in this field might also survey other threads that could overlap with this theme. NeoAmericanist journal seeks reviewers for all of the items listed in this thread, all of which were posted in 2009. For more information on becoming a reviewer, please follow the “How to Submit A Review” link to the left.
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Power and Plenty: Trade, War, and the World Economy in the Second Mill
By: ,
Oct 30 2009, 11:35 AM EDT
Power and Plenty: Trade, War, and the World Economy in the Second Millennium
Ronald Findlay & Kevin H. O'Rourke
2009, 624 pp. | 6 x 9 | 30 line illus.
Princeton University Press
International trade has shaped the modern world, yet until now no single book has been available for both economists and general readers that traces the history of the international economy from its earliest beginnings to the present day. Power and Plenty fills this gap, providing the first full account of world trade and development over the course of the last millennium.
Ronald Findlay and Kevin O'Rourke examine the successive waves of globalization and "deglobalization" that have occurred during the past thousand years, looking closely at the technological and political causes behind these long-term trends. They show how the expansion and contraction of the world economy has been directly tied to the two-way interplay of trade and geopolitics, and how war and peace have been critical determinants of international trade over the very long run. The story they tell is sweeping in scope, one that links the emergence of the Western economies with economic and political developments throughout Eurasia centuries ago. Drawing extensively upon empirical evidence and informing their systematic analysis with insights from contemporary economic theory, Findlay and O'Rourke demonstrate the close interrelationships of trade and warfare, the mutual interdependence of the world's different regions, and the crucial role these factors have played in explaining modern economic growth.
For more info, NeoAmericanist reviewers should visit: http://press.princeton.edu/titles/8493.html
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History: 1945-1989 (new titles for 2009)
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Oct 30 2009, 11:33 AM EDT by
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Thread started: Feb 25 2009, 11:54 AM EST
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Items in this thread concern the history of the United States from the end of the Second World War, including the Cold War, civil rights era, Vietnam, through to the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of President Reagan's tenure. Reviewers interested in this field might also survey other threads that could overlap with this theme. NeoAmericanist journal seeks reviewers for all of the items listed in this thread, all of which were posted in 2009. For more information on becoming a reviewer, please follow the “How to Submit A Review” link to the left. For additional listings pertaining to this theme, please see the original thread: "History: 1945-1989."
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Black Veterans: Struggle Against White Supremacy in the Postwar South
By: ,
Oct 30 2009, 11:33 AM EDT
Fighting for Democracy: Black Veterans and the Struggle Against White Supremacy in the Postwar South
AuthorChristopher S. Parker
2009, 288 pp. | 6 x 9 | 13 line illus. 14 tables.
Princeton University Press
Fighting for Democracy shows how the experiences of African American soldiers during World War II and the Korean War influenced many of them to challenge white supremacy in the South when they returned home. Focusing on the motivations of individual black veterans, this groundbreaking book explores the relationship between military service and political activism. Christopher Parker draws on unique sources of evidence, including interviews and survey data, to illustrate how and why black servicemen who fought for their country in wartime returned to America prepared to fight for their own equality.
Parker discusses the history of African American military service and how the wartime experiences of black veterans inspired them to contest Jim Crow. Black veterans gained courage and confidence by fighting their nation's enemies on the battlefield and racism in the ranks. Viewing their military service as patriotic sacrifice in the defense of democracy, these veterans returned home with the determination and commitment to pursue equality and social reform in the South. Just as they had risked their lives to protect democratic rights while abroad, they risked their lives to demand those same rights on the domestic front.
Providing a sophisticated understanding of how war abroad impacts efforts for social change at home, Fighting for Democracy recovers a vital story about black veterans and demonstrates their distinct contributions to the American political landscape.
For more info, NeoAmericanist reviewers should visit:
http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9083.html
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Business/economics (new titles for 2009)
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Oct 30 2009, 11:30 AM EDT by
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Thread started: Jan 27 2009, 9:17 AM EST
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Items in this thread concern the business and economics systems, structures, and institutions of the United States. NeoAmericanist journal seeks reviewers for the items listed in this thread, all of which have been posted in 2009. For more information on becoming a reviewer, please follow the “How to Submit A Review” link to the left. For additional listings pertaining to this theme, please see the originating thread: “Business/economics.”
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How Medical Technology Costs Are Destroying Our Health Care System
By: ,
Oct 30 2009, 11:30 AM EDT
Taming the Beloved Beast: How Medical Technology Costs Are Destroying Our Health Care System
Author: Daniel Callahan
2009 | 288 pp. | 6 x 9 | 1 table.
Princeton University Press
Technological innovation is deeply woven into the fabric of American culture, and is no less a basic feature of American health care. Medical technology saves lives and relieves suffering, and is enormously popular with the public, profitable for doctors, and a source of great wealth for industry. Yet its costs are rising at a dangerously unsustainable rate. The control of technology costs poses a terrible ethical and policy dilemma. How can we deny people what they may need to live and flourish? Yet is it not also harmful to let rising costs strangle our health care system, eventually harming everyone?
In Taming the Beloved Beast, esteemed medical ethicist Daniel Callahan confronts this dilemma head-on. He argues that we can't escape it by organizational changes alone. Nothing less than a fundamental transformation of our thinking about health care is needed to achieve lasting and economically sustainable reform. The technology bubble, he contends, is beginning to burst.
Callahan weighs the ethical arguments for and against limiting the use of medical technologies, and he argues that reining in health care costs requires us to change entrenched values about progress and technological innovation. Taming the Beloved Beast shows that the cost crisis is as great as that of the uninsured. Only a government-regulated universal health care system can offer the hope of managing technology and making it affordable for all.
For more info, NeoAmericanist reviewers should visit: http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9016.html
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History: 1776-1865 (new titles for 2009)
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Oct 30 2009, 11:24 AM EDT by
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Thread started: Feb 11 2009, 7:55 AM EST
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Items in this thread concern the history of the United States between the Revolution and the Civil War. Reviewers interested in this field might also survey other threads that could overlap with this theme. NeoAmericanist journal seeks reviewers for all of the items listed in this thread, all of which were posted in 2009. For more information on becoming a reviewer, please follow the “How to Submit A Review” link to the left. For additional listings pertaining to this theme, please see the original thread: "History: 1776-1865."
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A Passion for Nature: Thomas Jefferson and Natural History
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Oct 30 2009, 11:24 AM EDT
A Passion for Nature: Thomas Jefferson and Natural History
By Keith Thomson
148 pgs., 35 illus., Sept. 2009
University of North Carolina Press
Thomas Jefferson once wrote to a friend that politics was his "duty" but natural history was his "passion." As this book shows, he was always a man for whom nature was important. With Jefferson's devotion to detailed knowledge, precise calculation, and rational inquiry, natural history related to everything he did--as a farmer, as a philosopher, and as a citizen. For all his gifts in philosophy and politics and his fascination with the American West, Jefferson was never more happy than when at home at Monticello, riding across the fields and experimenting with new crops. The great wonder is that despite his demanding public life he had time to be one of America's first serious students of fossils, botany, climate, geology, and anthropology, among other things.
For more info, NeoAmericanist reviewers should visit: http://www.uncpress.unc.edu/browse/book_detail?title_id=1678
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Environment/Natural World
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Oct 20 2009, 3:45 PM EDT by
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Thread started: Sep 16 2008, 10:39 AM EDT
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Items in this thread concern the natural world/environmental issues related to the United States.
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Historical Atlas of the American West
By: ,
Oct 20 2009, 3:45 PM EDT
Historical Atlas of the American West
With Original Maps
Author: Derek Hayes
288 pages, 10 x 13-9/16 inches, 606 maps, 90 color illustrations
October 2009
University of California Press
Spectacular in scope and visually brilliant, this atlas presents a sweeping history of the American West through more than 600 original, full-color maps and extended captions. From the earliest human inhabitants and the first European explorers to the national parks and retirement resorts of today, this extensive collection chronicles the West from uncharted territory to a well-populated Eden. We bear witness as state lines strike through Native American territories, see the frontier crack open and the railroad's iron belt snake across the Plains, and watch as the West's cities, from Los Angeles to Las Vegas and Albuquerque to Anchorage, rise and prosper. This is the first atlas to compile all the historically significant maps relating to the American West; it includes field sketches of battles, the first maps to show the West, maps depicting mythical rivers and fictional towns, and maps showing early conceptions of California as an island. Distilling many centuries into one fascinating volume, this atlas traces history as redwoods, mountains, and deserts become California, Montana, and Arizona, and offers a rare opportunity to see the west through the eyes of its earliest explorers.
For more info, NeoAmericanist reviewers should visit: http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/11187.php
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RahmaJerad |
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Film Review: Sex and the City, by Michael Patrick King.
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Reviewer Resource Library
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Oct 1 2009, 11:47 AM EDT by
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Thread started: Sep 14 2009, 4:27 PM EDT
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When first broadcast in 1998, the HBO series turned the world of TV series upside down. The show openly and humorously displayed the sexual lives of contemporary New York women, thus debunking some stereotypes about female sexuality. Unfortunately, Sex and the City the movie was quite the disappointment because, among other reasons, it follows the typical chick-flick plot. Carrie Bradshaw is finally going to marry Mr Big and while she is busy with the preparations of the wedding at the New York Public Library, Mr Big isn’t thrilled by the perspective of a public ceremony. On D day, while on his way to the Public Library, he decides to call off the wedding, while she is already on the premises. But as soon as he realizes his mistake, he turns back to join Carrie and apologizes for his blunder. But Carrie refuses to have him back. That’s the start of her long journey through depression, first in a luxurious Mexican palace, then in her cosy NYC flat, with the help of her friends and Louise, her new assistant who, just like Carry, happens to be a fashion addict, with a fetishism for expansive designer handbags. After a long path out of depression, Ms Bradshaw randomly meets Mr Big and they finally get married.
Besides the typical plot, the movie is merely a juxtaposition of clichés about women, from the Cinderella-like happy ending to Bradshaw's obsessions for expensive designer shoes. Women here are just as materialistic, hysterical and depressed as in any other misogynistic film or piece of literature. The movie seems to be part of a trend in recent romantic comedies such as The Wedding Planner (2001), 27 Dresses (2008), or Made of Honor (2008) where the heroines’ ultimate goal in life is to get married and have a perfect wedding ceremony. The US film industry is thus perpetuating the idea that women’s main goal in life is, and should be, to get married, which merely perpetuates a centuries-old stereotype and puts the feminist movement in the trash.
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RE: Film Review: Sex and the City, by Michael Patrick King.
By: GregoryKlages,
Oct 1 2009, 11:47 AM EDT
I recently read a comment that "Sex and the City" (the series) was really just an updated version of "Golden Girls" adapted for a different audience. The change of audience, however, seems pretty critical. Portraying female seniors as sexual, sometimes crude, but ultimately humane and caring people was pretty revolutionary.
What I'm trying to get to is this: if the series/movie just trucks out the same old negative cliches, what is it about Sex in the City that attracts so many viewers? Is the audience aware of the insult and doesn't care? Is the movie significantly different from the series in terms of its content/message? How do we reconcile such a conservative position with attacks on Hollywood as the bastion of "liberal" US morality?
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Sport, celebrity and popular culture (new titles for 2009)
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Oct 1 2009, 11:29 AM EDT by
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Thread started: Jan 14 2009, 12:22 PM EST
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Items in this thread involve historical and contemporary sport, celebrities and our understanding of them, or other aspects of US popular culture (at home and abroad). NeoAmericanist journal seeks reviewers for the items listed in this thread, all of which have been posted in 2009. For more information on becoming a reviewer, please follow the “How to Submit A Review” link to the left. For additional listings pertaining to this theme, please see the originating thread: “Sport, celebrity, and popular culture”.
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Burying Don Imus: Anatomy of a Scapegoat
By: GregoryKlages,
Oct 1 2009, 11:29 AM EDT
Burying Don Imus: Anatomy of a Scapegoat
Author: Michael Awkward
University of Minnesota Press | 224 pages | 2009
In Burying Don Imus, Michael Awkward provides the first balanced, critical analysis of Imus’s comments on the Rutgers women’s basketball team and the public outrage they provoked. Written from the singular perspective of a black intellectual with both a long-standing commitment to feminism and a deep familiarity with—and appreciation of—Imus in the Morning, this book contends that the reaction to the insult ignored the nature of Imus’s contributions to popular culture and political debate while eliding the real and complicated issues within contemporary racial politics.
For more info, NeoAmericanist reviewers should visit: http://www.upress.umn.edu/Books/A/awkward_burying.html
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“American Journalism,” a presentation by W. Joseph Campbell
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Reviewer Resource Library
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Sep 13 2009, 4:18 PM EDT by
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Thread started: Sep 13 2009, 4:18 PM EDT
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In his latest book, W. Joseph Campbell considers the year 1897 to be defining for US journalism. He first enumerates important events that took place in 1897 and convincingly shows that historic developments towards modernity marked that year. It is thus hardly surprising that American journalism too started acquiring modern features. Then Campbell delineates the major novelties of American journalism such as the coinage of the expression "yellow journalism." Finally, he deals with “the clash of paradigms.” 1897 saw the emergence of three paradigms set by three young New York journalists. According to the first paradigm, or “journalism of action,” journalists had to be active in public life and take action when the government failed to serve its citizens. The second, “counter activist journalism,” was defined by Adolph Ochs of the New York Times, who considered that activism had no place in newspapers. Their purpose was to provide an impartial treatment of the news. And the third trend was more of a literary approach. The struggle of each to impose its view ended with the victory of the New York Times model. To conclude, Campbell explains that more than a simple exploration of the past his book draws an invigorating parallel because American journalism emerged strengthened from that period.
Overall, what is most fascinating is Campbell's typology of the three kinds of journalistic writing. By addressing the rise of the New York Times model as the result of a struggle to define the most appropriate form of journalism, he gives keys to understand how the current newspapers were shaped. More interesting is the parallel between the past and the present. For we are in a period of great turmoil with the decline of newspapers in Western countries. So Campbell's book helps us put things into perspective, take some distance from the current alarmist forecasts and hope that from the current crisis a new model of journalism will emerge and thrive.
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History: Pre-1776
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May 5 2009, 9:21 AM EDT by
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Thread started: Sep 16 2008, 10:33 AM EDT
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Items in this thread concern the 'pre-history' of the regions and peoples who would come to form the United States. Reviewers interested in this field might also survey other threads that could overlap with this theme. NeoAmericanist journal seeks reviewers for all of the items listed in this thread, all of which were posted in 2009. For more information on becoming a reviewer, please follow the “How to Submit A Review” link to the left.
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Defying Empire: Trading with the Enemy in Colonial New York
By: ,
May 5 2009, 9:21 AM EDT
Defying Empire: Trading with the Enemy in Colonial New York
Author: Thomas M. Truxes
Oct 27, 2008 , 304 p., 6 1/8 x 9 1/4 , 20 b/w maps
Yale University Press
This enthralling book is the first to uncover the story of New York City merchants who engaged in forbidden trade with the enemy before and during the Seven Years’ War (also known as the French and Indian War). Ignoring British prohibitions designed to end North America’s wartime trade with the French, New York’s merchant elite conducted a thriving business in the French West Indies, insisting that their behavior was protected by long practice and British commercial law. But the government in London viewed it as treachery, and its subsequent efforts to discipline North American commerce inflamed the colonists. Through fast-moving events and unforgettable characters, historian Thomas M. Truxes brings eighteenth-century New York and the Atlantic world to life. There are spies, street riots, exotic settings, informers, courtroom dramas, interdictions on the high seas, ruthless businessmen, political intrigues, and more. The author traces each phase of the city’s trade with the enemy and details the frustrations that affected both British officials and independent-minded New Yorkers. The first book to focus on New York City during the Seven Years’ War, Defying Empire reveals the important role the city played in hastening the colonies’ march toward revolution.
For more info, NeoAmericanist reviewers should visit:
http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780300118407
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Religion/Faith
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May 5 2009, 9:14 AM EDT by
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Thread started: Sep 16 2008, 10:47 AM EDT
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Items in this thread concern the religious/faith-based systems and institutions of the United States, as well as issues related to theology. NeoAmericanist journal seeks reviewers for the items listed in this thread. For more information on becoming a reviewer, please follow the “How to Submit A Review” link to the left. Reviewers might also check the threads that correspond to any particular historical periods of interest, as well as the Politics (systems/institutions) or Education threads.
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Landmark of the Spirit: The Eldridge Street Synagogue
By: ,
May 5 2009, 9:14 AM EDT
Landmark of the Spirit: The Eldridge Street Synagogue
Author: Annie Polland; Foreword by Bill Moyers
Dec 08, 2008 ,192 p., 7 1/4 x 9 1/4 , 54 color illus
Yale University Press
New York City’s magnificent Eldridge Street Synagogue was built in 1887 in response to the great wave of Jewish immigrants who fled persecution in eastern Europe. Finding their way to the Lower East Side, the new arrivals formed a vibrant Jewish community that flourished from the 1850s until the 1940s. Their synagogue served not only as a place of worship but also as a singularly important center in the development of American Judaism. A near ruin in the 1980s that was recently reopened after a massive twenty-year restoration, the Eldridge Street Synagogue has been named a National Historic Landmark. But as Bill Moyers tells us in his foreword, the synagogue is also “a landmark of the spirit, . . . the spirit of a new nation committed to the old idea of liberty.” Annie Polland uses elements of the building’s architecture—the façade, the benches, the grooves worn into the sanctuary floor—as points of departure to discuss themes, people, and trends at various moments in the synagogue’s history, particularly during its heyday from 1887 until the 1930s. Exploring the synagogue’s rich archives, the author shines new light on the religious life of immigrant Jews, introduces various rabbis, cantors and congregants, and analyzes the significance of this special building in the context of the larger American-Jewish experience.
For more info, NeoAmericanist reviewers should visit: http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780300124705
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What is America to Me? Thoughts on the US Presidential Elections
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Discussions & Debates
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May 4 2009, 9:30 AM EDT by
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Thread started: Nov 4 2008, 9:47 AM EST
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Responses...?
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What is America to Me? Thoughts on the US Presidential Elections
Mukoma Wa Ngugi October 23, 2008 - Issue 296 (Mukoma Wa Ngugi <mwngugi@wisc.edu>)
blackcommentator.com
Countee Cullen, a black American poet, once asked: What is Africa to me? With the US elections just days away, and Africans holding their breath, fingers mostly crossed for Obama, I find I have to reverse the question and ask: What is America to me?
Why should the outcome of the US presidential elections matter to Africa?
The rest of the essay is available at:
http://www.blackcommentator.com/296/296_america_to_me_ngugi_think_printer_friendly.html
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RE: What is America to Me? Thoughts on the US Presidential Elections
By: ,
May 4 2009, 9:30 AM EDT
"Obama's presidency should at least put an African face on American constitutionalism, liberalism, and the great advantages of stable government. " Novanglia, most of your post seems to address African development/challenges, but as this site is devoted to the study of American issues, I'm going to focus on one sentence of your comment: What do you think 'putting an African face' on the American issues you list means? How do you anticipate discussion of American constitutionalism will change because of the perceived racial identity of the President? I'm unclear what it is that you're suggesting, and would like more information.
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Creative expression (new titles for 2009)
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May 4 2009, 9:07 AM EDT by
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Thread started: Jan 26 2009, 11:34 AM EST
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Items in this thread concern the arts, crafts, and other creative expressions of people from the United States, as well as others living within or addressing the United States, throughout the history of the country. NeoAmericanist journal seeks reviewers for the items listed in this thread, all of which have been posted in 2009. For more information on becoming a reviewer, please follow the “How to Submit A Review” link to the left. For additional listings pertaining to this theme, please see the originating thread: “Creative expression.”
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Música Norteña: Mexican Migrants....
By: ,
May 4 2009, 9:07 AM EDT
Música Norteña: Mexican Migrants Creating a Nation between Nations
Author: Cathy Ragland
268 pp, 6x9, 2 map(s) 22 figures 13 halftones, Apr 09
Temple University Press
Música norteña, a musical genre with its roots in the folk ballad traditions of northern Mexico and the Texas-Mexican border region, has become a hugely popular musical style in the U.S., particularly among Mexican immigrants. Featuring evocative songs about undocumented border-crossers, drug traffickers, and the plight of immigrant workers, música norteña has become the music of a "nation between nations." Música Norteña is the first definitive history of this transnational music that has found enormous commercial success in norteamérica. Cathy Ragland, an ethnomusicologist and former music critic, serves up the fascinating fifty-year story of música norteña, enlivened by interviews with important musicians and her own first-hand observations of live musical performances. Beyond calling our attention to musical influences, Ragland shows readers the social and economic forces at work behind the music. By comparing música norteña with other popular musical forms, including conjunto tejano, she helps us understand and appreciate the musical ties that bind the Mexican diaspora.
For more info, NeoAmericanist reviewers should visit: http://www.temple.edu/tempress/titles/1957_reg.html
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