Books
by Alumni (print version)
ART AND ARCHITECTURE
Frederick N. Bohrer, AM'82, PhD'89, editor, Sevruguin and Persian Image: Photographs of Iran, 1870-1930, (A. M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution/University of Washington Press). A portfolio of the Iranian photographer's work is accompanied by four essays that examine the lives of both the photographer and photographs from biographical to postcolonial perspectives.
David A. Morgan, PhD'90, Protestants and Pictures: Religion, Visual Culture, and the Age of American Mass Production (Oxford University Press). Morgan discusses how American Protestants helped form visual mass culture between 1820 and 1920 by using mass-produced images to dedicate religious revival, proselytism, mass education, and domestic nurture in the name of national renewal.
BIOGRAPHY AND LETTERS
Bill Barnhart, MST'69, MBA'81, and Gene Schlickman, Kerner: The Conflict of Intangible Rights (University of Illinois Press). This biography traces the career of Otto Kerner, the Illinois judge and governor who chaired the 1968 National Commission on Civil Disorders. The authors examine his precipitous descent from public hero to convicted felon.
Constance Schuster Markey, AM'70, Italo Calvino: A Journey Toward Postmodernism (University Press of Florida). Markey, an acquaintance of international postmodern writer Italo Calvino, correlates details of his life with the growth of his thinking and artistry, using summaries and analysis of his novels, short stories, and essays to underscore the links between his life and work.
BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS
Matthew J. Abergel, AM'94, Work Your Stars! Using Astrology to Navigate Your Career Path, Shine on the Job, and Guide Your Business Decisions (Simon and Schuster). Using astrology, Abergel shows how different personalities can reach top potential and collaborate effectively.
Paul W. Glewwe, AB'79, The Economics of School Quality Investments in Developing Countries: An Empirical Study of Ghana (St. Martin's Press). Focusing on primary and secondary schools in developing countries, Glewwe demonstrates how to calculate rates of return to government investments in school quality, using data from Ghana as an example.
Robert A. Korajczyk, AB'76, MBA'77, PhD'83, editor, Asset Pricing and Portfolio Performance: Models, Strategy, and Performance Metrics (Risk Publications). This collection of articles presents early theoretical models as well as the latest developments in capital-asset pricing models (CAPM) and arbitrage pricing theory (APT) to measure portfolio risk.
CRITICISM
Laura Jenn Menides, AM'64, and Angela G. Dorenkamp, editors, In Worcester, Massachusetts: Essays on Elizabeth Bishop (Peter Lang Publishing, Inc.). Collected from the 1997 Elizabeth Bishop Conference at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, these essays cover such topics as Bishop's poetry, travels, sexual and racial politics, methods of composition, and place in American literature.
EDUCATION
William H. Maehl, PhD'57, Lifelong Learning at Its Best: Innovative Practices in Adult Credit Programs (Jossey-Bass Publishers). Maehl reviews the growth of accredited programs for adult learners since World War II and the challenge to higher education to provide for current needs. He profiles 34 operating programs that model a variety of innovative practices for adult educators.
Catherine Cole Mambretti, AM'73, PhD'79, Internet Technology for Schools (McFarland & Company, Inc.). Written for both computer-literate readers and those with little computer experience, this manual offers guidance for educators, parents, and administrators on building or enhancing a K-12 network and Internet connection.
FICTION AND POETRY
Bonnie Jo Campbell, AB'84, Women and Other Animals (University of Massachusetts Press). This collection of 16 short stories centers on eccentric women from Michigan's Lower Peninsula who reveal their independent inner selves through the conflicts and challenges they face.
Jeff Helgeson, AM'76, Thresholds (Collage Press). Echoing Dante's Divine Comedy, Helgeson's novel follows the journey of a middle-aged American executive who travels through Rome on the last day of the 20th century, assessing the course of his life.
Len Lamensdorf, AB'48, JD'52, The Crouching Dragon (SeaScape Press, Ltd.). Set in 1959 near the Normandy coast, this young-adult novel is the first in the Will to Conquer series and follows the story of 14-year old William. Drawn to a mysterious castle named the Crouching Dragon, William grows from a fearful youngster into an accomplished young man through his adventures in the castle.
David Ray, AB'52, AM'57, Demons in the Diner (The Ashland Poetry Press). Winner of the 1998 Richard Snyder Memorial Publication Prize, this collection contains poetry that has been called "radiant" by Studs Terkel, PhB'32, JD'34, and "fresh, bright, airy, and natural" by Stephen Stephanchev.
Anne F. Spackman, AB'95, Seeds of a Fallen Empire (1st Books, Inc). This epic-style science-fiction novel takes place in Earth's future and tells of a galactic empire, its mechanized ruling council, and the lives of its human explorers.
HISTORY AND CURRENT EVENTS
Matthew A. Crenson, AM'65, PhD'69, Building the Invisible Orphanage: A Prehistory of the American Welfare System (Harvard University Press). Crenson examines the connection between the decline of the orphanage and the rise of welfare, reviewing the decades-long debate about the merits of family care versus institutional care for dependent children.
Thomas D. Parrish, AB'49, AM'79, Berlin in the Balance, 1945-1949: The Blockade, the Airlift, the First Major Battle of the Cold War (Perseus Books). Chronicling one of the great stories of the early postwar era, Parrish draws on newly available sources to reveal Soviet thinking behind the Berlin blockade and to expose the fears that caused the West's response to the crisis.
LINGUISTICS
Harold F. Schiffman, AM'66, PhD'69, A Reference Grammar of Spoken Tamil (Cambridge University Press). An expanded version of Schiffman's Grammar of Spoken Tamil, this grammar guide contains examples both in Tamil script and in transliteration, and is written to be accessible to students as well as linguists and other specialists.
MATHEMATICS
Robert G. Bartle, SM'48, PhD'51, and Donald R. Sherbert, Introduction to Real Analysis, Third Edition (John Wiley & Sons). Written for students of econometrics, management science, the physical sciences, engineering, and computer sciences, this textbook includes a discussion of the generalized Riemann integral.
MEDICINE AND HEALTH
Robert C. Finn, AB'77, Cancer Clinical Trials: Experimental Treatments and How They Can Help You (O'Reilly & Associates). Finn offers cancer patients seeking every option for treatment a guide to finding and evaluating experimental treatments.
POLITICAL SCIENCE AND LAW
Christopher Beem, AM'92, PhD'94, The Necessity of Politics: Reclaiming American Public Life (University of Chicago Press). Responding to the public attention surrounding the concept of civil society, Beem argues that American public life cannot be renewed through civil society alone. Instead, he asserts that society also needs politics and government to articulate shared values and ideals.
Peter F. Langrock, AB'58, JD'60, Beyond the Courthouse (Paul S. Eriksson). In this sequel to Addison County Justice, Langrock's stories draw on cases from his Vermont law career, with crimes involving everyone from drug dealers and murderers to horse traders and apple pickers.
PSYCHIATRY AND PSYCHOLOGY
Abigail Horowitz Natenshon, AM'70, When Your Child Has An Eating Disorder: A Step-By-Step Workbook for Parents and Other Caregivers (Jossey-Bass Publishers). Natenshon guides parents through the process of recognizing an eating disorder, confronting the child, finding help for patient and family, and evaluating and insuring a timely and effective recovery.
Victor M. Uribe, X'89, Parent, Child, and Adolescent: A Handbook for Family Interaction (Chicago Spectrum Press). Uribe discusses child development, outlining what parents can expect, as well as guides for dealing with possible problems.
RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY
Philip P. Arnold, PhD'92, Eating Landscape: Aztec and European Occupation of Tlalocan (University Press of Colorado). Examining how Aztec and Spanish conceptions of land formed the basis of their cultural identities, Arnold focuses on the Aztecs' worship of Tlaloc, god of rain, fertility, and earth, and their understanding of food. (This corrects information published in the December/99 issue.--Ed.)
Robert Ellwood, AM'65, PhD'67, The Politics of Myth: A Study of C. J. Jung, Mircea Eliade, and Joseph Campbell (State University of New York Press). Ellwood examines the political views implicit in the theories of three of the most widely read popularizers of myth in the 20th century.
Barbara Switalski Lesko, AB'62, AM'65, The Great Goddesses of Egypt (University of Oklahoma Press). Lesko follows the changing fortunes, over thousands of years, of the seven Egyptian goddesses who inspired magnificent temples, art, and literature: Nut, Neith, Nekhbet, Wadjet, Hathor, Mut, and Isis.
Fauzi M. Najjar, AM'50, PhD'54, and Dominique Mallet, translators, L'Harmonie Entre Les Opinions de Platon et d'Aristote, texte arabe et traduction (Institut Francais de Damas). Translated into French, this Arabic text was collated from 11 manuscripts by Abu Nasr al-Farabi, who sought to reconcile Plato's and Aristotle's philosophies to introduce Greek thought into Islamic culture.
Steven H. Schroeder, AM'76, PhD'82, The Metaphysics of Cooperation: A Study of F. D. Maurice (Editions Rodopi). Schroeder explores F. D. Maurice's theological works and then turns to a discussion of the practice of adult education as the place of social transformation.
Anton C. Vrame, AM'83, The Educating Icon: Teaching Wisdom and Holiness in the Orthodox Way (Holy Cross Orthodox Press). Vrame presents a theory of religious education for the Orthodox Church based on the art, theology, liturgical, and devotional use of the church's icons.
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
David L. Wilson, PhD'69, Introduction to Biology (Blackwell Science). Wilson's study guide includes concise notes and practice problems related to key concepts that crop up in AP biology, college biology courses, or the MCAT.
SOCIAL SCIENCES
Paul R. Diesing, AM'48, PhD'52, Hegel's Dialectical Political Economy: A Contemporary Application (Westview Press). Diesing describes Hegel's dialectical method and sociopolitical theory as they appear in Philosophy of Right, showing how they can be used in contemporary social research.
Herbert J. Gans, PhB'47, AM'50, Popular Culture and High Culture: An Analysis and Evaluation of Taste (Basic Books). Gans studies the relation of cultural choices and social class, critiquing views that consider people who choose popular culture as culturally and morally inferior. In particular, he examines the "dumbing down" critique.
Marion Sherman Goldman, AM'70, PhD'77, Passionate Journeys: Why Successful Women Joined A Cult (University of Michigan Press). Goldman explores the personal stories of American women who left their careers, families, and past identities to follow Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh to his spiritual community in central Oregon. She considers their choices in order to understand more general themes about the ways contemporary women balance love, work, and spirituality.
Anura Goonasekera, AM'76, PhD'83, and Youichi Ito, editors, Mass Media and Cultural Identity: Ethnic Reporting in Asia (Pluto Press). The product of two years of empirical work, this book examines the role of communications media in the management of ethnic relations in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore, and Sri Lanka.
Sherry B. Ortner, AM'66, PhD'70, editor, The Fate of "Culture": Geertz and Beyond (University of California Press). Leading scholars from four disciplines take a fresh look at anthropologist Clifford Geertz's work and its continuing implications in contemporary cultural studies.
Thomas A. Sebeok, AB'41, and Marcel Danesi, The Forms of Meaning: Modeling Systems Theory and Semiotic Analysis (Mouton de Gruyter). Sebeok probes such questions as: "What is the function of modeling in all life forms?" and "How is human modeling similar to and different from modeling in other species?"
Samuel M. Wilson, AM'81, PhD'86, The Emperor's Giraffe and Other Stories of Cultures in Contact (Westview Press). Many of the anthropological essays in this collection involve Europeans and the New World cultures they encountered. The title piece concerns a Ming dynasty explorer who brought a giraffe from Africa to the Chinese court.
TRAVEL AND LEISURE
Donald G. Tritt, PhD'59, Swiss Festivals in North America: A Resource Guide (Masthof Press). Tritt describes festivals in the U.S. and Canada that celebrate Swiss culture and traditions, while also acquainting readers with the meaning of many Swiss customs.
Wesley M. Wilson, MBA'54, Curious Customs and Bizarre Beliefs Around the World (Peanut Butter Publishing); Countries and Cultures of the World, Then and Now (Professional Press, Inc); and Five Languages Made Simpler (Professional Press, Inc.). In Curious Customs, Wilson draws on his travel journals spanning 54 years to report on everything from home life in Africa to government health plans in Europe. The three volumes of Countries and Cultures summarize the histories of more than 120 countries, including their economies, politics, and education systems. Five Languages provides grammar and vocabulary in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish.
©2000 The University
of Chicago® Magazine