Books by Alumni: History and current events

George Anastaplo, AB'48, JD'51, PhD'64, Abraham Lincoln: A Constitutional Biography (Rowman & Littlefield). Anastaplo offers interpretations of the constitutional documents that helped to shape Lincoln and of the major speeches by which Lincoln shaped the thoughts and passions of the American people.

Eric Anderson and Alfred A. Moss Jr., AM'72, PhD'77, Dangerous Donations: Northern Philanthropy and Southern Black Education, 1902--1930 (University of Missouri Press). The authors discuss donations from Northern philanthropic organizations to black educational institutions of the South in the early 1900s, examining the positive and negative impact on black education and U.S. race relations.

Brad Asher, AM'91, PhD'96, Beyond the Reservation: Indians, Settlers, and the Law in Washington Territory, 1853--1889 (University of Oklahoma Press). Asher examines the American Indian presence in local courts during the 19th century, focusing on the large numbers of Indians who did not move to reservations and on the local courts that governed interactions between the Indians and settlers.

Guillermo A. Baralt, AM'71, PhD'77, Buena Vista: Life and Work on a Puerto Rican Hacienda, 1833--1904 (University of North Carolina Press). Baralt traces the history of the Buena Vista estate, now a popular living--history museum, from its origins as a farm under Spanish control to its development into a modern, American--controlled, coffee plantation.

Edgar M. Branch, AM'38, A Paris Year: Dorothy and James Farrell in Paris, 1931--1932 (Ohio University Press). Branch offers a portrait of the Chicago writer and his wife during the depression in Paris, using interviews, personal diaries, and letters to re--create the narrative of a formative year in Farrell's life.

Howard P. Chudacoff, AB'65, AM'67, PhD'69, The Age of the Bachelor: Creating an American Subculture (Princeton University Press). Chudacoff describes the culture of urban bachelorism--and its impact on society--as it rose in the late 19th century. Large numbers of single men migrated to American cities, filling the boarding houses, saloons, pool halls, and clubs that proliferated to fill the increasing demand.

Byron E. Farwell, AM'68, Over There: The United States in the Great War, 1917--1918 and The Encyclopedia of Nineteenth--Century Land Warfare (W.W. Norton). The first book covers the United States' entry into and victory in World War I, while the second title details 19th--century land warfare, containing more than 800 illustrations in the two--volume set.

Joseph P. Ferrie, AM'88, PhD'92, Yankeys Now: Immigrants in the Antebellum U.S., 1840--1860 (Oxford University Press). Ferrie documents the first great wave of European migration to the United States, examining how the immigrants were changed by their relocation and how the American economy responded to their arrival.

Rachel M. McCleary, PhD'86, Dictating Democracy: Guatemalan Elites and the End of Violent Revolution (University Press of Florida). McCleary explores the evolution of the two major elite groups in Guatemala--the organized private sector and the military--during the "dual transition" of the nation from authoritarianism to democracy and from import substitution to economic liberalization.

Donald A. Petrie, AB'42, JD'47, The Prize Game: Lawful Looting on the High Seas in the Days of Fighting Sail (Naval Institute Press). Petrie explores the practice of the maritime prize, in which Renaissance European monarchs encouraged the crews of their navies to plunder enemy ships for private gain. Examining the practice's origins and decline, as well as the rules of the sea, the book covers looting from the North Cape of Norway to the southern tip of Africa to the Americas.

Jerome L. Rodnitzky, AB'59, MAT'62, Feminist Phoenix: The Rise and Fall of a Feminist Counterculture (Praeger Books). Rodnitzky traces the rise of feminism's liberation of popular media such as music, cinema, and television, providing portraits of such countercultural models as Janis Joplin, Joan Baez, and Gloria Steinem. He also explores feminism's decline after 1980.

Barbara H. Rosenwein, AB'66, AM'68, PhD'74, Negotiating Space: Power, Restraint, and Privileges of Immunity in the Early Middle Ages (Cornell University Press); editor, Anger's Past: The Social Uses of an Emotion in the Middle Ages (Cornell University Press); and with Lester K. Little, editors, Debating the Middle Ages: Issues and Readings (Blackwell). In Negotiating Space, Rosenwein examines the gift of immunity as an instrument of medieval political negotiations involving royalty and religious leaders. Anger's Past is a collection of essays exploring the meanings of anger in the Middle Ages, from peasants to royals. Debating the Middle Ages offers articles--some translated into English for the first time--on contested issues among modern medievalists.

Edwin L. Wade, AM'56, Talking Sense at Century's End: A Barbarous Time...and Now What? (Let's Talk Sense Publishing Company). Discussing the 20th century in terms of mythology and facts, Wade asks where we want to go in the future according to what we have learned.

Ron Westrum, AM'69, PhD'72, Sidewinder: Creative Missile Development at China Lake (Naval Institute Press). Westrum traces the development of the world's most highly advanced air--to--air missile, looking at the 1950s team who worked in the Mojave Desert to create it.

Perez Zagorin, AB'44, Francis Bacon (Princeton University Press) and The English Revolution: Politics, Events, Ideas (Ashgate). In the first book, Zagorin provides a comprehensive account of Bacon's thoughts on science, moral philosophy, law, and history. The English Revolution is a collection of the author's essays on 16th-- and 17th--century English history.

Eric Zolov, AM'90, AM'90, PhD'95, Refried Elvis: The Rise of the Mexican Counterculture (University of California Press). Zolov traces the history of rock 'n' roll in Mexico and the rise of the native countercultural movement La Orda. This frames the most significant crisis of Mexico's post--revolutionary period: the 1968 student--led protests and the government--orchestrated massacre that ended La Orda.