G. Ellis Burcaw, X’48, Introduction to Museum Work (Altamira Press). In this revised, updated third edition, Burcaw explains the philosophical and practical basics of museum studies.

Sarah L. Burns, AB’68, Betsy Stirratt, Jeffrey A. Wolen, and Jennifer Pearson Yamashiro, editors, The Art of Desire (Indiana University Press). Using the Kinsey Institute’s collection of erotic art, photography, and artifacts, the book considers eroticism in all cultures.

Charles D. Colbert, AB’68, A Measure of Perfection: Phrenology and the Fine Arts in America (University of North Carolina Press). Colbert details the contributions of phrenology —which bases character analysis on skull shape—to the development of fine arts in America.

Stephanie L. D’Alessandro, AM’90, PhD’97, Still More Distant Journeys: The Artistic Emigrations of Lasar Segall (Smart Museum of Art). Examining more than 220 of his paintings and watercolors, D’Alessandro explores the work of Segall, a key figure in the development of both German expressionism and Brazilian modernism.

Robert L. Hardgrave, Jr., AM’62, PhD’66, and Stephen M. Slawek, Musical Instruments of North India: Eighteenth-Century Portraits by Baltazard Solvyns (Manohard). Interweaving the artist’s own descriptions with their commentaries, Hardgrave and Slawek have reproduced sketches of musical instruments by Solvyns, a Flemish artist who lived in Calcutta from 1791 to 1804.

Philip J. Jacks, AM’80, PhD’85, editor, Vasari’s Florence: Artists and Literati at the Medicean Court (Cambridge University Press). In this collection of 14 essays, international scholars draw on little-known inventories and contracts from the Vasari family archives to analyze Giorgio Vasari’s career as a Renaissance painter, architect, and author.

Vera L. Zolberg, PhD’74, and Joni M. Cherbo, editors, Outsider Art: Contesting Boundaries in Contemporary Culture (Cambridge University Press). This collection of critiques by sociologists, historians, policymakers, and artists explores the origins of postmodernism and analyzes the process of attaining artistic recognition in the visual and performing arts.

Robert D. Warth, AM’45, PhD’49, Nicholas II: The Life and Reign of Russia’s Last Monarch (Greenwood Publishing Group). In this biography, Warth details the monarch’s political life during the Romanov dynasty, spanning years in which the autocratic tradition was fading. The author also examines the monarch’s legacy.

Lawrence G. Friedman, AM’89, Neil Racham, and Richard Ruff, Getting Partnering Right: How Market Leaders Are Creating Long-Term Competitive Advantage (McGraw-Hill). The authors present corporate-alliance strategies based on their research of more than 100 companies.

Philip C. Kolin, AM’67, Successful Writing at Work (Houghton Mifflin). In this fifth edition, Kolin provides updated advice on communication skills needed for workplace success, such as using electronic media and producing professional-quality documents and graphics.

James R. McGuigan, MBA’66, R. Charles Moyer, and William J. Kretlow, Contemporary Financial Management (South-Western College Publishing). Designed for a college course, this book covers basic concepts in finance and accounting.

Jenny Bourne Wahl, AM’82, PhD’85, The Bondsman’s Burden: An Economic Analysis of the Common Law of Southern Slavery (Cambridge University Press). Using economic tools, Wahl evaluates legal disputes over slaves and property that took place in antebellum Southern courts. She argues that slave laws unintentionally became the foundation for laws designed to protect all Americans.

Robert L. Inchausti, PhD’81, Thomas Merton’s American Prophecy (State University of New York Press). Inchausti examines the life and writings of the 20th-century Trappist monk, contending that Merton’s renunciation of conventional categories of experience freed him to criticize postmodern civilization ahead of his time.

Clara E. Orban, AB’81, PhD’90, The Culture of Fragments: Words and Images in Futurism and Surrealism (Editions Rodopi). Orban analyzes futurist and surrealist poetry and painting to assess how words and images work together to create meaning.

Mark Holmes, PhD’69, The Reformation of Canada’s Schools (McGill–Queen University Press); and William Gairdner, editors, After Liberalism (Stoddart). In the first work, Holmes examines the problems of public education in Canada. The second book, a collection of essays on conservatism in Canada, includes Holmes’s essay, “A Conservative Education.”

Michael D. Strong, MFA’86, The Habit of Thought: From Socratic Seminars to Socratic Practice (New View Publications). In this training guide for teachers, Strong contends that a Socratic learning environment, most often fostered in college preparatory programs, liberal-arts colleges, and graduate schools, improves student performance and should be extended to younger classrooms.

Gerard T. Kapolka, AM’76, PhD’81, translator, Polish Fables: Bilingual Edition (Hippocrene Books). Kapolka translates the fables of Polish author Ignacy Krasicki, whose stories at once exemplify the Enlightenment ideal of the triumph of reason over sentiment and depict a world where the power of instinct cannot be overcome easily.

Mary Anne Mohanraj, AB’93, Torn Shapes of Desire: Internet Erotica (Dale Larson, Intangible Assets Manufacturing). The short stories and poetry in Mohanraj’s collection of Internet erotica include male and female characters of different sexual orientations and spotlight “strong consenting women.”

Marcia Douglass and Lisa E. Douglass, PhD’91, Are We Having Fun Yet? The Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Sex (Hyperion). The Douglass sisters analyze the meaning of sex in America from a feminist standpoint.

Rebecca A. Pope, AM’77, PhD’92, and Susan J. Leonardi, The Diva’s Mouth: Body, Voice, Prima Donna Politics (Rutgers University Press). The authors explore the myriad roles played by the diva in the imaginations of masculinists, feminists, and homosexuals.

Raymond A. Bucko, PhD’92, The Lakota Ritual of the Sweat Lodge: History and Contemporary Practice (University of Nebraska Press). Bucko reviews the historical significance of the Inipi, or ritual of the sweat lodge, and how it has evolved as a presence in Lakota religious life.

Ralph M. Goldman, AM’48, PhD’51, and Willard M. Hardman, Building Trust: An Introduction to Peacekeeping and Arms Control (Ashgate Publishers). Goldman and Hardman trace the history of peacekeeping and arms control since the end of WWII, examining the relationship between these two commonly separated fields. The authors go on to highlight problems created by the recent trend of combining war-winning with peacemaking, peacekeeping, arms control, and humanitarian acts.

K.P. Harrington, editor, and Joseph M. Pucci, AM’82, PhD’87, Medieval Latin (The University of Chicago Press). In this second edition, Pucci revises the anthology’s coverage, eliminating selections written after the year 1350 and adding 14 new selections, including writings by women. He also presents 33 full-page plates explaining the medieval production of manuscripts and books.

Ralph P. Locke, AM’74, PhD’80, and Cyrilla Barr, editors, Cultivating Music in America: Women Patrons and Activists Since 1860 (University of California Press). The editors compile 13 social historians’ analyses of women’s contributions to American music, featuring a series of documentary vignettes.

Mark G. Malvasi, AM’81, The Unregenerate South: The Agrarian Thought of John Crowe Ransom, Allen Tate, and Donald Davidson (Louisiana State University Press). Malvasi examines the Agrarian movement of the 1930s and the distinct approaches taken by Ransom, Tate, and Davidson on such issues as rural poverty, race relations, and the effects of the New Deal on the 20th-century South, noting how all three social historians cast the South as a redemptive community and not as a backward and impoverished region.

Kenneth H. McRoberts, AM’66, PhD’75, Misconceiving Canada: The Struggle for National Unity (Oxford University Press). McRoberts analyzes Canada’s debate over national unity during the last four decades, arguing that secession by Quebec has become a real possibility as a result of the national-unity strategy pursued by Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.

Timothy J. Mullin, JD’73, Testing the War Weapons (Paladin Press). From the infantryman’s perspective, Mullin provides detailed evaluations of infantry rifles and light machine guns used by world armies from 1870 to the present.

Claire C. Robertson, AM’68, Trouble Showed the Way: Women, Men, and Trade in the Nairobi Area, 1890–1990 (Indiana University Press). Robertson argues that much of Nairobi’s socioeconomic development is owed to the contributions of central Kenyan women traders and farmers. Although unrecognized by the government and history, these women continue to help support their families, overcoming obstacles shaped by gender discrimination.

Irwin P. Stotzky, JD’74, Silencing the Guns in Haiti: The Promise of Deliberative Democracy (University of Chicago Press). Stotzky examines Haiti’s recent transition to democracy, providing an account of the nation’s history and its contemporary problems of political corruption and economic instability.

Samuel I. Greenberg, MD’36, Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide: Psychosocial Issues (Charles C. Thomas). Greenberg addresses ethical dilemmas associated with euthanasia, covering landmark cases and offering possible solutions.

David A. Kindig, MD’68, PhD’68, Purchasing Population Health: Paying for Results (University of Michigan Press). Kindig advocates the use of financial incentives to encourage better care, not just higher financial performance, in the health-care industry.

John M. Ely, SM’80, PhD’81, and Margit Mayer, editors, The German Greens: Paradox Between Movement and Party (Temple University Press). Translated from the German, this collection of critical essays analyzes the sociopolitical influence the Greens movement has had both before and since Germany’s 1989 reunification.

Peter F. Langrock, AB’58, JD’60, Addison County Justice: Tales from a Vermont Courthouse (Paul S. Eriksson). Langrock shows the influence city courthouses have had on their communities and on the general practice of law, highlighting cases such as those involving Pearl Buck and John Zaccaro.

George W. Liebmann, JD’63, The Gallows in the Grove: Civil Society in American Law (Greenwood Publishing Group). In this critique of American civil society, Liebmann argues that the federal government inadequately addresses social problems and that abuses of judicial review have turned the Constitution into a tool for class interests.

John P. McCormick, PhD’95, Carl Schmitt’s Critique of Liberalism: Against Politics as Technology (Cambridge University Press). The author analyzes the legal, political, and cultural writings of Schmitt, a prominent critic of liberalism. He places the fascist elements of Schmitt’s philosophy within the context of contemporaries such as Weber and Benjamin as well as earlier theorists such as Machiavelli and Nietzsche.

Kenneth W. Thompson, AM’48, PhD’51, editor, The Virginia Papers on the Presidency, Volume XXX; The Presidency and Governance in Poland: Yesterday and Today; Statesmen Who Were Never President; and Governance VIII: The Presidency and Foreign Policy (University Press of America). In the first work, 11 commentators review the role of the American president in both domestic and foreign policies. In the second book, Thompson compiles eight perspectives on Poland’s postwar development, post-Communist development, and contemporary relations with the U.S. The third work is the last in a three-part series. The fourth book is the eighth in a series on the relationship between governance and foreign policy.

Patricia K. Armstrong, SM’68, Wild Plant Family Cookbook (Cookbook Publishers). Compiled by Armstrong and her students at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, IL, this book includes nearly 1,000 recipes using more than 600 wild plants found in the eastern and central United States. Comments by the cooks and tasters accompany the recipes.

Eric Schiller, AB’76, AM’84, Standard Chess Openings; Unorthodox Chess Openings; A Complete Gambit Repertoire for White; and A Complete Gambit Repertoire for Black (Cardoza Publishing). In the first work, Schiller analyzes openings commonly used in competition, providing more than 250 annotated games. In the second book, Schiller explores unusual openings, including piece sacs, wandering kings, and wayward queens. The last two works offer strategies that rely on sacrificing at least one pawn.

Benedict M. Ashley, AM’37, and Kevin P. O’Rourke, MBA’93, Health-Care Ethics: A Theological Analysis (Georgetown University Press). In this fourth edition, Ashley and O’Rourke investigate contemporary issues that affect the provision and ethics of health care, focusing on the attempts of Christian health professionals to reconcile conflicts between their religious principles and their professional actions.

Lowell K. Handy, AM’80, PhD’87, editor, The Age of Solomon: Scholarship at the Turn of the Millennium (E. J. Brill). In a collection of 24 essays, this book elucidates the major positions of scholars debating the history of 10th-century Palestine.

Edgar A. Towne, AM’62, PhD’67, Two Types of New Theism: Knowledge of God in the Thought of Paul Tillich and Charles Hartshorne (Peter Lang Publishing). Through the perspectives of Tillich, a theologian, and Hartshorne, a philosopher, Towne examines alternative views to standard assumptions about the relationships between theology and philosophy and faith and reason.

Patricia A. Adler, AM’74, and Peter Adler, AM’74, Peer Power: Preadolescent Culture and Identity (Rutgers University Press). To explore how social experiences shape individual character, the Adlers discuss preadolescent experiences such as friendship, social isolation, cliques, and after-school activities, drawing on eight years of participant-observation research in their own children’s community.

Candace Clark, PhD’97, Misery and Company: Sympathy in Everyday Life (University of Chicago Press). Clark identifies the role played by sympathy in the construction of social order in America and seeks to understand sympathy’s effects on individuals, relationships, and group solidarity.

Barend A. de Vries, X’46, Champions of the Poor: The Economic Consequences of Judeo-Christian Values (Georgetown University Press). Through an ethically based analysis of Judeo-Christian values and the views of theologians and economists, the author suggests measures that state governments, private businesses, and community groups can take to end poverty.

Sharon Heller, AM’76, The Vital Touch (Owl Books). Heller claims social pressures and a desire for self-sufficiency have led Americans to diminish close contact with their children, depriving them of psychological, physiological, and sensory benefits of the physical touch.

O. Eugene Myers, Jr., AM’88, PhD’94, Children and Animals: Social Development and Our Connections to Other Species (Westview Press). Exploring the role animals can play in the childhood development of a sense of self, Myers maintains that the traditional Western view linking children and animals reflects cultural assumptions about the connections between mind and body.

Leon E. Pettiway, AM’76, Workin’ It: Women Living Through Drugs and Crime (Temple University Press). With firsthand accounts of the lives of four inner-city women who reveal their involvement in prostitution, shoplifting, robbery, and fraud, Pettiway reminds readers of the universal struggles for survival and identity.

Walter L. Wallace, PhD’63, The Future of Ethnicity, Race, and Nationality (Praeger). Wallace argues that ethnic and racial conflicts make up a part of the evolution of Homo sapiens. He traces these disputes to the beginning of the dispersion of the species from Eastern Africa.

For inclusion in “Books by Alumni,” please send the book’s title, author, publisher, field, and a short synopsis to the Books Editor, University of Chicago Magazine, 1313 E. 60th St., Chicago, IL 60637, or by E-mail.