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Pancho
Villa rides again
Obscured by
legend, the life of Pancho Villa, the leader of arguably the largest
Latin American revolutionary army in history, is separated from
his pervasive mythology in historian Friedrich Katz’s new book,
The Life and Times of Pancho Villa. In his 900-plus page
tome, Katz, the Morton D. Hull distinguished service professor in
history, details the charismatic Mexican outlaw’s early days
and the development of his revolutionary sentiment. He follows Villa’s
rise to a national revolutionary leader, his surrender, eventual
assassination, and the evolution of the many legends of his life.
Ah, to be old and married...
More than 40 percent of women and 30 percent of men suffer from
sexual dysfunction, reported a study in the February 10 Journal
of the American Medical Association. Led by U of C sociologist
Edward Laumann, the study—based on data from 1,749 women and
1,410 men ages 18 to 59 who participated in the U of C’s 1992
National Health and Social Life Survey—looked at the nature
of sexual dysfunction in different demographic groups. Participants
complained about a lack of interest in sex, impotence, inability
to achieve orgasm, and pain during sex. Laumann and his colleagues
found that older women, married men and women, and college-educated
men and women all appeared to lead healthier sex lives than other
groups.
Unveiling Syria
Allegiance to President Hafiz al-Asad permeates everyday Syrian
life. Yet Lisa Wedeen, assistant professor of political science,
claims in her new book, Ambiguities of Domination: Politics,
Rhetoric, and Symbols in Contemporary Syria, the nation’s
“leader cult” is just that—an authoritarian construct
aimed at disciplining the populace. By dictating public speech and
behavior, she argues, the leader cult’s rhetoric allows the
regime to direct the daily lives of its citizens. At the same time,
Wedeen says, many Syrians see through the rhetoric and find ways
to impair the cult’s disciplinary motives.
The days of wine and roses
Whereas most corporate vintners stick to lucrative low-end wines
to maximize profits, the majority of high-end winemakers are independently
wealthy and in the business just for the lifestyle, say U of C economist
Fiona Scott Morton and Stanford economic sociologist Joel M. Podolny
in a paper for the National Bureau of Economic Research. Their report
on the Napa Valley wine industry concludes that California’s
connoisseur vintners looking to make a name for themselves charge
5 percent more for a comparable bottle of wine than their counterparts.—M.D.B.
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