Humanities Books

For anyone who would like to know more about efforts to create a more thoughtful, more civil American society (and that surely must include all of us) this book is a genuine gift. Jim Veninga has drawn on his two decades of experience as the head of the Texas Council for the Humanities to demonstrate how the humanities-history, literature, philosophy-can actually bring people together to think and talk with each other about how we want to live our lives and what kind of nation we want to have. His collection of essays makes a strong case for the importance of "relating the humanities to the current conditions of national life," by tracing twenty years of thinking on the part of those at the Texas council and other state humanities councils around the country about such issues as how scholars should relate to the public, how the humanities can help people from diverse cultures understand each other and sustain a unified nation, and how an understanding of the past can help us better prepare for the future. These are beautifully written, thought-provoking and illuminating essays. --Esther Mackintosh

I want to begin by saying that it is a pleasure-no, a true joy-to come across an essay about Erasmus in the midst of much discussion of modern American issues. James Veninga writes frankly but sympathetically of the crises faced by a founder of the Christian Humanist movement that laid down guidelines for the modern Liberal Arts degree.

Erasmus aside, this thought-filled and thought-provoking collection of essays and texts for public presentation tells the story of a most remarkable experiment in American democracy: a quarter-century-long effort to provide opportunities whereby academic humanists can relate their scholarship to matters of everyday public life without adulterating the quality of their work.

Simultaneously, this book quietly traces the culture wars that have wracked both the academic and public policy worlds for much of the past 20 years. Without castigating villains or lionizing heroes, Veninga points out the damage that has been wrought in the name of Tradition, as well as that which has been caused by impulsive experimentation.

Above all, Veninga points out that taking the humanities into the public arena does not undermine scholarly research; quite the opposite, this effort can validate the worth of such research. Veninga tells with quiet but well-placed pride how grants from the Texas Council for the Humanities and councils in other Southwestern states laid the foundation for the Mexican American studies programs that now exist in the best American universities. By encouraging interdisciplinary research and teaching, the state humanities councils have sought to restore public confidence in the value of humanistic research.

Veninga thinks deeply but clearly, and he writes lucidly and gracefully, virtues in any author but especially in one who is telling so important a story.

Excellent treatment of man's purpose and destiny. Exegesis is excellent, and clear. Especially thought provoking is linking of Imagio Dei to glory. Implications of theology well thought out, and stimulating. A must read for theologians, pastors and laymen alike

or..the study of sin.

If you want thought-provoking answers to life's most probing questions from a biblical perspective, read this book.

Yet another wonderfully photographed book by an original member of the Magnum family. Rodger's images circle the globe and tell wonderful stories from everywhere. Rather well printed, excellent b&w compositions that any photographer or artist must respect.

I bet you know some of his photographs. Startet as an stills photographer in the BBC George Rodger became famous with his pictures made for the LIFE magazine, was a co-founder of the Magnum Pictures agency and was later active in Africa and Asia. The book concentrates on his work while and after World War II, starting with his pictures of british people under the german Blitz, the air raids against british towns and civilists. Then the liberation of Europe, France, Italy ... the horrible pictures of the first Concentration Camp freed by american troops (Bergen Belsen), journeys through africa with the first pictures of the Nuba Tribe (there is a whole book available about this), often claimed to be much better then the later works of Leni Riefenstahl, Asia - the time range goes from the forties to pictures from Africa from 1979. George Rodger died in 1995. If you're interested in reportage photography then this is a must have.

Storey uses Chinese wisdom to expalin the folly of nationalism.

International relations must at all times be based on humanity. If not, wars will continue.

Humanity as the ultimate objective is not difficult. Mencius said that everyone knows the trulyhumane response to any situation. Storey's prescription for pease is based on his belief that we are essentially good but allow poor thinking and an addiction to nationalism to cloud our moral judgement.

book whose time will come.

There's lots of jingoism and patriotism out there being whipped up as proposed cures for our current human ills. It is extraordinary to think that even the intelligensia, many of whose vanguard should and do know better, appeal to our most basic and selfish senses of identification- using our preoccupation with our tribe;nationality; religion and state; even our football team as a justification for killing others. This book loudly pronounces what we all know to be the real truth behind the matter -that there are very few circumstances save self defense and protection of human rights which justify taking anyone's life. It rightly points out that most wars are useless exercises in political manipulation resulting in wholesale death and carnage which don't better the human condition. For the first time in the history of International Relations the author, Lyndon Storey,is proposing a view of those relations which departs from the usual balance of power theories. His acute historical analysis lays the blame on our partiality to our particular city/region/religion at the expense of the whole planet and everyone else on it. I think he very clearly demonstrates that we have to move on if we are going to survive and he even proposes a model whereby we can achieve this-through the establishment of a human union that focuses on what we share as a species rather than our differences. Unfortunately, despite the groundbreaking work Mr. Storey has done it is unlikely that many will heed his call. I note the press coverage of this wonderful book has been quite non-existant. Like John the Baptist he is a voice crying in the wilderness; a fact you can sense the author already appreciates even as he writes his unfavourable doctrine. Still and all, I am willing to bet in the long run that this insightful man will be vindicated and much of what he has both predicted and recommended for the future of this planet will come to pass.

It's great to come across a book that so clearly discusses the realities of life with a disability. This author takes us into some of the personal and private aspects of navigating life from a wheelchair, with a great sense of humor as well as pride. Read this if you are a woman with a disability and you need to know that it's OK to speak the truth; read this if you are a parent of a child or adult with a physical disability; read this if you like interesting stories of a life that may be different than yours. Don't read it if you want someone to pity or idealize....Stacy is wonderfully, deliciously, and humorously human, just like the rest of us....and a great story teller.

This is a book that deserved to be written, by an amazing woman I am proud to call my friend. I thought I knew her story, but I didn't understand the depth of her struggle and strength until I picked up this book -- and then I couldn't put it down. It was real and funny and painful -- I laughed and cried throughout.

I took a graduate music history survey course under the instruction of the author, Douglass Seaton, at Florida State University in the Fall semester of 1997. Though I hold no degree in musicology (all my degrees are in trombone performance), I have found this text to be the perfect reference, both in the context of a survey course, and especially in preperation for diagnostic/preliminary exams.

The book is somewhat smaller than either the Grout/Palisca or the Stolba texts (as the book was authored with a one-semester survey course in mind), and perhaps doesn't contain all of the minutia for which the Grout/Palisca "A History of Western Music" is known. The benefit is an extremely readable source, tongue-in-cheek at times, that is still highly detailed, but compelling enough to gain a thorough perspective of the history of western music (historical contexts, performance practices, transitions between defined periods).

I have recommended this book to everyone who has asked for my advice for graduate-school entrance/preliminary exam preparation.

This was my music history textbook when I was an undergrad, and I found it so fascinating that I changed my major to musicology and reread the book from cover to cover on my own time.

The book is excellent: comprehensive, thought-provoking, fair, and interesting. Reading it requires an investment in time and effort, not because it is difficult to read but because it focuses on ideas rather than the "nuts and sluts" mode of learning about deviance. It worked well when I used it to teach sociology of deviance and social control to typical-college-age Ivy League students. And it worked well with evenings-and-weekends urban adult students who did not have high SAT scores and did have full-time jobs, families, etc. the rest of the week. It has not worked well with typical-age college undergraduates at the minimally selective, medium-sized, small-town Midwestern university where I currently teach. When I've used this book here, about a third of the students don't read it or "skim" it, in their words, and so are lost. It is not a textbook and can not be read (or unread) successfully that way. (Testing them on the material did not encourage actual reading of the book.) Of those who try to read it, many are unwilling to read closely and slowly. They are frustrated by the focus on ideas and are intimidated or upset when Pfohl uses a word or idea they don't know. A few students read it and understand it--many of these are excited by the ideas in it--but I must choose course texts that the average, not the exceptional, student can use. I've accepted that the book is too challenging for most of my current students, not because they aren't smart enough to understand it but because, mostly, they aren't motivated to try. It's just not a good match. However, if you are a professor with ready-to-learn students who like to be intellectually challenged, or you want a deeper, more analytic perspective on the dominant theories of deviance for your own knowledge, I highly recommend it.

In the spring of 1998, I enrolled in Prof. Pfohl's Boston College course Deviance and Social Control. During that semester, my mind's doors were blown wide open. A brilliant man, as well as a talented author, educator, activist, and artist, Pfohl has expertly constructed a work examining the deviance and social control beginning with Christian Demonism and continuing through post-modern critical theory.

The text is well structured, and he supplements his words with the theoretical ideas of many varied thinkers throughout history. In addition to the "heavyweights" of social theory, his references include voices ranging from entertainers Ice-T and Sting to legal theorist Patricia J. Williams, to authors as old as the biblical apostles and as fresh as Toni Morrison. Pfohl recognizes that sociology is an interdisciplinary study, and accordingly, his text is fortified with stirring images -- the chilling parellel of an embalmed Jeremy Bentham with the everpresent eye of the panoptic prison, the psuchosurgeon's invasive scalpel with the works of Sade. In addition, every section or chapter is headed with a collage image representing the themes of the chapter. Ultimately, Pfohl's work revelas itself to be a collection of the ideas and work of others, interwoven with autobiography, and adroitly structured so that this collection of ideas becomes a theory of its own. The text then becomes a parallel to the collage work included within -- a most post-modern concept indeed. The text takes existing concepts of deviance and social control, and like a collage artist, arranges them into a new structure, thereby redefining the meaning of the original ideas.

Pfohl's text demonstrates the ability we have to (re)define our social reality. He even provides practical examples of subverting established heirarchy. Just as systems of social order can be erected and maintained, so can they (with some difficulty) be changed or eliminated. The text asserts that there is nothing inheirantly deviant in any given act. An act is deviant only because some people have been succesful in labeling it so. What is universal, however, is the process by which "deviance" is determined.

Through this book, I was born into a greater awareness of the frightening invisibility, pervasiveness, and strength of social institutions. Yet, as well, Pfohl also instilled a strong sense of responsiblility to society and a need for substantive structural and symbolic change.

In the beginning, according to all our western civilization textbooks, the dawn rose on the towering zigurats of Sumer, a thriving civilization, fully formed with irrigated agriculture and distinctive cuneiform script. This premise begs a lot of questions about what precisely happened during prehistory that led to the emergence of complex human societies and all of the associated accouterments.

Ristvet fills this pedagogical gap with her excellent book. She synthesizes the most current anthropological research using a multi-regional approach (both Old World and New World) addressing essential topics such as early religions, the development of technologies and material culture, and the origins of agriculture and literacy. Most importantly the author manages to present these complex topics in a prose that is engaging, straight-forward, and current.

I highly recommend this text to instructors of ancient history, western civilization, anthropology, and archaeology courses. Though, I bought it simply because I thought it would be a fascinating and enjoyable read. I was not disappointed.

I studied under this Prof at Georgia State University and she knows what she is talking about. I loved the book and bought it because she does excellent work.

Let the truth be told. It is about time that someone finally found a way to put the facts into print. Feuer has the guts to tell it like it is.

Let the truth be told to all. Everyone should read this book!

An excellent book with documentation on the abuses of the FDA. Another literal example of one thing that is very wrong in our country. I don't understand how after all the exposure to the abuse that goes on it "just keeps ticking". The only conclusion is there is an incredible amount of power and money behind keeping this system going. To read about the suppression of vital information that could halt aids and get people into remission in unbelievable but true. Worth reading and waking up.

Confused about your conflicts with your significant other? Do you want to find out why people are attracted to some people but not others? Reading this book for my sociology class in college allowed me to better comprehend my own relationships. The book collects together social psychological research on intimate relationships, discussing such topics as attraction, sexuality, power, conflict, loneliness, and relationship development. Unlike other non-scholarly books written about relationships, this text is based on studies published by psychologists. Their conclusions can help you better understand your own relationships, but of course each individual person may differ from what sociologists generally conclude about human beings. Even though this book was written for psychology courses, the text is not too difficult to understand. This book is extremely interesting, and I highly recommend it to anyone who has been, wants to be, or is currently in a relationship - which is, basically, everyone

Sharon S. Brehm is a respected social psychologist who has composed a witty, fun, and insightful tome regarding the many fascinating contributions her field has made to the study of love relationships. Popular press books may or may not offer valid advice--they aren't relying on scientific research, but rather on opinions (which often conflict with the opinions found in still other books). Brehm offers her readers information that is reliable and valid, and perhaps most importantly, useful. Better still, her book is equally applicable for men and women. As a psychology professor and a consultant for individuals seeking their life mate, I read and use many books--texts and popular press--on this issue. Brehm's book is among my most trusted resources, and it gives readers the best of all worlds: excellent and engaging writing that is easily understood, information that is eminently useful, and solid research evidence rather than opinion alone. Should you live together? Does marriage really make people happier than if they had remained single? What attracts romantic partners? If you want "just the facts," this is the place to go for them. (If you want opinion-type popular-press books that support "the facts" and thus really do give good advice, I highly recommend "If I'm So Wonderful, Why Am I Still Single?" by Susan Page, as well as "How to Find the Love of Your Life," by Ben Dominitz, "The Rules," by Ellen Fein and Sherrie Schneider [note: "The Rules" are for women only], and "Mars and Venus on a Date," by John Gray.)