South America Books

Documenting 35 years of cutting-edge work from one of America's most important contemporary artists, The Art and Films of Lynn Hershman Leeson is a "must have" for academics, artists and anyone interested in contemporary film, video, performance art, installation art, feminism or new media. If Leeson's range of media seems impressive, run down the list of her technical innovations, which reads like the dreams of several artists rather than the achievement of one (a theme, by the way, underscored throughout her work): creator of one of the first interactive videodisc artworks, one of the earliest networked robotic art installations, the first artwork to use touch-screen interface and, most recently, a process for making virtual sets, called LHL, designed for her first feature film, Conceiving Ada. Her reputation as a constant innovator and "pioneer of new media" isn't surprising, unlike the fact that this book is the first comprehensive look at her work. If you don't know about Lynn Hershman Leeson already, you should.

Published in conjunction with the exhibition Hershmanlandia: The Art and Films of Lynn Hershman Leeson, this book does an excellent job of both providing coverage while offering detailed analyses of Leeson's work. Edited by artist and art historian Meredith Tromble, the text includes a well-balanced selection of multidisciplinary essays written by art critics, historians and curators, film historians and theorists, and Hershman herself. Hershman's "Private I: An Investigator's Timeline," gives a succinct yet detailed account of her career while reenacting her playful, witty and sophisticated use of autobiography as a means to articulate the complexities of subjectivity in general, where binary distinctions such as public vs. private, personal vs. political, human vs. machine, art vs. science, fantasy vs. reality, and art-making vs. world-making are, through a plethora of odd meetings and wild matings, playfully problematized and profoundly upended.

The collection of essays are, for the most part, concise and insightful, produced by some of the best scholars in their respective fields. For example, Abigail Solomon-Godeau reads Leeson's strategies of "conscientious objectification," her "intervention into the mechanics of spectacle," as a form of "ethical self-reflection," while Amelia Jones locates Leeson in a genealogy of performative photographic self-display routed through Claude Cahun, recognizing Leeson's ability to simultaneously affirm both surface and depth in an image, the "simulacral nature of postmodern culture" and the lived experience of a subject in the flesh--in this case, "female experience in patriarchy." David E. James also addresses Leeson's work as a performance of self, but shows how Leeson complicates and extends this strategy by working with the influences, tensions and contradictions that circulate between autobiography (as authorial agency, biographical truth as well as fabrication) and the materiality of representation (in this case video), throwing into relief the tenuous and porous boundaries between the individual and the social, subjects and objects of knowledge, truth and fiction, life and death, and trauma and healing.

The book contains 17 color plates, a good number of figures, and a beautifully organized DVD that includes presentation of the artworks (both stills and clips), more essays on Hershman's work, and selected histories: videos, films, exhibitions and awards. While much of the material overlaps, the DVD will also point you to Hershman's website and impressive web-based projects, such as Agent Ruby. Be sure to check them out.

Years ago, when preparing for my 50-state road trip I'd purchased a load of travel guides to help plan what to see in each state. The guides satisfied me until I stumbled upon the first ART OF STATE book in Iowa and quickly purchased all the other states available. This curious book series made all other travel books pale by comparison. Deceptively small, slim, lightweight and light read, these books pack a punch of meaningful, inspirational information. Beautifully designed and written, they are thoroughly engaging and a joy to read--like finding an ancestor's scrapbook or diary in the attic and reading a fascinating family heritage while peering over images of a buried past. Each author must be a native or a deliberate transplant, for they tell each state's story lovingly, with a deep appreciation of the state--and not just its good features, but the blemishes, too, described evenhandedly. Photographs of architecture, landscapes paintings, crafts and memorabilia complement the words. Each book presents the state's history, climate, landscape, traditions, symbols, recipes, must-see destinations and a statewide calendar of events. I've purchased all the books in the series (20 of the 50 states as of 2007). If your budget won't allow you to buy all 20, at least buy two: one of your home state and one of your adopted state. You'll be amazed at what you discover.

I apologize for raving so much about THE ART OF STATE series, but it was such a find, like discovering a diamond in a sea of glass. I can't help but gush.

Now, about the Texas edition. Each book in the series has a wallpaper design inside cover treatment: a background color, unique to the state, dotted with a state motif. I always try to guess what the wallpaper will be before opening the book. Sometimes I guess correctly, but not often. Texas was easy: the gold Lone Star motif against a tanned leather brown. I was at first disappointed that Corpus Christie was barely mentioned and the rich cultural landscape of Austin and San Antonio briefly covered, but soon realized that Texas, once a nation unto itself, is simply too large--in land, history, economy and ecology--to satisfy all curiosities. The Alamo gets a full two-page spread as does the founding of the Republic of Texas, that 9 year period ( 1836-1845) when Texas was a nation unto itself. There's a nice sampling of Texas politicians--the "good ol' boys" and "good ol' gals," from the nation's first- elected president, Sam Houston to LBJ, to Governor Ann Richards, and the woman unfortunately named Ima Hogg, daughter of a former governor who "hadn't thought it through" when he named her after a heroine in a Civil War poem. There's a clever distinction between the two different Texas cultures: the cotton versus the cattle culture--before oil was discovered. The oil boom and its towering skyscraper legacy also gets good coverage as do the chips: Frito-Lay's corn chips and Texas Instrument's computer chips . The influx of German immigrants and their influence, rarely mentioned in today's image of Texas, are described with vigor. A nice surprise was the mention of Lady Bird Johnson's National Wildlife Research Center--the woman was a bulldog on protecting wildflowers. Oh, I forgot to mention the Native Texans, the Caddo Indians, "Arguably the most civilized Texans ever," and the Comanche Empire. Lastly, the book claims Texas height and girth at 1,000 x 1,000 miles, which is a bit of a stretch (by most accounts, it's 800 miles at best), but I like the example the author uses to emphasize the point. "Texarkana in East Texas is 200 miles closer to Atlanta [GA] than it is to El Paso [TX]. Stratford [TX] in the Panhandle is as distant to Brownsville [TX] on the Mexican border as Manhattan [NY] is from Daytona Beach [FL]." That's a lot of ground to cover in just 96 pages, and the author does a remarkable job of presenting the salient points, including the Texas bluebonnets, music and cuisine where Texas barbecue is "a religion. . . a subject of intense debate." A delightful book, like all the ART OF STATE books--a national treasure.

This book challenges white male patriarchal assumptions. A brave and enormously intelligent book that subverts the paradigms of eurocentrism in the U. S. and elsewhere. A tremendous achievemnet.

This is quite the best of the books written in the late 19th century by British travelers who were enchanted with Patagonia. Two others, RIDING ACROSS PATAGONIA by Lady Florence Dixie and WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA by Julius Beerbohm, have recently been reprinted and both bear reading. Musters was the first to publish (in 1871), and was referred to very amusingly by Lady Florence in her book when she described the reaction of her friends to her expedition:

"Patagonia! Who would ever think about going to such a place? Why you will be eaten up by cannibals! What on earth makes you choose such an outlandish part of the world to go to? What can be the attraction? Why it is thousands of miles away, and no one has ever been there before, except Captain Musters, and one or two other adventurous madmen!"

Thank heaven for adventurous madmen like Captain Musters! Although he was by training a military man, he was able to blend in with the Tehuelche Indians of Patagonia and travel with them for months between Santa Cruz at the mouth of the Rio Chico and the relatively young settlement at Patagones, now known as the twin cities of Carmen de Patagones and Viedma.

To be flexible enough to be accepted by a native tribe and act, in effect, as a sub-chief in their dealings with the Araucanian and Pampas tribes and still retaining their respect at the end is a tribute to a remarkable personality. Like Charles Darwin in his VOYAGE OF THE HMS BEAGLE, Musters was a meticulous and mostly reliable observer. His book contains two appendices, one a glossary of terms and expressions in the Tehuelche tongue, and the other an amusing comparison of the myths discussing whether the Patagonian Indians were giants (they were taller than most Indians, but not giants).

Musters traveled some distance with his Tehuelche hosts, much of it along the eastern edge of the Andes, the land now traversed by the famous Ruta 40. During his travels, the characters of the individual men, women, and children in the tribes were skillfully delineated, as well as their customs and frequent quarrels.

By 1871, the Tehuelche were well on their way to extinction. Musters estimated that there were only 1,500 members of the several nomadic bands. Disease, drink, and feuds all played a part in decimating their population. During one alarming stretch between Geylum and the Coast, the tribe had to pass through an area with such bad water and poor hunting that the children began to die off at an alarming rate.

This is an outstanding work that is readable and scholarly at the same time. I give it my highest recommendation.

The Atlanta History Center's 'Atlanta Scenes' is a superb pictorial panorama of Atlanta, from the ordinary scene of a family waiting for the arrival of their son after the Korean War to the sparkling smile of Clark Gable. The grandeur and hospitality of the Deep South are captured alongside the brutality of Jim Crow and segregation. See Dr. Martin Luther King, Governor Eugene Talmadge and other public figures who shaped the South and the country. Witness Atlanta's transformation from small Southern city to a leading capital of the New South. All the photographs in this volume were taken by award-winning photojournalists.

After reading Bailyn's "ATLANTIC HISTORY: Concept and Contours" many of the more recent histories of North America I've read suddenly make a lot more sense, histories such as Alan Taylor's AMERICAN COLONIES, and WILLIAM COOPER' S TOWN, Linebaugh and Rediker's radical THE MANY-HEADED HYDRA, as well as Victoria Freeman's DISTANT RELATIONS to name just a few.

Bailyn provides admirable summary of the how the "concept" of Atlantic history was launched -- by Walter Lippman in an essay justifying America's involvement in the Great War -- and then taken up by politicians in the wake of WWII as justification for the such organizations as NATO whose mission was to bind together more tightly the interests of the states of Western "Christendom" against those of the Communistic (and godless) East. Some historians supported this new notion with tendentious misreadings of history, but others of a more empirical bent began to undertake histories that looked beyond the old narratives of individual nation states and focused instead the commonalities of conquest and colonization in the Americas and Africa as practiced by Westerners.

Bailyn dicusses the "contours" of Atlantic history by outlining the discipline's key findings, elucidating its key ideas, citing its indispensible texts, and historic techniques such as statistical investigations, e.g., the construction of a slave trade database compiled from actual records which demonstrate how the slave system served to underwrite the entire system of trade in the "inland sea" of the Atlantic. For the amateur historian, and perhaps even for the professional, Bailyn's "Notes" section is exceedingly useful as it offers a rich survey of the most important texts that have emerged in this rich and rapidly expanding field of study.

Here are a couple of exemplary passages from the book. "In its first, original phase Atlantic history in the broadest sense is the story of the creation of a vast new marchland of European civilization, an ill-defined, irregular outer borderland, thrust into the world of indigenous peoples in the Western Hemisphere and in the outer reaches of the British archipelago. Life in this contested marchland was, literally, barbarous: that is in its initial stages it was, in large areas, a scene of conflict with alien people, alien in language and mores, hostile in purpose, savage and uncultivated. Europeans, native Americans and displaced Africans, all -- each from their own point of view -- saw it that way. For all, others were intent on destroying the civility -- European, native American, African -- that had once existed. Latin America, to paraphrase John Elliott, was no wilderness; the conquest made it that." Page 63.

Bailyn's notes the barbarity of the conquerors did not vary by religious conviction or national origin. "Puritan New England was not different from Mexico or Peru. '"It was a fearful sight,"' the pious gentle Pilgrim leader William Bradford wrote of New England's Pequot War (1637), "'to see [the Indians] frying in the fire and the streams of blood quenching the same, and horrible was the stink and scent thereof.'" Page 65. Indeed the Dutch and English conquerors read accounts of the Spanish conquistadors and were more than familiar with their techniques. The Dutch, having been subjects of Spain, may have been less frequently cruel in their dealings with native peoples than others, but were capable of exceeding cruelty. For instance, Dutch soldiers in a raid near New Amsterdam cut some of the native children in pieces "before the eyes of their parents, and threw the pieces thrown into the fire or into the water." Pg. 63. Clearly, the Spanish were not the only conquistadors.

I don't mean to give the impression that Bailyn speaks only of the barbarous first or conquest phase, he also does a admirable summary of the colonial phase. Once the domination of indigenous people's was relatively complete, the colonists and those who stayed at home in Europe profited mightily from the slave trade: the labor system that wove together, for instance, the economic lives of New England farmers who sold their agricultural products to the slave masters in the Caribbean, so that they could buy fine lace and fine wine and other items from Europe and so keep maintain the appearance of civility. Labor for the sugar, rice, tobacco and cotton plantations came primarily from West Africa, but was also supplied by the exportation of the many dispossessed, conquered and persecuted people in England, Ireland, Germany, France and elsewhere in Europe. Athouigh Bailyn doesn't say it explicity, the economic imperatives of globalization have been around for a long, long time.

I don't mean to suggest that Bailyn concentrates only on the most barbarous elements of Atlantic history. He offers insight into how certain cultural aspects drove and supported this vast, complex process. Quakers are, for instance, a paramount example of a tightly knit but far-flung commmunity who profited mightily in the chaotic marketplace of that time both because of the bonds of trust forged in their communal worship, and also and because there were Quakers at every entrepot in the system, relaying intelligence on the fluctuating prices of slaves, sugar, rum, tobacco, whale oil, etc. As Bailyn notes, black markets, corruption, bribery existed side by side with "official trade" and so it best served those who could outwit the authorities, or those authorities who could actually enforce their authority. Ideas flowed as well, ideas of liberation, revolt and democracy. Bolivar, son of a wealthy planter, educated in Europe, knew of Montesqieu, Madison, Jefferson and Rousseau -- not unusual for a member of the Atlantic elite.

A marvelous work of tremendous reach and scholarly erudition packed into just a weekend's reading, "Atlantic History" takes stock of this new current of historical research and points presciently toward the new directions it may take.

Stacy-Judd's 1939 classic is the best book ever on the subject of Atlantis. Stacy-Judd was a Los Angeles architect who was fascinated by the Maya and their connections to Atlantis. This is the book that has the original photo of the famous Mayan frieze of a pyramid being destroyed in a volcanic explosion and people escaping in a boat. Packed with Stacy-Judd's photos and illustrations, this book belongs in every Atlantis library!

In the average book store, one finds literally dozens of historical atlases. Most atlases are arranged with a generally chronological focus, but some have a specialized focus on a particular historical theme. Military history tends to be the most common theme among those atlases with a historical theme. Military history is naturally suited for the purposes of an atlas, because military campaigns and battles simply can not be properly understood without the aid of maps. One of the best of these military history atlases, currently in print, is the Atlas of American Military History. James C. Bradford, the editor of the Atlas of American Military History, is an Associate Professor of History at Texas A&M University and the author or editor of a dozen books, including: Papers of John Paul Jones, 1747-1792 (1986); Command Under Sail: Makers of the American Naval Tradition 1775-1850 (1985); Captains of the Old Steam Navy: Makers of the American Tradition, 1840-1880 (1986); and Admirals of the New Steel Navy: Makers of the American Naval Tradition, 1880-1930 (1990).

The nineteen chapters of this book are divided logically in a chronological fashion and contain almost 200 excellent color maps. In addition, each chapter contains a brief history of the conflict or period in question. Prominent historians, such as Carol Reardon, Graham Cosmas, Alan Wilt, and Spencer Tucker, contributed the historical text for each of the chapters. This book is quite current and even includes a brief discussion of the American campaign in Afghanistan in 2001. I have nothing but positive things to mention about this book and I wholeheartedly recommend it.

A quick summary of this book would describe it as a fossil hunter's journal from the 1930s. However, humorous, matter-of-fact descriptions of people, politics and the unexpected make this book an excellent choice for any reader.

Arthur Lipow's book, AUTHORITARIAN SOCIALISM IN AMERICA: EDWARD BELLAMY AND THE NATIONALIST MOVEMENT, provides lots of little-known information detailing how Edward Bellmay's scheme for an "industrial army" influenced WWII, and the Wholecost (of which the Holocaust was a part): the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, 60 million people slaughtered; the People's Republic of China, 50 million; and the National Socialist German Workers' Party, 20 million. Lipow provides a lot of support for the warning that Socialists are nuclear bombs, and socialism is nuclear war. Lipow notes that "Bellamy's authoritarian socialist views were an historical precursor of totalitarian collectivist ideological currents."

The book could use some updating about new discoveries. American socialists (e.g. Edward Bellamy and Francis Bellamy teamed with the Theosophical Society and Freemasons) also bear some blame for the notorious symbol used by the National Socialist German Workers Party.

The same symbol was used by the Theosophical Society during the time when the Bellamys, Freemasons and the Theosophical Society worked together. They also helped spread the stiff arm salute via the Pledge at their meetings.

The symbol was used as alphabetical symbolism for socialism, and adopted later by German socialists as their flag symbol. Although an ancient symbol, was altered for use as overlapping S-letters for 'socialism.' It was deliberately turned 45 degrees counter clockwise and always oriented in the S-direction. Similar alphabetic symbolism is still visible as Volkswagen VW logos.

American Socialists also created the stiff-arm salute of German socialism. The early Pledge of Allegiance (created by Francis Bellamy in 1892) used a straight arm salute, not the modern hand over the heart.

Edward Bellamy's book "Looking Backward" was an international bestseller that launched the nationalism movement worldwide. Edward's book was translated into every major language, including German. They wanted government to take over all schools and impose robotic chanting to flags. The Pledge's early right-arm salute was not an ancient Roman salute, and the 'ancient Roman salute' myth came from the Pledge.

All of the above are modern discoveries by America's leading authority on the Pledge of Allegiance, the nation's leading authority on the Pledge of Allegiance and the author of "Pledge of Allegiance Secrets." People were persecuted for refusing to perform robotic chanting to the national flag at the same time in the USA and Germany (to the American flag, and to the German symbol flag).