Indiana Books

Duncan Schiedt's pioneering effort to chronicle Indiana's contribution to jazz is now in it's second printing. He more than complements the meagre information about Indiana and jazz which was previously relegated to brief references to the Wolverines at the Casino Gardens and that Bix Beiderbecke and Frank Trumbauer joined Whiteman there. Jazz great Eddie Condon from Goodland, Indiana is only one of many musicians, Hoosier and otherwise who played in Indianapolis and/or recorded at the famous Gennett studios in Richmond, Indiana. The list of names are a veritable "Who's Who" in jazz. Sheidt knows his subject matter well. The book is loaded with photographs, many of which are Duncan's. After all he made a living for years as a photographer. "The Jazz State of Indiana" is a gem and a must-buy for any devotee of jazz.

Most books devoted to jazz subjects contain peculiar statements that musicians and fans recognise as totally laughable. This book was written seriously and makes one hope the writer will write a book on several of his subjects.

The empty spaces leave a lot to imagine..

As a lifelong resident of Jeffersonville, I loved reading and looking at the old black and white photos in this book. It is neatly formatted and well researched. I'm not old enough to remember the '37 flood, but have heard plenty of stories about it. I've known Scotts, Pfaus, and Coots my entire life. This book is a real plus for our community!

Dr. Richarz provides the reader with an opportunity to understand the German Jewish experience from the subject's vantage point and in their own (translated)words. Her anthology demonstrates the many facets of German Jewish experience from the eighteenth century until the Holocaust. The contributors speak of their own and their families' degree of religious observance, the psychological and economic effects of state-sponsored discrimination, as well as the geopolitical maneuvering that Jews in Europe, and in particular German Jews, had to do in order to preserve their too often despised communities. This book is a must read for persons interested in any aspect of modern German Jewish social history.

The American philosopher Hilary Putnam has had a long and varied philosophical career. Putnam began as an analytic philosopher steeped in mathematical logic. He subsequently became an adherent of a new form of American pragmatism. His debates with the late Richard Rorty over the content of this pragmatism became well-known. Putnam is famous for his receptivity to new ideas and for his frequent changes in his own philosophical positions. Putnam is also a practicing, if not a traditional, Jew. In his most recent book, "Jewish Philosophy as a Guide to Life" (2008), Putnam explores the thought of three contemporary Jewish philosophers (or 3 1/4, including Wittgenstein) to discuss what these thinkers have to offer in understanding religious life. The three Twentieth Century Jewish philosophers Putnam considers are Franz Rosenzweig, Martin Buber, and Emmanuel Levinas.

Putnam's book is short, just over 100 pages, and based in part upon lectures he delivered at Indiana University in 1999. But the book, and the thinkers Putnam describes, are complex and difficult. Putnam's aim is to encourage his readers to explore the works of these philosophers for themselves for whatever insights they can provide into the good life and the religious life. Putnam's aim thus is far broader than providing a philosophy for Judaism. He believes that the thinkers he discusses have much to teach people struggling with religious questions, whether they are Jewish, a member of another religion, or have no particular religious affiliation at all.

A great virtue of this book lies in its highly personal tone. In an introductory chapter, Putnam describes his steadily growing Jewish practice, which began about 1975. He also describes the difficulty he faced and continues to face in reconciling his religious committments to his philosophical naturalism. This theme is reiterated in the "Afterword" to the book, as Putnam describes has own religious ideas ("somewhere between John Dewey in 'A Common Faith' and Martin Buber") and tries to summarize briefly what he has learned from Rosenzweig, Buber, and Levinas.

In spite of the major differences among the thinkers he discusses, Putnam finds they have in common a commitment to experiential philosophy. "Experiential Philosophy" is itself difficult to understand. It involves a rejection of essentialism -- that is of traditional philosophical speculation -- and a commitment to philosophy as narrative in a face-to-face discussion with other human beings about what is important in life. Religion, for the philosphers Putnam discusses, is to be lived from the inside, from felt experience, rather than studied through abstractions.

Putnam devotes two chapters to Franz Rosenzweig, the first of which focuses on a short late work "Understanding the Sick and the Healthy" while the second focuses on Rosenzweig's lengthy and obscure masterwork "The Star of Redemption." He explores Rosenzweig's highly personal account of God -- Man-- and World and the redirection Rosenzweig gave to the religious doctrines of revelation, redemption, and, of overwhelming importance, love. Putnam, again, takes Rosenzweig out of his own essentially Jewish context and tries to show that he has much of significance to offer to people of whatever, if any, denomination.

Although Martin Buber appears to be the closest to Putnam of the philosophers he discusses, he receives the shortest chapter in the book, in which Putnam offers an overview to Buber's famous "I and Thou". Putnam attempts to correct misreadings of this frequently undervalued work which, together with Dewey's pragmatism, seems of especial significance to him.

Putnam devotes a lengthy chapter to the late Emmanuel Levinas. Levinas is a profoundly original thinker whose best-known work remains "Totality and Infinity." Putnam's account focuses on later and even more difficult works. Although an orthodox Jew, Levinas, for Putnam, universalizes Judaism. Levinas' thought focuses on ethical immediacy and on otherness -- the unquestioned existence of people outside ourselves who have a claim on the individual to work tirelessly for their welfare.(Something in this teaching reminded me of the Dalai Lama, a comparison Putnam does not make.) Levinas rejects conceptualization as a basis for religon or philosophy focusing on otherness, and on the character of the ethical moment.

Each of these philosphers has much to teach. Putnam has, indeed, fulfilled the task he set himself of encouraging readers to explore these sources. This still leaves the question of the relationship between Putnam's religious commmitments and his philosophical ones. In the afterword to his book, Putnam states that he views God as an ideal rather than as an existing being and that he disbelieves in an afterlife or in supernatural intervention in human or natural affairs. He also states that he is heavily influenced by the dialogic philosophy he finds in Buber. In all this, there still seems to be two sides to Putnam, the religious individual and the naturalistic, pragmatic philosopher, that rest uneasily with each other. Yet, this book is a moving exploration of themes and questions that my offer guidance and suggestions to readers in search of a modern personally-felt religious life.

Robin Friedman

This is a pioneering work in studying Jewish political structures from Biblical times down to the present. One of the surprising revelations here is the degree of autonomy that Jews often had in their communal life when living in difficult and straitened circumstances.

The book provides detailed and profound information on the development of the Joudo Shinshuu sect of Japanese buddhism, which is the biggest of Japan's buddhist sects today and also the one whose beliefs arguably bear the most resemblance to those of Christianity. The orthodox view of Joudo history held by the members of the sect itself is covered as well as the "historical" view through the eyes of the scholar. The important - that is to say unique - parts of the Joudo belief are covered in detail, especially the process of the establishment of Amida as a kind of saviour whose mercy paves those who rely upon him the way to rebirth in the Pure Land - in sharp contrast to other sects of buddhism, which focus upon satori (enlightenment) through one's own efforts - mainly meditation (jou), study (e) and the strict observance of the rules for buddhist monks (kai). The evolution of Joudo belief and organization from the time of its founders Hounen and Shinran through the middle ages is also looked at in detail.

Overall a convincing analysis of this interesting Japanese sect by a renowned scholar, aiming at an audience of scholars and people interested in facts and solid argumentation instead of mainstream esoteric ballyhoo.

The Big Question, as any novice taking Ethics 101 knows, is "How ought one live?" But unless one thinks about what a moral experience is, or how we make sense of it, one cannot adequately answer that question. And while ethical principles are an indispensable part of ethical decision making, they are too often taken as much more than a part-i.e., as wholly sufficient. This imbalanced view usually leads to inflexibility and dogmatism. What we need instead, Fesmire says, is understand how imagination is integral to the way we actually make concrete choices in lived situations. And Fesmire does just that: by delving into the ways our social and historical connections help form our character and our beliefs; by showing that when we deliberate about a choice, we do so in a way that is imaginative and dramatic; and by showing how we can reconceive of moral conduct by interpreting it along more aesthetic and artistic lines.

This is an excellent book, both scholarly and readable. The book's mechanics are beautifully done, and there's a thorough bibliography and index. Fortunately, Fesmire is not an insular scholar, content with limning just the American tradition; he's a philosopher who has thought carefully about ethical approaches across multiple traditions and then explains where the shortfalls are-and why. His explorations of the imagination are done with care and style and they connect back to the ethical realities in which we all have to live and choose.

It's gratifying to see that the resurgent interest in pragmatist epistemology (that has accrued over the past twenty years) is finally blossoming in ethics. Along with recent books by William Caspary and Todd Lekan, Fesmire's book will help those who know pragmatism-and those who don't-to understand the resources and promises of pragmatism as equipment for living.

I was researching the life and times of John Donne for a new play "Reinvention" (www.reinvention.co.uk) and wasn't really getting very far. I had previously found Donne to be distant and dislikeable, a careerist who was allegedly willing to betray his faith (Catholicism) despite hailing from an impressive lineage. Somehow, it didn't add up. His poems still remained inaccessible, his life, relatively uninteresting. Then, I discovered Dennis Flynn. Not only was this book responsible for a complete reveresal in my opinion of Donne's life, it made me look more carefully at the poems - and I began to understand that here, at last, we have a drama, a man whose life was a constant paradox between his past, present and future. Not only that, Dennis Flynn writes with a clarity and an ease of style which masks the fact that this book is based on solid research - with a welcome degree of free thinking thrown in for good measure. Read this book - Flynn demonstrates more than anything that he understands the man (Donne) and his times elevating this biography beyond a dry, linear approach.

Break the time-space continuum and go along for a ride with Amos Hannah, glimpsing day to day life in the mid 19th century through his eyes. His interest in politics, various religions and his community reveal a rare slice of humanity and society in those days. A working man, Amos might be working in the shop or digging potatoes in the morning and attending a lecture from a present day intellectual in the afternoon.

Pat Gaines has supplemented his journal,explaining terms particular to the times and giving background on persons of interest and even providing maps, letters and documents. Genealogists will find the chapter on the family traced back to 1000 B.C.fascinating and the index makes it possible to discover names, places and facts with ease as it is cross-referenced. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested history or geneology.