Indiana Books

I've now used Taylor's book for two years in my class. The seminar explores race and the western literary aesthetic. Thanks to Clyde Taylor's deft analysis of how, why and where race is reified in American literature and film, I can spend less time detailing it in class.
Well-written and informative, the writings make for excellent discussions.

Michelle Lamb Discher

I love reading this book! It breaks things down and shows a thorough study of the African context. The book delivers.

When I was young I read this book. I loved all of the forgien lanaguage that was in the book. Also I would like to know if your going to reprint it in the next future or so? From, Christina Breloski P.S. If you do reprint can you send me a note by mail. Here is my address: Christina Breloski 19808 Jolgren Clinton Twp. MI 48038

While mastodons may not be an immedate draw for most people, public art certainly is. This book is gorgeous as well as informative and entertaining! The book showcases all 102 mastodons in the project - whether dressed up as local celebrities like Johnny Appleseed or used as a canvas for beautiful works of art. The book features amazing photographs of the artworks and will have a permanent perch on my coffee table for guests to peruse!

Article author Erin Hynes here. I didn't give you the right to sell this article. Where's my slice?

Read this for graduate American history course.

"Memory and American History" by David Thelan is a fascinating book because it is three different accounts of the monumental discovery on July 13th, 1973. This was the day in which Alexander P. Butterfield confessed to Watergate investigators that there was an extensive recording system in the Nixon White House. This discovery led to the battle for the White House tapes and the eventual resignation of President Nixon. This article is the work of three different authors, two of which were present in the room when Butterfield told investigators about the recording system. Donald Sanders was the deputy of the minority council, was present at the meeting, and was going to interview Butterfield. Scott Armstrong was a Democratic staffer and was working for the majority council. David Thelan interviewed Butterfield for the Journal of American History to present Butterfield's side of the story and his feelings on his confession. "Remembering the Discovery of the Watergate Tapes" offers three similar, but slightly different views on Butterfield's famous confession about the White House taping system.

The Butterfield revelation became the most important discovery of the Watergate investigation and led to Nixon's embarrassing battle over subpoenaed tapes. Interestingly, Scott and Sanders both claim that it was themselves who coaxed the confession from Butterfield. Armstrong's majority council had received the Buzhardt account, which was extremely detailed of meetings in the White House and had extensive verbatim quotations. Scott showed the document to Butterfield and asked questions about the methods for transcribing meetings in the White House. However, this document did not make Butterfield revel the taping system and the subject was dropped until Sanders began to question him. Sanders was suspicious of a recording system because of the detailed transcriptions and it bothered him that Dean spoke with the president quietly in the comer of the room. During Butterfield's interview Sanders was debating whether or not to ask about the possibility of a taping system. Sanders wrote in his account, "I had resolved to going through with it only minutes before". Sanders then asked Butterfield, " .. .if he knew of any reason why the president would take John Dean to a comer of the room and speak to him in a quiet voice". Butterfield believed that he should not lie and began his confession with, "I was hoping you fellows wouldn't ask me that. I've wondered what I would say". However, Scott believes that the confession was, "as If he were now answering the long-pending
question" which Armstrong asked about the Buzhardt account. Butterfield was entered as a witness for the minority party, but Armstrong believes it was he who persuaded the testimony.

The most disappointing aspect to this book is the transcription of Thelan's interviews with Butterfield. Thelan discusses how he wanted to give Butterfield's account in his own words. The methodology behind this article consisted of Thelan sending Butterfield a transcript of their conversations and interviews for his comments. Butterfield sent back a copy that was heavily edited, but he and Thelan eventually worked out a final copy that they both agreed on. Thelan says, "In my conversations with Butterfield I became acutely aware that what we were creating was not so much an accurate record of what Butterfield had said, done, and felt in 1973, but a collaboration based on our different needs in 1988". Butterfield was not open with how he felt after his great revelation to the Watergate committee. When asked if he felt relieved about acknowledging the tape's existence Butterfield responded, "I may have had a subconscious desire then, in 1973, to see and end to the debacle". He mentions that he did feel relieved afterwards, but "most people experienced a sense of relief'. The interview with Butterfield was a disappointment because it seemed that Butterfield did not want to express his feelings about his role in the Watergate scandal. He did talk about some interesting aspects to Nixon's White House, but was very reserved about how he felt and why he released the information.

The strength of this book is in the recreation of an important event using memoirs and oral history. Thelan attempted to give Butterfield's perspective on his role in the discovery of the Nixon tapes, but Butterfield was mostly unresponsive. The comparison of Armstrong's and Sander's account of the meetings is an important aspect of the discovery of the tapes. Both of these men claim to have been responsible for Butterfield's admission of the White House tapes. This book is an important addition to scholarship because of the far-reaching consequences that Butterfield's confession had in the Watergate scandal. Thelan's attempt to discover Butterfield's motivation and feelings was noble, but his final work could have been more outstanding. Butterfield's unwillingness to divulge more substantial information blocked Thelan's attempt at a groundbreaking work on the discovery of the tapes. However, the final transcription of his conversations with Butterfield is valuable because it allows Butterfield a platform to tell his side of the story. "Remembering the Discovery of the Watergate Tapes" shows that Butterfield did not go to the committee in order to topple the president. Rather, this article tells the story of an honest man who answered a difficult question in which he knew the answer. Overall, the book falls short of the Thelan's goal, but still provides the reader with some of Butterfield's motivation and feelings of his important role to the Watergate scandal.

As a graduate student in philosophy and history, I recommended this book for anyone interested in American history, and Watergate history.

Cover:"At forty-three, Cody Macheris had enough on his mind to keep him tossing and turning at night--a failed marriage, a son he rarely saw, life in general. And now, in the quietiest North
Carolina town, the lady who lived upstairs was keeping him awake, making him wonder whether she wore nighties--or nothing--to bed. He could go up with an empty sugar bowl and find out once and for all, but Valentine Scott was one skittish woman. And as a security man, Cody knew he'd have to take those stairs one slow step at a time..."

I just checked this book out from the new books shelf at my university library, and after reading just 30 pages, I must say it is by far the best written general introduction to Merleau-Ponty I have yet read. I've been conducting research on Merleau-Ponty for the purpose of a paper on his political thought for about a month now, and I have found the best secondary literature on Merleau-Ponty to be erudite and focused but not particularly helpful to one beginning with the texts. On the other hand, those philosophical texts which fancy themselves as introductory or general are almost university awful (I must exclude Phenomenology Of Merleau Ponty: A Search For The Limits Of Consciousness (Series In Continental Thought)- an excellent and learned general, though not quite introductory, text). This text manages to be a general and clear introduction while at the same time being very learned and non-superficial. Moreover, its five-page introduction to phenomenology is the best statement of the strength and place of phenomenology I have yet read. If you care anything about phenomenology or Merleau-Ponty you must read this book.

I am a philosophy major at NU and I have read a LOT of philosophy and a LOT of social science literature, and McCumber's theory more than any other I have read describes what happened. I won't go into the involved details, but you should at least take my word and read the book.

A useful book for all stages of practice.