Illinois Books

This photographer completely communicates the quiet intimacy we share with the personal objects and spaces of our homes. With deeply attentive, fresh vision, Frederking opens up the overlooked stuff of our lives and allows the light to animate the stories and longings hidden inside.

During the building of the Tollway, several historic settlements were found. This book documents the finds both in text tables and with photos... ponders the orientation of the graves (I'll leave you to find out more in the book) and carbon dates these early settlements in the Cal-Sag Valley.

Daniel Dombrowski discusses the core issues of a popular argument of animal liberationists. This book covers the most prominent philosopher's arguments for and against the argument from marginal cases. He discusses the main issues without getting into non-animal philosophical discussions--you don't have to be a utilitarian, contractualist, or any other brand to listen to his arguments. Also, while presenting his case for liberation, he avoids the dogmatism that is prevalent amongst proponents and opponents of animal liberation. This is an excellent book and I recommend it to everyone--for everybody is affected if we agree with his thesis. That is, we should stop eating, experimenting, or wearing animals.

Baby and child figures in Greek mythology have been virtually ignored in favor of the outsized, colorful, or complex adult characters, But Pache--assistant professor of classics at Yale U.--discloses from research of Greek literary works and monuments, coins, vases, and other archaeological relics that young, often little more than infant, characters had an essential part in Greek mythology. Mostly, they represented "parental fears and sense of guilt" with regard to young children, including untimely deaths. In fact, where adult mythological figures were often related to a particular village or region, certain "child heroes...become Panhellenic figures at the center of some of the most important ancient religious festivals." In this study methodically and extensively covering previously neglected and in some cases previously unknown ground, Pache adds new dimensions to Greek mythology and its relation to the psychology and outlooks of the Greek classical civilization that is one of the primary sources of Western culture.

I enjoyed this book. It takes place near the Chicago stockyards and provides ample evidence on how this partcular neighborhood developed over the years mainly via immigration. Much of the history takes place during the 19th century when there was no regulations regarding child labor etc. The work in the slaughterhouses was long, hard and dangerous with management paying little heed for these peoples welfare. Over the years, it all began to change when the worker's started to get some rights of their own by either taking matters in their own hands ...........

It is possible, though perhaps unlikely, that in future generations the twentieth century will be remembered more for the rise of aviation than for any other single attribute. Certainly the invention and development of the airplane has fundamentally altered the lives of all individuals on this planet. It has made possible the movement of both inanimate cargo and living things anywhere in the world in less than a day. That means that both lifesaving medicines and the most deadly viruses are only a planeride away from anywhere on the globe. The airplane has also made possible both pathbreaking scientific research not duplicable in any other environment and the dropping of devastating bombs on targets far removed from the front line of battle. Its positive and its destructive uses became an important part of the fabric of human life during the century just past.

The state of Illinois has been a place important to the development of the airplane in the twentieth century and this book by Howard L. Scamehorn is an welcome chronicle of that role for the first half of the century. "Balloons to Jets" is a reprint of a classic work that first appeared in 1957. Well-received at the time, and justifiably so, it has remained the standard work on aeronautics in Illinois to the present.

Scamehorn covered the full range of activities in aviation during the period between 1855 and 1955, beginning with ballooning in the latter half of the nineteenth century through the various activities taking place in Illinois to mid-century. Accordingly, he deals with the rise of the aviation industry, air meets and contests, barnstorming, the air mail, military aeronautics, the development of airlines, sport and utility flying, the growth of airports from bonfires and grass strips to navigational transponders and rental care agencies, and the development of the regulatory environment. Of course, appearing as it did in 1957, "Balloons to Jets" only touched on the revolution in aeronautics that came with the development of jet transports.

Nearly fifty years have passed since "Balloons to Jets" was first published and no one has yet provided an overview narrative of aviation in Illinois that updates this work for the period since the 1950s. Since that is the case, I wish the author had written a few additional chapters that could have been included in this reprint to "Balloons to Jets." I do not want to complain too loudly, however, for it is nonetheless an excellent work. Perhaps someone else will yet write a history of aviation in Illinois that takes up where Scamehorn left off.

This is an outstanding work of synthesis and a model entrée for students into the history of aeronautics in one region. It outlines the major themes and offers a valuable perspective on the rise of one of the core technologies of the twentieth century. Its availability in this paperback reprint is most welcome.

Professor of History Ken Albala presents The Banquet, an examination of the tradition of fine and extravagant dining in Western Europe during 1520-1660. During this era, banquets were used to display a host's wealth and power, gather nobles from disparate places together, and disseminate political propaganda; The Banquet explores the evolving nuances of this practice and trends such as the increased use of dairy products, a move toward lighter meats such as veal and chicken, refinement of aesthetic senses and aromatics, and other style progressions notable in their parallel of other aspects of Renaissance art and culture. Though scholarly in tone, The Banquet is surprisingly accessible to readers of all backgrounds curious about what the Renaissance aristocracy ate and how they ate it; notes, a glossary, a bibliography, and an index round out this fascinating contribution to Renaissance and culinary history shelves.

What really happened at the Chicago Conspiracy Trial? What was Judge Hoffman's courtroom like? What was the nature of the defendant's contempt? Who was responsible for politicizing the trial? In answer to such questions, Mr. Lukas, the New York Times reporter for the trial, gives a firsthand account of that extraordinary event.

It was certain from the outset that the trial would be extraordinary. The eight defendants alone would have assured that. Together they represented all the strands of dissent of the sixties - student, black, cultural, antiwar. That it took place in Mayor Daley's Chicago and in the courtroom of conservative Judge Hoffman made it a confrontation of the opposing forces in contemporary American society.

Mr. Lukas reports the confrontation with skill and irony. He describes the judge, the jury, the defendants. He tells of the considerable differences between the prosecution and the defense - one cool and sterile, the other impassioned and lively - and quotes the defense witnesses, such people as Ginsberg, Mailer, Staughton Lynd. Excerpts from news stories, testimony and observers' statements enliven the book.

Not offered as a definitive book on the trial, The Barnyard Epithet and Other Obscenities greatly expands and enriches the reporting of it.
--- from book's dustjacket

Kanin's research is solid, and for those interested in San Francisco during the Gilded Age, or labor history, this is a must-read. Focusing in on a clique of unionists that seized contol of the city government, with a particular emphasis on Patrick Henry McCarthy. No, he was not a typical business unionist, but rather a urban progressive who combined a pratical wage-worker consciousness with a social reform mentality. On the other hand, he had no problem fusing a racist ideology into his form of progresivism. If you bothered to read this review, buy this book.

Ira Sadoff, Barter (University of Illinois Press, 2003)

Few things make my heart leap like the prospect of a new, unread book of poetry by Ira Sadoff, one of the best poets presently working in America. The only problem is that I tend to read them all too quickly, and am then stuck waiting for another two or three years until Sadoff releases his next book.

Barter fits all those angles exactly. It's a book that begs to be consumed in one sitting, despite the reader's knowledge that it's going to be a while before you get any more. From the very first poem, Sadoff lets you know he's going to be breaking every conventional rule, and doing it in such a way that you can't help but be awed:

"Nevertheless, I want to talk about it. Those scarred bodies
on the hospital table, they're white chalk children use
to deface the sidewalk. The deer fed in the gazebo,
where the salt lick was barely safe from the fox." ("The Soul")

Not only does the man use "soul," the most overused word in poetry, in a poem, he uses it as the title. And despite its subject matter, the poem still comes off as brilliant, original, a combination of the nature poetry of Hayden Carruth and the language poetry of John Ashbery, but with Sadoff's distinctive, authoritative voice.

This is what poetry is supposed to be. A while ago, I proposed (in a review of Clay Eshleman's delicious Hotel Cro-Magnon) changing the canon that gets taught in schools to something that kids will actually like. Barter is a book that should fit well with a new curriculum. Don't let this one get away without reading it. **** ½