University of Nebraska Books

Roger paints with words Norman Rockwell's America. We can look at his beloved Nebraska through the eyes of those who faced the extreme conditions of plains life. The wry and often outrageous stories, poetry and songs bring us back to a simpler but not easier day. Roger reminds us that the American spirit is strong and resilient as well as creative. Thank you Roger for taking the time to be pleasant.

I must admit to being a bit biased as I am a friend of Chuck Dean, but this is only because I am also a researcher in the same subject. That being said, there is also a bit of rivalry as I was also hoping to publish the first book on this subject. Unfortunately for me, Chuck beat me to it.... fortunately for every one else he did.

There can be no man more qualified to write this book, he has spent years conducting his research and this book contains about as much information as there is to be had on this subject. Believe me, the information is not readily available and this book is as good as it gets.

It is superb, not only for it's technical details, but also for the personal stories of some of those involved.
There is also a chapter on the use of sled dogs by the SS during WWII. This is a very difficult subject to broach and it is a credit to Chuck that he managed to track down and get a former SS dog driver to tell his story... not everyone was proud to serve in the SS.

This is a must have book and will be one that people will read time and time again. When you get bored of that, there are many excellent photos and diagrams to look at. I can't recommend this book highly enough

A wonderful and little known book, by a wonderful and little known photographer. Butcher photographed small towns and rural prairie life in central Nebraska from the 1880's to the turn of the century. These are documentary photographs that are almost surreal in their intensity. Sod houses, portraits of wide-eyed families, towns slapped down for no particular reason - odd writing on the negatives - as well as birds and trees sketched in to satisfy Butcher's sense of natural history gone awry. A great book.

Throughout his life, William James had the ambition to write a book presenting his philosophy in systematic form. He alluded to this goal repeatedly in his published books of philosophy, particularly the "Varieties of Religious Experience." But, as was the "Varieties", James other philosophical works such as "Pragmatism" and "A Pluralistic Universe" consisted of lectures while "The Meaning of Truth" consisted of a collection of essays, most of which had earlier been published separately.

Late in his life, James tried to realize his project of giving an exposition of his philosophy in his final book, "Some Problems of Philosophy" which is aptly subtitled "A Beginning of an Introduction to Philosophy". James began writing this book in 1909, but illness slowed and ultimately stopped his work well before it could be completed. Before his death in 1911, James authorized the publication of what he had written with the note: "Say that I hoped by it to round out my system, which now is too much like an arch built only on one side."

The book James left is a mixture, with some sections that are suitable for a beginner in philosophy and with other sections that are highly technical. The book is of interest because James clearly wanted to integrate the two primary philosophical ideas developed in his earlier works: pragmatism and radical empiricism.

James introduces pragmatism in chapter IV of "Some Problems in Philosophy" in discussing the relationship between perceptual and conceptual knowledge, where he states that "the pragmatic rule is that the meaning of a concept may always be found, if not in some sensible particular which it directly designates, then in some particular difference in the course of human experience which its being true will make." In evaluating the truth of falsity of a concept, for James, the important consideration is the use of the concept and the difference it makes in understanding experience. If the concept is of no use, it is likely empty. James developed his theory of pragmatism at length in his books "Pragmatism" and "The Meaning of Truth."

James introduces his discussion of radical empiricism, or pluralism, in chapter V of "Some Problems of Philosopy" titled "Precept and Concept -- The Abuse of Concepts." Pluralism became increasingly important to James as he developed his philosophy and in a work such as "A Pluralistic Universe" it greatly overshadows pragmatism and may be inconsistent with it. James argues against monism and rationalism, finding them "forever inadequate to the fulness of the reality to be known." He maintains that concepts, while useful in understanding reality for specific purposes, ultimately distort and limit its nature. Reality for James is found in the experiential flow -- the stream of consciousness of immediate experience -- rather than in any conceptual system engrafted upon it. His teaching on this point was heavily influenced by the French philosopher Henri Bergson, and it also bears similarity to the phenomenology of Edmund Hussers.

In the remainder of "Some Problems of Philosophy", James expounds upon the significance of his radical empiricism, as he explores problems of causation, chance, and activity. The rationalistic, scientific universe is, for James, a deterministic, fatalistic universe which leaves no room for creativity or for growth. Interestingly, James's discussion of these issues includes some rather technical treatments of the mathematical philosophy being developed by Bertrand Russel and others. James argues that causation, as explained by Hume and Kant, is a conceptual overlay on experience which does not explain causation as an activity analogous to human will. He suggests, as he did in "A Pluralistic Universe" a theory of panpsychism, to explain the nature of causation and free activity. He alludes to the problem of relating the activity of the will to the physiological activity of the brain (the "mind-body" problem) but, unfortunately, at this point the book abrubtly ends. The book closes with a brief appendix "Faith and the Right to Believe" drawn from the concluding chapter of "A Pluralistic Universe" and alluding to James's early essay "The Will to Believe".

"Some Problems of Philosophy" does not succeed in becoming the systematic exposition of his thought that James hoped it would be. I don't think it adequately integrates pragmatism and radical empiricism. On James's own account, its treatment of both doctrines is sketchy. But the book is well worth reading for its hints of the direction in which James's thought was going. Thus, this book will be of most interest to those readers with a good grasp of James's thought as developed in the "Varieties", "Pragmatism", "A Pluralistic Universe" and the essays.

Robin Friedman

Says the University of Nebraska Press:

When Vince Mendoza began to write his life story, he turned to his memory of visiting the deathbed of his great-grandmother, a Creek Indian who embodied the history and dauntless will of her people. The memory inspired both sorrow and boundless pride.

Son of Two Bloods, Mendoza's vibrant and candid account of his life, is full of such grief and rejoicing. Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1947, Mendoza was the child of a Creek mother and a Mexican father. In this book he vividly portrays his Mexican and Indian relatives and his confusing, often painful, childhood interactions with the dominant white society. He left childhood behind when he was sent to Vietnam. There he found hatred, terror, and camraderie in equal measures.

On returning from Vietnam Mendoza faced a professional, economic, and personal struggles but found consolidation in love, family, and friendship. His moving account of his first wife's courageous, losing battle with cancer ends with renewal as Mendoza remarries and decides to explore his past, and his people, in writing. "Endure, then weep," he writes at last, "endure, and be rewarded, endure and rejoice, endure and learn."

Son of Two Bloods is his first book

A must read for every bird lover, Johnsgard's concise and informative account of the year in the life of a Snow Goose was truly an enjoyable read. In total, the text runs just over 100 pages, and there are a number of black & white photos, many of which are not, however, of Snow Geese.

Evo Morales is elected the first Ingigenous president of Bolivia and the Indigenous people's movement of Mexico is on the march. Around the world activists and movement intellectuals have been making history by moving Indigenous peoples' struggles to the forefront of grass-roots politics. Accompanying these developments has been a lively and challenging discussion about Sovereignty in relationship to the Nationstate, global capital, cultural production, feminism and sexuality, eco-politics and so on. English-speaking activists and movement intellectuals can now access the currents of those discussions thanks to this anthology. Bringing together writings from North America, New Zealand/Aotearoa, Puerto Rico. Samoa, etc, this book is an excellent crash course in the terms of the debates around Sovereignty. Given the recent currency Sovereignty has received thanks to struggles in Latin America as well as recent writings by philosophers like Virno, Negri and Balibar, here's a book that offers an approach to Sovereignty from the perspective of Indigenous activists and scholars themselves. This book couldn't have come at a better time!

Better to read this than to read ten manuals on the subject of writing.

Blanchot evokes the non-presence of death in writing, writing's necessary complicity with death. This death, however, is not the Hegelian death that would negate and finalize the subject (cf Arendt), fixing it in a form on which judgement could finally be passed. No, true to his essay on the absence of any right to death (which appears in _The Work of Fire_ and _The Station Hill Blanchot Reader_), this death never occurs. This death is never present, happens at no particular time, and happens to no one (see also _The Writing of the Disaster_). It cannot be said to happen or occur at all. It is never present, and being so, shares with writing the latter's most unearthly, strange quality - the absense of the writer and of that about which has been written.

In addition to being the most profound book on writing about which I can write with any knowledge, this is also Blanchot's most coherent and accessible set of essays. They possess something of a centrality of purpose and, together, make up something of a book, rather than the collections which make up the remainder of his critical and quasi-critical work. This may be a failing in the eyes of most Blanchotophiles, but it provides a bridge from the normal style of scholarly exposition to his more challenging investigations, and can be recommended as a first approach for the reader who is unfamiliar with his work. Nevertheless, some prior acquaintance with Rilke, Mallarme, Hoelderlin, and Kafka will be of immeasurable aid.

Most importantly, this one stands as its own example of writing that utterly lacks completion, that is haunted throughout with a palpable sensation of absence, a sensation that is at once as appealing as it is astonishing and unsettling.

As the author's brother my view might be considered biased. This book came at the end of Elaine Jahners career as a teacher and academician. She died of cancer just before the book was published. She devoted her life to the study of how narrative and cognitive syle shapes both events in community and our very ability to comprehend and act. This is one of those books that challenges the reader to discover it's many dimensions. I found Elaine Jahner's sentences work themselves into comprehension if you work with them. You, as a reader, will discover the same thing. If you do the work to follow her process and language, at the end of the paragraph and chapter you will sit back and know that you have been somehow changed and transformed by her insightful analysis. I would encourage people to undertake the challenge of this book. After you have finished and closed the book you will understand the American West at a deeper and different level than if you hadn't opened it's cover.

With several editions of this book available, this review refers to the original 1920 publication. The book is an enjoyable and delightful account of Jedediah Smith and the men in his immediate circle who, over a period of eight years, explored and trapped the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific during the years 1823-1831. Although I did come across a few historical inaccuracies, this can be attributed to the fact that some documentation, letters, journals, etc. did not surface till later dates. For instance, James Clyman was with Smith during many of these exploits, and his "Journal of a Mountain Man" wasn't published until 1928. Dale Morgan's "Jedediah Smith And The Opening Of The West" which was published in 1953, gives the reader a more in depth study (with more historical documentation available at the time) into the character, achievements and defeats of this remarkable man. Neihardt's writing style is to be commended though, as he is very descriptive and expressive.