Minnesota Books

Michael Kackman's CITIZEN SPY: TELEVISION, ESPIONAGE AND COLD WAR CULTURE provides the first comprehensive survey of prime-time secret agents during the Cold War, considering how media depictions of such agents fired the American imagination and helped public approval of intelligence actions. These documentaries also reinforced the media's approval of government policies - until the Red Scare weakened and spy shows turned to criticizing their own ideals.

In twelve essays drawn from papers dealing primarily with the fifteenth century, but spanning England, France, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands, various authors deal with public events- like victory celebrations, signing of a city charters, tournaments, and coronations of a kings- as not only expressions of popular culture but as intercessory actions between the populace and those in power. Hanawalt and Reyerson have divided their collection into four sections that deal successively with municipal and royal relationships, public and private religious expressions, discord in urban ceremonies, and political overtones in public entertainments. Of particular interest is Sheila Lindenbaum's "Ceremony or Oligarchy: The London Midsummer Watch," in which she describes the way a show of power in the processional visibility of the mayor reinforces an oligarchic control over an unquiet city in London of 1521.

A masterpiece. Christopher Fynsk thoughtfully seeks to secure a foundation for the Humanities upon what he calls "The Claim of Language". Enthusiasts of nuanced and powerful thinking - of Heidegger and Blanchot especially - are certain to find this and Fynsk's other books indispensable.

From the author's original poetry about Red Wing in the front, to the catalog pages in the back, this is the most comprehensive guide to Red Wing area stoneware I have ever seen. I borrowed this copy from my father, as it's nearly impossible to find around here (and I live somewhat near Red Wing.) The author has a tremendous sense of humor, and the book brings life and personality to the artisans who created such wonderful pieces of functional art. Book also features several wonderful pictures of one-of-a-kind "lunch hour" pieces, those made by the workers over their lunch hour for informal competition and to bring home to mothers and wives. Highly recommended for both the casual collector and those long since bitten by the bug of "Red Wingus - Collectoritis"

This is an incredible book. The author sketched each bridge on the Mississippi River from New Orleans all the way up to Luling, Iowa (pretty much most of the navigable waterway). The book has proved to be a valuable resource to my own research on the river's bridges.

This is an extremely incisive and thought-provoking analysis of the contemporary literary and critical scenes. Walllen writes extremely well and continually opens profound questions for both typical Left-identified political critics as well as for conservative critics. This a MUST read for any academic in the humanities and for any non-academic concered about the fate of the humanities and higher educaiton. Absolutely brilliant work.

People interested in the controversy between Anscombe and C. S. Lewis should read this before they read any nonsense written by Lewis biographers like A. N. Wilson. She reprinted her original response to Lewis, a short reply that Lewis put in the very issue of the Socratic Digest that contained her paper, and also a very useful commentary on the chapter of Miracles that Lewis revised to meet her objections.

There are some other great essays here. I especially recommend "Causality and Determination."

Come in from the Cold vividly portrays the turmoil of life in the 1960s, during the Vietnam War. Teenagers are fascinated by the war, draft dodgers, and protesters, but there's not much good fiction for them. Come in from the Cold is excellent. Another good YA novel about the war, from a different perspective, is Ellen Emerson White's The Road Home.

Dale's book is an entertaining and academic look not only at the medium of slapstick itself but also at our need to be entertained by it. The book's examination of silent slapstick includes not only the major players (Chaplin, Keaton, Lloyd) but also covers women in silent comedy. What's also respectable is that Dale discusses Jerry Lewis's important contribution to slapstick in film without putting him on the pedestal other critics (and often Lewis himself) put him on, as well as Lewis's influence on contemporary visual humorists like Jim Carrey and the Farrelly Bros.

Yi-Fu Tuan is a towering figure in cultural geography -- so towering that he rises above the discipline's ceiling and is visible and inspiring as a writer/philosopher to a far broader audience of academics and "lay" readers. You certainly don't need to be a geographer to admire this book for its constant stream of observations and commentary on modern China reflecting Tuan's distinctive sensibility and preoccupations with home and place. Dr. Tuan wrote the book shortly after returning to Wisconsin from his visit to China, which he had not visited in over 60 years. The work is immediate and fresh, not re-worked into thick academic prose. It's a real gift for fans of Dr. Tuan.