Ohio University Press
Blood and capital; the paramilitarization of Colombia.
This work examines the role of violence in the Colombian political economy, stressing the inseparability of economic interests and political matters through discussing the material motivations guiding the organized use of armed force and the coercive and militaristic practices used to facilitate market-oriented policies that exacerbate patterns of unequal wealth distribution. Major themes include continuity and change in the forms of violence and the centrality of the state in generating and maintaining conditions conducive to violence and repression. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
The complete works of Robert Browning with variant readings and annotations; v.11.
The 17 or more volumes will collect all of British poet Browning's (1812-89) poems in the order of first publication, along with prefaces, dedications, his two prose essays, and other material. Bright (emeritus, Eastern Kentucky U.) uses footnotes to identify variants from different printings or from manuscript, and endnotes to explain words and phrases or references in the text that might be obscure to modern readers. This 11th volume contains Fifine at the Fair (1872) and Red Cotton Night-Cap Country (1873). (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Dead last; the public memory of Warren G. Harding's scandalous legacy.
Payne (history, Bonaventure U.) offers an innovative examination of former President Warren G. Harding, the 29th president, by utilizing the public memory of him and his scandal-plagued presidency. Payne sifts through the events that made Harding's name to synonymous with cronyism, incompetence, and corruption. He explores Harding's significance as a midwestern small-town booster, his alleged black ancestry, the contributions of biographers who helped mold his early image, and the conflicts between public memory and academic history of his presidency. The book is clearly written and examines the Harding years from what appears to be an original perspective. The book also includes extensive notes and a bibliography that lists relevant manuscript collections. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Democracy in session; a history of the Ohio General Assembly.
Gold, an attorney with the Ohio Legislative Service Commission, has assembled this detailed history of the Ohio General Assembly and shows how it evolved from a small organization in the old Northwest Territory to its current incarnation as a full-time professional body. Written for anyone interested in the functions and procedures of the Assembly, this volume covers such events as the Territorial General Assembly's role in the drive for statehood, the development of representation, statehouse scandals, the arrival of lobbyists and life in the capital city of Columbus. Final chapters discuss contemporary topics such as federal impacts on state law, the shaping on environmental law in Ohio and "prospects in the foreseeable future." (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Ecology of African pastoralist societies.
This in-depth survey of pastoralist societies in Africa provides anthropology students and scholars with details on the origins, economies, social structures and ecological impacts of over 30 million people on the continent. Homewood (anthropology, U. College, London) examines such components of agropastoralist behavior and practices as herd biology, pastoralist demographics and the impact modern economies have on this way of life. A final section, presented by Sara Randall, includes data on livestock, fertility, mortality rates and migratory patterns of these people. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Electric meters; Victorian physiological poetics.
Rudy (English, U. of Maryland at College Park) argues that Victorian poetry was characterized by a "physiological poetics" in which metrical, rhythmic, and sonic effects, along with other poetic features, were conceived of as having bodily effects as a central aspect of poetic transmission. Moreover, the physiological poetics of Victorian poetry cannot be separated from the development of the electrical sciences during the same period because much of 19th century electrical theory had to do with human bodies, including the ways that individual human bodies can connect to one another. Electricity served the Victorian poets as a tool for thinking about how poetry connects to human communities, and thus as a tool for thinking about the political consequences of poetry. He advances this argument through discussions of Alfred Tennyson's The Princess; the little known working-class poets known as the "Spasmodics" by their detractors; and works by Coventry Patmore, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Algernon Swinburne, and Mathilde Blind. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Indonesian exports, peasant agriculture and the world economy, 1820-2000; economic structures in a Southeast Asian state.
Kano (Institute of Oriental Culture, U. of Tokyo, Japan) presents an economic history of Indonesia from the mid-19th century to the end of the 20th, focused on balance of international payments and trade, the transformation of leading export industries and their key actors, and agriculture and the rural villages that served as the source of land and labor. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Making a man; gentlemanly appetites in the nineteenth-century British novel.
Hyman (humanities, Center for Writing and Language Arts, The Cooper Union) examines the role of food, drink, and drugs in nineteenth- century British novels in terms of how, as part of culture, they helped to construct images of the upper-class gentleman during the period. She considers Jane Austen's Emma, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Anne Brontë's Tenant of Wildfield Hall, Charles Dickens's Little Dorrit, Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Wilkie Collins's Law and the Lady. She addresses aspects such as class, gender, culture, and the construction of identity in her discussion of appetite, food, alcohol, and drugs such as opium and cocaine. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
No winners here tonight; race, politics, and geography in one of the country's busiest death penalty states.
Ohio is second only to Texas in terms of capital punishment, and this critical analysis of the death penalty in this state reveals biases and inconsistencies due to race, local politics and the whims of juries and prosecutors. Welsh-Huggins, a reporter with the Associated Press, examines both current laws and historical records regarding Ohio's death penalty and finds geographic, socio-economic and other variables that affect sentencing standards. While this volume is aimed at students of criminal justice as well as practitioners and policymakers, general readers will find the author's investigation to be clear, frank and informative. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Oscar Wilde and modern culture; the making of a legend.
In tracing the rise, fall, and "sainthood" of Oscar Wilde (1854- 1900), the Irish author/dramatist who died a disgraced homosexual, Bristow (English, U. of California, Los Angeles) and a dozen other authors concur that his notoriety and witty treatment of sexuality/ gender issues made him a modern icon. They treat a legacy ranging from Loie Fuller's dance as Salomé (1895), to Moisés Kaufman's play Gross Indecency (1997). Images include photos of Wilde, the film Wilde (1997), and modern stage adaptations of his plays. Bristow is the editor of the variorum edition of Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Power in the blood; a family narrative.
In this memoir, Tate (writing, U. of Denver) documents her family history, which began with the journey to rediscover the Cherokee- Appalachian branch of her family as she searched for information about her grandmother and her American Indian ancestry. Drawing from what she found in archives and libraries in several states, and stories of her distant cousins, she weaves the story of her own life with a narrative of her grandmother's family history, which included poverty, discrimination, and family violence. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Transitions; archaic and early Woodland research in the Ohio country.
The Late Archaic and Early Woodland peoples lived in the region of Ohio between 5000 and 2000 years ago, a period of transition in which hunter-gatherers began to grow native seed crops, establish more permanent settlements, and develop complex forms of ritual and ceremonialism, sometimes involving burial mound construction. Otto (Curator of Archaeology, Ohio Historical Society) and Redmond (Curator of Archaeology, Cleveland Museum of Natural History) present 13 archaeological studies of this era that focus on issues of cultural transition, building on data based on traditional archaeological field research, analyses of museum collections, and the results of a number of cultural resource management projects. A number of the chapters include previously unpublished radiocarbon date data, enhancing the understanding of the chronology of Archaic and Early Woodland cultures. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
