American Psychological Assn.

Commemorating Brown; the social psychology of racism and discrimination.

Published to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision concerning school desegregation and also mindful of the role social psychology played in that decision by the Supreme Court, this collection offers a commemoration of the legacies of Brown and the contribution of psychological and other academic research to questions of racial justice. The editors (professors of psychology from the U. of Kansas) include 12 papers in all, addressing such topics as contemporary American relations between blacks and whites, the possibilities of reinvigorating the desegregation movement, academic contributions to understanding racism and its effects in the wake of Brown, the relationship between merit assessment and discrimination in education, desegregation and identity politics in South Africa, and the possibility of a sociocultural psychology of racism and oppression. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Listening to battered women; a survivor-centered approach to advocacy, mental health, and justice.

It is time to move the response to intimate partner abuse beyond the one-size-fits-all model that marginalizes women's particular situations and perspectives, say Goodman (counseling and developmental and educational psychology, Boston College) and Epstein (law, Georgetown U.), especially women of minority cultures or racial groups, those in same-sex relationships, and those who choose to remain in abusive relationships. The series presents studies by psychologists working on social issues from a feminist perspective that are accessible to lay readers, and longer than journal articles but shorter than full texts. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)