Ohio University Press
Between you and I; dialogical phenomenology.
The seemingly ungrammatical title of this study is a signal of the paradigm shift proposed within. Stawarska (philosophy, University of Oregon) argues for a reassessment of the egocentric subjectivity in phenomenology. The "I" as speaker needs a "you" as receiver and interpreter. Stawarska draws from sociolinguistics and developmental psychology to frame her theory of social dynamics. She sets this in the context of dialogic philosophy, explaining her theory from the backdrop of Wittgenstein, Zahavi, Husserl, Piaget, Castaneda and Martin Buber. While the terminology is technical to the subject, she ends with applications for society at large, the most dramatic of which is in feminist theory with the lack of connection between a man's attempts at seduction and a woman's negative reaction. (Annotation ©2010 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Children in slavery through the ages.
This is the first of a two-part look at the experiences of children in slavery. Campbell (history, McGill University) Miers (history, Ohio State University, emerita) and Miller (history, University of Virginia) have selected essays that cover a wide range of geography and conditions under which children were enslaved. The first section examines the trade itself. The essays discuss the ways in which children were taken and how they were often traded many times. In the second part, specific uses for child slaves are discussed, from girls intended for entertainment, to boys taken for government service jobs by the Ottoman Empire, to Chinese palace eunuchs, often sold by their parents and Chinese girls sold rather than killed by their families. The various forms of slavery could allow for eventual power and freedom for the child or in being worked to death. The final section explores the fate of children born into slavery in eighteenth century France or its colonies, the high infant mortality of slave children in the British Caribbean and the fate of children in the ante-bellum Chesapeake region whose parents had been sold away from them. The editors remind the reader that, appalling as these stories are, they are a fraction of the total. The companion volume treats slavery in the modern world, illegal everywhere but practiced nonetheless. (Annotation ©2010 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Dancing out of line; ballrooms, ballets, and mobility in Victorian fiction and culture.
Engelhardt (English, Texas A&M U.-Corpus Christi) examines both historical and fictional people dancing and using and abusing the rules and properties of dance to know themselves and feel incorporated as mobile bodies. Looking critically at dance scenes in narrative fiction, she explores how the scenes stir and are stirred by contemporary social debates about the body and its pleasures and pathologies. Her topics are the natural accidents of dancing, Jane Austen and the semiotics of dance, reckless debutantes and the spectacle of "coming out," sylphs in the parlor, seeds of discontent, and the mourning after. (Annotation ©2010 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Gibbons v. Ogden; law, and society in the early republic.
Also known as the great steamboat monopoly case, the 1824 ruling by the US Supreme Court was the first to confirm Congress' power over interstate commerce. Aaron Ogden and Thomas Gibbons were rival steamboat operators in Elizabethtown, New Jersey, the latter with a federal license, and the former licensed under a New York State monopoly law created by Chancellor Robert R. Livingston in 1798 to defend the steamboat empire of his partner Robert Fulton. Chief Justice John Marshall led the court to decide that the federal law superseded the state law, in this and other cases. Cox (history, Sam Houston State U.), discusses the legal, technological, and economic background before honing in on the specific situation, arguments made on both sides, decision and reasoning by the courts, contemporary reaction, and historical implications. (Annotation ©2010 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Indiana's war; the Civil War in documents.
Nation (history, Eastern Michigan U.) and Towne (archivist, Indiana U.-Purdue U., Indianapolis) present a collection of primary source writings by Indiana residents from the Civil War era. The 115 selections include excerpts from private letters, official records, newspaper articles, and other original sources, each accompanied by informative annotations The materials are organized into chapters covering the politics of slavery before the war, the 1860 election and secession crisis, war fever in 1861, the experiences of soldiers at the front, hardships on the home front, reactions to the Emancipation Proclamation, the battle over state government control, and antiwar dissent, violence, and conspiracy. Each chapter opens with a brief explanatory essay. Also included are a timeline of events from 1846-1869, discussion questions for each chapter, and a biography organized by chapter. (Annotation ©2010 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Missouri's war; the Civil War in documents.
Documents collected in this book on Missouri during the Civil War include private letters, diary entries, song lyrics, official Union and Confederate army reports, pamphlets, newspaper editorials, and sermons. Documents focus mainly on the war itself, but also shed light on conflict that led to the war and the aftermath of the war. In order to preserve their original meaning, the documents have been edited as little as possible. The documents, many never published before, are grouped in chapters on slavery in Missouri, division of the state, battles, civilians coping with the war, bushwhackers and jayhawkers, emancipation, and reconciliation. Chapter introductions, discussion questions, and background information for each document are included. A detailed timeline is also included. The book is illustrated with 11 b&w historical photos. Siddali teaches history at Saint Louis University. (Annotation ©2010 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Philena's friendship quilt; a Quaker farewell to Ohio.
Quilt as artifact. Quilt as history. Quilt as metaphor. Quilt as family tree. Chenoweth presents all these aspects in her monograph about an 1853 quilt she discovered on a trip through Ohio. Her investigations take us into the personal and historical connections represented by this quilt, which was made as a going away memento for a woman leaving her friends and family to move to Iowa with her husband. (Annotation ©2010 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Recasting the past; history writing and political work in modern Africa.
Twelve essays, presented by Peterson (African history, U. of Cambridge, UK) and Macola (African history, U. of Kent, UK), explore the historical work of "homespun" African historians, with a focus on how the intellectual productions of African historians related to differing political agendas, particularly in terms of defining and mobilizing political communities. Topics include the politics and reception of Petros Lamula's UZulukaMalandela, which cast the Zulu as the Children of Israel awaiting deliverance from the white oppressor, Harry Nkumbula and the promotion of Zambian nationalism, the influence of European anthropology on Chagga authors of northeastern Tanzania, dissident historical writing in postcolonial Uganda and Zambia, and historical writing and the promotion of national culture in Senegal. (Annotation ©2010 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Wartime in Burma; a diary, January to June 1942.
The late Bagshawe, who was an independent historian, and Allott (Burmese, U. of London, UK) provide the diary of Burmese author Theippan Maung Wa (a pseudonym for U Sein Tin) during World War II, originally published in Burmese. The diary was begun after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and covers the invasion of Burma up to June 1942, with surviving material from January to June 1942 provided here. It chronicles the dilemmas he and his family faced while he was a member of the Indian Civil Service and deputy secretary in the Ministry of Home and Defense Affairs for the British administration in Rangoon. The diary relates his feelings about the war, anxiety about the safety of his family, the bombing of Rangoon, and what occurred during the next six months of the British retreat, as well as when they left to live in a remote forest in Upper Burma. The diary ended because he was murdered by a gang of Burmese bandits, and his death is recounted in the appendix. (Annotation ©2010 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
