Associated University Presses

Intersex; a perilous difference.

Holmes (sociology, Wilfrid Laurier U.) uses her work in cultural studies, specifically the performance character of gender and the marginalization of persons with atypical bodies and abilities, to enrich her personal experiences with intersexuality. She shows how those labeled "hermaphrodites" exist in an arbitrary binary of strictly male and female identities, bodies and roles, and how medical practice is obsessed with making all bodies confine to an arbitrary configuration. She describes the "trouble" with intersexuality to be social and not biological, and advocates turning from medicalization to acceptance of intersexuals as complete, viable and beautiful humans. Distributed by Associated University Presses. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Of the human heart; a biography of Benjamin Peirce.

Recently retired from teaching mathematics, Hogan has written widely on the history of mathematics in the US. Here he looks at the life and work of mathematician Peirce (1809-80), characterizing him as a key figure in the professionalization of American science, a superintendent of the US Coast Survey, an effective scientific administrator, and key educator of many American scientists, among them his more famous son Charles. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Thaddeus William Harris (1795-1856); nature, science, and society in the life of an American naturalist.

He was a physician, then a teacher of natural history at Harvard where a young man named Thoreau attended his lectures. He was never awarded a full-time professorship but served instead as Harvard's librarian. His chief study was insect damage of agricultural crops, but he also studied Lepidoptera. In this new biography Elliot (associate curator emeritus, Harvard U. archives) finds Harris to be a quiet pioneer in taxonomy, a highly published science writer appealing to both scholarly and popular audiences, an important link in the network that was building in the scientific community, an expert on professional practice of natural history and a sensitive observer of the natural world. Elliot makes ample use of original sources, particularly Harris's letters, and the result is accessible and elegant. Distributed by Associated University Presses. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)