To highlight the wide range of publications reviewed in Choice, each month Choice editors feature some noteworthy reviews from the current issue. 
 
Arthington, Angela H.  Environmental flows: saving rivers in the third millennium.  California, 2012.  406p bibl index afp (Freshwater ecology series, 4); ISBN 9780520273696, $75.00.
50-5602  QH541  2012-12445 CIP
 
Aside from their undeniable aesthetic appeal, river ecosystems are irreplaceable for their richness in biological habitats and diversity, in addition to their importance in navigation, flood control, recreation, and as sources of extractable resources, from water to food. In some cases, however, utilization or management of a river for one purpose may conflict with other interests and detract from the many ecosystem goods and services of the natural river flow regime. The term “environmental flows” refers to water flow that maintains the biophysical and ecological processes of river corridors, from source areas to sea, including the river channel, wetlands, estuaries, and coastal zone. This book provides a comprehensive, up-to-date assessment of the benefits of a natural river flow regime, examines how human activities have altered and damaged many river systems, and explores how application of enlightened management approaches can protect and even restore the ecological benefits of a healthy river system. Arthington (emer., Griffith Univ., Australia) is a prominent ecologist, recognized internationally for her studies in fish community ecology, river hydrology, and river management. She writes clearly and addresses highly important issues of ecosystem conservation without being dry or overly technical. Well referenced. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through professionals/practitioners in river ecology, hydrology, management, or environmental law. — C. A. Ochs, University of Mississippi

Cary Graphic Arts Collection at The Wallace Center, from the Rochester Institute of Technology.  Internet Resource.
50-5334

http://library.rit.edu/cary/ 
[Visited Mar’13] The Cary Graphic Arts Collection is “one of the country’s premier libraries on graphic communication history and practices.” This statement from the Rochester Institute of Technology website is testament to the usefulness and extent of the content in this collection. Besides finding images of the priceless gems available in the physical collection (printing presses, letter blocks, art, books, and more), visitors to the site have access to a great deal of the content contained in the collection itself via the website. Featured are several unique collections covering a wide range of subjects within the graphic and printing arts; these include, but are not limited to, lithography, bookmaking, and typography. The Wallace Center’s commitment to access and dedication to education are most impressive; it desires to “enable users all over the world to sample the wealth of rich materials housed in the library. These include the development of a substantial digital archive of images from the collection and an on-line digital library of public domain titles from the renowned Middleton Collection on bookbinding.”

The site is beautifully designed, is easy to navigate, and includes a virtual tour of the facility. Rich with content on many topics in the graphic arts, it is particularly helpful with regard to the history and development of printing and graphic arts. The Image Database displays high-quality images in a pleasing interface. Users may search the thoroughly documented items by keyword, browse by categories ranging from Book Arts to Typography, and access a time line. With the university supporting course offerings, and with the Wallace Center’s experienced, well-educated staff, this collection is grounded in authoritative expertise. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All libraries, particularly academic libraries with related courses; researchers and historians in related fields. — J. C. Burns, Dixie State University

The Center for Popular Music.  Internet Resource.
50-5502

http://popmusic.mtsu.edu/ 
[Visited Mar’13] Emanating from Middle Tennessee State University, this well-organized web portal provides easy access to the unique collections at the Center for Popular Music. CPM collects in areas of local research interest. It maintains research-level collections in all genres, but specializes in rock music and its roots, various forms of vernacular religious music, and the music of Tennessee and the Southeast. The center is careful not to duplicate the specialized collections of other archives. Easily searchable from various locations on the site, the archives are divided by format, such as sheet music, broadsides, photographs, manuscripts, and sound recordings. The scope of materials in each format is well defined, and the descriptions mention named collections housed in the center with links to finding aids. Extensive help and tips for successful searching are provided. Programs and exhibits produced by CPM are showcased, with links to performer, lecturer, and venue pages. These are updated as regularly as new events are held. The center is currently developing research guides for specific topics, historical events, and genres pertaining to popular American music. (A research guide for blackface minstrelsy was available when this reviewer visited; guides for American civil rights movement music and Civil War music are “coming soon.”) This is an area in which CPM could become increasingly invaluable for researchers. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. — M. O’Brien, Binghamton University

Doing time for peace: resistance, family, and community, comp. and ed. by Rosalie G. Riegle.  Vanderbilt, 2012.  387p bibl index afp; ISBN 9780826518712, $79.95; ISBN 9780826518729 pbk, $29.95; ISBN 9780826518736 e-book, contact publisher for price.
50-5783  JZ5584  2012-29830 MARC
 
Riegle is an oral historian, but in this book, she works more in the tradition of Studs Terkel. She interviewed 193 persons who risked imprisonment for resisting war; the book contains highly edited selections from 88 of those interviews. Her pool of speakers is highly selective. Religious faith was the source of most of their resistance; Catholics were the majority. Most worked within activist networks; many lived in intentional communities with other war resisters. Riegle particularly focuses on the Plowshares Movement and Catholic Worker communities. Her major question throughout is “What was it like to resist arrest as a member of a family and a community?” Respondents talk about what motivated their actions, what actions they took, their trials, and their imprisonment. Families of resisters talk about their own experiences “doing time” outside of prison. This is an important book because it presents faith-based arguments about war from the political Left, voices that are less likely to make the news than faith-based arguments from the evangelical religious political Right. Generously illustrated with photos of resisters. A compelling and unsettling book. Summing Up: Essential. All levels/libraries. — S. S. Arpad, emerita, California State University, Fresno  
 

Figone, Albert J.  Cheating the spread: gamblers, point shavers, and game fixers in college football and basketball.  Illinois, 2013 (c2012).  196p bibl index afp; ISBN 9780252037283, $80.00; ISBN 9780252078750 pbk, $21.95.
50-5656  GV717  2012-37767 MARC
 
A former college baseball and football coach, Figone (emer., kinesiology, Humboldt State Univ.) examines the history of gambling and scandals in college athletics, providing a window into corruption on the playing courts and fields of intercollegiate athletics. Abundant evidence in court records, newspapers, government documents, private interviews, and college and university archives verifies the pervasive and rampant gambling, and the author uses this evidence in recounting the many scandals in college football and basketball. He uncovers not only bookies and gamblers but also athletes, coaches, college administrators, and fellow students implicated in this unethical sporting behavior. He also discusses inside information and the various methods used to gain an unfair advantage and profit. Unfortunately, access to and intrinsic acceptance of gambling has enabled payoffs to players by boosters, violations of recruiting, academic fraud, and pressure to win at all costs. Thus, Figone suggests, gambling appears immune to closer monitoring, so scandals related to game fixing will continue to arise. Summing Up: Recommended. All readers. — M. E. Beagle, Berea College

From stagnation to forced adjustment: reforms in Greece, 1974-2010, ed. by Stathis Kalyvas, George Pagoulatos, and Haridimos Tsoukas.  Columbia, 2013 (c2012).  332p bibl index afp ISBN 0-231-70376-7, $55.00; ISBN 9780231703765, $55.00.
50-5708  HC295  2012-29082 CIP
 
The collapse of the Greek economy in 2010 was one of the major contributors to the crisis in the European Union economy and in global financial markets. This timely book examines the economic and political structures that generated this event as well as their development since the end of the junta in 1974. It contains 12 papers presented at a conference just prior to the collapse; however, the authors were given the opportunity to update their chapters. The result is a work that will be of interest to both students of the Greek economy and specialists in political-economic policy. Chapters cover reform attempts in major policy areas such as education, public health, administration, markets, and pensions. A constant theme is the inability to successfully implement reform. The rest of the volume examines the reasons for this failure. Defective political processes are central to this story. One specific to Greece is the lack of objective policy analysis–most analysts being closely linked to one party. Consequently, expert analysis is subordinated to political objectives. An interesting question is whether this failure is common to other EU member countries, southern or not. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduate and graduate students; faculty and researchers; professionals. — P. K. Kresl, emeritus, Bucknell University  
 

Hanlon, Joseph.  Zimbabwe takes back its land, ed. by Joseph Hanlon, Jeanette Manjengwa, and Teresa Smart.  Kumarian, 2013.  245p bibl index afp; , $80.00; ISBN 9781565495197 pbk, $26.95; ISBN 9781565495227 e-book, $20.99.
50-5711  HD1333  2012-14825 CIP
 
This is a truly excellent and important book. Zimbabwe’s land use and reform have been political hot topics since the founding of Rhodesia; most Western conventional wisdom on them is largely incorrect. Hanlon (London School of Economics, UK), Manjengwa (Univ. of Zimbabwe), and Smart (Univ. of London, UK) took a pragmatic approach to produce this volume. They base their analysis on the extensive field research performed at the University of Zimbabwe, and by others including themselves, to write an objective review of why things happened; what the successes and failures have been; and what the future difficulties and possibilities are likely to be. They succeed, with an evenhanded treatment of the literature and research, which often has had an ideological slant. They are convincing in their evidence that the black farmers resettled on previously white farms since independence have now matched, on average, the prior performance of the earlier occupants. The book is clear-eyed about the abuses of the “fast-track” land reform of the early 2000s but also documents convincingly the deleterious impact of hyperinflation and the rapid recovery that has followed dollarization. Engagingly written, it deserves very wide exposure. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels of students, researchers, professionals, as well as general readers. — J. H. Cobbe, emeritus, Florida State University  
 

Kaveny, Cathleen.  Law’s virtues: fostering autonomy and solidarity in American society.  Georgetown University, 2012.  292p index afp ISBN 1589019326 pbk, $29.95; ISBN 9781589019324 pbk, $29.95.
50-5878  KF380  2012-3150 CIP

This wise book by Kaveny (law and theology, Notre Dame Univ.) builds on the teachings of Saint Thomas Aquinas. Aquinas elaborated on a description of good laws by Isidore of Seville, who stressed that such laws should not only be just but also conform to the customs of the people. Arguing that laws should serve an educative–and not simply a police–function, Kaveny draws on legal philosopher Joseph Raz and Pope John Paul II to argue that laws should further both personal autonomy and solidarity. Dealing chiefly with issues like abortion, euthanasia, regulation of genetic information, and the rights of the disabled, Kaveny shows that faithful citizenship and the accompanying act of voting require a sophisticated balancing of candidates’ characters and their stances on issues, which employ practical reason. She thus critiques contemporary political rhetoric, particularly the culture wars, and especially the language of the “culture of life” versus the “culture of death” as demonstrating insufficient understanding of politics and providing inadequate guidance for citizens operating within a pluralistic society. Although the themes are repetitive, the book is thought provoking. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. — J. R. Vile, Middle Tennessee State University  
 

Kellerman, Barbara.  The end of leadership.  Harper Business, 2013 (c2012).  233p index; ISBN 9780062069160, $27.99.
50-5688  HD57    MARC
 
Kellerman (Harvard Univ.) provides a well-written chronicle of the evolution and devolution of the leadership profession and a substantiated indictment of the leadership development industry. Building on two of her previous works, Followership (CH, Oct’08, 46-0996) and Bad Leadership (CH, Apr’05, 42-4743), she defines good leaders as those who are both ethical and effective. Kellerman identifies the historical, cultural, and technological changes that have resulted in a shift of power from leaders to followers. She details the significant changes in the social contract between leaders and followers by examining what has occurred in the US as well as globally. Documenting 1,500 definitions of leadership, approximately 40 theories of leadership, and an infinite number of academic and practitioner-based leadership development programs, she states that “there is scant evidence, objective evidence, to confirm that this massive, expensive, thirty-plus-year effort has paid off” and that the primary evaluation method is participant satisfaction, which is highly subjective at best. Kellerman concludes with recommendations for reinventing the industry; these include questioning underlying assumptions, expanding the notion of what constitutes a leadership curriculum, and gaining a better understanding of how change is created. A must read for upper-division undergraduate and graduate business students, their professors, and leadership development practitioners. Summing Up: Essential. Academic and professional collections. — M. J. Safferstone, University of Mary Washington  
 

Kushner, Barak.  Slurp!: a social and culinary history of ramen, Japan’s favorite noodle soup.  Global Oriental/Leiden, 2012.  289p bibl index afp ISBN 9004218459, $90.00; ISBN 9789004218451, $90.00.
50-5754  TP435   2012-27430 CIP
 
Ramen has become a ubiquitous presence globally, from chic Japanese Asian noodle restaurants to cheap student sustenance. Historian Kushner (Cambridge) targets the general audience wanting to know more about the noodle dish with Chinese origins that has become a Japanese national food of sorts. Written in an unapologetically pop style, Kushner’s work spans premodern origins in China to contemporary Japanese ramen comics, museums, and pop songs. Within that time frame, the author talks about a lot more than ramen. He covers food in general in Japan as a backdrop for politics and the place of ramen within it. Some might criticize his at times wandering too far from the topic, but providing the broad context is part of Kushner’s strategy. One part of the context that he ignores is that of gender. Indeed, Japan is a man’s world: ramen chefs are almost exclusively men; even ramen consumption is more of a man’s activity than that of women, although both slurp their fair share. Rich with tidbits culled from personal experience, Kushner’s book is a welcome addition to the bookshelves of those interested in Japan, food, and pop culture. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General, public, and undergraduate libraries. — C. R. Yano, University of Hawai’i  
 

Lois, Jennifer.  Home is where the school is: the logic of homeschooling and the emotional labor of mothering.  New York University, 2013.  228p bibl index afp; ISBN 9780814752517, $75.00; ISBN 9780814752524 pbk, $22.00.
50-5898  LC40   2012-37333 CIP
 
Lois’s analysis of homeschooling is not just about education, but about gender. Based on two years of intensive participant observation and follow-up personal interviews with parents in a homeschooling community, she makes the case that homeschool parents (primarily women) use homeschooling as a way to reflect and reinforce cultural definitions of what it means to be a good mother. Early chapters detail how women’s feelings about themselves as mothers shape their decisions around homeschooling, and how women respond to criticisms that homeschooling is bad for children. In the book’s second part, Lois (Western Washington Univ.) considers homeschooling’s effects on the time women spend in domestic work–focusing particularly on the additional strain homeschooling women experience and how they manage feelings of failure by (often) revising their expectations in response to lack of time, energy, and resources. Two concluding chapters based on personal follow-up interviews with the majority of homeschoolers in the original study assess how women reframe their experiences as homeschoolers seven or eight years later, and how they envision their lives going forward. A welcome addition to a growing literature on emotion work, culture, and parenting across social class and in other child-care arrangements. Terrific for sociology, culture, or women’s studies collections. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries. — S. K. Gallagher, Oregon State University  
 

Murthy, Dhiraj.  Twitter: social communication in the Twitter age.  Polity, 2013.  193p bibl index; ISBN 9780745652382, $64.95; ISBN 9780745652399 pbk, $22.95.
50-5424  HM743   MARC
 
Murthy (Bowdoin College) explores the social, political, historic, and economic aspects of Twitter. Twitter fills a unique space in social media, but the concept of sending short messages is neither unique nor without critics. The early telegraph sent short messages to individuals and in the 1930s notificator message boards, where anybody could post a message for all to read, were common. The 140-character Twitter messages are similar but have a global impact. Citizen journalism has blossomed due to the ease of communicating disaster information. Twitter has been used by social activists to unite people for Occupy Wall Street (crowdsourcing) and the “Arab Spring.” This unity may not democratize the world, but it can make despots uncomfortable. Mainstream news outlets have depended on Twitter to get access to developing stories from local posters where it was too dangerous or impossible to send a reporter for breaking news. Murthy discusses all this, and also reflects on the ethical issues of medical collaboration among health researchers via Twitter. Twitter has become the ego platform for celebrities to communicate with fans. This is a fascinating stroll through the history of Twitter and its societal impact. Gr8 book 4 U. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates; graduate students. — R. Davis, Kent State University

Oxford Scholarly Editions Online.  Oxford. Contact publisher for pricing.  Internet Resource.
50-5340

http://www.oxfordscholarlyeditions.com 
[Visited Mar’13] Immensely learned and dense, Oxford Scholarly Editions Online is not for the faint of heart. It represents fully digitized versions of Oxford’s distinguished and authoritative print series of the same name. Presently seven modules cover 16th-17th-century literature; forthcoming releases will extend to the 20th century. The database currently features 170-plus scholarly editions. Existing modules include Jonson, Hobbes, Donne, and Bacon, among other renowned early modern English authors. The Shakespeare module, the most expansive to date, can be taken as a measure of the database. Users may browse editions or works to locate Shakespeare’s published matter, but browsing authors is the most direct route. Clicking on the Shakespeare link retrieves all the dramatic work–arranged alphabetically, and followed by verse. A link on the left takes subscribers to the Shakespeare entry in the online Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (print version, ed. by H. Matthew and B. Harrison, CH, Feb’05, 42-3132). An ascending chronological list of the various editions of Shakespeare’s works follows.

Selecting Othello from the central column retrieves Michael Neill’s luminous 2006 edition with full scholarly apparatus. The Front Matter link includes the expansive introduction and a note on editorial procedures. The End Matter link leads to a scrupulous series of appendixes and commentary. The Main Text is delimited by act and scene, with the center panel devoted to the play’s text, and notes placed to the right. The notes work in tandem with a link resolver so that a thick network of information is available. In addition, each scene may be converted into a PDF file, where the commentary appears as endnotes (the PDF of Othello 1.1 includes 6 pages, and the notes comprise 17). The notes panel may be toggled off and on for those who wish to forego scholarly rigor in favor of the pleasures of the text. Each text is fully searchable internally. Users may also employ quick, advanced, and Find Location in Text options from the home page, as well as selectively print, e-mail, cite, and share material via social networking sites. A Help section, PDF/PowerPoint tour, introductory video, and Getting Started section are available. Users will find that the highly crafted treatment of Shakespeare is not the exception, but the norm. These digitized scholarly editions are not intended to eclipse the print volumes. Indeed, one can well imagine working with the print and electronic formats in concert. What this new version does confer is a whole new level of discoverability. The database is available in modules of time period/genre, via perpetual access (per module, $1,125-$11,000) or subscription (per module, $250-$2,250); price is based on institutional size/type, with unlimited access only. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Academic libraries supporting upper-division undergraduates through researchers/faculty. — J. Millhorn, Northern Illinois University
  

Parascandola, John.  King of poisons: a history of arsenic.  Potomac Books, 2012.  197p index afp; ISBN 9781597977036, $27.50; ISBN 9781597978095 e-book, contact publisher for price.
50-5601  RA1231  2012-28480 CIP
 
Science historian Parascandola (Univ. of Maryland; Sex, Sin, and Science, CH, Apr’09, 46-4483) has written a fascinating book. He begins by recounting the history and brief chemistry of arsenic; the information is up-to-date since the author also discusses the recent controversial findings of arsenic in DNA. The volume’s five chapters then describe the involvement of arsenic compounds in various venues. Chapter 1 focuses on arsenic use in murders, including famous cases. A description of arsenic poisonings in fiction follows in chapter 2. Parascandola cites the research of toxicologist John Trestrail, who determined that arsenic was the third most commonly used poison in 187 detective fiction books; Agatha Christie frequently used arsenic poisoning in her novels. Chapters 3-4 deal with arsenic in the workplace and environment, including its presence in pigments, pesticides, foods, and drinking water; arsenic emissions due to fuel combustion (especially coal); and its use in taxidermy and embalming. The last chapter describes the use of arsenic compounds in medicine, e.g., for treating sleeping sickness, syphilis, and cancer (even though an alleged carcinogen); in dentistry; and in homeopathy. Aimed at general audiences, the book will also be useful for students in history and the sciences, especially chemistry and toxicology. Well referenced and indexed. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels/libraries. — R. E. Buntrock, formerly, University of Maine

The Princeton encyclopedia of Islamic political thought, ed. by Gerhard Bowering et al.  Princeton, 2012.  656p bibl index afp; ISBN 9780691134840, $75.00.
50-5370  JC49   2012-3118 CIP
 
In the last half century, consequential events and political developments in the Muslim world have dramatically heightened the necessity to deepen and broaden public understanding of the roots and evolution of Islamic civilization and its philosophical foundations. This unprecedented encyclopedia aims to be a comprehensive, authoritative, innovative reference covering 14 centuries while demonstrating its utility to comprehend today’s political and cultural situation in Islamic societies. It is a truly impressive opus in content, organization, and diversity of materials–a five-year pioneering endeavor by an editorial staff of six led by Bowering. Included are an editor’s introduction, a list of 400-plus entries by 249 contributors, seven historical and demographic maps, and detailed bibliographies. The alphabetically arranged entries are organized into five topical categories that cover, as the publisher’s website indicates, “central themes and sources of Islamic political thought”; “modern concepts, institutions, movements, and parties”; “Islamic law and traditional Islamic societies”; “sects, schools, regions, and dynasties”; and “thinkers, personalities, and statesmen.”

Though written for educated nonspecialists, this book has plenty of historical and contemporary wisdom and information to offer diplomats, researchers, students, journalists, and even some Islamic specialists and scholars confronting today’s complex and challenging political milieu, in which, in the editor’s words, “Islam thirsts for a new paradigm of political thought that will enable it to construct its future as a peaceful order in a pluralist world.” Although, inevitably, a few thinkers and ideas are omitted, and some entries require a more objective approach, this encyclopedia represents a major scholarly contribution to Islamic studies. It is necessary reading for anyone seriously interested in the causal dialectics of converging cultural and political forces. Summing Up: Essential. College/university libraries supporting lower-level undergraduates and above; public libraries. — R. H. Dekmejian, University of Southern California

Scott, James C.  Two cheers for anarchism: six easy pieces on autonomy, dignity, and meaningful work and play.  Princeton, 2012.  169p index afp; ISBN 9780691155296, $24.95.
50-5863  HX826  2012-15029 CIP
 
In the wake of the Occupy movement and G20 protests, many scholars have been rethinking what political action means, how to perform it, and how to understand these newly emerging political movements. While Scott (Yale Univ.) does not engage the Occupy movement or G20 protests directly, his new book can be thought of as a part of this rethinking. Written in a highly engaging series of what he calls “fragments,” Scott’s work links together a series of brief reflections on social cooperation in the absence of (or despite opposition from) hierarchy, tying such cooperation to a sense of autonomy, freedom, and human flourishing. Scott wants not to eliminate the state but rather to think around it, toward what he calls “anarchist calisthenics.” By this he means individual or collective activities that undermine, sidestep, or in other ways defamiliarize the hierarchical and norming patterns that surround people in everyday life. Scott covers a lot of ground here. Readers will find fragments on architecture, traffic patterns, and educational reform, in addition to pieces on more traditional forms of political protest and action. There is much of value in this short book and, hopefully, much that is inspirational. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers, undergraduate students, graduate students, and research faculty. — J. L. Miller, SUNY College at New Paltz  
 

Stipelman, Brian.  That broader definition of liberty: the theory and practice of the New Deal.  Lexington Books, 2012.  331p bibl index afp; ISBN 9780739174548, $80.00; ISBN 9780739174555 e-book, $79.99.
50-5864  E806   2012-27954 CIP
 
Historians and political scientists largely have viewed the New Deal as an almost purely political project. While a few historians and scholars of American political development have outlined a political theory of the New Deal, Stipelman (Dowling College) offers what is likely the first book-length study that takes seriously the ideas of New Deal Democrats. The author focuses on four key figures: Franklin Delano Roosevelt; his wife, Eleanor; his key aide (and eventual vice president), Henry A. Wallace; and the legal scholar and practitioner Thurman Arnold. Going beyond these thinkers’ ideas about state intervention and institution building, Stipelman articulates the key assumptions about economics, liberty and happiness, and class structure that underlie their political thought. Some scholars may disagree with the author’s emphasis on particular aspects of New Deal theory, such as the choice of consumerism as the basis of happiness and security. But even critical readers will appreciate this fine volume for its role in starting the conversation. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers, upper-division undergraduate students, graduate students, and research faculty. — R. J. Meagher, Randolph-Macon College 
 

Wheelan, Charles.  Naked statistics: stripping the dread from the data.  W. W. Norton, 2013.  282p index; ISBN 9780393071955, $26.95.
50-5648  QA276  2012-34411 MARC
 
Given the increasing role of statistics in various areas, many professionals find that they need to make effective decisions based on data. Clearly recognizing this need, Wheelan (Univ. of Chicago; journalist) has provided an intuitive presentation of statistical concepts without getting bogged down by extensive data lists or computation. The author begins by generally introducing each idea with an idealized situation to illustrate that statistical setting and its impact on effective interpretation, and then moves on to current real-world settings to legitimize his discussion. He also clearly discusses subtleties that can be encountered, showing how data users must be careful to avoid oversimplifying the implications of a given result. The presentation is nonthreatening, yet readers will find it a suitably thoughtful consideration of statistical ideas. Many will appreciate that Wheelan accomplishes this masterfully with a minimal number of formulas, generally relegated to footnotes. The conclusion is a capstone consideration of five disparate areas such as the recent increase in children with autism and the difficultly in assessing teacher effectiveness, which nicely pulls together his overall presentation. Valuable for nonexperts who need a firmer grasp of what statistics is all about. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates, general readers, and professionals/practitioners. — N. W. Schillow, formerly, Lehigh Carbon Community College

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