To highlight the wide range of publications reviewed in Choice, each month Choice editors feature some noteworthy reviews from the current issue.

To see whether the titles featured below are available in a library in your area, click on the hyperlinked ISBN numbers in the records to access the WorldCat database.

Amsden, Alice H.  Escape from empire: the developing world’s journey through heaven and hell.  MIT, 2007.  197p bibl index afp; ISBN 9780262012348 , $27.50. Reviewed in 2007nov CHOICE.
45-1562 HF1413 2006-33363 CIP

Understanding the history of the US role in foreign relations ought to lead to better policy. Amsden (political economy, MIT) identifies three distinct epochs in US foreign aid and their effect on developing nations. Prior to WW II, the US was essentially isolationist with the exception of periodic forays into Latin America. Following WW II, when the US dominated postwar reconstruction efforts, its attitude toward developing nations was “do it your way,” according to Amsden. Projects were initiated according to the way in which nations perceived their problems and needs. Following the loss in the Vietnam War, the attitude of the US shifted to “do it our way.” Aid to countries became tied to the goals of the US and more significantly to the needs of US multinational corporations. The author shows how growth in developing nations stalled unless those countries could find other sources of development aid. This book presents a well-documented, easy-to-read argument with a primary focus on Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Not only are the problems analyzed, but Amsden finishes with suggestions for policy improvement. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers; lower-division undergraduates and up; and professionals. — D. E. Mattson, Anoka-Ramsey Community College

Barrett, Paul M.  American Islam: the struggle for the soul of a religion.  Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2007.  304p bibl index afp ISBN 0-374-10423-9 , $25.00; ISBN 9780374104238 , $25.00. Reviewed in 2007nov CHOICE.
45-1742 BP67 2006-11404 CIP
 
Barrett (Business Week) makes his view of Islam in the US clear in his book’s subtitle. Six years after September 11, he investigates “what, for Muslims, is a normal American life?” Seeking answers and exposing the diversity of US Islam along the way, Barrett traveled from coast to coast, interviewed hundreds, and selected seven individuals to represent different answers to the question. In true journalistic style, he faithfully records his respondents but also interrogates those responses. While the answer to the question is the same–life in the US is full of challenges–Barrett actually pays more attention to other questions. Standing in as the average American, he steers his reportage to issues such as, can or will Muslims assimilate? Where are the moderate Muslims, if any? Are there terrorists among US Muslims? Are Muslim women oppressed? His seven profiles are largely of newsworthy US Muslims whose opinions are already well known, but Barrett’s savvy comes in his interrogations and engaging style. In the spectrum of texts, this one is worth reading, valuable because of the insight it provides on a complex topic. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries. — A. B. McCloud, DePaul University 

Barry, Bruce.  Speechless: the erosion of free expression in the American workplace.  Berrett-Koehler, 2007.  287p index; ISBN 9781576753972, $27.95. Reviewed in 2007nov CHOICE.
45-1551 JC599 2007-2007 CIP
 
Americans are notoriously naive in overestimating their rights at work, but Barry (management and sociology, Vanderbilt Univ.) provides an incisive road map to the treacherous terrain of expressive rights in employment settings. Written in a lucid and lively style, the book considers employee speech broadly, for both private and government workforces. Barry argues that speech, never well protected in the US, is increasingly vulnerable to employer censorship. Although he spends less energy arguing the importance of workplace expression for a democratic polity than does Cynthia Estlund in Working Together (2003), Barry provides a succinct but useful survey of theories about the significance of free expression. He excels in outlining the foundations of free speech doctrine and employment law that converge to threaten employee expression in the workplace. He also outlines the response to employee voice by management, the real constraint faced by most workers in the employer-friendly American legal environment. Even informed readers will benefit from the comprehensiveness and coherence of the legal analysis, while novices will particularly appreciate the vivid examples drawn from actual cases and the accessible summaries of legal complexities in particular work contexts, e.g., public employment. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers; students, lower-division undergraduate and up; researchers and practitioners. — A. B. Cochran, Agnes Scott College
 
 
Byers, William.  How mathematicians think: using ambiguity, contradiction, and paradox to create mathematics.  Princeton, 2007.  415p bibl index afp ISBN 0-691-12738-7, $35.00; ISBN 9780691127385, $35.00. Reviewed in 2007nov CHOICE.
45-1505 BF456 2006-33160 CIP
 
This is a truly exceptional work. In an almost gripping tour de force, Byers (Concordia Univ., Montreal) examines the creative impulse of mathematics, which to him is the notion of ambiguity, understood to “involve a single idea that is perceived in two self-consistent but mutually incompatible frames of reference.” Paradoxes, proofs by contradiction, and infinity are taken to be instances of ambiguity. Assuming of the reader no more than an understanding of basic analysis, the author delves into these and many other topics in depth, with precision and uncanny clarity. The proof of the uncountability of real numbers is as transparent as an outline of Gödel’s proof of the Incompleteness Theorem. Throughout, Byers focuses on what is really going on, exposing the ideas behind the formalities of proofs. Endnotes are terse, the bibliography extensive, the index complete. Despite the occasional wordiness, this is a must-read book for every mathematics student and professor. To the former, it is a sorely needed complement to often-formulaic textbooks; to the latter, it may open vistas of mathematics they never would see. An incredible book, for libraries to announce to all. Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty. — J. Mayer, emeritus, Lebanon Valley
College  
 

The Cinema of Russia and the former Soviet Union, ed. by Birgit Beumers.  Wallflower, 2007.  283p bibl index; ISBN 9781904764984  pbk, $29.50. Reviewed in 2007nov CHOICE.
45-1371 PN1993  MARC
 
No single volume of essays could hope to encompass the full richness of Soviet and post-Soviet cinema, but Beumers (Bristol Univ., UK) provides an excellent introduction to some of the leading Russian and Soviet filmmakers and films. Each essay–some by redoubtable scholars (e.g., Ian Christie, Richard Taylor, Josephine Woll), some by less familiar Slavists–surveys the career of a major director; many outline film production in former Soviet republics, e.g., Kazakhstan and Georgia. Chapters on Lev Kuleshov’s The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks (1924) and Aleksandr Sokurov’s Russian Ark (2002) are particularly fine. Beuners includes good chapters on major artists (Andrei Tarkovskii, Kira Muratova, Alexei German) and less-heralded figures (Leonid Gaidai, Rashid Nugrnanov), but one finds omissions to argue about: where are classic directors Vsevolod Pudovkin and Dziga Vertov and impressive newcomers like Andrey Zvyagintsev, celebrated in the West for his stunning The Return (2003)? Accessible to a broad audience, the essays are only minimally documented; an extensive bibliography provides leads for more advanced students. This volume complements Inside the Film Factory, ed. by Richard Taylor and Ian Christie (CH, Mar’92, 29-3804) and Russia on Reels, also edited by Beumers (1999). Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers; all levels. — S. Liebman, CUNY Graduate Center
 
 
Conlin, Jonathan.  The nation’s mantelpiece: a history of the National Gallery.  Trafalgar Square, 2007 (c2006).  555p bibl index ISBN 1-84368-018-1, $60.00; ISBN 9781843680185, $60.00. Reviewed in 2007nov CHOICE.
45-1259 N1070  MARC
 
From even before its founding in 1824, Britain’s National Gallery has weathered the effects of competing social and political national interests, generating two centuries of complicated, organic experience and self-definition. In this first popular institutional history, Conlin (an American-born professor of modern British history–not art history–at the University of Southampton) has compiled and integrated discrete archival information with journalistic pacing and verve. Thematic chapters on the perennial mission of audience and public outreach, notions of artistic quality, and the episodes of building in Trafalgar Square follow a readable chronological history. Engaging anecdotes emerge throughout, but overt theoretical considerations are limited, even dismissed. This is by no means a collection guide, but the volume is heavily illustrated with some of London’s most celebrated paintings; long captions form a part of the text and introduce pictures as precisely relevant to the narrative. By subtly relating parallels over time, Conlin elegantly reveals how much today’s museum issues and practices can learn from the past. The book represents a fine addition for all medium and larger libraries; it is nearly essential for university and museum collections. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers; upper-division undergraduates through professionals. — J. L. Hagood, National Gallery of Art 
 
 
Dark horses: poets on overlooked poems, ed. by Joy Katz and Kevin Prufer.  Illinois, 2007.  216p index afp ISBN 0-252-03053-2, $50.00; ISBN 0252072871  pbk, $19.95; ISBN 9780252030536, $50.00; ISBN 9780252072871 pbk, $19.95. Reviewed in 2007nov CHOICE.
45-1324 PR1175 2005-13683 CIP
 
The premise of this book is simple: ask accomplished poets (including John Ashbery, Billy Collins, Richard Foerster, Charles Bernstein, and Carolyn Kizer) to recommend a forgotten or overlooked poem and explain their choice in a few paragraphs. But the results are anything but ordinary. The poems chosen for this delightful collection are, almost without exception, little marvels that truly deserve to be rescued from oblivion. The accompanying mini-essays (short enough not to overshadow the poems) offer valuable insights into poet and poem and could serve as a primer on poetics. Included are obscure poems by famous poets like Whitman, Dickinson, Bishop, and Berryman as well as work by less familiar poets Alvin Feinman, Joseph Ceravolo, Vasko Popa. One can only hope that the collection will spark renewed interest in the latter. Noteworthy are essays by Dean Young on Man Ray, Linda Bierds on Margaret Avison, Wanda Coleman on Penny Gasaway, Lloyd Schwartz on Joyce Peseroff, and Dana Gioia on lost WW I poet John Allan Wyeth. Katz and Prufer (themselves award-winning poets) organize the collection not by period or style or school, but instead by their intuitive judgments. This supplies an element of surprise. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers. — J. F. Roche, Rochester Institute of Technology

Focal encyclopedia of photography: digital imaging, theory and applications, history, and science, ed. by Michael R. Peres.  4th ed.  Elsevier/Focal Press, 2007.  846p index ISBN 0-240-80740-5 , $99.95; ISBN 9780240807409 , $99.95. Reviewed in 2007nov CHOICE.
45-1188 TR9  MARC
 
This wonderful encyclopedia is long overdue. Since publication of the third edition (CH, Dec’93, 31-1855), the world of photography has undergone a complete revolution. As with the earlier editions, this encyclopedia is written and edited by experts from all areas of photography. Articles range from biographies of photographers and inventors to very technical articles on photographic materials and techniques. This new edition devotes considerable space to digital photography. Articles on this subject range from simple introductions on how digital technology works to technical analyses. The useful photography time line from earlier editions is retained. Also, the top-quality illustrations of the earlier editions are included, with numerous additions. Many articles from the third edition are repeated with updating, but a number are new to this edition. Additionally, a complete copy of the encyclopedia on CD-ROM is attached to the back cover. This work is without doubt one of the most important single-volume encyclopedias in print. It is a must purchase for all public and academic libraries, and the relatively low price puts it within reach of most individuals who are involved in the photographic arts. Summing Up: Essential. All levels. — R. L. Wick, emeritus, University of Colorado at Denver
 
 
From embryology to evo-devo: a history of developmental evolution, ed. by Manfred D. Laubichler and Jane Mainenshein.  MIT, 2007.  569p bibl index afp; ISBN 9780262122832 , $55.00. Reviewed in 2007nov CHOICE.
45-1445 QH491 2006-47208 CIP
 
This work offers an in-depth analysis of the connections between 19th-century embryology and what has become known today as “evo-devo”–an integration of comparative developmental biology (rooted in embryology), genetics, and molecular biology, with phenotypic plasticity and life history theory providing the ontogenetic and ecological elements to this genuinely evolutionary field firmly within Darwinian natural selection. This volume brings together historians, philosophers, sociologists, and the leading pertinent specialists in biology to treat readers to the best up-to-date dissection of the ties between developmental biology and evolutionary theory. It is divided into three major sections: “Ontogeny and Phylogeny in Early Twentieth-Century Biology,” “Roots and Problems of Evolutionary Developmental Biology,” and “Reflections.” Within them, 16 chapters treat a panoply of topics in this emerging field in a historical, social, and biologically rigorous context. The last three chapters alone, by B. K. Hall, G. B. Müller, and G. P. Wagner, would make this tome worthwhile, but the quality of the other contributions is equally high. The editors have done an outstanding job in integrating the precedent workshops and resulting book. No serious evolutionist can ignore this scholarly, well-integrated volume. Summing Up: Essential. Lower-level undergraduates and above. — F. S. Szalay, University of New Mexico
 
 
Kabha, Mustafa.  The Palestinian press as shaper of public opinion, 1929-39: writing up a storm.  Vallentine Mitchell, 2007.  292p bibl index; ISBN 9780853036715 , $95.00; ISBN 9780853036722   pbk, $35.00. Reviewed in 2007nov CHOICE.
45-1290 PN5449  MARC
 
During the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, President Reagan referred to the resistance as “freedom fighters”; Radio Moscow’s term for the resistance was “bandits.” During a major strike against the British authorities in Palestine in 1936, the Palestinian Arabic newspaper Filastin went from calling the strikers “disturbers” to calling them “liberty fighters.” Kabha (Open University of Israel) is good at tying language to ideology, and this book–admirably researched, documented, and organized–more than fulfills one of his main goals: “to lay an important foundation in the study of the history of the Palestinian Arabic press.” More background on “the events of 1929” and other key episodes would have been welcome, and someone should have seen to the many printing errors. But such flaws are offset by Kabha’s useful translations of news articles and his insights into divisions in Palestinian journalism and society and the newspapers’ frequent criticism of Arabs who sold land to Jews. In The Question of Palestine (1979), Edward Said pointed out that Theodor Herzl, the founder of political Zionism, “predicted that the small class of large landowners could be ‘had for a price’–as indeed they were.” The newspapers made sure such sales were not done in secret. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. — A. R. Cannella, Central Connecticut State University

Noland, Marcus.  The Arab economies in a changing world, by Marcus Noland and Howard Pack.  Peterson Institute for International Economics, 2007.  350p bibl index afp; ISBN 9780881323931  pbk, $24.95. Reviewed in 2007nov CHOICE.
45-1573 HC498  2007-4018 CIP

This book fulfills a major gap in the literature on Middle Eastern economies. With universities struggling to add courses on the political economy of the Middle East, this volume will prove to be a great resource, given the few titles currently available. Noland and Pack (Peterson Institute for International Economics) provide a comprehensive examination of the economic and political issues in the Arab world with a rigorous analysis of the data for the region. Technical material is always confined to chapter appendixes, thus allowing the reader to go through the material without being overwhelmed. The book contains numerous tables and charts; research is up-to-date and addresses the pertinent issues of the region. Clearly, this book is a must read for anyone interested in the Arab world, but more importantly it will be a welcome addition to reading lists for courses on the Middle East. Particularly valuable to undergraduate and graduate students, this work will also interest general readers, researchers, and professionals concerned with this important area of the world. Summing Up: Essential. All collections. — M. Akacem, Metropolitan State College of Denver
 
 
Palmer, David A.  Qigong fever: body, science, and utopia in China.  Columbia, 2007.  356p bibl index afp ISBN 0-231-14066-5 , $32.50. Reviewed in 2007nov CHOICE.
45-1420 RA781 2006-49025 CIP
 
Palmer (Chinese Univ. of Hong Kong) investigates the historical development of Qigong, a set of somatic, breathing, and meditation exercises that were extracted from traditional Chinese sources, such as Taoist inner alchemical and Buddhist practices. Under the initial patronage of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), these body techniques were stripped of their original religious contexts and promoted to enhance health. Palmer insightfully analyzes how a secular health regimen became a mass charismatic religious movement that erupted into full-scale conflict with the state with the rise and repression of Falun Gong. Palmer is an anthropologist, and his interpretation elucidates why many Chinese people were drawn to Falun Gong, and why the CCP is threatened by this movement. This volume is not a study of Qigong practices (many other works, both medical and religious studies-based, analyze Chinese body technologies). It is a powerful historical, political, cultural, and sociological analysis of the Qigong movement and its relationship to the state. It will be indispensable for religious studies, but perhaps more importantly, for Chinese studies, international relations, political science, and all researchers concerned with human rights and religious freedom. Summing Up: Essential. All levels. — G. J. Reece, American University
 
 
Paul Mellon’s legacy: a passion for British art: masterpieces from the Yale Center for British Art, essays by John Baskett et al. with Cassandra Albinson et al.  Yale/Yale Center for British Art, 2007.  335p bibl index afp ISBN 0-300-11746-9 , $65.00; ISBN 9780300117462 , $65.00. Reviewed in 2007nov CHOICE.
45-1268 N5220 2006-36240 CIP
 
This beautiful augmented catalog of the exhibition at the Yale Center for British Art on the centenary of Paul Mellon’s birth describes Mellon’s British art, the finest and most comprehensive collection outside England. The catalog includes a sensitive account of the collection’s origins and growth written by Baskett, a one-time collection curator, close friend, and coauthor of Mellon’s biography. Equally fascinating is Jules Prown’s detailed and frank account of Louis Kahn’s design of the building to house both art and books. Duncan Robinson (former director, Yale Center; currently, Fitzwilliam Museum, UK) continues the story with the same honesty and detailed writing of the later development of the Yale Center. Brian Allen (Paul Mellon Center for Studies in British Art, London), gives a detailed account of both centers’ growing scholarly publications and the growth of the Yale Center. Although most think of Mellon’s collection in terms of paintings and drawings, he was also one of the great 20th-century book collectors. William Reese, antiquarian bookseller and Mellon adviser, contributes a detailed account of the more than 30,000 volumes Mellon acquired; the best known are illustrated books by William Blake. At the volume’s heart are the illustrations and catalog of paintings, drawings, watercolors, and illustrated books. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers; upper-division undergraduates through faculty. — T. J. McCormick, emeritus, Wheaton College (MA)  
 

Petrillo, Larissa.  Being Lakota: identity and tradition on Pine Ridge Reservation, by Larissa Petrillo with Melda and Lupe Trejo.  Nebraska, 2007.  167p bibl index afp ISBN 0-8032-3750-2 , $35.00; ISBN 9780803237506 , $35.00. Reviewed in 2007nov CHOICE.
45-1546 E99 2006-21199 CIP
 
Melda Red Bear Trejo is Lakota, her husband Lupe from a Mexican family. They live on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Both come from migrant farm worker families. Both are active believers in the Lakota religion, hosting sun dances on the Red Bear allotment. Lupe emphasizes that he is Indian, from “one of the Aztec tribes”; he and Melda and their extended families socialized and intermarried within the same migrant laborer class. Anthropologist Petrillo juxtaposes direct-quote interviews with the Trejos with discussion of representation of Indian culture. Melda’s and Lupe’s narratives are printed verbatim, but Petrillo breaks them up into subject chapters with her commentaries interposed. Two themes emerge: Melda’s and Lupe’s life stories of migrant camps and living in cities, and the Lakota religion that (traditionally for Plains Indians) became the focus of their lives in middle age. Only after finishing the richly detailed episodes does one realize how skillfully Petrillo develops her purpose, convincing readers that, as Lupe insists, widespread intermarriage between Indian nations is indeed traditional, and consequently, an Indian person has several ways to live as an Indian. The Trejos’s voices are vivid, the book thought-provoking. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries. — A. B. Kehoe, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee 
 
 
Vaughan, Alden T.  Transatlantic encounters: American Indians in Britain, 1500-1776.  Cambridge, 2006.  337p index ISBN 0-521-86594-8 , $50.00; ISBN 9780521865944 , $50.00. Reviewed in 2007nov CHOICE.
45-1612 E77 2006-7792 CIP
 
Knowledge of the Atlantic world is informed by Vaughan’s careful archival pursuit of those residents from the ocean’s western shores who sailed east in the nearly three centuries between 1500 and 1776. Despite thousands of publications about the experiences of Europeans in the New World, this is only the second that touches on the subject of American Indians in Great Britain (e.g., Jack Forbes’s The American Discovery of Europe, CH, Jul’07, 44-6374). In addition to its uniqueness, the book illuminates some shadowy corners of the British colonial experience, i.e., the presence of English-speaking Native Americans who greeted and assisted the early settlements. Not God’s deliverers, as too many old sermons posited, but transatlantic travelers whose sojourns in England had given them enough basic English to help succor the suffering settlers of 17th-century New England. Thanks especially to Cambridge Univ. Press for including some striking reproductions of contemporary likenesses of the travelers seldom seen outside of highly specialized collections. This publication only enhances the author’s scholarly achievements established in such earlier works as New England Frontier (CH, Feb’66; 3rd ed., 1995). The permeable membrane of the ocean frontier is seldom better illustrated than in this study. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All academic levels/libraries. — J. H. O’Donnell III, Marietta College 

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