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

Access denied: the practice and policy of global Internet filtering, ed. by Ronald Deibert et al.  MIT, 2008.  449p index  afp ISBN 9780262541961  pbk, $20.00
45-6833             QA76                      CIP

In this timely book, Deibert (political science, Univ. of Toronto) and colleagues, principal investigators of the OpenNet Initiative <http://opennet.net/>, present an overview of the current social, political, and legal issues surrounding Internet use in 40 countries.  The ambitious work encompasses broader issues as well as region/country-specific examples, while acknowledging the quickly changing landscape.  The point-in-time regional/country-specific surveys of the political and social repressions demonstrate the power of blogs, information media, and open Web access in threatening existing religious beliefs and governance in each country.  Jailing bloggers and shutting down Web sites are but part of the reduced civil liberties in many places.  Internet censorship and filtering (which occur in some countries) are alien concepts for many Americans, who often take open access for granted because of the constitutional freedoms of the press and personal expression.  Democratic environments rely on open discourse and free speech, but the dark side of misuse of the Web for crime and abuse exists.  The physical and financial barriers to access for many people are additional limitations for sharing ideas and information.  The editors and contributors have well-established achievements and credentials in international legal and social policy fields associated with the Internet.  Summing Up: Recommended.  General readers; lower-division undergraduates through professionals. — N. J. Johnson,  Metropolitan State University

Appiah, Kwame Anthony.  Experiments in ethics.  Harvard, 2008.  274p index  afp ISBN 9780674026094, $22.95
45-6695             BJ37                      CIP

Appiah (Princeton Univ.), author of Cosmopolitanism (CH, Oct’06, 44-0998), The Ethics of Identity (CH, Sep’05, 43-0230), In My Father’s House (CH, Dec’92, 30-1990), and other works, has produced an elegant and well-written volume at the intersection of psychology and moral philosophy.  Appiah presents a reasonable case that philosophy traditionally has been informed by scientific inquiry, and should continue to welcome it; but at the same time he is clear that the questions of moral philosophy are not themselves scientific questions.  Here, he treads a fine line and sensibly avoids two common extremes.  One extreme is to be overly impressed by the deliverances of modern science (in this case, neurobiology, cognitive science, and evolutionary theory) so that one can jettison old-fashioned moral philosophy, and the other extreme is to maintain that moral philosophy has a special importance that makes the findings and theories of science totally irrelevant to it.  Appiah believes, on the contrary, that moral philosophy can only be enriched (but not replaced) by empirical study.  And the footnotes in the book provide a treasure trove of references to exactly where interesting and relevant empirical research can be located.  Summing Up: Highly recommended.  Lower-level undergraduates and above; general readers. — S. Satris,  Clemson Unviersity

Aziz, Barbara Nimri.  Swimming up the Tigris: real life encounters with Iraq.  University Press of Florida, 2007.  314p bibl  index  afp ISBN 9780813031446, $24.95
45-6961            GN640                      CIP

Aziz, an Arab American anthropologist and journalist, began reporting on Iraq in 1989, the year that marked the end of the terrible and mutually destructive eight-year war between Iraq and Iran.  She subsequently made a number of visits to assess the impact of the UN-imposed harsh economic sanctions that lasted 12 years, ending with the 2003 military invasion and occupation of the country by the US and its allies.  The result is this collection of sensitive, carefully reported accounts of the hardships suffered by the Iraqis and their struggle to cope with the rapid deterioration of their country’s health, education, and economic systems and subsequent degradation of their quality of life.  Through her empathic personal portraits of a number of Iraqi men and women, Aziz powerfully conveys the pain, confusion, and outrage of the Iraqis as they cope with food rationing, lack of medicine, rampant corruption, breakdown of civility, and a crumbling infrastructure.  This angry and compassionate book puts a human face on the Iraqi people’s ordeal through years of cruel dictatorship, a harsh embargo, and a war with no end in sight.  Summing Up: Recommended.  All levels/libraries. — A. Rassam, emerita,  CUNY Queens College

Bergreen, Laurence.  Marco Polo: from Venice to Xanadu.  Knopf, 2007.  415p bibl  index ISBN 9781400043453,
$28.95
45-6943             G370                      CIP

Biographer Bergreen undertakes an immense task in writing about Marco Polo.  Moving from Venice to Xanadu, he must explain the Venetian constitution, Central Asian topography, the way of life among the Mongol tribes, and, of course, the wonders of China.  The author follows Marco to Xanadu, but despite Coleridge’s poem, where Xanadu symbolizes earthly bliss, the true climax of Marco’s travels was the Chinese city Quinsai (modern Hangzhou).  Acting as an official of Kublai Khan, the city’s recent conqueror, Marco observed society from within, although he never spoke Chinese.  He described the city’s extravagant wealth, beautiful women, elaborate firefighting methods, and dependence on astrology.  Bergreen portrays Western Christian culture as backward and closed, a culture that Marco’s liberated spirit had to overcome.  Europe, however, had sent out many missionaries, merchants, and explorers, some of whom Bergreen mentions.  What Bergreen and others have not addressed is why medieval Christians were fascinated by the East, while so few Asians had any interest in the West.  Which civilization was closed?  Summing Up: Recommended.  General, public, and lower-level undergraduate collections. — T. S. Miller,  Salisbury University

Bowen, Mark.  Censoring science: inside the political attack on Dr. James Hansen and the truth of global warming.  Dutton, 2008.  324p bibl  index ISBN 9780525950141, $25.95
45-6733            QC981                     MARC

It is regrettable that this book had to be written, but given the muzzling of science by the present administration, it had to be.  The central figure here is the world’s acknowledged authority on global warming, Dr. James Hansen, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies.  Hansen first claimed in 1981 that global warming was due to anthropogenic causes.  Over the intervening period, he solidified that claim through his own painstaking scientific inquiry, with final vindication coming in the 2007 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change <http://www.ipcc.ch/> (CH, May’08, 45-5008).  Physicist and writer Bowen’s well-documented investigative work describes in meticulous detail the political attacks on Hansen by the White House through its political appointments of public affairs personnel in NASA, in effect muzzling not only his significant work, but that of many others.  The book describes the same kind of science muzzling by political appointees in other federal agencies.  In spite of this inappropriate and unacceptable scuttling of his work, Hansen continues to speak solid science in venues not controlled by NASA (e.g., The New York Times), even at the risk of his job.  Summing Up: Recommended.  General readers; lower-division undergraduates through professionals. — E. J. Kormondy, chancellor-emeritus,  University of Hawaii at Hilo

Finkelstein, Stan.  Reasonable Rx: solving the drug price crisis, by Stan Finkelstein and Peter Temin.  FT Press, 2008.  188p index  afp ISBN 9780132344494, $27.99
45-6901           HD9666                      CIP

Finkelstein (MD, research scientist, MIT) and Temin (economics, MIT) are a dream team in combining their respective expertise in this excellent, timely analysis of the roles of government, pharmaceutical companies, and market forces in the pricing and availability of drugs.  They identify and explain the positive association between drug prices and innovation.  The problem is that attempts to control prices and/or quantities of prescription drugs can lead to decreases in research and development (R and D).  After a careful review of the structure, conduct, and performance of the drug industry, the authors label the industry as dysfunctional.  Their proposed solution is to “eliminate the linkage between drug prices and drug discovery.”  Instead, a new independent public nonprofit drug development corporation (DDC), financed by the federal government, foundations, etc., would buy the drug patents developed by the private and public sector R and D firms.  In turn, the DDC would hold public R and D auctions for licenses to the highest qualified bidders.  This study offers a dramatic opportunity to consider a major restructuring of the pharmaceutical industry that could lead to efficient use of resources, prices that reflect values for consumers, and incentives for innovation, research, and development.  Summing Up: Highly recommended.  Upper-division undergraduate through professional collections. — F. W. Musgrave,  Ithaca College

Fritz, Christian G.  American sovereigns: the people and America’s constitutional tradition before the Civil War.  Cambridge, 2008.  427p bibl  index ISBN 9780521881883, $80.00
45-6981           KF4881                      CIP

In one of the most significant contributions to rethinking the nature and function of constitutionalism that this reviewer has encountered in many years, promising historian-lawyer Fritz (Univ. of New Mexico) has taken a new look at the role of popular sovereignty in conflicts over the nature of constitutionalism in the US.  The author’s contention is essentially that historians have extended Gordon Wood’s argument (in The Creation of the American Republic, CH, Oct’69) about the centrality of popular sovereignty in creating the 1787 Constitution to be reflective of American attitudes about popular sovereignty and constitutional change over the centuries.  That is simply not so, Fritz shows through an elegant analysis of constitutional conflicts between the Revolution and the Civil War.  His implicit message is that the power of the people to change the terms of the Constitution is always a lively, contested issue.  This is a finding of immense importance for understanding the current constitutional impasse in the US over the war power, to cite only one example.  A highly accessible, nicely produced, and beautifully researched and written book that is a must read for historians and teachers of public law.  Summing Up: Essential.  Most levels/libraries. — S. N. Katz,  Princeton University

The Heritage series of black poetry, 1962-1975: a research compendium, ed. by Lauri Ramey with Paul Breman.  Ashgate, 2008.  327p bibl  index  afp ISBN 9780754657828, $99.95
45-6621           PS310                      CIP

After WW II, Paul Breman, a Dutch citizen who immersed himself in blues music in the Netherlands in the war yeas, intuited the existence of a major undiscovered cache of black poetry and undertook the monumental project of publishing that work.  Between 1962 and 1975, Breman’s Heritage Press published 27 volumes in the “Heritage Series,” and these books are benchmarks in the world of black writing.  For this volume Ramey (California State Univ., Los Angeles), in consultation with Breman, drew on the holdings of the Heritage Press archive at the Chicago Public Library.  She includes here 67 pages of original work by poets such as Ron Fair, Ray Durem, and Audre Lord along with ten essays about black poetry by such specialists as Linda Selzer, Inga Ivory, and Margaret Kissam Morris.  One section, “Memoirs and Reflections,” focuses on the Heritage Press and also includes essays on poets (e.g., Durem and Ebele Oseye).  Another section presents statements about poetry and poetics by Lord, Durem, and Conrad Kent Rivers.  Anyone seeking to understand black poets and their work will want to consult this volume.  Summing Up: Highly recommended.  Upper-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers. — R. B. Shuman, emeritus,  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

The Internet and American business, ed. by William Aspray and Paul E. Ceruzzi.  MIT, 2008.  596p index  afp ISBN 9780262012409, $50.00
45-6883           HE7583                      CIP

The editors of this ambitious book have assembled 15 contributors who together effectively portray the commercialization of the Internet and its impact on American business.  The contributors, journalism and mass communication professors, business school professors, historians of technology, science and technology scholars, and business consultants, provide the breadth of expertise necessary to capture the tumultuous period under study.  The book includes an early history of the Internet emphasizing developments critical to its commercialization; a survey of the business models that allow companies to supply Internet offerings; a detailed discussion of the development of commerce over the Internet; an assessment of the Internet’s impact on traditional industries; an analysis of file sharing and copyright violations; a description of early technology adoption in the provision of Internet pornography; and a discussion of the Internet as a community-building medium.  A principal theme running through the book is the entrepreneurial search for viable business models.  Spectacular successes and failures in this regard are presented in fascinating detail.  This excellent scholarly effort successfully places e-commerce in a useful historical context.  Summing Up: Highly recommended.  General readers; students, upper-division undergraduate and up; researchers and professionals. — R. C. Singleton,  University of Puget Sound

Kazlowski, Steven.  The last polar bear: facing the truth of a warming world: a photographic journey, by Steven Kazlowski with Theodore Roosevelt IV et al.  Braided River Books, 2008.  207p bibl  index ISBN 9781594850592, $39.95
45-6788            QL737                      CIP

In this oversize book, wildlife photographer Kazlowski provides an attractive portfolio of photographs of polar bears and other Arctic wildlife, unprecedented in their variety and propinquity–the result of much labor, patience, and endurance.  Because of this eight-year effort, there are some valuable new insights into polar bear behavior and biology.  But the book is primarily designed to raise awareness about climate change and its impact on the Arctic, and is part of a coordinated program that includes a travelling exhibition and presentations.  It includes long essays by a few mainstream popularizers of climate change issues and provides the basics of what is known about climate change and the planet’s future.  The tone is cautionary, not alarmist, but ultimately this is a sad story, as the threats to polar bears are very real and very serious.  In a similar heavily photographic book, Polar Bears by Ian Stirling (CH, Mar’89, 26-3896), climate change is not even mentioned.  As this book shows, climate change is the number one threat to polar bears and all Arctic wildlife.  A great book group or coffee-table book, it is also suitable for academic libraries.  Summing Up: Highly recommended.  General readers; undergraduates. — J. Nabe,  Southern Illinois University – Carbondale

The Letters of John Murray to Lord Byron, ed. by Andrew Nicholson.  Liverpool University, 2007.  576p bibl  indexes ISBN 9781846310690, $50.00
45-6624           PR4381                     MARC

This handsome volume deserves a cascade of superlatives, beginning with “This is the most important contribution to Byron studies in many decades.” Founder of the major London publishing house that bore his name, Murray published Byron’s works between 1811 and 1822, when their intimate friendship ended abruptly, on a bitter note.  These informative letters have never been published before and only rarely have scholars been allowed to see them.  Murray was always deferential toward Byron the aristocrat, and sometimes sycophantic, but with respect to literary matters he did not hesitate to offer advice–especially about religion–and Byron often took it.  Readers will learn much about the often fragile relationship between author and editor, the complex workings of a thriving publishing house, and above all the astonishing literary scene at a time when Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats, Shelley, Scott, and Austen, among others, were active.  Murray knew everyone, and the letters brim with social and cultural references that cry out for context and explanation.  Nicholson supplies that in the learned, illuminating annotations that follow most of the letters and that are almost beyond praise.  The volume includes 18 illustrations (mainly portraits) and three appendixes.  Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty. — N. Fruman, emeritus,  University of Minnesota

Mack, John.  The art of small things.  Harvard, 2007.  218p bibl  index  afp ISBN 9780674026933, $24.95
45-6560            N7437                      CIP

Mack (Univ. of East Anglia) offers a remarkably informative work based on anthropological/sociological insights.  He reports on “small things” from around the world and throughout time.  Mack discusses objects whose characteristics range from talismanic to religious, and from magical to aesthetic; he includes Mughal miniature paintings, ancient Egyptian amulets, Ashanti gold weights, Aztec jade figures, Hindu temple carts, Japanese netsukes, Elizabethan portraits, and Italian micro-mosaics–to identify just a few.  Mack expounds on two themes: the technology involved in creating these objects, and the cultural process that invests them in specific societies.  Readers will find themselves peering over his shoulder as he describes, e.g., the British 16th-century process of “limning” a miniature book, including the particulars of preparing the vellum, pigment, and brushes.  Nor does he neglect the working conditions that the “monastic” environment demanded.  He then compares this process with the Persian, which uses linen strips rather than vellum.  Mack’s seven chapters also demonstrate the potency of things, discussing the relationships between the life-size and miniature, and the “private pleasures” generated by them.  This comprehensive exposition employs many illuminating and clearly presented color photographs, and accessible, relatively non-academic writing.  Though the pages are packed with information, they invite browsing.  Summing Up: Highly recommended.  Lower-level undergraduates and above; general readers. — K. Marantz, emeritus,  Ohio State University

Manjoo, Farhad.  True enough: learning to live in a post-fact society.  Wiley, 2008.  250p index ISBN 9780470050101, $25.95
45-6552           BJ1421                      CIP

Manjoo, who manages a daily blog at Salon.com, here demonstrates a basic principle of perception: people see what their background, experience, and training have conditioned them to see.  “Truth,” he observes, has a quality of relativeness, and beyond one’s faulty perceptions one can find many examples of the way “truth” is distorted (e.g., nonfactual conspiracy theories about the Kennedy assassination, the 2004 Ohio presidential election).  Manjoo points out that emotional attachment to untruth can be very strong, as in an HIV-positive woman publicly denying the connection between HIV and AIDS while her AIDS-infected daughter dies in her arms.  But particularly disturbing are those who know the truth and lie about it: think tanks that produce spurious “expert” analyses; corporations that produce studies to disprove scientific realities (the connection between smoking and cancer or hydrocarbons and global warming); governments that mislead the populace (many Americans are still convinced that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction).  Manjoo includes endnotes but does not key them to the text.  Summing Up: Highly recommended.  All readers, all levels. — P. E. Kane, emeritus,  SUNY College at Brockport

McDermott, Rose.  Presidential leadership, illness, and decision making.  Cambridge, 2008.  334p bibl  index ISBN 9780521882729, $80.00; ISBN 9780521709248 pbk, $24.99
45-7059            JK609                      CIP

The medical profession has long been aware of the importance of the physical and mental health of political, diplomatic, and military leaders (i.e., Hugh L’Etang, MD, The Pathology of Leadership, 1969, and Fit to Lead?, 1980).  With a similar concern, McDermott (Univ. of California, Santa Barbara) has written a significant, innovative study that adds greatly to the literature on political psychology and presidential leadership.  “This book,” she writes, “seeks to examine, in depth, the impact of physical and psychological illness on the foreign policy decision making of several important presidents (Woodrow Wilson, Eisenhower, JFK, Nixon) as well as the impact of foreign leaders’ health on the decision making of American presidents (the Shah of Iran’s illness and the Carter Administration).”  The chapter on how JFK’s use of steroids for treatment of Addison’s disease, and of narcotics and amphetamines, influenced his behavior with Khrushchev during the 1961 Vienna Conference is especially riveting.  Finally, the implications of McDermott’s analysis are brought to bear on the Twenty-Fifth Amendment, with some final thoughts on presidential care.  This powerful book is a required acquisition for academic and research libraries.  Summing Up: Essential.  All readership levels. — E. C. Dreyer, emeritus,  University of Tulsa

Moustafa, Tamir.  The struggle for constitutional power: law, politics, and economic development in Egypt.  Cambridge, 2007.  328p bibl  index ISBN 9780521876049, $85.00
45-7030           KRM2620                     CIP

This is an important book, to be read by scholars and students of comparative constitutionalism and constitutional democracy.  Moustafa (Simon Fraser Univ., Canada) addresses fundamental questions such as whether democracy is a necessary prerequisite for effective judicial power.  He challenges the common assumption that courts in authoritarian states are pawns of the regime and obstacles to the realization of minority rights.  He does this by examining the Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt, perhaps the most important constitutional court in the Arab world.  Anwar Sadat established the court in 1972 by as a means of stabilizing the Egyptian economy and attracting foreign investment by assuring investors that their assets would be safe from state seizure and nationalization.  But the court developed substantial autonomy in other arenas.  It worked to limit executive powers and protect human rights and free expression.  By the 1990s its legitimacy with a new, less liberal government had worn thin, and it faced a number of measures to weaken its powers and undermine the judicial independence that the regime found increasingly threatening.  The Egyptian case offers a good opportunity to examine, more generally, the legitimacy and efficacy of judicial institutions in authoritarian states and their implication for authoritarianism.  Summing Up: Highly recommended.  Upper-division undergraduate through research collections. — J. B. Grossman,  Johns Hopkins University

Neu, Jerome.  Sticks and stones: the philosophy of insults.  Oxford, 2008.  292p bibl  index  afp ISBN 9780195314311, $29.95
45-6701            BF463                      CIP

Think you know what it means to be insulted?  Think again.  The taxonomy in this book is vast: dejection, hurt feelings, slaps in the face, dishonoring, provocative looks, abuse, dissing.  Law offers its own categories: fighting words, hate speech, libel and slander, defamation of both individuals and groups.  Insult humor gets its own chapter, as do insult games and sexual abuse.  Also analyzed are religious insults, and dueling–with the code of honor on which it was based.  The philosophical perspective is phenomenological and draws from sociology, literature, ethnology, and psychology.  Freud looms large in the analysis, due to the author’s role as editor of The Cambridge Companion to Freud (1991).  The essence of an insult is “to suffer a shock, a disruption of one’s sense of self and one’s place in the world,” and reactions range from indignation to resentment and anger.  In his analysis of the possibility of forgiveness, Neu (Univ. of California, Santa Cruz) draws from contemporary analytic philosophers on topics as varied as resentment, excuses, and punishment.  Given that insults are powerful and can lead to aggression and death, this is an important book on an important topic.  A good bibliography and index add to its value.  Summing Up: Highly recommended.  Lower-level undergraduates and above; general readers. — D. Stewart, emeritus,  Ohio University

Niblock, Tim.  The political economy of Saudi Arabia, by Tim Niblock with Monica Malik.  Routledge, 2007.  254p bibl  index ISBN 9780415428422, $160.00
45-6906            HC415                      CIP

Niblock (Exeter Univ., UK), a respected analyst of Persian Gulf societies, has assembled from primary sources a wealth of economic data spanning 40 years, which alone will make his latest book indispensable for those concerned with Saudi Arabia.  The focus of the analysis is on private business, not the oil industry, with considerable information on government policy and macroeconomic developments such as balance of payments, government spending, and composition and growth of gross domestic product.  The longtime frame gives the account a rich perspective on how Saudi society has evolved during the four periods, which are covered in separate chapters: modest changes, 1962-70; rapid transformation, 1970-85; constrained development, 1985-2000; and growth with reform, 2000-06.  Niblock describes the book as written “with Monica Malik,” using her survey of business leaders’ opinion as the basis for one chapter.  The final chapter, on “The Record of Reform,” which looks at seven key constraints to private-sector growth, concludes that the kingdom has “a relatively small but highly effective part of the economy … surrounded by a larger economic hinterland of Saudi companies and undertakings struggling to compete.”  Summing Up: Essential.  Middle Eastern economic collections at all levels. — P. Clawson,  Washington Institute for Near East Policy

Purcell, Edward A., Jr.  Originalism, federalism, and the American constitutional enterprise: a historical inquiry.  Yale, 2007.  301p index  afp ISBN 9780300122039, $45.00
45-7062            JK325                      CIP

In this vigorously argued and heavily documented work, Purcell (New York Law School) challenges the endeavor of the US Supreme Court under Chief Justice Rehnquist to restore the “original” balance between federal and state authority supposedly intended by the Constitution’s authors.  Purcell denies that the original Constitution “gave the federal structure any single proper shape” or “mandated any particular and timeless balance among its components.”  The line between federal and state authority was left imprecise since the Constitution gave the two levels of government overlapping powers, allowing each to check the other in pursuit of the “fundamental values” of “liberty, property, and republican government.”  From the beginning, Purcell demonstrates, the Constitution’s demarcation of federal authority was a subject of controversy on which leading political leaders such as Jefferson and Madison changed their positions, depending on the particular political issues at stake.  Hence, while the Rehnquist Court “intuited well when it recognized the need to protect states from being ‘commandeered’ by the federal government,” it erred, in Purcell’s view, when it cited that need as a ground for limiting congressional power under the Commerce Clause and the Fourteenth Amendment.  An important book.  Summing Up: Essential.  All readership levels. — D. Schaefer,  College of the Holy Cross

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