To highlight the wide range of publications reviewed in Choice, each month Choice editors feature some noteworthy reviews from the current issue.
 
 
Achebe, Chinua.  The education of a British-protected child: essays.  Knopf, 2009.  172p; ISBN 9780307272553, $24.95.
47-3634  PR387   2009-17480 CIP
 
Spanning two decades, the provocative, gentle essays collected in this volume tell in turn and together multiple intertwined tales. Be it personal autobiography, colonial historiography, or literary critical history, each essay presents the tale-teller himself, the “British-protected child” and internationally acclaimed writer, Chinua Achebe, whose first novel, Things Fall Apart (1958), has become a modern classic of world literature. From his early missionary schooling in colonial Nigeria to his participation in the predicaments of postindependence African universities, Achebe continues to raise pointed, poignant questions about Africa and its relation to the rest of the world. Whether remembering his departed friend, compatriot and poet Christopher Okigbo, or rebuking the imperial ways of British novelist Joseph Conrad, Achebe remains implacably committed to the valor and value of the literary endeavor. Whether in his native town Ogidi (in the conflicted region of Biafra), at academic symposia at the Irish Arts Council in Dublin, or at various US universities, Achebe powerfully enlists legions of world writers to participate in his recollections of the “education of a British-protected child.” An excellent resource for those interested in African or world literature. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates; general readers. — B. Harlow, University of Texas at Austin 

  
Afary, Janet.  Sexual politics in modern Iran.  Cambridge, 2009.  423p bibl index; ISBN 9780521898461, $90.00; ISBN 9780521727082 pbk, $32.99.
47-3987  HQ1735   MARC
 
Written by a historian of Iran, this volume is a study of the contentious issues of gender and sexuality in modern Iranian politics (19th century to the present day). Afary (history and women’s studies, Purdue) bases her work on the published literature, sources available only electronically, some interviews, and a brief visit to Tehran in 2005. Many books on this subject already exist, but this new one offers a fresh perspective. Afary’s main theme is that veiling and gender separation in Iran preserved male privileges in homosocial spaces that would otherwise be lost if women entered public spaces. She discusses how the Iranian state revived premodern social conventions by reinforcing them through modern means; she outlines the continuing process of producing modern versions of gender inequality. The inclusion of profiles of some women, such as Zahra Rahnavard (wife of Mir-Hossein Musavi, the runner-up in the tumultuous 2009 presidential election), is informative. With her emphasis on various forms of male homosexuality in Iran through time, Afary has written a useful companion to Afsaneh Najmabadi’s Women with Mustaches and Men without Beards (CH, Jan’06, 43-3098). The volume contains illustrations, including photographs and cartoons, and a lengthy bibliography. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. — L. Beck, Washington University, Saint Louis 
 
 
Bevington, Douglas.  The rebirth of environmentalism: grassroots activism from the spotted owl to the polar bear.  Island Press, 2009.  285p bibl index afp; ISBN 9781597266550, $70.00; ISBN 9781597266567 pbk, $35.00.
47-3764  GE197  2009-6757 CIP
 
Sociologist Bevington (forest program director, Environment Now) explores the role of small grassroots environmental organizations in comparison with large national organizations, including the Sierra Club and the National Wildlife Federation. The national organizations focus on legislative gains based upon access to legislators–an insider strategy that emphasizes incremental progress. In the 1980s, Earth First!, a group of radical environmentalists, challenged environmental threats, such as logging or pollution, by civil disobedience actions that could delay but not stop such threats. Grassroots environmental organizations arose as a third approach, using federal courts to stop actions that were illegal or to enforce actions that laws required to benefit the environment or endangered wildlife. These small organizations did not consider what was politically feasible, as the large nationals did, but rather what was needed to save the environment or wildlife. Using pro bono lawyers, they enjoyed legal successes that matched or exceeded what large nationals achieved through legislative lobbying. Bevington interviewed 62 activists in grassroots organizations and drew upon relevant literature to write an environmental political history covering the years from 1980 to 2008. What he has achieved will make this book the environmentalists’ bible for the foreseeable future. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Academic, professional, and general readers, all levels. — F. N. Egerton, emeritus, University of Wisconsin—Parkside 

Brauer, Jurgen.  War and nature: the environmental consequences of war in a globalized world.  AltaMira, 2009.  233p bibl index afp; ISBN 9780759112063, $70.00.
47-3792  QH545  2009-17974 CIP
 
War and Nature would be a masterful summary, except that there have not been many studies of the effects of war on the environment, and even fewer prewar baseline studies of affected areas. So there is not much to summarize, but the book does provide thorough coverage of the existing data. Most wars have been carried out in poor countries where not much ecological research has been conducted. Brauer (economics, Augusta State) carefully analyzes the data, especially from the Vietnam War and the first Gulf War. The author also discusses Rwanda and atomic bomb testing in the Pacific. Three conclusions/effects stand out. Most important is the forced relocation of populations. Second, war sometimes increases ecological diversity, as in the Korean Demilitarized Zone. Lastly, war may benefit the environment because it stops destructive economic activity. (War can, of course, be very destructive.) The book contains abundant notes and other academic apparatus and a few appropriate figures and tables. The most important table provides a classification of types of ecological damage, which, with the accompanying text, defines disruption, disturbance, degradation, depletion, and destruction. As Brauer indicates, people must stop waging war and preserve the environment. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduate through professional collections. — M. LaBar, emeritus, Southern Wesleyan University 
 
 
Corburn, Jason.  Toward the healthy city: people, places, and the politics of urban planning.  MIT, 2009.  282p bibl index afp; ISBN 9780262013314, $48.00; ISBN 9780262513074 pbk, $24.00.
47-4095  RA566  2009-3193 CIP
 
Corburn (city and regional planning, Univ. of California, Berkeley) argues that urban planning and governance must incorporate into its agenda a broad perspective on public health. This includes not only the traditionally studied factors that affect individuals’ conditions, such as communicable disease and pollution. He focuses on population health, defined as the distribution of disease and well-being across societal groups and its determining factors. Lower-income groups are in greater jeopardy of poor health and early death due to many factors in their urban living conditions. Health-sensitive governance practices can alter the social determinants of health, which encompass such drivers of inequities as employment, transit, access to healthy food and medical care, and toxic-free environments. After a survey of the concepts and principles of the global healthy city movement, as initiated by the World Health Organization, he presents three case studies from San Francisco in which community organizations joined with the city’s Department of Public Health to conduct health impact assessments for two project proposals and the entire bay region. Valuable for all concerned with urban development and public health. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. — W. C. Johnson, emeritus, Bethel University (MN) 
 

DeMello, Margo.  Feet and footwear: a cultural encyclopedia.  Greenwood, 2009.  360p bibl index afp; ISBN 9780313357145, $95.00.
47-3567  GT2130  2009-20843 CIP
 
In this intriguing volume, DeMello (Central New Mexico Community College) covers feet and footwear through the ages. No mere compendium of shoe styles, this volume offers foot-related entries that range alphabetically from “Achilles” and “Athlete’s Foot” to “Webbed Toes” and “Wedding Shoes,” with “Orthopedic Shoes” and “Sex in the City” in between. As with other sometimes quirky Greenwood offerings, the organization of this volume is clear and straightforward. Sections include a list of entries, guide to related topics, A-Z entries, and a resource guide. Entries range in length from several paragraphs to several pages. Some include related images and sidebars, e.g., “Europe” includes an image of a metal 15th-century shoe and a sidebar about Khrushchev’s shoe-banging at the United Nations in 1960. A tantalizing resource guide lists contact information on global shoe-related organizations, Web sites, and museums. Among these are the American Podiatric Medical Association; The Shoe Museum in Marikina, the Philippines (Imelda’s castoffs perhaps?); and the online Sexy Art History Museum for Miniature Shoes (a fetishist’s delight?). Rounding out the volume are an extensive bibliography and thorough index. This is another fascinating, very readable reference volume from Greenwood, full of curiosities. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-level undergraduates through professionals/practitioners; general readers. — A. J. Dutka, Broward College
 
 
The Fat studies reader, ed. by Esther Rothblum and Sondra Solovay.  New York University, 2009.  365p bibl index afp; ISBN 9780814776308, $80.00; ISBN 9780814776315 pbk, $27.00.
47-3885  RA645  2009-17385 CIP
 
This book wastes no time getting in the reader’s face about its intentions to break critical ground on the emerging field of fat studies and the need to combat inequities limiting the lives of fat people. The tone is strident; the essays will provoke reactions, especially from scholars studying obesity and other weight-related issues within a public health framework. The book is also an energized educational guide. It challenges myths (being poor does not make a person fat, although being fat makes a person poor). Articles range from personal accounts to analyses of medical studies. Other pieces draw attention to the power of discourse and the constitution of fat bodies, whether in neoliberal society or in scientific research seeking to identify a “fat” gene. Authors draw attention to the ways everyday spaces, including classroom desks and airplane seats, dictate what is normal and thus perpetuate inequalities. This unapologetic reader, laced throughout with theory, analysis, and research findings, is written in a consistently direct and impassioned style. It is an invaluable map of fat studies, giving voice to its proponents and outlining an agenda for future work. Summing Up: Essential. All levels/libraries. — A. B. Audant, CUNY Kingsborough Community College 
 
 
Kuper, Simon.  Soccernomics: why England loses, why Germany and Brazil win, and why the US, Japan, Australia, Turkey–and even Iraq–are destined to become the kings of the world’s most popular sport, by Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski.  Nation Books, 2009.  328p bibl index afp; ISBN 9781568584256 pbk, $14.95.
47-3878  GV943  2009-23502 CIP
 
What do you get when you bring together a talented journalist and a creative economist? When the former is Stephen Dubner and the latter Steven Levitt, you get Freakonomics (CH, Nov’05, 43-1689), a phenomenon that has now morphed into Superfreakonomics (2009). And when the journalist is Simon Kuper (writer and soccer correspondent for London’s Financial Times) and the economist is Stefan Szymanski (Cass Business School, City Univ., London) the result is this nifty book (published in the UK as Why England Loses). The authors take what “everybody” knows about success and failure in soccer and subject it to rigorous empirical analysis embedded in good stories that carry the narrative along. What is the most soccer-mad country in the world? (Norway.) Why does England always lose? (It doesn’t; it just seems that way.) Why is soccer such a good game but such a bad business? (Too many reasons to list here.) Kuper and Szymanski answer these and other questions in ways that will please students of business, economics, and sports; sports fans; and anyone who enjoyed Michael Lewis’s Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game (CH, Apr’04, 41-4733). Though written for a British audience, the book has plenty to keep American readers entertained and informed. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers. — M. Veseth, University of Puget Sound 

Lazreg, Marnia.  Questioning the veil: open letters to Muslim women.  Princeton, 2009.  156p bibl index afp; ISBN 9780691138183, $22.95.
47-4132  HQ1170  2009-3499 CIP
 
Sociologist Lazreg (CUNY), an authority on Algeria, has issued a call for frank and unmediated conversation among Muslim women. In a series of four letters that assert the major points of contention–modesty, sexual harassment, cultural identity, conviction, and piety–she lays bare the issues, apologetics, and real lives of veiled Muslim women in an unprecedented fashion. The last letter makes clear her stance and issues a challenge to Muslim women everywhere. Each letter contains a number of vignettes that seat the issues inside actual intergenerational conversations she has had with women living in the Muslim world and in New York City. While one asserted goal is to break the shackles and free women by attacking the veil, Lazreg is clearly attempting to force Muslim women into an honest conversation. Some of her best insights are on display in the third letter on cultural identity. Here, Muslim women are confronted with the discourse on veils as signs of backwardness or oppression while non-veiled women are belittled as having no pride in their heritage. A provocative text that demands a response. Summing Up: Essential. All levels/libraries. — A. B. McCloud, DePaul University 
 
 
Levy, Barry.  Town born: the political economy of New England from its founding to the Revolution.  Pennsylvania, 2009.  352p bibl index afp; ISBN 9780812241778, $45.00.
47-3926  HC107  2009-16456 CIP
 
Levy (history, Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst) offers a very interesting reexamination of the origins of the uniqueness of New England, particularly Massachusetts. What was it that separated it from the other Colonies? He is not the first to look at this region’s distinct differences from the rest of Colonial America. Many studies have tried to explore what was unique. However, Levy offers an extraordinary approach to this question. He posits an innovative governmental structure that was based on local/central cooperation and whose aim was to control the conditions of life in the new settlements. The basis of the structure was innovations in town governance in New England during the last decades of the 1600s. In the best traditions of social science history, Levy then proceeds to look at the various aspects of social control that defined the Bay Colony and its environs. This rigid structure allowed New Englanders to face the outside world with a nearly uniform outlook. The work that went into this book is astonishing. There is virtually no aspect of life left unexamined. Agree or disagree, there is no question that this book’s conclusions cannot be ignored. Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduate and graduate students; faculty and researchers; professionals. — I. Cohen, emeritus, Illinois State University 
 
 
Mokhtari, Shadi.  After Abu Ghraib: exploring human rights in America and the Middle East.  Cambridge, 2009.  252p bibl index; ISBN 9780521767538, $85.00.
47-4072  K3249   2008-45107 CIP
 
Mokhtari’s comparative study of human rights in the US and Middle East is very original. She has conducted empirical research in Jordan and Yemen and writes about the subject with intimate knowledge. She includes a most interesting section about Arab reactions to US wars and foreign policy from the standpoint of human rights. Rarely have Arab criticisms of US human rights violations received attention in the US, and Mokhtari does an excellent job in studying these reactions. However, her treatment is incomplete because she relies on English-language publications and English translations. Nevertheless, she succeeds in her approach. She refuses to accept the human rights claims of the US and examines the record in great detail. She studies human rights in the Middle East without resorting to clichés about the exceptionalism of the region or assumptions about the role of Islam. Readers may wish that she included more about the human rights situation in Jordan and Yemen and the roles of nongovernmental organizations in those countries. This interesting, critical book is a refreshing contribution to the literature: it can be used in undergraduate courses and in courses at law schools that deal with human rights, but it can also be enjoyed by general readers. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readership levels. — A. AbuKhalil, California State University, Stanislaus 
 
 
Morgan, Iwan.  The age of deficits: presidents and unbalanced budgets from Jimmy Carter to George W. Bush.  University Press of Kansas, 2009.  375p index afp; ISBN 9780700616855, $34.95.
47-3928  HJ2051  2009-25059 CIP
 
Morgan (Univ. of London) presents a historian’s approach to federal government finances, particularly exploding deficits, in the presidencies from Carter onward, an interesting divergence from the process, political incentive, macroeconomic approach normally taken. This work thus focuses on the executive and presidential documents and centers on the peculiar fact that the Democrats have been more successful at deficit control than have the outwardly more fiscally conservative Republicans. While public finance scholars are unlikely to find surprises, Morgan’s attention to presidential papers reveals useful insights into some deliberations not usually considered. Unfortunately, technical issues are handled without much professional depth, although some useful budget data for each presidency are provided in an appendix. The exception to the deficit history is a brief period in the Clinton administration, and Morgan does pay attention to the important role that the first Bush administration’s Budget Enforcement Act of 1990 played in producing surpluses during that period, a role often given inadequate credit for the brief reversal of the sorry fiscal history. The Obama epilogue focuses on the formidable challenges that he faces in getting national finances back to sustainability, but data are not available for an assessment of his work. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduate through research and faculty collections. — J. L. Mikesell, Indiana University—Bloomington 
 
 
Okrent, Arika.  In the land of invented languages: Esperanto rock stars, Klingon poets, Loglan lovers, and the mad dreamers who tried to build a perfect language.  Spiegel & Grau, 2009.  342p index ISBN 0-385-52788-8, $26.00; ISBN 9780385527880, $26.00.
47-3633  PM8008  2008-38732 CIP
 
This book is a joy. Okrent offers 26 chapters of insights into some of the world’s hundreds of invented languages. She is selective, of course, and organizes the material around a few key themes about language that resonate with any reader: transparency, perspective, accuracy, and invention. And Okrent has a feel not just for the languages but also for the people behind them. She introduces readers to some of the heroes and villains behind invented languages: one meets the charming John Wilkins (who constructed a philosophical language), the earnest Ludwig Zamenhof (whose Esperanto sought world peace), the bitter Charles Bliss (whose Blissymbolics helped children with cerebral palsy), and the controlling John Cook Brown (who devised the logical language Loglan). One also meets linguists Mark Okrand, inventor of Klingon, and Suzette Haden Elgin, who created Ladaan, a language encoding women’s experiences, and who wonders why a language for women has languished while one for alien warriors thrives. And Okrenttakes the reader through her own experience studying Klingon, with its purposeful difficulty and hidden jokes (like ghotI’, the word for fish, and Sa’Hut, for rear end). Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers. — E. L. Battistella, Southern Oregon University
 
 
Reid, T. R.  The healing of America: a global quest for better, cheaper, and fairer health care.  Penguin, 2009.  277p bibl index; ISBN 9781594202346, $25.95.
47-3846  RA395  2009-9555 CIP
 
One of the clearest books on its topic to date, this well-researched volume by Reid, a reporter for The Washington Post, investigates the US health care system. The author documents how, for the most important measures of health care coverage, cost, and quality, the US lags far behind the rest of the developed world. He then describes the four models of health care represented in the rest of the world’s systems, hoping that the public and policy makers will find this information useful for the reform of the American system. When the author reports on suggestions for care for his own shoulder within a number of different health care systems, the book takes on a human-interest dimension. Well written and enjoyable to read, it also provides a wealth of important information from independent studies done on health care delivery systems. The author concludes that, while this debate has important political, economic, and medical dimensions, the most important aspect is the ethical one. Will people choose to recognize health care as a universal human right, or continue to deny coverage to millions of their fellow citizens? Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels. — C. L. Kammer, The College of Wooster 
 
 
Slomp, Gabriella.  Carl Schmitt and the politics of hostility, violence and terror.  Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.  182p bibl index; ISBN 9780230002517, $74.95.
47-4086  JC263    MARC
 
Slomp (Univ. of St. Andrews, Scotland) offers a provocative analysis of Carl Schmitt’s understanding of hostility and the partisan that is useful for those who are just now encountering his thought and those long acquainted with it. Taking Schmitt’s friend/enemy principle as a starting point, she addresses his understanding of the political, his critique of Hobbes’s liberalism as fostering internal division, the link between the partisan and the modern state, the role of technological advancement in increasing the scope of hostility, his critique of just war theory, and the historical development of hostility. Of particular interest to readers with an eye on current events is Slomp’s discussion of the link between Schmitt’s understanding of real (as opposed to conventional or limited) hostility and the telluric or local partisan. Slomp shows that the alternative to the telluric partisan’s real hostility and the nation-state’s conventional hostility is the absolute hostility and global enmity of the global partisan or righteous warrior. In thinking through Schmitt’s account of hostility, Slomp provides a useful category for thinking about contemporary terrorism. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduate, graduate, and research collections. — M. Harding, University of Dallas 
 
 
Stapleford, Thomas A.  The cost of living in America: a political history of economic statistics, 1880-2000.  Cambridge, 2009.  421p index; ISBN 9780521895019, $90.00; ISBN 9780521719247 pbk, $29.99.
47-3933  HD6983  2009-22050 CIP
 
Stapleford (Univ. of Norte Dame) treats a particularly timely topic, given that “data driven” decision making has become best practice in many fields. In a reworking of his 2003 Harvard University PhD thesis, he has produced a work accessible to a broad readership that offers a “focused lens,” trained on “state-created, quantitative knowledge about the cost-of-living” (CPI), a statistic that has occupied a key role in US policy making in the US since its creation after WW I. The book is organized in three parts. The first deals with the establishment of statistics for labor-management purposes in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. It is followed by a section on the politics of statistics in the New Deal era and a third section on the transformation of data gathering in the age of the “welfare” state. The epilogue, “Governance and Economic Statistics,” sums up the volume. This book is a worthwhile text for all students of politics and economics at any level. Given the dizzying array of statistics that are published and referenced every day, questions about their validity warrant due consideration. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers; all levels of undergraduate and graduate students; researchers and professionals. — B. Roman, Palo Alto College/University of Western Ontario 
 
 
Stuart, Tristram.  Waste: uncovering the global food scandal.  W.W. Norton, 2009.  451p bibl index afp; ISBN 9780393068368, $27.95.
47-3773  TD899  2009-30964 CIP
 
Not long ago, in the US at least, the injunction not to waste food was considered a moral imperative. Today, according to this exposé, the food wasted, especially by rich nations, could feed the hungry of the world several times over. The culprits of this profligacy include not only Western consumers with their access to cheap food and increasing predilection for meat, but also food manufacturers, who seem constitutionally incapable of finding efficiencies in their production lines, and governments whose often well-intentioned regulations/subsidies seem to promote, not reduce, waste. The most prodigal of all, according to writer/journalist Stuart (The Bloodless Revolution, CH, Sep’07, 45-0254), are large supermarket chains. These stores promote the impression of an “infinite, abundant cornucopian choice,” set needlessly conservative sell-by dates for their wares and unrealistically high aesthetic standards for farmers’ produce, and frequently browbeat food manufacturers into acquiescing to contracts that can be terminated at a moment’s notice due to slow sales. This waste spews out collateral damage to the environment (global warming and deforestation) and jeopardizes animal welfare. In a chapter titled “Action Plan,” Stuart offers modest solutions to these problems. In one creative green solution, he proposes resurrecting long discarded laws permitting the feeding of swill to pigs. Summing Up: Recommended. All collections. — D. M. Gilbert, Maine Maritime Academy 
     
 
The Torture Archive.  Internet Resource.
47-3587

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/torture_archive/index.htm 
[Visited Dec’09] The Torture Archive, part of the National Security Archive at George Washington University, provides access to over 83,000 pages (with more materials to be added) of primary documents concerning the detention and interrogation of individuals by the US government. Although numerous documents are available in other locations, this database is a single, well-organized, and searchable site for information. Documents include executive branch policy memoranda, legal documents from US and foreign courts, and information on practices of US military and intelligence sources. Included are the complete set of the Combatant Status Review Tribunal and the ARB files from the Pentagon. Interview transcripts and biographies of pertinent players in the war on terror (Yoo, Armitage, Gonzales) contribute to the wealth of data. The Interactive Timeline provides information from the 1950s to 2008 in interactive or comprehensive format, highlighting specific events or issues, e.g., the KUBARK Manual. Videos and documents enhance the information found in the Timeline.

Search options (using all or some words) include releasing agency, title, creator, origin, individuals, and more. Users may browse 84 Key Documents (e.g., Exploitation and Physical Pressures, Counter-resistance Techniques), and look at selected Key Documents according to chronology (9/14/2001-1/15/2009) or theme (Relics of the Cold War, Detainees, Iraq, etc.). One may browse documents in categories including Organizations, Date, and Document Type. The site also features access to the award-winning documentary Torturing Democracy and accompanying resources. A Help section provides valuable assistance with searching. Site information indicates that, in many instances, documents have been censored before release and publication. The Torture Archive provides a thorough look at torture and the US, from historical times to the present. This is an excellent resource on an unsettling situation for the US. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-level undergraduates and above; general audience. — K. Evans, Indiana State University

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