To highlight the wide range of publications reviewed in Choice, each month Choice editors feature some noteworthy reviews from the current issue.
 
Backhouse, Roger E.  The puzzle of modern economics: science or ideology?  Cambridge, 2010.  205p bibl index; ISBN 9780521825542,$80.00; ISBN 9780521532617 pbk, $24.99.
48-1579  HB87  2010-14788 CIP

Economics: people either praise it or condemn it. Are such judgments fair? Backhouse, noted historian of economics and methodologist, is well positioned to respond to the question. He views it as a puzzle, asking why an analytical method accepted by so many is also the object of such derision. He begins by examining four areas in which science and ideology are confronted: globalization, the creation of new markets, the introduction of a market economy, and the financial world. He then provides a brief history of the development of economics as a mode of analysis that helps explain how market economies work and concludes with a chapter addressing the science versus ideology question. Throughout, Backhouse implements the patient, well-balanced hand of someone familiar with handling intellectual puzzles. The puzzle, in fact, is less problematic than it appears. Economics performs best when the focus is narrow, its tools honed on assessing the benefits of trade or the structuring of well-functioning auctions. However, when wider questions of equity and welfare are considered, economics provides less guidance. Thus, both praise and condemnation are probably misplaced. An excellent resource for anyone deciding whether to trust economic knowledge. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers; students at all levels; professionals.
— R. B. Emmett, James Madison College, Michigan State University  
 
Balint, Benjamin.  Running Commentary: the contentious magazine that transformed the Jewish Left into the neoconservative Right.  PublicAffairs, 2010.  290p bibl index; ISBN 9781586487492, $26.95.
48-1285  DS101  2010-5268 CIP

A former Commentary editor and now a fellow at the Hudson Institute, Balint has written a penetrating political and critical history of the magazine and the magazine’s “family.” He focuses on Commentary‘s evolution, beginning in the 1960s, from left-wing radicalism to neoconservativism. Less thorough, but equally interesting, is Balint’s examination of the editorial policies of Neal Kozodoy and John Podhoretz and of the arguments of the magazine’s major contributors, friends and foes, apologists, and critics. Balint also chronicles Commentary‘s advancement of literature; it published the masters of 20th-century Jewish American literature–Henry Roth, Saul Bellow, Bernard Malamud, Philip Roth, and Cynthia Ozick. In addition to introducing the American public to the rich, complex voices and experience of authentic Jewish American protagonists, Commentary published translations of important Yiddish and Hebrew writers and fostered a new style of sociopolitical literary criticism by publishing Alfred Kazin, Irving Howe, and Lionel Trilling. Balint is convincing in attributing Commentary‘s meteoric rise, albeit short-lived influence on US political and cultural life, to its brilliant political analyses, serious theological essays, high intellectual standards, and fine literary style. He justifiably laments the eclipse of the magazine’s attention to serious contemporary Jewish literature. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers.
— S. L. Kremer, emerita, Kansas State University  
 
Barfield, Thomas.  Afghanistan: a cultural and political history.  Princeton, 2010.  389p bibl index afp; ISBN 9780691145686, $29.95.
48-1653  DS357  2010-2082 CIP
 
Despite a plethora of books about Afghanistan in the last few years, a good book on the country has not been published since Louis Dupree’s 1973 Afghanistan. Maybe the long wait is over. Barfield’s new book, from the long and very impressive “Princeton Studies in Muslim Politics” series, comes close to matching Dupree’s sweeping sense of Afghanistan’s complicated history and culture. An anthropologist, as was Dupree, who personally visited most areas of Afghanistan, Barfield (Boston Univ.) is able to put the bewildering complexity of tribes, ethnic groups, religious sects, warlords, and political feuds that is Afghanistan into a coherent whole that is both readable and informative. Readers looking for new information or insights on the present Afghan quagmire will not find many, nor will they find suggestions on how NATO might extract itself from this difficult situation. However, they will find a well-written, insightful, and informative work on Afghanistan that will be well worth their attention. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries. — G. M. Farr, Portland State University 
 
Beebe, Shannon D.  The ultimate weapon is no weapon: human security and the new rules of war and peace, by Shannon D. Beebe and Mary Kaldor.  PublicAffairs, 2010.  238p index; ISBN 9781586488239, $25.95.
48-1713  JZ5588  2010-922745 MARC
 
In this provocative book, Beebe (US Army) and Kaldor (London School of Economics and Political Science) argue that armed conflicts no longer occur between states. Rather, contemporary wars involve non-state actors, such as ethnic groups, tribes, clans, religious groups, and criminal gangs. Traditional wars involved killing soldiers, but the new wars involve society-wide violence. How should governments address this new type of armed conflict? Beebe and Kaldor argue that the traditional tools of military statecraft are no longer appropriate and that a new approach is necessary. Unlike traditional military security, which seeks to defeat the military forces of a state, the strategy they advocate–human security–aims to protect life and promote welfare by introducing trained personnel into zones of conflict to provide military security, political order, and sustainable development. Although the new approach is similar to counterinsurgency, it differs in that protecting civilians is the chief goal, not a means to an end, as in counterinsurgency. The authors reinforce their claims and arguments with cases and examples taken from their extensive operational experience in zones of conflict. Summing Up: Recommended. All readership levels. — M. Amstutz, Wheaton College 

Carr, Nicholas.  The shallows: what the Internet is doing to our brains.  W.W. Norton, 2010.  276p bibl index; ISBN 9780393072228, $26.95.
48-1521  QP360  2010-7639 CIP
 
Expanding on his article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” (The Atlantic, 2008), Carr details his history with computers from the 1970s to his present-day Internet obsession. Realizing that the Internet might be dramatically affecting his brain, he decides to explore the neuroscience behind brain plasticity, which offers clues about how the brain adapts to favor new skills over underutilized ones. The book offers a fascinating history of intellectual tools and their effects on society and ways the human psyche changed with each new development. Indeed, one of human history’s greatest advances came from writing, reading, and the book. Carr argues that the inherent intellectual ethic of books, single-minded concentration allowing for deep reading and comprehension, is lost when text is delivered online. He believes the Internet favors the distraction that comes with wading in and out of “the shallows” of information and convincingly argues that the Internet is changing the way people think–not necessarily for the better. The author meanders at times, sometimes purposely, when exploring history’s many technological milestones, but never for too long, and often one senses his enthusiasm for appending an interesting, historical, tangential character or anecdote. An entertaining, insightful, thought-provoking book. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All collections.
—J. A. Bullian, Hillsborough Community College

The Eagle watchers: observing and conserving raptors around the world, ed. by Ruth E. Tingay and Todd E. Katzner.  Comstock Publishing Associates, 2010.  234p bibl afp; ISBN 9780801448737, $29.95.
48-1467  QL696  2009-52785 CIP
 
The Eagle Watchers is a delightful book of personalized stories written by numerous eagle biologists who detail the thrills, joys, trials, and tribulations of studying eagles in the wild. The work begins with a chapter on the diversity, ecology, and conservation of eagles. The heart of the book, however, is found in the remaining 24 chapters; each highlights a different eagle species from around the world. These chapters give readers a glimpse of the rewards, and sometimes adversity, of studying these magnificent birds from each biologist’s viewpoint. Each chapter contains a short biography of the author along with memorable tales of his or her time in the field. The biologists report a variety of adventures, including participating in a ceremony to exorcise evil spirits, being followed by a secret intelligence service, encountering local guerillas, and being interrogated by police officers. All depict the authors’ dedication to and passion for studying and conserving these birds. All proceeds from the sale of the book will help support two raptor conservation organizations whose missions are to protect birds of prey and their habitats. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries.
—E. H. Rave, Bemidji State University 

Encyclopedia of motherhood, ed. by Andrea O’Reilly.  Sage Reference, 2010.  3v bibl index afp; ISBN 9781412968461, $335.00.
48-1230  HQ759  2009-47934 CIP
 
For over a decade, motherhood as institution, experience, identity, or agency has been the subject of serious scholarly inquiry. This has led to the development of the field of motherhood studies within the discipline of women’s studies. This three-volume encyclopedia with 700 signed articles, contributed by an impressive collection of scholars from diverse disciplines, is intended to provide an introduction to this growing field and information on its “central terms, concepts, topics, issues, themes, debates, theories, and texts.” It includes a chronology of motherhood, and comprehensive thematic, geographic, historic, literary, and biographical coverage of the people, works, and topics within this growing scholarly area. Editor O’Reilly (York Univ., Canada), a leading light in motherhood studies, has written and edited many books and articles on the subject; she is founder and director of the Association for Research on Mothering and founder and editor in chief of the Journal of the Association for Research on Mothering. This set’s articles, written in nonspecialist language, are accessible for undergraduates, and include plentiful illustrations and bibliographic entries. The work ends with an extensive glossary, bibliography, and appendix of motherhood statistics from around the world. The first encyclopedia to provide comprehensive coverage of this emerging field, this will be a useful addition to collections with works such as the now dated Women’s Studies Encyclopedia, ed. by Helen Tierney (v. 1, CH, Feb’90, 27-3119; v. 2, CH, Jun’91, 28-5494; v. 3, CH, Jul’92, 29-6061; revised and expanded CD-ROM edition, CH, Feb’00, 37-3096). Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through graduate students; general readers. — T. McDevitt, Indiana University of Pennsylvania 
  
Fellman, Michael.  In the name of God and country: reconsidering terrorism in American history.  Yale, 2010.  272p index afp; ISBN 9780300115109, $29.95.
48-1662  HV6432  2009-17156 CIP
 
The attacks on September 11, 2001, unleashed a nine-year debate over how to defend the US from further attacks while maintaining the country’s democratic traditions and institutions. In this provocative book, historian Fellman (emer., Simon Fraser Univ.) places the 9/11 attacks and the “War on Terrorism” within the broader context of US history. Well grounded in both primary and secondary sources, the author employs a case-study approach and focuses on well-known events, notably John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry, Klan activity during Reconstruction, the Haymarket Square riots, and the imperialist US war in the Philippines. Fellman establishes a tether between the 19th century and the present, arguing that the state has regularly employed terrorism to meet desired goals. Some discerning readers will be unconvinced that historical US shortcomings are relevant to the contemporary threat those committed to the destruction of the US present, but one need not completely embrace the author’s thesis to appreciate his analysis and insights. Nevertheless, as the title suggests, this work will certainly elicit lively discussion in any senior seminar or graduate level history course. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. — J. B. Cook, North Greenville University  
 
Hardy, Grant.  Understanding the Book of Mormon: a reader’s guide.  Oxford, 2010.  346p bibl indexes afp; ISBN 9780199731701, $29.95.
48-1407  BX8627  2009-26675 CIP
 
Hardy (UNC-Asheville) has produced the first reader’s guide to the Book of Mormon useful to both believers and nonbelievers in the text’s religious efficacy. The Book of Mormon is lengthy, awkward, and didactic, which has meant that readers’ willingness to take it seriously as an object worthy of textual analysis has been contingent on believing that it is also an ancient revealed scripture with relevance for Christian salvation. Artfully and with painstaking attention to detail (the author has also edited a reader’s edition of the text), Hardy opens a space for the Book of Mormon to be analyzed as “a carefully constructed artifact” irrespective of readers’ beliefs regarding who did the constructing. Hardy employs a narrator-based approach that provisionally attributes personhood to the text’s many narrating voices, taking the text on its own terms “to identify some of the characteristic structures, conventions, subjects, levels of diction, and literary techniques through which its narrators speak to us.” The result is a revealing literary analysis that acknowledges the text’s challenges while demonstrating that, as with other world scriptures, recognition of its artistry can transcend religious commitments. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-level undergraduates through faculty/researchers; general readers. — S. Perry, University of Chicago Divinity School  

Hendricks, Tyche.  The wind doesn’t need a passport: stories from the U.S. – Mexico borderlands.  California, 2010.  246p index afp; ISBN 9780520252509, $27.50.
48-1254  HN79  2009-46593 CIP
 
Written by an accomplished journalist and published by a prestigious university press, this book is as engaging, scholarly, and well written as one might expect. Hendricks’s stories tell of her encounters on the US-Mexico border during several extensive visits. The author persuasively argues that the border should be regarded as a “region” and not merely an international dividing line. The idea of the border and the borderlands as an integrated cultural region is in fact a well-developed, widely accepted notion in the academic world, but perhaps not yet in the American popular imagination. In the US, the current sentiment seems to be adamancy about building a high wall to separate the two nations and keep foreign danger and unwanted intrusions–drugs, illegal immigrants–out of the US. Hendricks demonstrates that the border is a binational, bicultural, bilingual region that in every way inextricably links the well being and destinies of the US and Mexico, links them in ways that demand that problems and progress (be they economic, environmental, or social) be handled cooperatively. The author does not lecture or theorize, but instead argues her thesis through vibrant portraits painted with powerful words. Including bibliographical references, this is a wonderful book. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers. — E. Hu-DeHart, Brown University  
 
Jamieson, Dave.  Mint condition: how baseball cards became an American obsession.  Atlantic Monthly, 2010.  272p; ISBN 9780802119391, $25.00.
48-1539  GV875   MARC
 
If baseball is the “national pastime,” then collecting baseball cards has been the pastime of the national pastime. Initially–starting in 1869 with the first professional team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings–baseball cards were advertising gimmicks stuck in cigarette packages. They soon became an obsession with young fans, and that obsession lasted for more than a century. By the 1980s, these “collectibles” had become big business. Brendan Boyd and Fred Harris provided the first account of baseball cards in 1975, with their nostalgic The Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading, and Bubble Gum Book. The present title is now the definitive treatment of the subject. Jamieson (an award-winning journalist) takes the reader from the Civil War origins to the boom and bust of the baseball card, with appropriate genuflection to bubble gum associations and legendary labor organizer Marvin Miller, who in 1966 came up with the strategy of using proceeds from baseball cards to fund the baseball players’ infant union. Though the book lacks an index and a formal bibliography, it does have bibliographic notes; those, along with the author’s intelligence and the high-quality glossy reproductions of historic baseball cards, earn this reviewer’s forgiveness for shortage of apparatus. Summing Up: Recommended. All readers. — S. Gittleman, Tufts University  
 
Kotlikoff, Laurence J.  Jimmy Stewart is dead: ending the world’s ongoing financial plague with limited purpose banking.  Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.  241p index; ISBN 9780470581551, $27.95.
48-1589  HJ2051  2009-41432 CIP
 
Kotlikoff’s analysis of the broken US financial system is not a dry, academic tome but rather an entertaining, humorous, and sometimes provocative read. A respected macroeconomist at Boston University whose other books include The Healthcare Fix (CH, Apr’08, 45-4500) and The Coming Generational Storm (CH, Sep’04, 42-0420), he castigates those who gambled in the financial markets and became fabulously wealthy when they won but destroyed their own institutions and collapsed the financial system when they lost. However, Kotlikoff stresses, they were simply responding to government-created incentives, especially the implicit guarantee that if things went terribly wrong, the government would bail them out. Arguing that more regulation to patch the system does not reduce the danger of another meltdown, he advocates fundamental restructuring that shifts risk taking from organizations to individuals. Not allowed to leverage or take risks, limited purpose banks would buy and sell only various sorts of mutual funds. Those who wanted to take the kinds of gambles that caused the recent financial panic would be allowed to, but they would be less able to spread chaos because they would face unlimited liability. Although Kotlikoff’s specific recommendations are unlikely to be enacted, he identifies what is needed for effective reform. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All audiences. — R. E. Schenk, emeritus, Saint Joseph’s College (IN) 
 
Levine, Neil.  Modern architecture: representation & reality.  Yale, 2010 (c2009).  364p bibl index afp; ISBN 9780300145670, $65.00.
48-1279  NA500  2009-17329 CIP
 
Commencing with Emil Kaufmann’s Von Ledoux bis Le Corbusier (From Ledoux to Le Corbusier) in 1933, the history of modern architecture has been perpetuated by scholars as a history of abstraction interrupted by the historicist preoccupations of the 19th century. In this extraordinary revisionist study, Levine (Harvard) proposes a new way of thinking about modern architecture as a continuous historical development based not on style but on the question of representation in architecture (with representation understood not as symbol but as “the form and structure of rhetoric rather than its outward effects”). Using eight case studies focused on specific works by Vanbrugh, Hawksmoor, Laugier, Boullée, Soane, Schinkel, Pugin, Labrouste, Viollet-le-Duc, Sullivan, Wright, Mies van der Rohe, and Louis Kahn, Levine brings to his subject a close reading of historical texts, buildings, and images of buildings; judiciously selected pairings (such as Pugin and Labrouste); a remarkable linguistic precision; and uncanny insights into the thought processes of the architects of modernism. If modernism has been simplified over 75 years, Levine reveals its true complexities in a book that challenges, fascinates, and rewards. Summing Up: Essential. Upper-level undergraduates and above.
— J. Quinan, University at Buffalo, SUNY  
 
Nye, David E.  When the lights went out: a history of blackouts in America.  MIT, 2010.  292p bibl index afp; ISBN 9780262013741, $27.95.
48-1441  HD9685  2009-25494 CIP
 
Twenty years after his Electrifying America (CH, Jun’91, 28-5853), Nye (Univ. of Southern Denmark), a well-known historian of technology, turns his attention to the cultural impact of failures in the power system. He is especially interested in the social constructions that arise during periods of artificial darkness. For instance, electrical failures were common in the technology’s early days, but these outages were mitigated by alternative power sources. During WW II, blackouts were patriotic responses to threats. In the postwar era, electricity was so pervasive that blackouts, though relatively uncommon, were a serious disruption when they occurred. As capacity plateaued with deregulation in the 1980s, outages once again became frequent. Society’s ability to tolerate the loss of electricity, however, has decreased since the early 20th century because people are so much more dependent on the technology. The book closes with a look at alternative energies. Nye focuses on the US, particularly New York City and the Northeast, but he also discusses developments in Europe and indicates emerging issues in India and China. The volume is well edited. Summing Up: Recommended. Academic and public libraries, all levels. — A. K. Ackerberg-Hastings, University of Maryland University College  
 
Schwartz, Alex F.  Housing policy in the United States.  2nd ed.  Routledge, 2010.  368p bibl index ISBN 0-415-80233-4, $145.00; ISBN 0415802342 pbk, $45.95; ISBN 9780415802338, $145.00; ISBN 9780415802345 pbk, $45.95.
48-1594  HD7293  2009-30959 CIP
 
To cover the collapse of the nation’s housing market and the financial crisis, Schwartz (The New School) provides a fresh examination of and timely update to his 2006 treatise on US housing policy. In the 13 chapters of this second edition, Schwartz presents a comprehensive history as well as a compelling description and analysis of housing policy. First, he lays out a succinct overview of trends, patterns, and problems to frame housing challenges in the 21st century. A primary challenge for housing policy is to ensure an adequate supply of options that meet the housing demands for people of all socioeconomic strata. Schwartz covers finance and taxes in the housing market that can address these problems and then considers private and public housing options. He includes a welcome chapter on homeownership and income integration, which is especially worthwhile as the nation confronts serious problems of growing socioeconomic disparities that are spatial in nature. This book sets the standard for issues related to housing policy and urban development in the US. Students and scholars of urban affairs will benefit from this book for generations to come. Summing Up: Essential. Academic collections, lower-division undergraduate through faculty; research and professional libraries. — T. J. Vicino, Northeastern University  
 
Stephens, D. Brent.  Improving struggling schools: a developmental approach to intervention.  Harvard Education Press, 2010.  222p index; ISBN 9781934742570 pbk, $26.95.
48-1610  LB2822  2009-942752 MARC
 
Stephens (principal, Anthony Ochoa Middle School, Hayward, CA), presents three case studies of so-called school improvement and the harmful effect of current reform strategies on well-intentioned school personnel. By synthesizing common “dilemmas” schools designated as failing and thus subject to external intervention face, Stephens offers a far more reasonable, thoughtful model for effective external intervention to improve schools than is currently in vogue among politicians and philanthropists. This model emphasizes careful understanding of the social and developmental dynamics of school culture and the capacity of education personnel. Yet, the analysis, though sophisticated in terms of probing the social dynamics of the three schools studied, remains strangely naive and apolitical with respect to national policy, politics, and decaying social conditions. This tendency is common to school improvement and leadership literature, but given the growing body of scholarship on the political forces pushing “school reform” and their dismissal, not embrace, of research data by reformers (e.g., Gerald Bracey, The War Against America’s Public Schools, 2001; Gene Glass, Fertilizers, Pills, and Magnetic Strips, 2008; Kenneth Saltman, The Gift of Education, CH, Oct’08, 46-1027), the failure to consider policy and politics is troubling in this otherwise strong contribution. Best for collections for leadership preparation. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduate collections and above. — M. J. Garrison, D’Youville College    
 
Tushnet, Mark.  Why the Constitution matters.  Yale, 2010.  187p bibl index afp; ISBN 9780300150360, $25.00.
48-1753  KF4550  2009-49293 CIP
 
Tushnet (law, Harvard Univ.) describes how the Constitution structures politics and how this structuring ultimately protects rights. The book explores the fundamentals behind his 2004 The New Constitutional Order (CH, Dec’03, 41-2479). Tushnet takes no position on the “original intent” versus “living Constitution” debate, nor does he deal with the evolution of constitutional doctrines. Instead, he employs Stephen Skowronek’s concept of “regime” from his magisterial 1993 The Politics Presidents Make (CH, Feb’94, 31-3468). US history is a series of regimes (i.e., eras dominated by one political party with statutorily based programmatic commitments serving particular constituencies). Such legislation is the “constitution behind the Constitution.” Tushnet notes that presidents do well at selecting Supreme Court justices to support their regimes’ commitments, yet “justices’ decisions rest on their views about the Constitution, not a decision’s political implications.” The book is a very interesting read and would be an excellent supplement in an undergraduate constitutional law course. Since the end of the Cold War, experience in new democracies has shown the indispensability of the rule of law to the maintenance of democracy. The Constitution, in Tushnet’s view, ultimately is the symbol of the commitment to the rule of law. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduate, graduate, and research collections. — T. M. Jackson, Marywood University 

The War machine and global health: a critical medical anthropological examination of the human costs of armed conflict and the international violence industry, ed. by Merrill Singer and G. Derrick Hodge.  AltaMira, 2010.  339p bibl index afp; ISBN 9780759111905, $85.00.
48-1563  RA646  2009-38592 CIP
 
The editors and contributors present comprehensive discussions on the health consequences of local, national, and global wars; war machinery; and war economies. War directly causes morbidity and mortality, and the destruction of economies and infrastructures has profound effects on the survivors, causing malnutrition, disabilities, public health disasters, mental health problems, and psychosocial trauma. The stressful aftermath of war is especially devastating to the most vulnerable members of a population, such as children, women, and elderly people. The book also touches on the damaging effects war has on human social life, such as the creation of lasting hatred between clashing populations. Furthermore, the war machine supported by key industries plays an important role in global warming, which in turn causes more environment-related health problems as well as additional armed conflicts over seeking and controlling increasingly scarce resources. The capitalist political economy characteristic of endless development and exploration is cited as one of the driving forces of the global war machine. A must read in contemporary critical medical anthropology. Summing Up: Essential. All levels/libraries. — A. Y. Lee, George Mason University 

© American Library Association. Contact [email protected] for permission to reproduce or redistribute.