January 30, 2002: Books Received

By Alumni

Too Hot to Touch — Charles P. Mountebank (Mihailo Voukitchevitch ’55). IUniverse.com $17.95. In this roman noir set in Arizona and Mexico, a private eye agrees to protect two young boys from a kidnap threat. The author lives in Torremanzanas, Spain.

Divided We Stand: American Workers and the Struggle for Black Equality — Bruce Nelson ’62. Princeton $39.50. Focusing on longshoremen and steelworkers, this book examines how European immigrants became American and “white” in the crucible of the industrial workplace and the ethnic and working-class neighborhood. Nelson is a professor of history at Dartmouth.

Performing the American Frontier, 1870—1906 — Roger A. Hall ’68. Cambridge $54.95. Examines how the American frontier was presented in theatrical productions during the critical period from the end of the Civil War to the beginning of film. Hall is a professor of theater at James Madison University in Virginia.

Tree Girl — T. A. Barron ’74. Penguin Putnam $14.99. In this fantasy for young readers, magic and the supernatural reveal the ways in which all living things are connected. Barron lives in Colorado.

Hidden Gifts — Rick Hamlin ’77. Bethany House $10.99. In this novel a popular vocalist returns home for a Christmas concert, only to discover the cost of success. Hamlin is managing editor of Guideposts magazine and lives in New York City.

The Power of Kings: Monarchy and Religion in Europe, 1589—1715 — Paul Kléber Monod ’78. Yale $19. Explores the shift in the way European kings and queens were regarded by their subjects between the Reformation and the Enlightenment. Once viewed as godlike beings, monarchs came to represent the human, visible side of the rational state. The author is a professor of history at Middlebury.

Tell All the Children Our Story: Memories and Mementos of Being Young and Black in America — Tonya Bolden ’81. Abrams $24.95. Using interviews, diaries, news articles, and historical documents, this book for children examines the black child’s place in society, from the first recorded birth at Jamestown to the present day. Bolden is also the author of Rock of Ages: A Tribute to the Black Church (Knopf $16.95), an illustrated celebration in verse of the black church’s contributions to American culture. Bolden lives in New York City.

Cisco IOS Access Lists — Jeff Sedayao ’86. O’Reilly $39.95. An in-depth look at network policies and how to implement them with access lists. Sedayao is a network engineer with Intel Online Services and lives in San Jose, California.

Silently into the Midst of Things — Atholl Sutherland Brown *54. Trafford $19. This history of the RAF Bristol Beaufighter squadrons in the air war in Burma has been published in a new edition. Brown lives in Victoria, British Columbia.

Secret Missions to Cuba: Fidel Castro, Bernardo Benes, and Cuban Miami — Robert M. Levine *67. Palgrave $29.95. The Cuban-American lawyer Benes’s first mission to Cuba in 1978 led to the release of 3,600 political prisoners, but he remains an outcast in Miami’s Cuban community for having dealt personally with Castro. Levine is director of the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Miami.

The Effective, Efficient Professor: Teaching, Scholarship and Service — Phillip C. Wankat *70. Allyn and Bacon $31. Reveals how student learning and academic productivity can be improved by awareness of effective time-management techniques. Wankat is the Clifton L. Lovell Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering at Purdue.

Germs: Biological Weapons and America’s Secret War — Judith Miller *72, Stephen Engelberg ’79, and William Broad. Simon & Schuster $27. Argues that secret, government-funded research has taken the U.S. to the limits if not beyond what is allowed by the global treaty banning germ arms. Miller is a senior writer and Engelberg a senior investigative editor at the New York Times.

Post-Cowboy Economics: Pay and Prosperity in the New American West — Thomas Michael Power *72 and Richard N. Barrett. Island $50 cloth/$25 paper. The authors argue that the American West’s economic misfortunes are local manifestations of national and international trends rather than the result of changes in the regional industrial structure. Power is a professor of economics at the University of Montana in Missoula.

Doctor’s Orders: Goethe and Enlightenment Medicine — Robert D. Tobin *90. Associated University Presses $41.50. The author shows how Goethe’s novel Wilhelm Meister documents the rise of medicine as an institution structuring the self and society. Tobin is an associate professor of German at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington.

Ida B. Wells-Barnett and American Reform, 1880—1930 — Patricia A. Schechter *93. North Carolina $55 cloth/$19.95 paper. A study of the pioneering African-American journalist who held a central place in the early reform movements for civil rights, women’s suffrage, and Progressivism in the U. S. and abroad. Schechter is an assistant professor of history at Portland State University in Oregon.