http://www.booksforunderstanding.org/ Books for Understanding is a public resource to help readers find scholarly books on the news in today's headlines. "Books of Note" points readers towards scholarly titles that are of particular interest in the news. en-us understanding@aaupnet.org webmaster@aaupnet.org http://www.asingleman-book.com/ Christopher Isherwood's brilliant 1964 novel of a gay man in midlife is the basis of Tom Ford'd critically acclaimed directorial debut. The film is accompanied by a newly issued tie-in edition from long-time Isherwood publisher, the University of Minnesota Press. http://www.dukeupress.edu/books.php3?isbn=978-0-8223-4687-6 The revised dissertation of S. Ann Dunham, President Obama's mother, reflects her work as an economic anthropologist and rural development consultant working with metalworkers in Java. http://press.princeton.edu/titles/8972.html Joel Waldfogel makes the economic case for rolling back the creeping consumerism of the holidays. http://wdn.ipublishcentral.net/mit/viewinside/103535101407 Catherine Brady tells a compelling tale of the life and work of one of the 2009 Nobelists in Medicine. http://www.unmpress.com/Book.php?id=10685858469396 John Whitehead's masterful history explores the political and strategic story that led to Hawaii becoming the 50th state 50 years ago today, August 21. http://shop.mnhs.org/moreinfomhspress.cfm?Product_ID=400 Journalist Ashley Shelby chronicles the 1997 flooding and fires of Grand Forks, North Dakota, after the Red River overtopped its dikes and forever changed an American city. http://press.umsystem.edu/fall2003/jarrett.htm John Hope Franklin, a founding scholar of African-American history, died on March 25, 2009. His legacy lives on in his many works of influential scholarship and through the centers, institutes, and collections that bear his name and honor his spirit. http://www.sunypress.edu/details.asp?id=61943 African American women tell Michelle Obama what her new position as the United States' first black First Lady means to them personally and politically. http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/SMIMIL.html December 9 is John Milton's 400th birthday. Smith makes the case that Milton's poetry has more to say to today's qustions of political philosophy and civil liberty than does the ever popular Bard of Avon. http://upress.kent.edu/books/Kyvig.htm December 5, 2008, marks the seventy-fifth anniversary of the ratification of the twenty-First Amendment and the repeal of prohibition in the United States. http://aaupnet.org/news/bfu/ofnote.html#auto These four books provide a substantial and intimate view of the wide-ranging issues that underlie today's troubled American auto industry. http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780300117554 Steve Fraser's fascinating history of Wall Street explores America's uncomfortable intersections of wealth and greed, democracy and the power of money. http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/cup_detail.taf?ti_id=4546 Mathijs Pelkmans' extensive ethnographic research and analysis illuminates how residents of the Caucasus have rethought their identities since the collapse of the Soviet Union. http://press.princeton.edu/titles/7821.html Jelle Zeilinga de Boer and Donald Theodore Sanders explore the human aftershocks of seismic disasters in this award-winning title. http://press.umsystem.edu/spring2007/pool.htm Just in time for holiday gift-buying guides and end-of-year lists, Gail Pool, herself an accomplished reviewer and review editor, analyzes the inner workings of this troubled trade to show how it works—and why it so often fails to work well. http://mqup.mcgill.ca/book.php?bookid=1759 William Kaplan's expose of the tangled threads of Canada's Airbus scandal was a quiet sleeper after its publication in 2004, but no more. The Airbus affair, the book, and Kaplan himself as a foremost expert on the complex story, are all back in the news as a government probe again investigates the corruption charges. http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/14094.html Monique Skidmore's work is the first ethnography of fear in Burma (Myanmar) and provides a sobering look at the psychological strategies employed by the Burmese people in order to survive under a military dictatorship that seeks to invade and dominate every aspect of life. http://www.uipress.uiowa.edu/books/2007-fall/falpoefro.html This volume collects the voices of men who have been detained by the U.S. in Guantanamo Bay, many without charge, and many since 2002. Attorneys working with detainees compiled the poetry written by some of their clients articulating their experiences there. http://shop.mnhs.org/moreinfomhspress.cfm?Product_ID=951 Ann Burckhardt celebrates (and updates) the great Midwestern comfort food. For those who wish to take a taste of Minnesota with them after the 2007 AAUP Annual Meeting in Minneapolis, this is the book! http://www.beacon.org/productdetails.cfm?SKU=4428 Respected historian and free speech activist Christopher Finan provides an engaging look at the evolution of free speech in the U.S. http://www.washington.edu/uwpress/search/books/ELLBOC.html Boris Yeltsin, former president of Russia died at age 76 on April 23, 2007. Herbert J. Ellison's study establishes Yeltsin as the principal leader and defender of Russia's democratic revolution. http://www.sunypress.edu/details.asp?id=60292 Oren M. Levin-Waldman traces the historical evolution of minimum-wage policy and explains how models are used (and misused) by different interests to achieve their particular aims. http://www.kansaspress.ku.edu/grefor.html In the first comprehensive study of one of our most popular yet most misunderstood presidents, John Robert Greene reached well beyond the image of Ford as "healer" of a war-torn and scandal-ridden nation to extend and revise our understanding of Ford's struggles to restore credibility to the presidency in the wake of Watergate and Vietnam. http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/14090.html The 1998 arrest of Pinochet in London and subsequent extradition proceedings sent an electrifying wave through the international community. Naomi Roht-Arriaza discusses the difficulties in bringing violators of human rights to justice at home, and considers the role of transnational prosecutions and investigations. http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/hfs.cgi/00/211368.ctl Jay Nathan examines the strengths and weaknesses of the Kazakhstan economy, and gives an overview of the Central Asian republic's economic history. Despite the new movie, Borat, satirizing American ignorance of Kazakhstan and other post-Soviet states, scholars such as Nathan provide a current understanding of the nation's economy, history, culture, and international position. http://www.upress.umn.edu/Books/K/king_pink.html Samantha King's book traces how breast cancer has been transformed from a stigmatized disease and individual tragedy to a market-driven industry of survivorship, and challenges the commercialization of the breast cancer movement, its place in U.S. culture, and its influence on ideas of good citizenship, responsible consumption, and generosity. http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/hfs.cgi/00/16135.ctl This collection of Anna Politkovskaya's reports from Chechnya is a powerful account of one of the most dangerous and least understood conflicts on the planet. Respected journalist Politkovskaya was the victim of an apparent contract killing on October 7, days before she planned to publish a report on torture in Chechnya. http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=0300106823 The leaders of the coup that ousted Thailand's prime minister on September 19 swear loyalty to the country's almost universally popular king, to demonstrate legitimacy and stability. Though Thailand's monarchy had been stripped of power and prestige when Bhumibol took the throne, he has become a powerful political actor over his reign. http://www.pupress.princeton.edu/titles/8247.html Astronomers have demoted Pluto to a "dwarf planet." In the context over the long-standing controversy over Pluto's status, David Weintraub provides an accessible and thorough history of the philosophical and astronomical debates over what makes a planet. http://aaupnet.org/news/bfu/ofnote.html#cuba Fidel Castro has temporarily handed control of Cuba to his brother, having ruled the country since leading the Cuban Revolution in 1959. Political scientist Farber studies the early years of the revolution, focusing on the socioeconomic, ideological, and international pressures that formed it. http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/hfs.cgi/00/14801.ctl Sociologist Eric Klinenberg examined the the social, political, and institutional functionings of Chicago that made a 1995 heat wave into urban disaster that killed 700 people. As North America and Europe face continuing heat waves, have we yet learned these lessons? http://www.kansaspress.ku.edu/fismil.html The U.S. Supreme Court has declared the war-crimes tribunal procedures at Guantanamo Bay a violation of U.S. law. Louis Fisher has studied the history of extra-legal military courts in America, looking particularly at those times when the protections of the Constitution have been most precarious. http://www.press.uillinois.edu/s98/murray.html The FIFA World Cup is just ended, won by Italy. Sports historian Murray traces the sport's rise to, essentially, global domination from its origins to the periodic World Cup frenzies that grip the globe. http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/9539001.html April 18, 1906, saw the near destruction of the city of San Francisco in a violent earthquake and the fires that broke out from ruptured gas lines. Philip L. Fradkin's account gives us the story of the city through the experiences of many individuals who lived those days of terror. http://www.nvbooks.nevada.edu/books.asp?ID=2365 On March 22, militant Basque separatist group ETA declared a permanent ceasefire to seek democracy in the region. This collection of essays from the Center for Basque studies explores the dynamics of identity politics and violence and the global rhetoric of international terrorism that has come to dominate international political discourse. http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=0300103174 Slobodan Milosevic, former Serbian leader, died on March 11, 2006. He was on trial at the Hague for war crimes, and was found in his cell, apparetly dead from heart failure. http://www.upress.state.ms.us/catalog/fall2002/betty_friedan.html Friedan, a central figure in modern feminism, died on February 4, 2006. Her work, which includes the 1963 book The Feminine Mystique and the co-founding of NOW and NARAL, continues to have influence today. http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cup/catalog/data/023111/0231116748.HTM Two Israeli scholars, Shaul Mishal and Avraham Sela, examine Hamas's evolution as a social and political movement. http://www.yale.edu/franklinpapers/index.html January 17, 2005, is Benjamin Franklin's Tercentenary. The edited collection of his papers has been a joint project of Yale University and the American Philosophical Society for more than 50 years. http://www.sc.edu/uscpress/2004/3543.html Xing Lu's work identifies the rhetorical features and explores the persuasive effects of political language and symbolic practices during the period now known as the "ten year's of chaos," the Cultural Revolution in China. http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11150.html This workshop summary reports on the current situation as the world faces a possible pandemic; from what is known of the H5N1 avian virus, to the potential for international treaties on vaccines, and the costs of prearedness. http://www.psupress.org/books/titles/0-271-02239-6.html Congressman John P. Murtha (D-PA), a retired Marine, has long been one of the most respected voices on armed services and national security matters. His stirring speech regarding the conduct of the Iraq war has brought to the floor of Congress this essential debate. Murtha's book is not just the story of his own life, but of the history he witnessed. http://www.ohiou.edu/oupress/brothersatwar.htm Tekeste Negash and Kjetil Tronvoll's work provides esential context for the discord that led to war between Ethiopa and Eritrea in 1998; and will be of help in understanding the current rising tensions between these two nations. http://s50780.sites40.storefront-hosting.com/detail.aspx?ID=1370 Craig Colten looks at both the environmental and social effects on the city of the engineering modifications that created the city of New Orleans as it was before Hurricane Katrina. http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/Politics/AmericanPolitics/LawCourts/~~/dmlldz11c2EmY2k9MDE5NTMwMDIxMQ== Lee Epstein and Jeffrey A. Segal take a look at the partisan battles that have accompanied the confirmation of federal judicial appointees throughout the United States' history. http://www.cambridge.org/us/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=0521853249 Karen J. Greenberg and Joshua L. Dratel have brought together in one volume the memos and reports that US government officials wrote to prepare the way for, and to document, coercive interrogation and torture in Afghanistan, Guantanamo, and Abu Ghraib.