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Books: Text Books: American Government
Miss American Pie: A Diaryby Margaret Sartor List Price: $19.95 Available from Amazon $12.97 On 7-21-2006 
See Item's Page From Publishers Weekly Beginning in 1972, at age 13, Sartor records the highlights and low points of her formative years in Montgomery, Ala. Through succinct diary entries (Mar. 1, 1973: "I hate my buck teeth. I love Edgar Napoleon") that grow more insightful as she ages, the author, who teaches documentary studies at Duke, reveals her insecurities, spiritual awakening and early sexual encounters. Hers is a very normal American childhood, though a few things stand out: she experiences desegregation firsthand (she's white, but witnesses racism toward black kids) and is torn between her evangelical Christian community and her sectarian household. There are moments of impressive maturity and self-awareness, such as the May 18, 1977, entry: "I'm giving the invocation at the graduation ceremony. I'm sure they asked me because I'm the only kid willing to pray out loud who doesn't hand out pamphlets on the Second Coming"; or June 1, 1977: "Can you be alone when you are physically with someone?" Sartor's reproduction of her diaries differs from traditional memoirs in its lack of adult interpretation of events, told through the distance of time and wisdom. That may make it unusual, but publishing such generally mediocre diaries feels self-indulgent. Copyright © Reed business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Booklist Two journals, both written by teens, offer intimate, documentary views of disparate adolescent lives. Sartor, a teacher at Duke University, presents her diary-format account, based on letters and notebooks, of her teen years in Montgomery, Louisiana, during the 1970s. The entries are timely, with references to desegregation and racism and also to the Evangelical Christianity gaining prominence in the Deep South: "Satan came closer to me tonight than I've ever felt," she writes. Most entries, though, speak about common adolescent experiences, and her candor makes even the familiar captivating, whether she is frustrated with her body, suffering depression and insecurity, or finding the bold strength to tell a boyfriend that "her personality is not up for a total renovation." The creators of The Notebook Girls are four contemporary Manhattan teens, who started the notebook as a way to stay connected with each other. As in Sartor's diary, the power here is in the raw honesty, and the format--handwritten pages and pasted-in photos--gives even more immediacy. These are girls who, like Sartor, speak in bawdy, vulgar language; tease and tell fart jokes; worry about their bodies, their futures, and their friendships; and experiment with drinking, drugs, and sex. And like Sartor, these girls share sharp observations and a strong sense of identity. "Who the fuck are these guys?" asks one girl. "Who gave them the right to comment on girls' bodies like that?" The communal format creates more jockeying and joking and less personal revelation than a diary might. But taken together, these titles offer a fascinating view of what it means, then and now, to grow up female. Gillian Engberg |
The American Home Front: 1941-1942by Alistair Cooke List Price: $24.00 Available from Amazon $14.40 On 7-21-2006
See Item's Page From Booklist Composed during World War II for British readers, whom the late cultural commentator Cooke felt had heard "rather too much of Washington and New York," this travelogue of America was never published--until now; it proves an interesting eyewitness record on several levels. It recalls transcontinental travel in the pre-interstate highway era, and with greater depth, social problems that Cooke detected beneath the win-the-war exhortations he encountered from coast to coast. Driving out of Washington in February 1942, Cooke headed south, observing the Jim Crow regime en route to Gulf Coast ports bursting with military construction and a housing crisis. He then took a train to California, where he was disgusted by the internment of Japanese Americans, then in full swing. Circling back east in a car via Seattle, Denver, Kansas City, Minneapolis and St. Paul, and the Great Lakes cities, Cooke discovered their war industries and ethnographic compositions. Perceptive about the moment, prescient about postwar possibilities, Cooke's tour makes for profitable reading. Gilbert Taylor Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Book Description From the famous BBC correspondent and television host comes a remarkably insightful and detailed firsthand portrait of America during the early days of World War II. Shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, Alistair Cooke, a newly naturalized American citizen, set out to see his country as it was undergoing monumental change. Cooke traveled small highways, with their advertising signs and their local topography, in an age before the interstate highway system. In The American Home Front — a fascinating artifact, a charming travelogue, and a sharp portrait of America — Cooke chronicles the regional glories he encounters and the reactions of the citizens to war, from indifference to grief, from opportunism to resilience under military threat. Filled with touching personal stories of the effects of war, from a Japanese family facing internment that tries to sell Cooke their car, to the experiences of the unemployed relocating in hopes of jobs in a gunpowder factory, The American Home Front is the work of an experienced, talented journalist; it is intelligent, touching, and funny. |
American government: Institutions and Policiesby James Q. Wilson and John J. Diiulio Available from Amazon $108.76 On 7-21-2006 
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The Foundations of American Governmentby David Barton Available from Amazon $2.99 On 7-21-2006 
See Item's Page Book Description This transcript of the video by the same title is designed as a tool to demonstrate that the current separation of church and state is something never intended by the Founding Fathers. It not only surveys the historical statements and records surrounding the original drafting of the First Amendment, but also shows what happened statistically when the 1962 Court rejected the Founders' intent. It further shows that the current Court is beginning to return to and uphold many values previously struck down. This transcript gives an overview of the Founders' own understanding of the First Amendment and will be helpful to anyone who desires to know the truth about their interpretations. About The Author David Barton is President of WallBuilders, an organization dedicated to the restoration of the values upon which America was built and which, in recent years, have been seriously attacked and undermined. As so accurately stated by George Washington, David believes that "the propitious smiles of heaven can never be expected on a nation which disregards the eternal rules of order and right which heaven itself has ordained." |
Flag: An American Biographyby Marc Leepson and Nelson DeMille List Price: $24.95 Available from Amazon $15.72 On 7-21-2006
See Item's Page From Publishers Weekly Leepson notes that "no country in the world can match the intensity of the American citizenry's attachment to the Stars and Stripes." He goes on to chart the evolution of the flag and Americans' relationship with it in its detail-packed history. Despite the famous image in George Washington Crossing the Delaware, Leepson (Saving Monticello) says, the general's boat did not display the Stars and Stripes; the Continental Congress hadn't yet determined what the American flag would be. And "flagmania," as a 19th-century newspaper termed it, began only with the start of the Civil War. Embraced by the Ku Klux Klan, burned by Vietnam War protestors, the Stars and Stripes was again embraced in the wake of 9/11 as a ubiquitous symbol of American solidarity. Such was the revived flagmania, Leepson relates, that the flag was used to sell everything from contact lenses to disposable diapers. From reverence to kitsch, Americans' attitudes to their flag and its mythology have changed over the years, and Leepson does a creditable job of recounting those changes just in time for July 4. Copyright © Reed business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Booklist Chronicling the two-centuries-plus history of the U.S. flag, Leepson considers the abundant stories that purport to be the truth about Old Glory. That moniker, like Francis Scott Key's naming the flag the "star-spangled banner," arose from reliable historical sources. But other commonly accepted views of the flag are more dubious, such as its depiction in historical paintings of the Revolutionary War--impossible, rules Leepson, since the Continental Army marched under regimental flags, not the drapery Betsy Ross stitched together under George Washington's approving eye, a legend almost certainly made from whole cloth. In truth, explains the author, interest in the flag's origins dates from the Civil War and its aftermath, when nationalistic feeling about the flag first welled up, and ever since, in times of crisis, has been a distinctive American trait. Previously, the Stars and Stripes simply identified government installations. Its evolution into a symbol of popular affection, though one invested with divergent emotions, as laws and lawsuits concerning its proper display evince, animate Leepson's evenhanded, myth-sifting account. Gilbert Taylor Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved |
Understanding Institutional Diversityby Elinor Ostrom Available from Amazon $27.95 On 7-21-2006
See Item's Page Product Review Carl Simon, University of Michigan : This will undoubtedly be a very popular, much-assigned, and much-cited magnum opus. Peter Boettke, George Mason University : What emerges from Elinor Ostrom's book is precisely what the title suggests---an understanding of the diverse nature of institutions that exist in human societies to promote human cooperation or to hinder it. This is a significant work by one of the most thoughtful social scientists in the world and it will attract a large number of readers and enlighten them. Book Description The analysis of how institutions are formed, how they operate and change, and how they influence behavior in society has become a major subject of inquiry in politics, sociology, and economics. A leader in applying game theory to the understanding of institutional analysis, Elinor Ostrom provides in this book a coherent method for undertaking the analysis of diverse economic, political, and social institutions. Understanding Institutional Diversity explains the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework, which enables a scholar to choose the most relevant level of interaction for a particular question. This framework examines the arena within which interactions occur, the rules employed by participants to order relationships, the attributes of a biophysical world that structures and is structured by interactions, and the attributes of a community in which a particular arena is placed. The book explains and illustrates how to use the IAD in the context of both field and experimental studies. Concentrating primarily on the rules aspect of the IAD framework, it provides empirical evidence about the diversity of rules, the calculation process used by participants in changing rules, and the design principles that characterize robust, self-organized resource governance institutions. |
Poison Ivyby Amy Goldman Koss List Price: $16.95 Available from Amazon $11.02 On 7-21-2006 
See Item's Page From School Library Journal Grade 6-9–Ivy has been a victim of relentless bullying for years. Nicknamed Poison Ivy by Ann, Benita, and Sophie in fourth grade, she can hardly remember what it was like to be just plain Ivy. When earnest Ms. Gold, the middle school American government teacher, finds a depressing poem written by Ivy, she decides to put The Evil Three on trial for bullying. She is hoping to create a perfect learning experience to illustrate the American judicial system to the class–and possibly to teach the three girls a lesson. What Ms. Gold does not count on, however, is the power of popular kids and the resulting political leverage. Students are assigned roles: counsel for the plaintiff, process server, judge, jury, etc. The action is related through the multiple voices of the major figures in the mock trial proceedings, and readers see many personalities emerge in the alternate chapters. Of particular interest is the relationship among The Evil Three. Ann, the leader, clearly enjoys the status that Benita and Sophie give her in their roles as bystanders in the bullying process. Realistic dialogue and fast-paced action will hold interest, and the final verdict is unsettling, but not unexpected. This book will be useful for class discussions along with Kosss The Girls (Dial, 2000), another realistic and equally effective look at the agonizing bullying of a classmate.–Jennifer Ralston, Harford County Public Library, Belcamp, MD Copyright © Reed business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Booklist Gr. 7-10. What better way to explain government in action than to stage a mock trial, in this case a trial in which one unpopular girl, Ivy (aka Poison Ivy), seeks to bring three bullies to justice. Alas, the questionable ambitions of a teacher, the fearful power of popularity, and the sad truth of how losers are made combine to make things ugly. The trial unfolds through the alternating viewpoint of several students, each of whom has a distinctive voice: Marcus' is penetrating and contemptuous; Ivy's is strangely cool; Ann's bubbles with cruelty. Sometimes the dialogue sounds candid and natural; at other times, it's overly dramatized. And, unfortunately, because readers never see how Ivy is bullied (we're just told it's bad), the story lacks an emotional punch. The message is clear: beauty, popularity, and fear are the trinity by which girls rule, and although most teenagers aren't cruel, many are indifferent to the suffering of their peers and are thankful they aren't the ones in the spotlight. School stories like this aren't rare, but they make compelling reading for teenagers in the trenches. Krista Hutley Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved |
Polio: An American Story by David M. Oshinsky List Price: $30.00 Available from Amazon $18.90 On 7-21-2006
See Item's Page From Publishers Weekly The key protagonists in historian Oshinsky's (Univ. of Texas, Austin) account of the bruising scientific race to create a vaccine are Jonas Salk, a proponent of a "killed-virus" vaccine, and Albert Sabin, who championed the "live-virus" vaccine. As revered as these men are in popular culture, Oshinsky records their contemporaries' less complimentary opinions (even Sabin's friends, for instance, describe him as "arrogant, egotistical and occasionally cruel"). Oshinsky (A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy, etc.) looks at social context, too, such as the impact of the March of Dimes campaign on public consciousness—and fear—of polio. Tying in the role polio victim FDR played in making the effort a national priority, the precursory scientific developments that aided Salk and Sabin's work, and the ethical dilemmas surrounding human testing, Oshinsky sometimes bogs down in details. But all in all, this is an edifying description of one of the most significant public health successes in U.S. history. 46 b&w photos not seen by PW. (Apr.) Copyright © Reed business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From School Library Journal Adult/High School–This well-grounded account documents the quest for a polio vaccine. It reveals professional rivalries and clinical breakthroughs, describes a new era in approaches to public philanthropy, and re-creates the tenor of American culture during the 1940s and '50s, when every city, suburb, and rural community faced potential tragedy from annual outbreaks of the disease. The decades-long contentious relationship between doctors Albert Sabin and Jonas Salk provides the centerpiece of this story. Virologists were split into two main camps: those pursuing the development of an attenuated live-virus vaccine versus those focusing on a killed-virus vaccine, with adherents of the latter believing it would prove not only safer and more effective, but also quicker and cheaper to mass produce. Historical context is provided by detailing how Franklin D. Roosevelt raised public awareness, how his influence led to the emergence of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis and the March of Dimes, and the subsequent creation of the poster child concept as a way of creating grassroots fundraising. The writing dramatically captures both tensions and ethical dimensions inherent in moving from laboratory work with monkeys to human experimentation and, eventually, to implementation of a massive inoculation program reaching 1.3 million schoolchildren in the 1954 Salk vaccine trials. While this part of the story and the public adulation of Salk have been told elsewhere, Oshinsky amplifies the tale with data explaining why the Sabin oral vaccine became the one preeminently adopted internationally, and why the debate has continued. Sixteen pages of arresting black-and-white photographs are included.–Lynn Nutwell, Fairfax City Regional Library, VA Copyright © Reed business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. |
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