American movie critics: an anthology from the silents until now; edited by Phillip Lopate. The Library of America 2006. 720p. $40.00
Movie reviews and essays by a wide range of American critics and writers, from the beginning of the movie industry to the present. Surprising entries include poet Carl Sandburg’s thoughts on the German expressionist film The cabinet of Dr. Caligari and The New Yorker magazine critic Brendan Gill’s excursions into the Times Square pornographic theater world.
ISBN 1-931082-92-8; LC 2005-55164

Art after conceptual art; edited by Alexander Alberro and Sabeth Buchmann. MIT Press 2006. 240p. $30.00
These essays explore the legacy of conceptualist art, and discuss the influence of conceptualism’s varied practices on art produced since the 1970’s.
ISBN 0-262-51195-9; LC 2006-44881

Dainotto, Roberto M.
Europe (in theory). Duke University Press 2007. 270p. $22.95
The author analyzes the writings of 18th and 19th century European authors who promoted the view of a progressive and enlightened northern Europe in conflict with a clannish and regressive southern Europe. The relevant works of Montesquieu, Hegel, and Mme de Stael are examined, as well as works of lesser known authors who argued for the contributions of southern Europe to western civilization, including the contributions of the Muslims in Sicily and Spain.
ISBN 0-8223-3927-7; LC 2006-20433

Engines of the black power movement: essays on the influence of civil rights actions, arts, and Islam; edited by James L. Conyers, Jr. McFarland & Company 2007. 288p. $35.00
These essays present an assessment of the gains and losses in the African American community since the civil rights movement of the 1960’s. Political, artistic, and cultural developments, including black power movements and Islam, are explored.
ISBN 0-7864-2540-7; LC 2006-29823

Etiquette: reflections on contemporary comportment; edited by Ron Scapp, Brian Seitz. State University of New York Press 2007. 260p. $24.95
Etiquette, or polite and appropriate social behavior, is explored with respect to its interaction with ethics. The authors show that etiquette, far from being an arbitrary and inconsequential social necessity, is in fact a profound expression of a society’s beliefs, aspirations, and fears, with a language all its own.
ISBN 0-7914-6936-0; LC 2006-1205

Fletcher, Angus.
Time, space, and motion in the age of Shakespeare. Harvard University Press 2007. 179p. $29.95
These essays reveal how early modern science and Renaissance English poetry were both concerned with discovering the secrets of motion, whether in the language of mathematics or verse. Scientists such as Galileo and authors such as Shakespeare and Milton are the focus.
ISBN 0-674-02308-0; LC 2006-43576

Forgiveness, mercy, and clemency; edited by Austin Sarat and Nasser Hussain. Stanford University Press 2007. 238p. $24.95
These essays examine the relationship between punishment and forgiveness, with regard to psychological, religious, social, and political aspects. The distinctions between the various forms of leniency, and what is gained or lost by employing each of them, is the focus.
ISBN 0-8047-5333-4; LC 2006-12940

Franks, Jill.
Islands and the modernists: the allure of isolation in art, literature and science. McFarland & Company 2006. 206p. $32.00
The author examines the activities of five leaders of the modernist movement in their respective disciplines: Charles Darwin (biology), Paul Gauguin (painting), J.M. Synge (drama), D.H. Lawrence (fiction), and Margaret Mead (anthropology). The author shows how islands figured prominently in the innovative work of each, and concludes with an essay on the status of modern Pitcairn Island.
SBN 0-7864-2457-5; LC 2006-13453

Geiringer, Karl.
On Brahms and his circle: essays and documentary studies; by Karl Geiringer; revised and enlarged by George S. Bozarth; with a foreword by Walter Frisch. Harmonie Park Press 2006. 418p. $70.00
Essays on the personal and professional activities of the composer Johannes Brahms, including his book and music collecting, his complicated involvement in the life and family affairs of fellow composer Robert Schumann, and his composition of music for the lyrics of Ophelia’s songs in Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
ISBN 0-89990-136-0; LC 2006-50261

Leonard, David J.
Screens fade to black: contemporary African American cinema. Praeger 2006. 217p. $49.95
The author examines recent films made by and starring African Americans. Although he considers the financial success of these films and the high degree of black participation in their production a positive development, he is troubled that the films in many ways display the same racism and stereotyping that have long characterized mainstream Hollywood movies.
ISBN 0-275-98361-7; LC 2006-3336

Levander, Caroline F.
Cradle of liberty: race, the child, and national belonging from Thomas Jefferson to W.E.B. Du Bois. Duke University Press 2006. 247p. $21.95
The author combines cultural history with literary and social criticism to show how the image of the child has been used and manipulated by politicians, authors, and theorists from the founding of the United States until the early 20th century. She argues that the child as a symbol came to reinforce rather than challenge the racial and gender hierarchies that excluded much of the population.
ISBN 0-8223-3872-6; LC 2006-12767

Martin, Gretchen.
The frontier roots of American realism. P. Lang 2007. 136p. $58.95
The humorists of the antebellum South delineated with great precision the customs and language of the “plain folk” living in the southwestern frontier, whose ideals of honor, justice, and gender were seen to be very different from the norms of the cultured gentry. The author shows how the writings of these humorists influenced the subsequent development of American literary realism.
ISBN 0-8204-8811-9; LC 2006-22456

Milton in the age of Fish: essays on authorship, text, and terrorism; edited by Michael Lieb and Albert C. Labriola. Duquesne University Press 2006. $60.00
Essays on the works of John Milton by authors who have been influenced by the thought of leading Milton scholar Stanley Fish. In addition to Paradise lost, much attention is focused on the verse play Samson Agonistes, which has been the object of renewed interest because of its relevance to the issue of political terrorism.
ISBN 0-8207-0384-2; LC 2006-24411

Modernism and mourning; edited by Patricia Rae. Bucknell University Press 2007. 310p. $62.50
The essays in this book examine the ways in which modernist English and American authors responded to the death and annihilation of World War I and other calamities of the 20th century in their literary works.
ISBN 0-8387-5617-4; LC 2006-18184

Murphy, Patricia.
In science’s shadow: literary constructions of late Victorian women. University of Missouri Press 2006. 239p. $39.95
The author explores the relationship of gender and science in the Victorian age, as expressed in the fiction of Thomas Hardy, Wilkie Collins, and other authors. She shows how the era’s literature, produced under the spell of the new scientific developments, both challenged and reinforced a marginalized and constrictive role for women.
ISBN 978-0-8262-1682-3; LC 2006-28281

The new police science: the police power in domestic and international governance; edited by Markus D. Dubber and Mariana Valverde. Stanford University Press 2006. 308p. $55.00
These essays explore the concept of police power, and its application in modern states. The social conflicts that arise from policing the citizenry in order to maximize public welfare and public order are examined.
ISBN 0-8047-5392-X; LC 2006-22052

Nunley, Gayle R.
Scripted geographies: travel writings by nineteenth-century Spanish authors. Bucknell University Press 2007. 272p. $52.50
The travel narratives of 19th century Spanish authors are examined. The works discussed include accounts of travel within Europe, as well as in North Africa and beyond.
ISBN 0-8387-5633-6; LC 2005-37909

Prostitution and pornography: philosophical debate about the sex industry; edited by Jessica Spector. Stanford University Press 2006. 465p. $27.95
These essays examine the ways in which prostitution, pornography, and other forms of commercial sex are debated in the public forum and subjected to legislation. The widely conflicting views of legislators, feminists, civil libertarians, academics, and industry participants are explored.
ISBN 0-8047-4938-8; LC 2006-6597

Print culture and the Blackwood tradition, 1805-1930; edited by David Finkelstein. University of Toronto Press 2006. 326p. $65.00
These essays examine the activities and influence of the publishing firm of William Blackwood and Sons, Ltd., founded in1804 in Edinburgh, Scotland, and a major force in the cultural life of Scotland and the whole of Great Britain. The literary and political journal Blackwood’s magazine receives particular attention.
ISBN 0-8020-8711-6

Reflections on Europe in transition; Ursula E. Beitter, editor. P. Lang 2007. 189p. $66.95
Papers presented at a conference held in Poznan, Poland, in 2005. Topics include the impact of globalization on European national identities, the social and economic issues surrounding immigration, the present condition of the reunited Germany, and the ideal of a united Europe.
ISBN 978-0-8204-8193-7; LC 2006-33676

Religion and violence in a secular world: toward a new political theology; edited by Clayton Crockett. University of Virginia Press 2006. 233p. $49.50
Essays on the role of violence in religion and society. Topics include the Christian persecution of witches, the Jewish holocaust of World War II, and the Islamic terrorist attack of September 11, 2001.
ISBN 978-0-8139-2561-5; LC 2006-9476

States of violence: politics, youth, and memory in contemporary Africa; edited by Edna G. Bay and Donald L. Donham. University of Virginia Press 2006. 268p. $49.50
These essays explore violence as a factor in the politics of modern African states, and examine the different ways in which “acceptable force” is understood by the governments of those states and by those seeking change. Particular attention is given to the rise of youth gangs, such as the Bakassi Boys in Nigeria.
ISBN 978-0-8139-2569-1; LC 2006-6847

Tsomondo, Thorell Porter.
The not so blank “blank page”: the politics of narrative and the woman narrator in the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century novel. P. Lang 2007. 149p. $61.95
The author examines the literary device of first person narrative by female characters in 18th and 19th English fiction, with particular attention to its social and political aspects. Works by female authors (such as Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre), as well as by male authors (such as Charles Dickens’ Bleak House), are investigated.
ISBN 0-8204-7649-8; LC 2004-27470

Wells, Marion A.
The secret wound: love-melancholy and early modern romance. Stanford University Press 2007. 368p. $60.00
Lovesickness and the melancholy caused by love, and the ways in which these conditions are portrayed in early European romances, is the subject of this book. The works explored include Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene and Lodovico Ariosto’s Orlando furioso.
ISBN 0-8047-5046-7; LC 2005-35933

Youth, globalization, and the law; edited by Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh and Ronald Kassimir. Stanford University Press 2007. 367p. $24.95
These essays address the impact of globalization on the lives of youth in the United States and abroad, and the spread of ideas and institutions beyond the borders of individual countries. The migration of the youth gangs of El Salvador into the United States, the social alienation of Arab immigrants in France, and child labor practices in Brazil in conflict with United Nations resolutions are among the topics examined.
ISBN 0-8047-5474-8; LC 2006-12938