Antoine Watteau: perspectives on the artist and the culture of his time; edited by Mary D. Sheriff. University of Delaware Press 2006. 201p $62.50
ISBN 0-87413-934-1; LC 2006-00843
These essays examine the life and work of the eighteenth century French rococo artist Antoine Watteau, whose paintings for aristocratic patrons characteristically display many scenes of festivity, theatricality, and seduction. Among the topics are Watteau’s role in developing and refining the rococo style, and Watteau’s art as a reflection of his social and political milieu.

Beauty and the abject: interdisciplinary perspectives; edited by Leslie Boldt-Irons, Corrado Federici, Ernesto Virgulti. P. Lang 2007. 295p $76.95
ISBN 978-0-8204-8810-3; LC 2006-34893
This collection of eighteen essays explores the contrast between the beautiful and the abject (i.e. wretched or degraded) in literature and the arts, from aesthetic, social, and political perspectives. Among the topics explored are the ideal of feminine beauty in Renaissance Italian painting; the femme fatale in motion pictures such as Basic instinct; the symbolism of the rejected goddess portrayed in the Latona Fountain at Versailles; and the image of the sleeping beauty in Elegy 1.3 of the Roman poet Propertius.

Behind the bamboo curtain: China, Vietnam, and the world beyond Asia; edited by Priscilla Roberts. Woodrow Wilson Center Press; Stanford University Press 2006. 559p $65.00
ISBN 0-8047-5502-7; LCCN 2006-15450
For this collection of essays, Chinese scholars have joined with American and European scholars to present the results of archival research into the background of the Vietnam War. The relations of China with Vietnam and Cambodia during that period are among the topics explored.

Byzantium: faith and power (1261-1557): perspectives on later Byzantine art and culture; edited by Sarah T. Brooks. Metropolitan Museum of Art; Yale University Press 2007. 201p $29.95
ISBN 0-300-11141-X; LCCN 2006-34590
Essays inspired by an exhibition on the art, culture, and influence of the late Byzantine Empire, held at the Metropolitan Museum of New York in 2004. Topics include a discussion of the transcendent, spiritual qualities of Byzantine icons; an account of the life and times of Gurji Khatun, who was born a princess in 13th century Georgia and became the consort of a powerful Seljuk sultan and a major patron of the arts; and an investigation of the historical sources for Russia’s claim that Moscow was the Third Rome and heir to the Byzantine Empire in politics and religion.

Civil-military relations in today’s China: swimming in a new sea; David M. Finkelstein and Kristen Guiness, editors. M.E. Sharpe 2007. 326p $29.95
ISBN 0-7656-1660-2; LCCN 2006-00015
These essays examine the relationship between the civilian population and the military in contemporary China. The authors discuss the changes taking place in Chinese society and in the People’s Liberation Army, and their impact on the civil-military relationship.

Critical reflections: essays on golden age Spanish literature in honor of James A. Parr; edited by Barbara Simerka and Amy R. Williamsen. Bucknell University Press 2006. 214p $44.50
ISBN 0-8387-5642-5; LCCN 2006-07799
A collection of essays on 16th and 17th century Spanish literature, written by literary scholars who have been influenced by the criticism and teaching of James A. Parr. Topics include the Don Quixote of Cervantes, the theater of Lope de Vega, and the influence of Roman poet Ovid and English playwright Christopher Marlowe on golden age Spanish literature.

The essential Chaplin: perspectives on the life and art of the great comedian; edited with an introduction by Richard Schickel. I.R. Dee, 2006. 315p $16.95
ISBN 1-56663-682-5; LCCN 2005-3725
A collection of thirty-three essays by various authors discussing all aspects of the cinema of Charles Chaplin, ranging in date from Chaplin’s own time to the present day. Some of the more controversial films (such as Monsieur Verdoux) are represented by multiple essays that reveal widely differing critical opinions, and some authors not usually associated with film criticism (such as British statesman Sir Winston Churchill and novelist Graham Greene) display unique perspectives on Chaplin’s creative work.

Hampton, Howard.
Born in flames: termite dreams, dialectical fairy tales, and pop apocalypses. Harvard University Press 2007. 473p $28.95
ISBN 0-674-02317-X; LCCN 2006-43680
Essays originally published in alternative newspapers and art magazines. The author ranges over a vast field of topics, with special attention to contemporary cinema and popular music. Subjects include analyses of the films Forrest Gump and Natural born killers, reviews of the musical groups Metallica and Guns n’ Roses, and an exploration of the relationship between current rock music and the new Hollywood.

The life of Hinduism; edited by John Stratton Hawley and Vasudha Narayanan. University of California Press 2006. 324p $19.95
ISBN 0-520-24913-5; LCCN 2006-24692
The diverse ways in which the Hindu faith is lived and practiced in India and abroad are explored in this collection of essays. The remarkable range of popular piety and devotion is represented by essays on open-air Ramayana festivals, modern Hindu saints, television productions of Indic epics, life cycle rituals, and the struggles between militant and tolerant factions of Hinduism

McDonough, Tom.
“The beautiful language of my century”: reinventing the language of contestation in postwar France, 1945-1968. MIT Press 2007. 273p $34.95
ISBN 0-262-13477-2; LCCN 2006-51350
These essays explore the French intellectual avant-garde movements between the end of World War II and the Paris uprisings of 1968, with particular attention to the activities of author and filmmaker Guy Debord and his situationist movement. The use of literary and visual montage under the name of detournement is a key theme.

McFee, Michael. The napkin manuscripts: selected essays and an interview. University of Tennessee Press 2006. 207p $29.95
ISBN 1-57233-540-8; LCCN 2006-04519
Twenty-two essays on a variety of topics written by poet and essayist Michael McFee over the past several decades. Included are his thoughts on the value of memorizing poetry; how to deal with rejection slips; the creative process of writing and revising a poem; and his critical assessments of recent work by some of his favorite poets.

Mumford, Lewis,
Mumford on modern art in the 1930s; edited and with an introduction by Robert Wojtowicz. University of California Press 2007. 265p $29.95
ISBN 0-520-24858-9; LCCN 2006-09142
A selection of articles originally published in the New Yorker magazine 1932-1937. The author comments on established artists such as Matisse and Brancusi, as well as emerging artists Reginald Marsh and Georgia O’Keeffe, and presents a comprehensive picture of the New York art scene during those years.

Nelson Algren: a collection of critical essays; edited by Robert Ward. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press 2007. 188p $42.50
ISBN 0-8386-4108-3; LCCN 2006-16569
This collection of eleven essays examines the life and work of American novelist Nelson Algren, the author of such popular works as The man with the golden arm and A walk on the wild side, whose work is only now being reexamined after decades of critical neglect. His naturalist treatment of the underside of urban life, his pioneering exploration of social problems such as drug addiction, and his misidentification as a writer of pulp fiction due to the lurid presentation of the paperback versions of his work, are among the topics discussed.

The new voices of Islam: rethinking politics and modernity: a reader; Mehran Kamrava, editor. University of California Press 2006. 291p $24.95
ISBN 0-520-25098-2; LCCN 2006-50127
These essays by thirteen Muslim authors from across the Islamic world present a reformist alternative to fundamentalist Islamic thought. The authors argue for Islamic renewal in theology, jurisprudence, civil rights, and gender relationships, among other topics.

Pagan, Victoria Emma.
Rome and the literature of gardens. Duckworth 2006. 160p $23.50
ISBN 978-0-7156-3506-3
The author explores the depiction of gardens as the setting for transformations and transgressions in four works of Roman literature: Columella’s On agriculture, Horace’s Satire 1.8, Tacitus’ Annals book 11, and Saint Augustine’s Confessions. A fifth essay on the modern literary use of gardens in Tom Stoppard’s plays Arcadia and The invention of love rounds out the collection.

Plato’s Symposium: issues in interpretation and reception; edited by J.H. Lesher, Debra Nails, and Frisbee C.C. Sheffield. Center for Hellenic Studies, Trustees for Harvard University 2006. 446p $29.95
ISBN 0-674-02375-7; LCCN 2006-37295
Plato’s Symposium, a dialogue that presents a set of speeches in praise of love, has been a popular and influential work from its own time to the present day. These essays explore the various ways in which the dialogue has been understood and interpreted over the centuries, with attention to its influence on art, literature, and political thought.

Politics and the passions, 1500-1850; edited by Victoria Kahn, Neil Saccamano, and Daniela Coli. Princeton University Press 2006. 314p $24.95
ISBN 0-691-118262-0; LCCN 2005-28068
This collection of essays focuses on the new theories of human motivation that emerged in Europe during the Renaissance, and traces the development of these theories through the mid-19th century. The relationship between politics and the human emotions is explored in essays on the work of authors such as Montaigne, Bacon, Spinoza, Locke, and Rousseau, among others.

Print and power in France and England, 1500-1800; [edited by] David Adams, Adrian Armstrong. Ashgate 2006. 157p $89.95
ISBN 0-7546-5591-1; 2006-05996
These essays focus on the public role of the print media in the early days of printing in France and England from 1500-1800, during what is known as the “hand-press period”. Among the topics examined are the advent of political pamphleteering in France, the publication of the Calvinist Latin Bible of Tremellius, and the rise academic publishing in early modern England.

Pyne, Kathleen.
Modernism and the feminine voice: O’Keeffe and the women of the Stieglitz circle. University of California Press 2007. 339p $34.95
ISBN 0-520-24189-4; LCCN 2005-34482
Before 20th century American photographer Alfred Stieglitz placed painter Georgia O’Keeffe at the vanguard of his modernist movement in art, several other talented women in his circle of artists had already fulfilled this role. The essays in this book describe the advent of Georgia O’Keefe in the Stieglitz circle, as well as the lives and work of her predecessors: artists and photographers Gertrude Kasebier, Pamela Colman Smith, Anne Brigham, and Katherine Nash Rhoades.

Rawls, John.
Lectures on the history of political philosophy; edited by Samuel Freeman. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press 2007. 476p $35.00
ISBN 0-674-02492-3; LCCN 2006-50934
A collection of lectures for a class in political philosophy given at Harvard University from the mid 1960’s until 1995 by the late John Rawls, transcribed from the author’s own lecture notes. In addition to the major figures Hobbes, Locke, Hume, Rousseau, Mill, and Marx, the important thinkers Henry Sidgwick and Joseph Butler are discussed, in lectures dealing with the central topics of ethics, justice, the social contract, and utilitarianism.

Rebecca West today: contemporary critical approaches; edited by Bernard Schweizer. University of Delaware Press 2006. 334p $61.50
ISBN 0-87413-950-3; LCCN 2006-11265
The career and the work of 20th century British novelist and author Rebecca West are examined in this collection. The essays are arranged into four categories, reflecting the critical methodologies of the authors: historicism, gender studies, textual analysis, and philosophical approaches.

Re-imagining Ireland; edited by Andrew Higgins Wyndham. University of Virginia Press 2006. 273p. $34.95
ISBN 978-0-8139-2544-8; LCCN 2006-01345
As Ireland heads into the 21st century, it finds itself in an unaccustomed position of growth and prosperity due largely to its software-based economy known as “the Celtic tiger”. These essays, originally presented at a 2003 conference in Charlottesville, Virginia, discuss Ireland’s present situation and future prospects in the areas of social, economic, political, and artistic development.

Ritual, routine, and regime: repetition in early modern British and European cultures; edited by Lorna Clymer. University of Toronto Press 2006.258p $60.00
ISBN 0-8020-9030-3; LCCN 2007-386265
The essays in this collection explore the ways in which repetition shaped important modes of thought and action in early modern British and European cultures. Repetition is discussed as an essential element in political rhetoric, musical forms, religious ritual, portraiture, and literary translation.

Signing the body poetic: essays on American Sign Language literature; H-Dirksen L. Bauman, Jennifer L. Nelson, Heidi M. Rose, editors. University of California Press 2006. 264p $29.95
0-520-22975-4; LCCN 2006-16236
The development of non-verbal literature for the deaf and hearing-impaired through the medium of American Sign Language is the topic of this collection of essays. The creation and presentation of ASL poetry, theater, and performance art, and the politics involved in maintaining a separate social identity for the deaf, are among the topics discussed.

Sound figures of modernity: German music and philosophy; edited by Jost Hermand and Gerhard Richter. University of Wisconsin Press 2006. 267p $39.95
ISBN 0-299-21930-5; LCCN 2006-08595
The relationship (intellectual and/or personal) between key figures of German philosophy and German music is the topic of these essays. The interactions of major philosophers such as Schelling, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, with composers such as Beethoven, Wagner and Schonberg, are examined.