BOOKSHELF
The Best
American Essays 1998, edited by Cynthia Ozick. This collection
of essays includes Louis Simpson '48 on his slow recovery, during
his Columbia years, from combat fatigue following World War II, and
Diana Trilling on her visit with husband Lionel Trilling '25 to the
JFK White House (Houghton Mifflin, $13 paper).
The Truman
Doctrine of Aid to Greece: A Fifty-Year Retrospective, edited
by Eugene T. Rossides '49, with an introduction by Demetrios James
Caraley, Robb Professor of Social Sciences, Barnard College.
International contributors discuss the background of the Truman
Doctrine, assess Greece's role in containing the spread of
communism, and envision a future Mediterranean balance of power
(Academy of Political Science/American Hellenic Institute, $20
paper).
The Clouds
Should Know Me By Now: Buddhist Poet Monks of China, edited by
Red Pine and Mike O'Connor, introduction by Andrew Schelling. This
selection from 1,500 years of Buddhist monastic verse includes
poetry by Ch'i-chi (864-937), translated by Burton Watson '50,
editor of The Columbia Book of Chinese Poetry (Wisdom Press,
$15.95).
The Moral
Dimensions of Academic Administration by Rudolph H. Weingartner
'50. The special characteristics of institutions of higher learning
make their administration a special calling, more akin to managing
hospital care for patients than a customer-driven business (Rowman
and Littlefield, $58 cloth, $22.95 paper). Connections &
Disconnections: Between Linguistics, Morality, Religion and
Democracy by Tim Cooney '52 and Beth Preddy. A lively series of
dialogues on the causes of anger within families and nations became
the inspiration and cornerstone of the Democracy-via-the-Web
(www.dvw.net) website (Cross
Cultural Publications, $28.95).
Ethics and
Authority in International Law by Alfred P. Rubin '52. This
sobering assessment of international law argues that modern efforts
to punish terrorism and war crimes will founder on the same issues
that hindered attempts to stop the slave trade and piracy in the
early nineteenth century (Cambridge University Press,
$59.95).
Czechoslovakia's Lost Fight for
Freedom, 1967-1969: An American Embassy Perspective by Kenneth
N. Skoug, Jr. '53. A firsthand account by an American foreign
service officer of the hopeful revolution of the "Prague Spring"
and the ensuing Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia (Praeger
Publishing, $65).
Just the
Weigh You Are: How to Be Fit and Healthy, Whatever Your Size by
Steven Jonas '58 and Linda Konner. A "big picture plan for health"
allows a natural approach to improve the diet, fitness and lives of
everyone, including the majority of us not built like supermodels
(Houghton Mifflin, $13 paper).
Memory
Effects: Poems by Roald Hoffmann '59. The third volume of verse
from an author perhaps better known for winning the Nobel Prize for
Chemistry in 1981 (Calhoun Press, $9 paper).
Transforming Madness: New Lives
for People Living with Mental Illness by Jay Neugeboren '59. An
overview of mental illness that humanizes the plight of those
afflicted while surveying new, effective approaches for dealing
with the problem (William Morrow, $25).
Corpus
Christi: A Play by Terrence McNally '60. A controversial
retelling of the passion story, centered around the struggles of a
young gay man, which was staged in New York in the spring of 1999
to mixed reviews and protests from religious groups (Grove Press,
$12 paper).
Stranger
in the Nest: Do Parents Really Shape Their Child's Personality,
Intelligence or Character? by David B. Cohen '63. This
contribution to the perennial nature vs. nurture debate insists
that children are born with fundamental predilections and
attributes outside the control of parents or the style of parenting
(John Wiley & Sons, $27.95).
Dance for
a City: Fifty Years of the New York City Ballet, edited by Lynn
Garafola with Eric Foner '63, DeWitt Clinton Professor of History.
As the vehicle for choreographer George Balanchine's unique genius,
the New York City Ballet has been central not only to the cultural
life of the city but also to the development of an American dance
aesthetic (Columbia University Press, $57.50).
Illusions
of Prosperity: America's Working Families in an Age of Economic
Insecurity by Joel Blau '66. Arguing that the free market has
been disastrous for all but the richest 20 percent of Americans, a
SUNY Stony Brook professor proposes energetic government
intervention to offset the deficiencies of laissez faire and ensure
economic security (Oxford University Press, $30).
The Story
of Libraries from the Invention of Writing to the Computer Age
by Fred Lerner '66. From the Library of Alexandria to the Library
of Congress, a history of the evolution of libraries, the role they
play in society and people's fascination with recording human
experience (Continuum, $24.99).
Mark Twain
Remembers: A Novel by Thomas Hauser '67. It's 1910, and a dying
Samuel Clemens looks back on his life along the Mississippi, in an
America that went from the Civil War to the Gilded Age (Barricade
Books, $20 paper).
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