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John Stuart Mill; history of bowling; comparing corruption
 The Blackwell Guide to Mill's Utilitarianism
edited by Henry West (Blackwell Publishing, 2006. 304 pages, $74.95 hardback, $29.95 paperback)
This volume contains the complete text of John Stuart Mill's Utilitarianismand 12 original essays related to that text. Henry West, professor of philosophy at Macalester, invited the contributors, wrote the introduction and wrote one of the essays.
West is the author of two books, An Introduction to Mill's Utilitarian Ethics and Moral Philosophy: Classic Texts and Contemporary Problems, as well as articles in journals and encyclopedias on Mill and Utilitarianism.
 Syndromes of Corruption: Wealth, Power and Democracy
by Michael Johnston '71 (Cambridge University Press, 2006. 267 pages, $75 cloth, $29.99 paperback)
Political scientist Michael Johnston offers a comparative view of corruption problems that various societies experience and the reforms that must be pursued. A threat to democracy and economic development in many societies, corruption arises in the ways people pursue, use and exchange wealth and power, and in the strength or weakness of the state, political and social institutions that sustain and restrain those processes, Johnston says. He uses statistical measures to identify societies grappling with four syndromes of corruption. Countries studied include the United States, Japan and Germany ("Influence Markets"); Italy, Korea and Botswana ("Elite Cartels"); Russia, the Philippines and Mexico ("Oligarchs and Clans"); and China, Kenya and Indonesia ("Official Moguls"). A concluding chapter explores reform, emphasizing the ways familiar measures should be applied--or withheld, lest they do harm--with an emphasis upon the value of "deep democratization."
Johnston is Charles A. Dana Professor of Political Science and division director for the social sciences at Colgate University.
 Let's Go Bowling!
by Eric Dregni '90 (MBI Publishing Co., 2005. 128 pages, $19.95 cloth)
In this illustrated history of "the great sport and humble hobby that conquered the world," Eric Dregni traces bowling from its ancient Egyptian roots to the 21st century United States. He looks at the game's cultural context, from bowling fashion and bowling alley architecture to its role in TV programs and films like "The Honeymooners," "The Big Lebowski" and "The Flintstones." Photographs and illustrations depict period advertisements, a primer on bowling etiquette, film posters and contemporary bowling meccas like Bryant-Lake Bowl in Minneapolis.
Dregni is a free-lance journalist and translator and the author of five previous books, including The Ads That Put America on Wheels and Minnesota Marvels. He lives in St. Paul.
 Environmental Issues in Latin America and the Caribbean
edited by Aldemaro Romero and Sarah E. West '91 (Springer, 2005. 299 pages, $129 hardcover)
Intended as a reader for undergraduates or master's degree students in interdisciplinary courses, this book is a non-technical interdisciplinary collection of 12 essays, each of which uses natural or social science methods. Researchers from Canada, Europe, Latin America and the United States analyze a representative set of environmental issues in Latin America and the Caribbean. They consider problems at international, regional, national, and local levels and examine current and historical environmental policy.
Aldemaro Romero, a former professor of environmental studies at Macalester, is chair of the Arkansas State University Department of Biological Sciences. Sarah West is an economics professor at Macalester.
 Challenging Mountain Nature: Risk, Motive and Lifestyle in Three Hobbyist Sports
by Robert A. Stebbins '61 (Detselig Enterprises Ltd., 2005. 156 pages, $25.95)
A research sociologist with 40 years of experience in the field of work and leisure, Robert Stebbins is also, in his free time, a mountain scrambler, cross-country skier and snowshoer. Here he combines his professional and leisure interests by examining how and why committed hobbyists in mountaineering, kayaking and snowboarding meet challenges posed by nature in the Canadian Rockies. He shows why some people become so passionate about such sports and how they arrange their lives so that they can consistently pursue them.
Stebbins is a sociology professor at the University of Calgary and a fellow of both the Academy of Leisure Sciences and Royal Society of Canada.
 Apprentice to a Garden
by Evelyn Orr Hadden '89 (BookSurge Publishing, 2005. 150 pages, $15 paperback)
As a first-time homeowner, Evelyn Hadden realizes too late that she has moved into "a vast, barren public park." In these essays, she describes how planting for privacy inspired her passion for gardening, and how she transformed her urban lawn into a private, all-season garden.
Hadden writes and publishes information about gardening and natural landscaping. She created and manages the informational Web site LessLawn.com. In 2005, she founded the small publishing company LessLawn Press.
 Arrival and Departure: Twenty Poems
by Evald Kruut '54 (self-published, 2005. 31 pages, $5 paperback)
A native of Estonia, Evald Kruut emigrated to the United States from Germany in 1950. He established a library and technical information center for Dow Corning's Electronic Products Division in Hemlock, Mich., and served as executive director of the Veterans (Public) Memorial Library in Mount Pleasant, Mich., before his retirement in 1991. This collection includes his own poetry as well as translations of poems in Estonian, French, German and Russian.
The book is available from the author for $5, including shipping and handling: 424 S. Anna St., Mount Pleasant, MI 48858.
 A Theory of Everything for Physics
by Carey R. Carlson '71 (Syren Book Co., 2004. 28 pages, $8.95 paperback)
Carey Carlson lays out a concise exposition of the Bertrand Russell/Alfred North Whitehead doctrine that "space is made of time." The structure of time is treated as discrete, rather than capable of infinite divisibility, coinciding with premises of quantum theory.
Carlson, a writer based in Minneapolis, studied the philosophy of science under the late Grover Maxwell at the University of Minnesota.
Hurricanes and 'the common order of things'
Colonists found themselves suddenly returned to a state of nature in the aftermath of hurricanes, their efforts to establish a civilized society literally demolished. Everywhere they turned, they encountered a landscape that represented social degeneration rather than social development....
Colonists tallied these losses to property in monetary terms...but they also measured them in cultural terms. The destruction accompanying hurricanes inverted the series of binary oppositions that shaped English perceptions of the New World and that colonists used to define themselves and their colonial projects--the concepts of nature versus culture, savage versus civilized, wild versus cultivated, chaos versus order, waste versus improved. The storms destroyed the symbolic markers of English culture and social order. Hurricanes "materially affected and changed the common order of things," wrote one eighteenth-century commentator. The widespread damage and disruptions reversed the existing social hierarchy as the grand were made low and "all artificial distinctions [were] leveled in the dust." Big planters who had occupied refined houses suddenly found themselves living in the huts of slaves.
--from Hurricanes and Society in the British Greater Caribbean, 1624-1783 by Matthew Mulcahy '90 ((c) 2006 The Johns Hopkins University Press) |
Hurricanes and Society in the British Greater Caribbean, 1624-1783
by Matthew Mulcahy '90 (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006. 257 pages, $45 hardcover)
For the 17th and 18th century colonists of the British Greater Caribbean, hurricanes were entirely new and terrifying parts of the physical environment. These European settlers had never faced such storms, capable of destroying staple crops and provisions, leveling plantations and towns, disrupting shipping and trade, and resulting in major economic losses for planters and widespread privation for slaves.
In this book, Matthew Mulcahy, who teaches history at Loyola College in Maryland, examines how colonists made sense of hurricanes, how they recovered from them and the role of the storms in shaping the development of the region's colonial settlements. Topics examined include colonial science, the plantation economy, slavery, and public and private charity.
White Privilege 101: Getting in on the Conversation
by Adam Burke '92 (White Privilege Conference, 43-minute video with 53-page study guide. $125, available on DVD or VHS)
This educational video is a research project that grew from the Annual Conference on White Privilege (www.whiteprivilegeconference.com) and features interviews with anti-racist activists and scholars such as Peggy McIntosh, Na'im Akbar, Tim Wise and Jane Elliott. Also included are a diverse group of people talking about issues of privilege as they relate to family, school and peers. Examples and definitions of white privilege are provided for viewers who are new to the subject. The video is accompanied by a study guide that helps facilitate discussion in small groups and classroom settings.
Writer, director and editor Adam Burke has won several awards for his videos, which have been screened before audiences in London, New York and Chicago. A free-lance videographer and artist, he lives in Iowa.
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