Winter Post 1: December 19, 2009

African Culture and Melville’s Art: The Creative Process in Benito Cereno and Moby Dick

by Sterling Stuckey

review by Babacar M’Baye, Kent State University

listed in: Literature, African

Attack Politics: Negativity in Presidential Campaigns Since 1960

by Emmett H. Buell, Jr. and Lee Sigelman

review by Derek Charles Catsam, University of Texas of the Permian Basin

listed in: Social Custom

Bite Me: Food in Popular Culture

by Fabio Parasecoli

review by Rossella Ceccarini, Sophia University, Japan

listed in: Material Custom and Social Custom

Cruel and Unsual: The Culture of Punishment in America

by Anne-Marie Cusac

review by Henrike Lehnguth, University of Maryland

listed in: Social Custom

Cuttin’ Up: How Early Jazz Got America’s Ear

by Court Carney

review by Reba Wissner, Brandeis University

listed in: Music and Preforming Arts

Literature and Dance in Nineteenth-Century Britain: Jane Austen to the New Woman

by Cheryl A. Wilson

review by Luca Caddia, Independent Scholar

listed in: Literature and Gender

The Lottery Wars: Long Odds, Fast Money, and the Battle Over an American Institution

by Matthew Sweeney

review by Amanda Harmon Cooley, North Carolina A&T State University

listed in: Material Culture and Social Custom

Shakespeare’s Opposites: The Admiral’s Company 1594-1625

by Andrew Gurr

review by Suanna H. Davis, Houston Baptist University

listed in: Literature and Performing Arts

The Tactile Eye: Touch and the Cinematic Experience

by Jennifer M. Barker

review by Henrike Lehnguth, University of Maryland

listed in: Cinema

Fall Post 3: November 10, 2009

The Late Age of Print

By Ted Striphas
Review by Vicky Gilpin, Millikin University, Illinois
Listed in: Literature and Material Culture

Tabloid Valley: Supermarket News and American Culture

By Paula E. Morton
Review by Amarnath Amarasingam, Wilfrid Laurier University, Ontario
Listed in: Material Culture

Station Identification: A Cultural History of Yiddish Radio in the United States

By Ari Kelman
Review by Elizabeth Whittenburg Ozment, University of Georgia
Listed in: Immigrant American and Preforming Arts

Dancing from the Heart: Movement, Gender, and Cook Islands Globalization

By Kalissa Alexeyeff
Review by Matthew J. Forss, Goddard College, Vermont
Listed in: Preforming Arts and Social Custom

For the Freedom of Her Race: Black Women and Electoral Politics in Illinois

By Lisa Masterson
Review by Jason Hostutler, Mount Mary College, Wisconsin
Listed in: African American, Gender

Disporas of Australian Cinema

Edited by Catherine Simpson, Renata Murawska, and Anthony Lambert
Review by Sarah Pinto, Centre for Australian Indigenous Studies, Monash University
Listed in: Cinema

Beyond the Box: Television and the Internet

By Sharon Marie Ross
Review by Novotny Lawrence, Southern Illinois University
Listed in: Television

Composing the Citizen: Music as Public Utility in Third Republic France

By Jann Pasler
Review by Reba Wissner, Brandeis University
Listed in: Music and Europe

9/11 Culture

By Jeffrey Melnick
Review by Waleed Mahdi, University of Minnesota
Listed In: Material Culture, Social Custom

Fall Post 2: October 5, 2009

Sounds of the Modern Nation:  Music, Culture, and Ideas in Post-Revolutionary Mexico

By Alejandro L. Madrid
Review by Russell Cobb, University of Alberta
Listed In: Music and Latin America

Near Black: White-to-Black Passing in American Culture

By Baz Dreisinger
Review by Jacke R. Booker, Winston-Salem State University
Listed In: African American, Social Custom

Music in German Immigrant Theater: New York City, 1840 - 1940.

By John Koegel
Review By Reba Wissner, Brandeis University
Listed In:  Music, Immigrant America

The Devil You Dance With: Film Culture in the New South Africa

Edited by Audrey Thomas McCluskey
Reveiw by Roberta Di Carmine, Western Illinois University
Listed In:  Cinema, Africa

Performing Worlds into Being: Native American Women's Theater

Edited by Anne Elizabeth Armstrong, Kelli Lyon Johnson, and William A. Wortman.
Review by Megan Burnett, Alice Lloyd College, Kentucky
Listed In: Performing Arts, Native American

Investigation Firefly and Serenity: Science Fiction on the Frontier

Edited by Rhonda V. Wilcox and Tanya R. Cochran
Review by Madeline Muntersbjorn, University of Toledo
Listed In: Television, Cinema

Gender, Professions and Discourse: Early Twentieth-Century Women's Autobiography

By Christine Etherington-Wright
Review by Suanna H. Davis, Lone Star College, Texas
Listed In: Gender, (Auto)Biography

Cold War Confrontations: US Exhibitions and Their Rone in the Cultural Cold War

By Jack Masey and Conway Lloyd Morgan.
Review by Antonio Thompson, Austin Peay State University
Listed In: Visual Arts, Material Culture

Fall Post 1: August 30, 2009

Popular Culture Values and the Arts: Essays on Elitism versus Democratization.

Edited by Ray B. Browne and Lawrence A. Kreiser Jr.
Review by Stephen Gennaro, York University, Toronto
Listed in: Social Custom, Material Culture

 Texas Blues: The Rise of a Contemporary Sound.

By Alan Govenar.
Review by Jonathan Hill, National University of Singapore
Listed In: Music, Souhwest USA

Orson Welles and the Unfinished RKO Projects: A Postmodern Perspective.

By Marguerite H. Rippy.
Review by Chris Pallant, Bangor University, United Kingdom
Listed In: Cinema, Material Culture

Fabricating the Absolute Fake: America in Contemporary Pop Culture.

By Jaap Kooijman.
Review by Laurence Raw, Baskent University, Ankara
Listed In: Material Culture, Social Custom

A History of the Future

By Donna Goodman
Review by Yves Laberge, Laval University, Quebec
Listed In:  Science, Material Culture

 Screening Nostalgia: Populuxe Props and Technicolor Aesthetics in Contemporary American Film.

By Christine Sprengler.
Review by Greta Methot, Rhode Island School of Design
Listed In: Cinema, Material Culture

The Medieval Cook.

By Bridget Ann Henisch.
Review by Stephanie Plummer, Bowling Green State University
Listed In: Europe, Material Culture

Hollywood’s Ancient Worlds.

By Jeffrey Richards.
Review by Laurence Raw, Baskent University, Ankara
Listed In:  Cinema

Summer Post 3: August 5, 2009

Speaking from the Body: Latinas on Health and Culture

edited by Angie Chabram-Dernersesian and Adela de la Torre
review by Donna Shelton, Northeastern State University
listed in: Latin America, Science

The War in Words: Reading the Dakota Conflict through the Captivity Literature

by Kathryn Zabelle Derounian-Stodola
review by Wendy Lucas Castro, University of Central Arkansas
listed in: Native American, Immigrant American

Red, White, and Spooked: The Supernatural in American Culture

by M. Keith Booker
review by Tamar Gablinger, Humboldt Universität Insititut für Sozialwissenschaften, Germany
listed in: Cinema

Mysterious Skin: Male Bodies in Contemporary Cinema

edited by Santiago Fouz-Hernández
review by Nathan G. Tipton, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis
listed in: Cinema, Gender

Hollywood Bloodshed: Violence in 1980s American Cinema

by James Kendrick
review by Sarah Boslaugh
listed in: Cinema

The Garden and the Fire: Heaven and Hell in Islamic Culture

by Nerina Rustomji
review by Brooke Sherrard, Florida State University
listed in: Social Custom

Francesca Caccini at the Medici Court: Music and the Circulation of Power

by Suzanne G. Cusick
review by Reba Wissner, Brandeis University
listed in: Music, Europe

Desi Land: Teen Culture, Class, and Success in Silicon Valley

by Shalini Shankar
review by Rupa Pillai, University of Oregon, Eugene
listed in: Asia, Immigrant American

A Spectacle of Suffering: Clara Morris on the American Stage

by Barbara Wallace Grossman
review by Hayley Wood, Massachusetts Humanities
listed in: Performing Arts, (Auto)Biography

Summer Post 2: July 8, 2009

Southern Ute Women: Autonomy and Assimilation on the Reservation, 1887-1934

by Katherine Osburn
review by Brad Montgomery-Anderson, Northeastern State University
listed in: Native American, Gender

Queer Visibilities: Space, Identity, and Interaction in Cape Town

by Andrew Tucker
review by Nathan G. Tipton, University of Memphis
listed in: Africa, Social Custom

Inventing Entertainment: The Player Piano and the Origins of the American Musical Industry

by Brian Dolan
review by Justin Patch, University of Texas
listed in: Music, Material Culture

Dance, Social Justice, and Human Rights: Dignity in Motion

edited by Naomi Jackson and Toni Shapiro-Phim
review by Kirstin L. Ellsworth, California State University, Dominguez Hills
listed in: Performing Arts

Breaking the Ashes: The Culture of Illicit Liquor in Sri Lanka

by Michelle Ruth Gamburd
review by Rupa Pillai, University of Oregon
listed in: Asia, Social Custom

Foundation: B-Boys, B-Girls, and Hip-Hop Culture in New York

by Joseph G. Schloss
review by Tara Jabbaar-Gyambrah, State University of New York, Buffalo
listed in: African American, Music

The 9 Emotions of Indian Cinema Hoardings

by V. Geetha, Sirish Rao, and M.P. Dhakshna
review by Rupa Pillai, University of Oregon
listed in: Asia, Cinema

Holy Motherhood: Gender, Dynasty, and Visual Culture in the Later Middle Ages

by Elizabeth L'Estrange
review by Kerr Houston, Maryland Institute College of Art
listed in: Visual Arts, Europe

Summer Post 1: June 17, 2009

Chinese Street Opera in Singapore

by Tong Soon Lee
reviewed by Justin Patch, University of Texas, Austin
listed in: Asia, Performing Arts

War of a Thousand Deserts: Indian Raids and the U.S.-Mexican War

by Brian DeLay
reviewed by Bradley Montgomery-Anderson, Northeastern State University
listed in: War, Southwest USA

Medicine's Moving Pictures: Medicine, Health, and Bodies in American Film and Television

edited by Leslie J. Reagan, Nancy Tomes, and Paula A. Treichler
reviewed by Cara Kinzelman, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
listed in: Cinema, Science

Spare Time in Texas: Recreation and History in the Lone Star State

by David G. McComb
reviewed by Muhammad Aurang Zeb Mughal, Durham University, England
listed in: Southwest USA, Environs

Living as Equals: How Three White Communities Struggled to Make Interracial Connections during the Civil Rights Era

by Phyllis Palmer
reviewed by Barclay Key, Western Illinois University
listed in: Social Custom, African American

From Dominance to Disappearance: The Indians of Texas and the Near Southwest, 1786-1859

by F. Todd Smith
reviewed by Jeff Carlisle, Oklahoma City Community College
listed in: Native American, Southwest USA

The Hidden Art of Hollywood: In Defense of the Studio Era Film

by John Fawell
reviewed by Robert E. Meyer, Depaul University
listed in: Cinema

Power Struggles: Scientific Authority and the Creation of Practical Electricity Before Edison

by Michael Brian Schiffer
reviewed by Yves Laberge, Université Laval, Québec City, Canada
listed in: Science