Editors’ Picks: December 2024 Edition

10 reviews handpicked from the latest issue of Choice.

Posted on December 4, 2024 in Editors' Picks

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A work deeply immersed in dance ancestry and transcendance, readers can reinterpret imaginatively the stories of Black collective histories through a kinship of belonging.

—A. Emory-Maier, Kent State University

Bragin, Naomi Macalalad. Kinethic California: dancing funk and disco era kinships. Michigan, 2024. 242p bibl index ISBN 9780472076413, $75.00; ISBN 9780472056415 pbk, $29.95; ISBN 9780472903825 ebook, open access.

Kinethics, a term manifested by Bragin (Univ. of Washington Bothell), is the solidifying force and framework of the study of hip hop/street dance of the1960s–70s. It examines Black social and vernacular dance in the context of the aesthetics of Blackness and the ever-evolving performance of Black life. The origins of these dances are geographically rooted in the communities of northern California, Fresno, and Los Angeles. These movements have been globally influenced and have transcended transnational arenas. Bragin tracks the movements from the West to East Coast and back again, noting that the dances’ sense of place are occurrences in everyday Black life—emerging, being, and becoming a collective. This reflects a shared kinship of bodies and experiences, encompassing oppression; the commodification of cultures by white supremacy; the subversion of white dominance; and the intertwined processes of grieving and celebration. In addition to completing her own ethnographic and embodied research, Bragin uses blends of media, performance and cultural studies, oral history, poetry, and more in her volume. Her analysis, narrative, and continuity morphs in sync with the Black vernacular and social dance forms themselves. A work deeply immersed in dance ancestry and transcendance, readers can reinterpret imaginatively the stories of Black collective histories through a kinship of belonging. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate students through faculty; professionals. —A. Emory-Maier, Kent State University

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Brimming with authoritative information, yet easily navigable thanks to its beautiful organization, this volume will be a standard reference for years to come.

—E. J. Vajda, Western Washington University

Campbell, Lyle. The Indigenous languages of the Americas: history and classification. Oxford, 2024. 624p bibl index ISBN 9780197673461, $137.00; ISBN 9780197673485 ebook, contact publisher for price.

This encyclopedic treatment of the genealogy and historiography of the Western hemisphere’s Indigenous languages is an entirely different publication from the author’s celebrated American Indian languages (CH, May’98, 35-4847), which appeared a quarter century ago. While covering much of the same ground, it highlights recent advances in this vibrant field, including newly accepted genealogical connections and progress documenting endangered languages. It covers each family’s distribution and number of speakers. Campbell (emer., Univ. of Hawaii, Manoa) highlights many cases where multiple names have been used for the same language. Each language isolate (family of one)—and there are surprisingly many in the Americas—receives individual attention. Descriptions of larger families, like Uto-Aztecan, Mayan, Arawakan, Cariban, and Chibchan, provide insight into internal subgrouping and reconstructed phoneme inventories. The book also contains invaluable data on unclassified or spurious languages, contact languages, loanwords, and language areas (zones of contact) across the Americas. The author’s breadth of erudition is exceeded only by his humanity and deep respect for the subject. Brimming with authoritative information, yet easily navigable thanks to its beautiful organization, this volume will be a standard reference for years to come. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers. —E. J. Vajda, Western Washington University

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Its readable style and helpful introduction make it accessible to undergraduate and general readers as well.

—J. M. Meinert, Benedictine College

Cartagena, Nathan Luis. The theology of fear in Thomas Aquinas’s Summa theologiae. Lexington Books, 2024. 198p bibl index ISBN 9781666953817, $105.00; ISBN 9781666953824 ebook, $45.00.

Both Thomas Aquinas and fear are growing areas of interest in contemporary scholarship, making this book very timely. Cartagena (Wheaton College) is an upcoming Thomistic scholar, and this monograph is a revision and publication of his dissertation. It offers the first full-length treatment of fear in Aquinas’s Summa Theologiae. Cartagena offers an intelligent and thoughtful exegesis of Aquinas’s questions on fear as well as the virtues, vices, and gifts that perfect fear. In conclusion, Cartagena presents a systematic summary and assessment of Aquinas’s overall theology of fear. Given that this text is singular in its field and appeals to other fields as well, it is likely to become a cornerstone for scholars interested in Thomas Aquinas, the psychology of fear, or virtue theory (even if his arguments or exegesis are at times debatable). Its readable style and helpful introduction make it accessible to undergraduate and general readers as well. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers through faculty; professionals. —J. M. Meinert, Benedictine College

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With her impressive linguistic abilities she has exploited well the Turkish archives to produce an important scholarly work that contributes to the rehabilitation of the late Ottoman Empire.

—A. J. Papalas, emeritus, East Carolina University

Fratantuono, Ella. Governing migration in the late Ottoman Empire. Edinburgh University Press, 2024. 288p bibl index ISBN 9781399521840, $120.00; ISBN 9781399521864 ebook, contact publisher for price.

From the mid-19th to the early 20th century wars and political unrest drove over one million migrants, mainly from the Balkans, Russia, and the Near East, into the Ottoman Empire. Numerous refugees, or colonists as the government designated them, accepted available land in rural Asia Minor. It proved to be a colossal fiasco in social engineering. Many impoverished migrants died from poverty and diseases; others turned to rebellion and banditry. Ottoman authorities’ attempt to settle ethnic and religious minorities and shape them into productive and loyal Ottoman citizens was a disaster. The government responded with a fierceness that shocked most in Europe. Fratantuono (Univ. of North Carolina, Charlotte) cogently argues that Ottoman authorities were well intentioned and even idealistic but proved to be incompetent administrators lacking expertise in migrant management. Neither the sultan’s enlightened absolutism nor the liberal views of the succeeding republican government were able to prevent outright massacres. The author implies that the Ottoman economic crises of this period were the main culprit for the failed migrant policy. With her impressive linguistic abilities she has exploited well the Turkish archives to produce an important scholarly work that contributes to the rehabilitation of the late Ottoman Empire. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through graduate students. —A. J. Papalas, emeritus, East Carolina University

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Enhanced by 22 photos from the University of Florida’s Hurston Papers, Hopson’s biographical-literary analysis will appeal to a wide readership, from Hurston fans to those who know little about her adventurous life and cultural legacy.

—J. W. Hall, emerita, University of Mississippi

Hopson, Cheryl. Zora Neale Hurston. Reaktion Books, 2024. 168p bibl ISBN 9781789147957 pbk, $22.00; ISBN 9781789148244 ebook, contact publisher for price.

In this brief, comprehensive study of Zora Neale Hurston’s life and work, Hopson (Roanoke College) says Hurston “had no models” and thus “walked many a tightrope with friends, publishers and benefactors.” Yet, as a “New Woman” and “New Negro,” she formed productive relationships with powerful whites, including her Barnard anthropology mentor, Franz Boas, and her manipulative New York patron, Charlotte Osgood Mason. Hopson suggests Hurston’s friendships with Harlem Renaissance contemporaries like Alain Locke and Langston Hughes were complicated by gender and social status. Emphasizing the role of Hurston’s letters in her lifelong drive to “jump at the sun,” Hopson often quotes effectively from Carla Kaplan’s Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Letters (2003). Eatonville, Florida, where Hurston grew up surrounded by people of color, became a major site for her immersive field work and an inspiration for her stories, plays, folklore collections, and novels—most notably, Their Eyes Were Watching God. Enhanced by 22 photos from the University of Florida’s Hurston Papers, Hopson’s biographical-literary analysis will appeal to a wide readership, from Hurston fans to those who know little about her adventurous life and cultural legacy. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers through faculty. —J. W. Hall, emerita, University of Mississippi

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Ukrainians’ indomitable spirit comes through most strongly in the memorable vignettes from survivors.

—T. P. Johnson, University of Massachusetts, Boston

Miller, Christopher. The war came to us: life and death in Ukraine. Bloomsbury, 2024. 400p bibl index ISBN 9781399406857, $28.00; ISBN 9781399406789 pbk, $19.99; ISBN 9781399406826 ebook, contact publisher for price.

This volume is not an operational or narrative history, as it frequently jumps from 2022 back to 2014 and to other years in between. Instead, this is a journalistic account covering nine momentous years in Ukraine’s contemporary history. Miller, who is the lead correspondent in Ukraine for the Financial Times, was formerly a Peace Corps volunteer and longtime resident in Ukraine. His intimate engagement with the country is a great asset as countless Ukrainians open up to him more readily as a trusted reporter, known for his writings for the Kyiv Post. Miller provides some background information, but it helps if readers are somewhat familiar with the recent past—a good place to start is Serhii Plokhy’s The Russo-Ukrainian War (2023). This text instead delves into remarkable and detailed accounts of major events before and during Russia’s full-scale invasion, including infamous Russian war crimes and atrocities (e.g., in Bucha, Irpin, Mariupol, Chernobyl, and Kakhovka), instances of stirring resistance, counteroffensives, and Volodymyr Zelensky’s charismatic leadership. Ukrainians’ indomitable spirit comes through most strongly in the memorable vignettes from survivors. Miller unabashedly favors Ukraine. Rather scant coverage from 2015 to 2021 keeps the length manageable; hopefully this period is included in a future volume. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers through faculty; professionals. —T. P. Johnson, University of Massachusetts, Boston

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Murphy engages with history and theory in a highly readable way, and her book is a great entry point for student and faculty research into the topic.

—S. Pepper, Northeastern Illinois University

Murphy, Paula. AI in the movies. Edinburgh University Press, 2024. 208p bibl index ISBN 9781474448581, $110.00; ISBN 9781474448604 ebook, $110.00.

Discussions about generative artificial intelligence have reached something of a fever pitch in the last year, and this book about representations of AI in cinema comes at just the right time. AI in the Movies focuses on how cinema depicts artificial general intelligence or “strong AI” that meets or exceeds that of human intelligence. With a filmography of more than 50 titles, the book approaches this history in a chronological way, focusing on films from each decade between the 1950s and the 2010s. The balance between broad survey and in-depth analysis works very well, and readers get thoughtful discussions of Forbidden Planet (1956), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Alien (1979), Demon Seed (1977), The Terminator (1984), Blade Runner (1982), Her (2013), Ex Machina (2014), and many more. Murphy (English, Dublin City Univ., Ireland) explores key themes across these films such as gender, relationships, materiality, death, and the universal question of what it means to be human. Murphy engages with history and theory in a highly readable way, and her book is a great entry point for student and faculty research into the topic. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers. —S. Pepper, Northeastern Illinois University

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This book is meticulously researched, and the writing is top-quality. Its length, however, will likely keep it from getting the readership it deserves.

—M. D. Brewer, University of Maine

Rana, Aziz. The Constitutional bind: how Americans came to idolize a document that fails them. Chicago, 2024. 824p bibl index ISBN 9780226350721, $45.00; ISBN 9780226350868 ebook, contact publisher for price.

In this book, Rana (law, Boston College) seeks to answer the seemingly simple question “of how constitutional veneration became such a naturalized, unremarked-upon feature of collective life by the late twentieth century” (p. 2). While the question is simple, the answer most certainly is not. More important than the answer, which Rana sharply and painstakingly develops over the course of the book, are the implications of this development. Rana argues that Americans’ worship of the Constitution has, in many ways, led to a politics and a government that fail to serve the fundamental wants and needs of the vast majority of the nation’s population. Even worse, this “constitutional veneration” has created an environment where fundamental change is difficult to even imagine, much less accomplish. Americans did not always worship the Constitution. In fact, as Rana demonstrates, for many years the Constitution was much more likely to be ignored than lauded, and there was also plenty of criticism. While there are many elements at play in the change of status, Rana sees the emergence of the US as a global superpower in the 20th century as the most important driver. This book is meticulously researched, and the writing is top-quality. Its length, however, will likely keep it from getting the readership it deserves. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals. —M. D. Brewer, University of Maine

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It will interest students and scholars of criminal justice, corrections, and critical criminology.

—A. J. Trevino, Wheaton College

Ross, Jeffrey Ian. Introduction to convict criminology. Bristol University Press, 2024. 222p bibl index ISBN 9781529221190, $159.95; ISBN 9781529221206 pbk, $34.95; ISBN 9781529221213 ebook, contact publisher for price.

A primer for the uninitiated, this book by Ross (Univ. of Baltimore), cofounder of Convict Criminology (CC) and coauthor of the book Convict Criminology (CH, Jul’03, 40-6737), is organized in three parts. The first provides a general introduction to CC, an approach that examines the lived experiences of anyone who has been incarcerated, or has somehow been contacted, involved, or impacted by the criminal justice system. The second contains chapters on teaching CC and mentoring formerly and currently incarcerated individuals who seek to obtain a PhD in criminology, criminal justice, or a related field. The third part discusses how CC adherents engage in prison activism and public policy work on criminal justice reform. Chapters are structured by headings and subheadings in the form of questions that provide concise answers to issues pertaining to CC. Exhibit boxes feature information on individuals who have made contributions to CC. The volume provides a historical overview of CC’s development as an approach and a network over the past three decades. The book contains a glossary of key words and clarifies misinformation and misperceptions about CC and its goals. It will interest students and scholars of criminal justice, corrections, and critical criminology. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; professionals. —A. J. Trevino, Wheaton College

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This book is a powerful and well-documented effort that is very persuasive in its argumentation and handling of source materials.

—J. C. Jaffe, Lake Erie College

Sparey, Victoria. Shakespeare’s adolescents: age, gender and the body in Shakespearean performance and early modern culture. Manchester University Press, 2024. 240p bibl index ISBN 9781526168191, $111.73; ISBN 9781526168184 ebook, contact publisher for price.

Sparey’s approach to the topic of the depiction of adolescence as a cultural construct during the Elizabethan era is a deeply researched and thoughtful work. She deftly intertwines different aspects of the perception of youths, from agricultural metaphors for the young to the idea of “boys” playing female roles, and more. As Sparey (Univ. of Exeter, UK) puts is at one point, “I situate boy actors less as ‘puppet’ miniatures … and approach boy actors as growing adolescents, in accordance with cultural and medical discourses about puberty” (p. 160). In some ways, what it means to grow is one of the major themes of this book. The aforementioned quote also captures another topic handled throughout the book, which is that the adolescent actor was a puppet made up, so to speak, to appear feminine. This book is a powerful and well-documented effort that is very persuasive in its argumentation and handling of source materials. My only quibble—and it is perhaps minor—is that Sparey never questions the idea that boys did indeed play these roles in the first place, an assumption not all scholars believe. This debate itself is one worthy of inclusion in such a work. Nonetheless, a book well worth reading, especially for graduate students and other researchers. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate students through faculty. —J. C. Jaffe, Lake Erie College

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