Editors’ Picks for April 2022

10 reviews handpicked from the latest issue of Choice.

Posted on April 21, 2022 in Editors' Picks

This thought-provoking, well-written book will be of great interest to both students and faculty.

—W. Kotter, Weber State University

Barrett, John C. Archaeology and its discontents: why archaeology matters. Routledge, 2021. 180p bibl index ISBN 9780367560201, $160.00; ISBN 9781000347555 pbk, $44.95; ISBN 9781003096115 ebook, $44.95.

In this provocative monograph, Barrett (emer., University of Sheffield, UK) presents a radical alternative to what he sees as the primary error of archaeology today: the twin assumptions that an ultimate reality underlies human behavior and that archaeologists can discover that reality by examining material remains. After a brief introduction, he continues by analyzing various approaches to archaeological explanation, exploring the nature of the archaeological record and exposing several weaknesses in the various strands of 20th-century archaeology. He then constructs his alternative by outlining new perspectives on the evolution of ecosystems, investigating how human populations come into being and, finally, presenting his ideas on how differing forms of humanness have been constructed by various historical populations in response to the worlds they encountered, using the Neolithic period in Europe as an example. The study of such processes, Barrett argues, will make archaeology truly relevant. An epilogue summarizing his argument concludes the text, followed by a comprehensive bibliography and useful index. This thought-provoking, well-written book will be of great interest to both students and faculty. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty. —W. Kotter, Weber State University

Historians and students of Spanish literature will find this volume very enjoyable.

—R. M. Delson, American Museum of Natural History

Cowling, Erin Alice. Chocolate: how a New World commodity conquered Spanish literature. Toronto, 2021. 240p bibl index (Toronto Iberic, 63) ISBN 9781487527204, $75.00; ISBN 9781487527204 pbk, $27.95; ISBN 9781487517656 ebook, $27.95.

Departing from traditional food histories, Cowling (MacEwan Univ.) offers a highly original essay exploring the evolving role of American cacao as a defining feature of Spanish social life and a recurrent theme in Spanish literature. Cowling begins by highlighting mentions of chocolate in archival indigenous sources, and ends with a detailed sociological consideration of the ubiquity of chocolate in 18th-century Spain. The first reaction of Spaniards toward this bitter product (early 1500’s) was one of ambivalence. Yet, as Cowling reveals, within a century large amounts of cacao were imported to Spain, where it became the socially approved drink of the upper classes, serving to differentiate this group from the less fortunate masses. By the time of the Golden Age of Spanish literature (17th century), however, chocolate consumption had infiltrated Spanish society at all levels, so that references to the drink frequently appeared in the works of such luminaries as Pedro Calderón de la Barca and Tirso de Molina. Pithy snippets of their writings appear in Spanish and in superb English translation. Often satirized because of its scatological near-homonym, cacao was viewed alternatively as an aphrodisiac, a healthy dietary supplement, or a substance worthy of religious aversion. Historians and students of Spanish literature will find this volume very enjoyable. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates. Graduate students and faculty. —R. M. Delson, American Museum of Natural History

This brilliant, important book will be of great interest to scholars and activists in the animal protection community.

—P. Beirne, emeritus, University of Southern Maine

Deckha, Maneesha. Animals as legal beings: contesting anthropocentric legal orders. Toronto, 2021. 348p ISBN 9781487508449, $85.00; ISBN 9781487525873 , $34.95; ISBN 9781487538255 ebook, $34.95.

In Animals as Legal Beings, Deckha (Univ. of Victoria, Canada) aims to show why animals matter for critical pursuits of justice. The book’s ultimate goal is to offer animals protection from human abuse—especially widespread and unrecognized violence against them—which is arguably stronger than that afforded by legal personhood. Part 1 examines the thinghood and property status of animals in Canadian anti-cruelty statutes and lays bare the manifest problems inherent in the notion of legal personhood. It then steers toward a more animal-centered legal subjectivity and a post-anthropocentric legal ontology. Part 2 hovers around and unfolds the original concept of beingness, which Deckha positions as an alternative to legal personhood. She identifies three elements of beingness: embodiment, relationality, and vulnerability. To accept beingness is to recognize the great importance of the feminist ethics of care and empathy. This brilliant, important book will be of great interest to scholars and activists in the animal protection community. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate students, faculty, and professionals. —P. Beirne, emeritus, University of Southern Maine

This volume stands as a rare transnational analysis of the border that takes historical issues up to the present day, providing a readable and engaging analysis that is accessible to students.

—T. P. Bowman, West Texas A&M University

Ganster, Paul. U.S.-Mexican border today: conflict and cooperation in historical perspective, by Paul Ganster and Kimberly Collins. fourth ed. Rowman & Littlefield, 2021. 364p bibl index ISBN 9781538131794, $99.00; ISBN 9781538131800 pbk, $34.00; ISBN 9781538131817 ebook, $32.00.

This fourth edition of The U.S.-Mexican Border Today by Ganster (San Diego State Univ.) and Collins (California State Univ., San Bernardino) offers a compelling, readable account of both contemporary and historical issues related to the southwest border. Importantly, the authors’ exploration of historical issues aligns with the latest scholarship in the field. After a quick overview of the North American Southwest in chapter 1, they summarize issues related to industrialism and the border at the turn of the 20th century and the ramifications of so-called progressive social changes prior to the Great Depression in chapters 2–4. Ganster and Collins hit a nice stride in chapters 5 and 6, grounding the region’s globalization in mid-20th-century issues, which sets the stage for thorough discussions of contemporary issues ranging from public health, the environment, Natives’ concerns, and border security to national politics. Perhaps most significantly, the authors examine the border from both sides, integrating Mexican and American perspectives on the region’s history and its current problems. This volume stands as a rare transnational analysis of the border that takes historical issues up to the present day, providing a readable and engaging analysis that is accessible to students. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers through faculty; professionals. —T. P. Bowman, West Texas A&M University

This book is not easy to digest, but it is imperative to readers’ understanding of race in the American past and present.

—R. D. Screws, Arkansas National Guard Museum

Hill, Karlos K. The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre: a photographic history. Oklahoma, 2021. 288p bib ISBN 9780806168562, $34.95.

As far as racial violence goes in US history, nothing quite compares to what happened in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1921. Hill (Univ. of Oklahoma) does not attempt a comprehensive history of the massacre, although there is a synopsis at the end, but provides a visual documentation interspersed with oral accounts. Oklahoma State Senator Kevin Mathews, who is the founder and chair of the 1921 Race Massacre Centennial Commission, delivers a timely foreword. The photographs are compelling, demonstrating the shocking death and destruction inflicted on the affluent African American Geenwood neighborhood. The oral histories are telling and enhance the visual encounter. Hill’s inclusion of African American witness accounts, many of which were conducted in 1999, are brilliant, as are the voices of survivors, along with their photographs, which are included toward the end of the book. This photographic history of the 1921 Tulsa race massacreis a necessary volume for public, school, and college libraries to acquire. As Senator Matthews writes, “Dr. Hill and his work are nothing less than inspiring” (p. xi). This book is not easy to digest, but it is imperative to readers’ understanding of race in the American past and present. Summing Up: Essential. General readers through faculty; professionals. —R. D. Screws, Arkansas National Guard Museum

An important book for all educators in contemporary schools and one that meets a real need today.

—J. D. Neal, emeritus, University of Central Missouri

Inclusive instruction for students with emotional and behavioral disorders: pulling back the curtain, [ed.] by John William McKenna and Reesha Adamson. Lexington Books, 2020 (c2021). 222p bibl ISBN 9781498596428, $95.00; ISBN 9781498596435 ebook, $45.00.

This text has a lot going for it. Each chapter is short (roughly 8–20 pages), to the point, and easily understandable, even for non-educators/parents. The editors have selected the best time-tested strategies for successfully including children with challenging behaviors into classrooms with their same-age peers. None of the strategies include detailed elaborations but do provide solid research on the effectiveness of the interventions, and that is a major advantage for this book. It points readers in the general direction of the plethora of similar ways to meet the academic, social, and behavioral needs of these youngsters. A recurring theme throughout the text is to use, but not overly rely on, estimations of children’s “readiness” for acquiring more advanced skills to add to their repertoires. Another underlying theme is to make sure that educators fully understand that meeting the behavioral demands of children is only one aspect of their educational needs—academics are the one thing that children will need to become successful adult citizens and must never be overlooked. An important book for all educators in contemporary schools and one that meets a real need today. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Undergraduates, faculty, and professionals. —J. D. Neal, emeritus, University of Central Missouri

The narrative serves to explain how and why Jackson came to the inspiration for creating TLI as a nonprofit agrarian research facility.

—P. D. Travis, Texas Woman’s University

Jackson, Wes. Hogs are up: stories of the land, with digressions. University Press of Kansas, 2021. 192p bibl ISBN 9780700630592, $26.95; ISBN 9780700630608 ebook, contact publisher for price.

Author of Consulting the Genius of the Place (2010) and cofounder of The Land Institute (TLI), plant geneticist and MacArthur fellow Jackson offers readers this personal memoir—whose title makes reference to his mother’s habitual exclamation, “Hogs are up!” (recalling a Depression-era radio broadcast announcing that the market for hogs had “gone up”). Through selected anecdotes the author presents a glimpse of his own life experiences, beginning with an account of growing up on his father’s hardscrabble farm in the late 1930s, harvesting potatoes by digging them from a field by hand while crawling on his knees. Jackson rejoices in this experience and in overcoming life’s hardships, picking up the story line with his education as an adult, completing a PhD and becoming increasingly conscious of methods embraced by agribusiness, e.g., use of chemical fertilizers that leach the land of nutrients and despoil water and other environmental resources. The narrative serves to explain how and why Jackson came to the inspiration for creating TLI as a nonprofit agrarian research facility. The goal that Jackson and TLI colleagues pursue is to develop sustainable agricultural practices that will both restore depleted land and extend crop yields. As a complementary text, readers may consult Wendell Berry’s The Gift of Good Land (2nd ed., 2009). Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers. —P. D. Travis, Texas Woman’s University

Psychologists contemplating developmental research will benefit greatly from the depth of detail provided, and from discussion of the important elements of this domain as undertaken by the editors and 21 other authors.

—B. C. Beins, Ithaca College

Measuring attachment: developmental assessment across the lifespan, ed. by Everett Waters, Brian E. Vaughn, and Harriet Salatas Waters. Guilford, 2021. 478p index ISBN 9781462546473, $65.00; ISBN 9781462546510 ebook, $65.00.

People form attachment relationships seemingly with the first breath they take as infants. However, understanding the fundamental nature of attachment and how to measure it is deceptively difficult, as Waters (emer., Stony Brook Univ.), Vaughn (Auburn Univ.), and Salatas Waters (emer., Stony Brook Univ.) document in their edited volume. Attachment research was pioneered by Mary Ainsworth four decades ago as she studied infants, and these methods have since expanded across the life-span. As the contributing authors make stunningly clear, understanding even ostensibly simple infant attachment is notably difficult, requiring extensive training and insight. These authors also do excellent work in identifying critical issues related to studying attachment as children grow to adolescence and then to adulthood. The volume details the way theory and methodology evolve hand in hand to further our understanding of attachment, showing that the two are inextricably bound. Neither the research nor the theory is ever simple, but each phase of the lifespan generates different complexities that must be sorted out. These issues are well explored in each chapter. Psychologists contemplating developmental research will benefit greatly from the depth of detail provided, and from discussion of the important elements of this domain as undertaken by the editors and 21 other authors. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates. Graduate students, faculty, and professionals. —B. C. Beins, Ithaca College

A must-read for students and scholars of African history.

—M. M. Heaton, Virginia Tech

Ogundiran, Akinwumi. The Yoruba. Indiana, 2020. 562p bibl index ISBN 9780253051486, $100.00; ISBN 9780253051493 pbk, $40.00; ISBN 9780253051523 ebook, $39.99.

In this impressive volume, Ogundiran (Univ. of North Carolina, Charlotte) provides an intricate and detailed explication of the “deep-time” history of the Yoruba, an ethnic group currently estimated to encompass about 40 million people spread out from southwestern Nigeria to Togo. His main purpose is to move scholars beyond a flat, timeless interpretation that implicitly characterizes Yoruba history as static and homogenous prior to the onset of European colonial rule in the mid-19th century. Relying on a wide range of primary sources, from archaeological artifacts to oral histories, ritual practices, and even a few written documents, the author paints a picture of a diverse and dynamic Yoruba “community of practice” between approximately 300 BCE and 1840 CE, beset by internal conflict but also indelibly interconnected. By focusing attention on the geographical outskirts and social margins of Yoruba society, Ogundiran reorients readers’ understanding of Yoruba history over these two millennia away from stories that center the agency of powerful kingdoms and toward a narrative that recognizes the complexity of factors that shaped the ever-changing political, economic, and cultural dynamics of the region. A must-read for students and scholars of African history. Summing Up: Essential. Advanced undergraduates through faculty. —M. M. Heaton, Virginia Tech

This book is much more important and scholarly than the title and table of contents might suggest.

—R. I. Rotberg, Harvard University

Sepinwall, Alyssa Goldstein. Slave revolt on screen: the Haitian Revolution in film and video games. University Press of Mississippi, 2021. 348p index ISBN 9781496833105, $90.00; ISBN 9781496833112 pbk, $30.00; ISBN 9781496833129 ebook, contact publisher for price.

This imaginative rumination on the representation of Haiti and the Haitian Revolution in film and in video games is the first attempt to show how cinema has neglected Haiti and even ignored heroic figures such as Toussaint Louverture, the slave revolt’s charismatic and most prominent leader. Sepinwall (California State Univ., San Marcos) examines how Haiti appears in box-office films; how Caribbean makers of full-length epics deal with Haiti’s revolution; how Haiti was (mis)represented during the McCarthy era, which froze much Hollywood entrepreneurship; how the French filmmakers handled the revolt; and how Haiti appears in documentaries from France, Canada, and the US. A second section of the book cuts differently; Sepinwall looks at the ways in which Haitians have reflected cinematically on their own revolution. A final section sorts video games that relate to Haiti, no matter how tangentially. This book is much more important and scholarly than the title and table of contents might suggest. Indeed, in her careful dissection of the film Lydia Bailey (1952), which drew on the Haitian Revolution and the accomplishments of Toussaint Louverture, and of how and why Planet of the Apes (1968) provided a sad and demeaning contrast, Sepinwall makes major contributions to film criticism as well as Haiti studies. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals. —R. I. Rotberg, Harvard University

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