Editors’ Picks for December 2025

10 reviews handpicked from the latest issue of Choice—shared households, the "freedom song" genre, and reassessing the Little House books

Posted on December 4, 2025 in Editors' Picks

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Hill’s work affirms Wilder’s literary significance while inviting new conversations about how we read, teach, and remember the past.

—L. Arter, Southern Utah University

Hill, Pamela Smith. Too good to be altogether lost: rediscovering Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little house books. Nebraska, 2025. 384p bibl index ISBN 9781496227881, $36.95; ISBN 9781496243751 ebook, contact publisher for price.

Hill (independent scholar) offers a compelling, essay-style reconsideration of Wilder’s work and legacy. Rather than sidestepping the criticisms leveled against Wilder in recent years, especially regarding her portrayals of Native Americans, Hill addresses them head-on, arguing that Wilder’s intention was not to endorse prejudice but to reveal its consequences. Hill situates the Little House series firmly within the tradition of literary historical fiction, emphasizing its value in raising complex, age-appropriate questions for young readers and encouraging moral reflection across generations. She also convincingly argues that Wilder wrote with the understanding that her audience would grow with the Ingalls children, engaging more critically with the books over time. Especially poignant is Hill’s defense of literary historical fiction as a genre capable of linking modern readers to the past in meaningful, personal ways—something increasingly urgent in an age dominated by digital immediacy. Too Good to Be Altogether Lost is a timely resource for fans of Wilder, teachers of children’s and young adult literature, and scholars interested in reframing classic texts within contemporary conversations. Hill’s work affirms Wilder’s literary significance while inviting new conversations about how we read, teach, and remember the past. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals; general readers. —L. Arter, Southern Utah University

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The clarity of Holterhoff’s prose ensures that advanced undergraduates may benefit from the book, despite its meticulous and thorough research apparatus.

—R. D. Morrison, emeritus, Morehead State University

Holterhoff, Kate. Speculation and the Darwinian method in British romance fiction, 1859–1914. Ohio University, 2025. 208p bibl index ISBN 9780821425961, $78.00; ISBN 9780821425978 ebook, contact publisher for price.

Holterhoff (affiliated researcher, Georgia Institute of Technology), author of Illustration in Fin-de-Siècle Transatlantic Romance Fiction (2022), builds her new study on the inherent tension in Darwin’s work between a desire to categorize (and thus seemingly contain) the natural world and a desire to speculate about its enormous “magnitude and unpredictability” (p. 1). Holterhoff argues convincingly that the various forms of British romance fiction (including the scientific, the metaphysical, the anthropological, the gothic, and the utopian) reflect the influence of Darwinian speculation. Holterhoff provides extended examples from the fiction of H. G. Wells, Marie Corelli, Charles Kingsley, H. Rider Haggard, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Grant Allen, among other writers. While Darwin’s influence on 19th-century fiction, particularly the canonical realist novel, has been amply demonstrated in the past (for example, in Gillian Beer’s Darwin’s Plots), Holterhoff’s focus on the significance of scientific speculation to British romance writers is highly innovative and insightful. The clarity of Holterhoff’s prose ensures that advanced undergraduates may benefit from the book, despite its meticulous and thorough research apparatus. This volume in Ohio University Press’s “Series in Victorian Studies” represents an important contribution to the study of literature and science. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty. —R. D. Morrison, emeritus, Morehead State University

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French influences on Kate Chopin have been studied for decades, but Podlasli-Labrenz (Univ. of Bremen, Germany) is the first to explore just how fully Chopin was immersed in German culture.

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

Podlasli-Labrenz, Heidi M. Inspiration and transcendence in the fiction of Kate Chopin: echoes of nineteenth-century German women and women writers. Lexington Books, 2024. 284p bibl index ISBN 9781666946314, $119.00; ISBN 9781666946321 ebook, contact publisher for price.

French influences on Kate Chopin have been studied for decades, but Podlasli-Labrenz (Univ. of Bremen, Germany) is the first to explore just how fully Chopin was immersed in German culture. Although Goethe and Nietzsche are familiar names in Chopin scholarship, this well-documented, fascinating book spotlights the impact of 19th-century German women. Behind Chopin’s rebellious female characters stand real-life models, like famed pianist Antoinette Fehringer and the works and lives of three remarkable writers: Ida von Hahn-Hahn, Malwida von Meysenburg, and—above all—the prolific, daring Fanny Lewald, author of fiction and sociopolitical treatises. Chopin’s exposure to German language and culture began in childhood with German lessons in St. Louis, home to German émigrés and their newspapers, theaters, and reading clubs. Her European honeymoon introduced her to the joy of long, unaccompanied walks, a habit she carried back to New Orleans, where walking helped her become more independent and create intrepid fictional walkers like Edna Pontellier of Chopin’s best-known work, The Awakening. This study is most helpful on Chopin’s early novel, At Fault, and several stories, including “A Pair of Silk Stockings,” “An Egyptian Cigarette,” and “The Storm.” Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty. —J. W. Hall, emerita, University of Mississippi

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As much a reinterpretation of civil rights history as it is a study of song, this book is well researched and written, important and needed.

—F. J. Hay, emeritus, Appalachian State University

Stacks, Stephen. The resounding revolution: freedom song after 1968. Illinois, 2025. 264p bibl index ISBN 9780252046599, $110.00; ISBN 9780252088704 pbk, $27.95; ISBN 9780252047909 ebook, contact publisher for price.

In The Resounding Revolution, Stacks (North Carolina Central Univ.) examines the “freedom song” as a genre, characterizing it as essential to the Civil Rights Movement. Stacks analyzes the song through a “1968 lens.” (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s death in 1968 is often interpreted as the end of the Movement.) This lens, “a prevalent interpretive framework that stems from a misremembering” of the Movement, leads many observers to compare and judge subsequent civil rights struggles to the Movement prior to 1968. Stacks emphasizes freedom “singing” rather than song in the context of the “Long Civil Rights Movement.” He discusses how the singing changed, becoming more secular, polyphonic, and diverse. He considers Bernice Johnson Reagan’s role in detail, including her impact on the Movement and singing. A chapter devoted to the environmental and racial protests in Warren County, NC, from 1979 to 1982 reflects on the continuing evolution and broadening of the protests. Stacks reviews documentation of movement singing, especially in the works of the Lomaxes, Carawans, and Henry Hampton, and critiques the tendencies of “musical gentrification” and “white aurality.” As much a reinterpretation of civil rights history as it is a study of song, this book is well researched and written, important and needed. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers through faculty. —F. J. Hay, emeritus, Appalachian State University

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With no comparable volume in English, this text is indispensable for any scholar working on the virtues associated with endurance and persistence.

—J. M. Meinert, Benedictine College

The Virtues of endurance, ed. by Nathan L. King. Oxford, 2025. 376p bibl index ISBN 9780197543849, $132.00; ISBN 9780197543856 pbk, $29.95; ISBN 9780197543863 ebook, contact publisher for price.

Filling an important lacuna in studies on endurance, The Virtues of Endurance is an excellent edited volume on the character traits that allow us to persist through difficulties. The collection appears as part of a series aimed at encouraging and highlighting cross-disciplinary work on the virtues. Editor King (Whitworth Univ.) has succeeded in gathering an impressive group of interdisciplinary scholars for this task: philosophers, psychologists, legal scholars, educational theorists, medical practitioners, military theorists, and theologians. The volume has two major sections: “Explorations,” concerning the virtues associated with endurance, and “Applications,” which considers how to apply those virtues. The first section helpfully distinguishes and explores the virtues of perseverance, patience, resilience, and constancy. In the second section, scholars relate those virtues to diverse contexts, including war, medicine, religious life, and society. With no comparable volume in English, this text is indispensable for any scholar working on the virtues associated with endurance and persistence. Though aimed at scholars, the volume could easily serve to whet the appetite of a lay reader or undergraduate. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers through faculty. —J. M. Meinert, Benedictine College

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This is a useful volume for anyone interested in cemetery preservation.

—R. F. Veit, Monmouth University

Seidemann, Ryan M. Cemetery protections in urban environments: archaeology, preservation, and the law. University Press of Florida, 2025. 272p bibl index ISBN 9781683405108, $90.00; ISBN 9781683405184 ebook, contact publisher for price.

Cemetery Protections in Urban Environments is a useful contribution to the growing literature on cemetery studies. Seidemann (The Water Institute), who is both an archaeologist and an attorney, offers a unique perspective. His volume is framed around the concept of structural violence and its disproportionate impact on the burial places of African Americans, Indigenous people, and other marginalized groups. It provides a number of disturbing case studies on the loss and desecration of African American cemeteries, with a particular focus on Louisiana. The volume also provides a useful overview of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act and related state laws in Louisiana and elsewhere. Case studies explore the treatment of human remains and historical Louisiana cemeteries, including isolated and clandestine burials. The book concludes with a discussion of current legal frameworks for cemetery preservation, including the concept of cemetery dedication. Seidemann notes that progress is being made, and descendant communities are increasingly empowered when it comes to preserving burial grounds, but stronger federal and state legislation, as well as increased efforts by law enforcement agencies, are needed. This is a useful volume for anyone interested in cemetery preservation. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate students, faculty, and professionals. —R. F. Veit, Monmouth University

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A must read for all.

—A. J. Hattery, University of Delaware

Harvey, Hope. Doubled up: shared households and the precarious lives of families. Princeton, 2025. 280p bibl index ISBN 9780691247021, $32.00; ISBN 9780691247045 ebook, $32.00.

Hope (Univ. of Kentucky) provides a unique and timely look into the experiences of people living in the US who are “doubling up”—that is, sharing housing with extended family or friends, technically “homeless” but not unhoused. Harvey takes the reader inside the lives of people who are doubled up as both hosts and guests. Going beyond the statistics and standard assumptions of those who live this way, Harvey focuses on the process of becoming doubled up. How does one decide to host or seek a doubling-up relationship as a guest? How are these choices constrained? How are resources and care exchanged? What happens when it’s time to move out? Harvey’s analysis brings a sophisticated and nuanced analysis to the doubled-up relationship. She inspires compassion but also offers recommendations for safety net policies that move the US beyond this “private” approach to addressing housing insecurity and toward practices that provide security and safety to everyone living in the US. A must read for all. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readership levels. —A. J. Hattery, University of Delaware

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Excellent for collections in Louisiana and southern history, geography, and economics.

—J. P. Sanson, emeritus, Louisiana State University at Alexandria

Campanella, Richard. Crossroads, cutoffs, and confluences: origins of Louisiana cities, towns, and villages. Louisiana State, 2025. 384p bibl index ISBN 9780807183687, $49.95; ISBN 9780807185100 pbk, $34.95.

Campanella (Tulane School of Architecture) has produced a useful book that explains why Louisiana’s cities, towns, and villages are located where they are. Historians, sociologists, town planners and administrators, and elected officials who are interested in settlement patterns and population distribution and seek to understand why locations have unique characteristics and needs should read it. The study focuses on 418 communities divided logically by region, beginning with Greater New Orleans and stretching across south Louisiana to the Chenier Plain of southwestern Louisiana and northward through the Western Hill Country and Northern Hill Country to the Upper Delta Country in the northeastern corner of the state. Campanella distinguishes between settlements that emerged from the bottom up and from the top down and explains differences in their site selection and development. The book includes a detailed index that makes finding information about a particular place easy, and a set of notes that enables readers to pursue additional information from the author’s ample sources. The appendix contains information about the 418 locations studied, including the region in which they are located and other pertinent information. Excellent for collections in Louisiana and southern history, geography, and economics. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers, advanced undergraduates through faculty, and professionals. —J. P. Sanson, emeritus, Louisiana State University at Alexandria

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…a necessary addition to world’s fair scholarship and to the history of Chicago.

—C. LiaBraaten, Austin Peay State University

Fullerton, Lindsay. Ephemeral city: a people’s history of Chicago’s century of Progress World’s Fair. Illinois, 2025. 340p bibl index ISBN 9780252046438, $125.00; ISBN 9780252088520 pbk, $29.95; ISBN 9780252047749 ebook, contact publisher for price.

Fullerton’s Ephemeral City is an in-depth exploration of the 1933–34 Century of Progress International Exposition. While much has been written about Chicago’s 1893 Columbian Exposition, the Depression-era Century of Progress has been relatively overlooked. This work focuses on the perspective of fair visitors—something that has been missing from explorations of the Century of Progress Exposition and is lacking in world’s fair scholarship generally. Fullerton has combed through scrapbooks and firsthand accounts to create a robust picture of the fair visitors while also using institutional records. Fullerton’s own grandfather’s experiences and collections form a crucial part of this book’s story. Fullerton, a historian and media studies scholar, argues that the full impact of any world’s fair cannot be understood without visitor’s experiences. While fair management often brushed aside the contradictions of the Great Depression, the visitor experiences more firmly situate the Century of Progress in the 1930s. Ephemeral City is a necessary addition to world’s fair scholarship and to the history of Chicago. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers through faculty. —C. LiaBraaten, Austin Peay State University

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…a meticulously researched reflection on the founders’ intent, the Marshall trilogy, and early contemporaneous writings about the status of sovereign tribal governments in early America.

—G. Christensen, Stetson University College of Law

Schwartzberg, Steven J. Arguments over genocide: the war of words in the Congress and the Supreme Court over Cherokee removal. Ethics Press, 2023. 346p bibl index ISBN 9781804411070, $110.00; ISBN 9781804413609 pbk, $42.00; ISBN 9781804411087 ebook, contact publisher for price.

Arguments over Genocide is a meticulously researched reflection on the founders’ intent, the Marshall trilogy, and early contemporaneous writings about the status of sovereign tribal governments in early America. Schwartzberg (political science, DePaul Univ.) examines the language of early judicial precedent to suggest that the choices the Marshall Court made in deciding cases like Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1831) and Worcester v. Georgia (1832) codified a genocidal approach toward Indigenous persons into American law. In a strident critique of “federal Indian law,” the text accuses those advancing colonial and genocidal positions of “collective amnesia,” i.e., forgetting the treaty promises made and the equal bargaining power of tribal and federal parties. To muster opposition to this legal position, the author suggests reexamining the debates among the founders and at the early court to “facilitate” better communication between the American people and Native nations. The text does not read like a doctoral thesis but more like a carefully composed historiography. The narrative is divided into eight chapters, told roughly chronologically, culminating in an extensive bibliography. It is well recommended for scholars studying this period. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers through faculty; professionals. —G. Christensen, Stetson University College of Law

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