Editors’ Picks for January 2025

10 reviews handpicked from the latest issue of Choice.

Posted on January 16, 2025 in Editors' Picks

Supported by research at 17 archives in North America and across Europe, Beorn’s effort is impressive and, at times, brilliant.

—D. R. Snyder, Austin Peay State University

Beorn, Waitman Wade. Between the wires: the Janowska camp and the Holocaust in Lviv. Nebraska, 2024. 400p bibl index ISBN 9781496237590, $70.00; ISBN 9781496239778 ebook, $70.00.

Noted Holocaust scholar Beorn (Univ. of Northumbria, UK) considers the relatively unknown Janowska concentration camp near Lviv, Ukraine, which served Hitler’s genocidal war against the Jews between July 1941 and November 1943. Comprehensive in scope, this volume examines the Jewish experience within the camp, its connections to the regional genocide of which it was a part, and the ways in which the camp reflected continuity with, and divergence from, similar camps during the Holocaust. The history of the Holocaust in Lviv in general, and of the Janowska camp in particular, provide insight into how Nazi policy evolved and changed over time and across space. Only in Janowska, the author notes, did a large, combined forced labor and extermination complex develop. Although Janowska was not specifically a death camp like Auschwitz or Sobibor, it became the primary site for extermination in the region after the Belzec death camp was shut down in December 1942. A least 80,000 Jews were murdered at Janowska (more than the number killed in the infamous Majdanek death camp), and the camp indirectly played an indispensable role in the death of 500,000 Nazi victims overall. Supported by research at 17 archives in North America and across Europe, Beorn’s effort is impressive and, at times, brilliant. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers through faculty. —D. R. Snyder, Austin Peay State University

Dwyre (California State Univ.) and Kolodny (Temple Univ.) have produced arguably the best and clearest book so far explaining money and politics in the US.

—D. Schultz, Hamline University

Dwyre, Diana. The fundamentals of campaign finance in the U.S.: why we have the system we have, by Diana Dwyre and Robin Kolodny. Michigan, 2024. 392p bibl index ISBN 9780472056880, $95.00; ISBN 9780472056880 pbk, $44.95; ISBN 9780472904532 ebook, contact publisher for price.

The United States is a capitalist democracy where money plays a major role in its campaigns and elections. In the 2024 presidential election, billions of dollars were raised and spent by candidates and groups. Yet, few individuals understand where that money comes from, how it is spent, and its impact. Dwyre (California State Univ.) and Kolodny (Temple Univ.) have produced arguably the best and clearest book so far explaining money and politics in the US. They provide a cogent discussion of the basic goals of American democracy and a succinct history of the role of money and politics as well as the legal efforts to regulate or control it. Various chapters discuss who gives and how, focusing on the various entities and individuals who give, and the means by which their money makes it into the political process. Readers learn that the Supreme Court has largely undone the post-Watergate reforms to limit the role of money in politics and avoid corruption. This is especially true under Chief Justice John Roberts; the court has prioritized the protection of money as speech over regulating corruption. Excellent for collections on American politics. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals. —D. Schultz, Hamline University

These essays are succinct and well researched, and the text overall is an excellent one to consider for undergraduate literature courses. 

—E. P. Muntis, Lebanon Correctional Institution

Graveyard gothic, ed. by Eric Parisot, David McAllister, and Xavier Aldana Reyes. Manchester University Press, 2024. 304p bibl index ISBN 9781526166319, $125.00; ISBN 9781526166302 ebook, contact publisher for price.

Graveyard Gothic happily starts a conversation about the darker elements of the Gothic genre. This new text is an impressive and concise examination of the importance of the graveyard as both a setting and catalyst for plot development within Gothic literature. Parisot (Flinders Univ. Australia), McAllister (Univ. of London, UK), and Aldana Reyes (Manchester Metropolitan Univ., UK) have compiled a series of introspective essays to discuss the significance of graveyards as more than places of mourning across many cultures and within literature; they are also places of metaphysical consideration and transition. Additionally, Graveyard Gothic points out how the perception of the purpose and significance of these places of mourning have changed with each generation, and how this is most evident in their media depictions. These essays are succinct and well researched, and the text overall is an excellent one to consider for undergraduate literature courses. Graveyard Gothic will pique students’ interest and instill enjoyment of their assigned reading. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers through advanced undergraduates. —E. P. Muntis, Lebanon Correctional Institution

This is a thought-provoking book that delves into the hidden role of music making as a tool of social resistance, defiance, and subversion.

—K. W. Mukuna, emeritus, Kent State University

Guerilla music: musicking as resistance, defiance, and subversion, ed. by Leon de Bruin and Jane Southcott. Lexington Books, 2024. 258p bibl index ISBN 9781666944037, $115.00; ISBN 9781666944044 ebook, $50.00.

Guerrilla Music is a collection of exploratory articles edited by de Bruin (Univ. of Melbourne, Australia) and Jane Southcott (Monash Univ., Australia) that motivates readers to reflect about various perspectives of the function of music in society. As a product of several different contributors, the styles of these articles will be comfortable to some readers for the clear language used, and others will feel intimidated by the amount of jargon but remain focused on the message being conveyed by the authors. The book contains a total of 15 chapters, distributed in three parts by topic: “Expeditiousness and Immediacy,” “Recurrence and Intermittence,” and “Perseverance and Perpetuity.” The topic are covered unevenly, however, as the number of articles that delve into the various aspects of the topic is different for each. Although each article contains its own bibliography, there is one general index. This is a thought-provoking book that delves into the hidden role of music making as a tool of social resistance, defiance, and subversion. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty. —K. W. Mukuna, emeritus, Kent State University

It is a tale told brilliantly and thoroughly, placing it among the best in the literature on 1960s radicalism.

—D. R. Turner, Davis and Elkins College

Nickerson, Michelle M. Spiritual criminals: how the Camden 28 put the Vietnam War on trial. Chicago, 2024. 256p bibl index ISBN 9780226828039, $115.00; ISBN 9780226834382 pbk, $27.50; ISBN 9780226828046 ebook, $26.99.

During the 1960s Catholic activists played a key role in the movement opposing the Vietnam War. They were inspired by monks such as Thomas Merton and Jacques Maritain, a French philosopher who merged Catholicism with human rights. Others, such as the legendary Dorothy Day, not only agitated against the war but were also active in the Civil Rights Movement. In this remarkable work, Nickerson (Loyola Univ. Chicago) brings these oft-forgotten Catholic radicals back to life and reestablishes their importance in the radical movements of the 1960s. She highlights the activities of the Berrigan brothers, who gained fame in 1967 with their destruction of draft records in Catonsville, Maryland. This act inspired others to defy the government. Nickerson focuses closely on the Camden 28, a group of activists in Camden, New Jersey, who attempted to purloin FBI records in 1971. In their ensuing trial, these “spiritual criminals” managed to unravel the government case and the excesses of COINTELPRO and thus secured a not guilty verdict. It is a tale told brilliantly and thoroughly, placing it among the best in the literature on 1960s radicalism. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers. —D. R. Turner, Davis and Elkins College

The premise and basic argument are so lucid they seem simple, but the book grows in depth as the centuries pass, showing how multilingualism was suppressed but also how each author’s construction of a coterie sedimenting into tradition was artfully selective.

—A. Galloway, Cornell University

Perry, R. D. Coterie poetics and the beginnings of the English literary tradition: from Chaucer to Spenser. Pennsylvania, 2024. 336p bibl index ISBN 9781512826029, $69.95; ISBN 9781512826036 ebook, $69.95.

Perry (Univ. of Denver) marshals a half-dozen authors and works from the late 14th–16th centuries to combine two focuses in medieval and Renaissance literary criticism—periods usually separated—tracing the semi-private, insider notions and styles that define any given literary community in which authors produce their work and determining the more distant traditions that readers and writers establish as benchmarks of canonicity. With admirable sweep and clarity, Perry shows how these issues morph together during these momentous centuries: Chaucer’s nods and addresses to some of his literary contemporaries (and suppressions and distortions of others) gradually became the bases for later definitions of an “English literary tradition” (p. 36). The premise and basic argument are so lucid they seem simple, but the book grows in depth as the centuries pass, showing how multilingualism was suppressed but also how each author’s construction of a coterie sedimenting into tradition was artfully selective. Here are new reasons to read and teach together Chaucer, Hoccleve, Lydgate, Skelton, Tottel’s anthology, and Spenser’s Shepheardes Calender, plus French authors like Granson and Christine de Pizan, whose contributions were erased by most English authors using them. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty. —A. Galloway, Cornell University

Pitre, Brant James. Jesus and divine Christology. Eerdmans, 2024. 416p bibl index ISBN 9780802875129, $39.00; ISBN 9781467468572 ebook, $39.00.

Did Jesus consider himself to be divine? Pitre (Augustine Institute School of Theology) argues from New Testament evidence that Jesus spoke (in substance) and acted as if he were divine. He finds supporting evidence in all of the New Testament gospels and supporting background in the Jewish Scripture. His historical approach follows that of E.P. Sanders (in Jesus and Judaism, 1985), who assesses on the basis of three factors: contextual plausibility in what we know of first-century Judaism, coherence with broader evidence regarding Jesus, and identifiable effects in the early church. These factors are not exhaustive or infallible, but they contribute to a responsible historical approach to the substance of what Jesus said and how he acted. The book is well organized and lucid, regardless of how readers will assess the historical evidence presented. It attends carefully to relevant scholarly literature, and it avoids unduly technical matters. We still might ask, however, whether Jesus could be divine (as “Son of God”) without being equal to God (his divine Father). There is room for further conceptual investigation here. This text would be a great addition to all libraries supporting work on the historical Jesus. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Undergraduates through faculty. —P. K. Moser, emeritus, Loyola University Chicago

The Avant-Gardists is a fresh, narrative approach to the revolutionary art and politics of the early 20th century, framing the avant-garde in global context for specialists and enthusiasts alike.

—A. J. DeBlasio, Dickinson College

Scheijen, Sjeng. The Avant-Gardists: artists in revolt in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union 1917–1935. Thames & Hudson, 2024. 504p bibl index ISBN 9780500024553, $36.71.

The Avant-Gardists is an artistic history of the period from 1917 to 1935, decades that saw revolution, innovation, violence, and terror and some of the most dramatic shifts in creative consciousness in modern history. Written in lively prose and richly illustrated, Scheijen’s study serves as a compelling portrait of this dynamic era and an intellectual-artistic biography of the creators who defined it: Malevich, Tatlin, Khlebnikov, Rodchenko, Lissitzky, Chagall, Lebedev, and many others. Among the work’s many guiding threads is the complicated web of violence that revolution inflicts on art: from the ransacking of the Kremlin art collection in November 1917 to the tragic fates of painters, dramatists, architects, writers, and other creatives during Stalin’s Great Terror of the late 1930s. And yet, Scheijen (independent scholar) also compellingly articulates how force and upheaval were essential to the avant-garde artistic moments themselves, including Tatlin’s subversion of traditional painting, the conquering of Futurism by Suprematism, and the concept of counterattack embedded in Suprematism, which aimed to represent tension and pressure—an explosive and revolutionary counterforce within the work of art itself. The Avant-Gardists is a fresh, narrative approach to the revolutionary art and politics of the early 20th century, framing the avant-garde in global context for specialists and enthusiasts alike. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readership levels. —A. J. DeBlasio, Dickinson College

Wang (Georgia Institute of Technology) does a very good job at explaining what is at stake in the rise of China as a competitor of the US for global hegemony.

—M. E. Carranza, emeritus, Texas A&M University–Kingsville

Wang, Fei-Ling. The China race: global competition for alternative world orders. SUNY Press, 2024. 472p bibl index ISBN 9781438496580, $99.00; ISBN 9781438496597 pbk, $37.95; ISBN 9781438496580 ebook, contact publisher for price.

This excellent volume is the third installment of a trilogy on China that includes The China Order (CH, Mar’18, 55-2634) and The China Record (CH, Nov’23, 61-0852). Its purpose is to explore the prospects for the survival of the liberal international order (LIO) and the existing Westphalian system of sovereign nation-states, or whether they will be replaced by a China-centered world. Wang (Georgia Institute of Technology) does a very good job at explaining what is at stake in the rise of China as a competitor of the US for global hegemony. He examines the foreign policy of the PRC and the “existential” PRC–US “epic contest.” Wang shows that the CCP has taken advantage of the open and rules-based norms and institutions of the LIO to compete with the US globally, while selectively ignoring rules of engagement and moral constraints. Wang proposes an original management strategy (“contaformation”) that would allow the US to prevail in its confrontation with China. The epilogue discusses alternative scenarios for the future of China and the world, revising the scenarios envisaged in Wang’s prior books. A useful addition to Jinghao Zhou’s Great Power Competition as the New Normal of China–US Relations (2023). Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals. —M. E. Carranza, emeritus, Texas A&M University–Kingsville

Her monograph skillfully and successfully illuminates the complex nexus between China’s omnipresent bureaucracy and its exacting party-state.

—R. P. Gardella, emeritus, United States Merchant Marine Academy

Wang, Yingyao. Markets with bureaucratic characteristics: how economic bureaucrats make policies and remake the Chinese state. Columbia, 2024. 304p bibl index ISBN 9780231214780, $140.00; ISBN 9780231214797 pbk, $35.00; ISBN 9780231560467 ebook, contact publisher for price.

Autocratic authority and sophisticated bureaucratic governance have doubtlessly characterized China’s imperial regimes for over two millennia, not excluding their contemporary prominence in today’s People Republic. Wang’s sharply delineated sociological analysis of China’s past four decades of spectacular economic development argues for a timely corrective to conventional assessments of that process. Wang (Univ. of Virginia) attributes its dynamism to the persistent enterprise of hitherto faceless cohorts of second-tier bureaucrats in policy making and execution. Rather than stolidly following the imperative, top-down guidance of elite CCP leaders or the percolation of bottom-up initiatives from China’s masses, these careerist economic functionaries have spun out distinctive, often rival, “policy paradigms” framing the country’s long-term development. Seeking their own status and advantage, bureaucrats mustered around mutual career patterns, generational affinities, and social networks, generating new alliances and antagonisms. Wang’s impressive research agenda included extensive biographical and interview data supplementing a careful survey of published Chinese and foreign sources. Her monograph skillfully and successfully illuminates the complex nexus between China’s omnipresent bureaucracy and its exacting party-state. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals; general readers. —R. P. Gardella, emeritus, United States Merchant Marine Academy

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