Editors’ Picks for July 2026

10 reviews handpicked from the latest issue of Choice

Posted on July 17, 2026 in Editors' Picks

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Sloss concludes with a call to end what he calls democratic decay and restore the American regime as an example of self-government.

—E. C. Sands, Berry College

Sloss, David. People v. the court: the next revolution in constitutional law. Cambridge, 2025. 272p bibl index ISBN 9781009651233, $110.00; ISBN 9781009651257 pbk, $34.99; ISBN 9781009651219 ebook, $34.99.

In this volume, Sloss (law, Santa Clara Univ.) presents a new theory of judicial review that seeks to make federal courts more accountable to the will of the people. He begins with the traditional divide in constitutional law between cases involving the powers of government and those involving constitutional rights. Sloss, however, argues that there is a further division between the people and the government that should be taken into account. To that end, he recognizes constitutional issues involving strong, weak, and deferential judicial review. Strong judicial review should apply to election law cases to encourage the quality of representative government. Weak judicial review should apply to individual rights cases and must provide Congress with a way to override rights issues. Finally, the court should apply deferential review for federalism claims. This will help to prevent the court from allowing violations of the 10th Amendment. Sloss concludes with a call to end what he calls democratic decay and restore the American regime as an example of self-government. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Undergraduates through faculty; professionals. —E. C. Sands, Berry College

In the end, Davidson persuasively calls for NATO to respect the diversity of its members’ views on the Russian threat.

—J. W. Peterson, emeritus, Valdosta State University

Davidson, Jason. NATO after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine: threat perceptions and their consequences. Georgetown University, 2026. 251p bibl index ISBN 9781647126704, $134.95; ISBN 9781647126711 pbk, $44.95; ISBN 9781647126728 ebook, $44.95.

Davidson (Univ. of Mary Washington) has written an excellent book, based on 98 interviews in six countries, on the evolution of NATO after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. He challenges the assumption that all NATO alliance partners upgraded the new Russian threat equally in their national security considerations. He concludes that there have been contrasting responses to the Russian aggression in Ukraine. Both Poland and Germany have strengthened their territorial defenses; the former now has a new NATO base, and the latter has taken charge of a battle group in Lithuania. Similarly, the United Kingdom and France are now more concerned about the intensified Russian threat to the whole region; however, their own nuclear arsenals provide them with additional deterrence. Those who do not take this post-2022 challenge from Moscow in the same way include Italy and the United States. Italy is primarily concerned about various security threats in the Mediterranean. For American policy, the threat from China has taken center stage over Russian aggression. In the end, Davidson persuasively calls for NATO to respect the diversity of its members’ views on the Russian threat. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readership levels. —J. W. Peterson, emeritus, Valdosta State University

Organized into three sections, the volume traces how migrants from Russia, Italy, Ireland, Canada, and Poland overstayed visas, crossed through Canada or Mexico by performing whiteness and respectability, or benefited from lax enforcement by 19th-century shipping companies.

—B. B. Pfleger, California State University Los Angeles

Hidden histories of unauthorized migrations from Europe to the United States, ed. by Danielle Battisti and S. Deborah Kang. Illinois, 2025. 304p index ISBN 9780252046469, $125.00; ISBN 9780252088551 pbk, $30.00; ISBN 9780252047770 ebook, $19.95.

Edited by Battisti (Univ. of Nebraska, Omaha) and Kang (Univ. of Virginia), this timely and overdue volume brings together seven historians, two sociologists, and one gender-studies specialist. Across nine chapters and an excellent introduction, the collection offers compelling case studies dismantling assumptions about the “typical” European immigrant experience. The authors do not erase differences among undocumented migrants from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Europe but expose the racism, ethnocentrism, and gendered assumptions of US immigration and naturalization laws from the late 19th century through 2000, when the post-9/11 security regime transformed policy and public discourse. Each chapter reveals that undocumented Europeans, such as Rosaria Baldizzi, recently memorialized at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, often “passed” as American and enjoyed pathways to legal status and citizenship unavailable to non-Europeans. Although precise figures for unauthorized European migration remain unknown, the 1924 Johnson-Reed Act pushed many southern and Eastern Europeans to enter the US outside legal channels. Organized into three sections, the volume traces how migrants from Russia, Italy, Ireland, Canada, and Poland overstayed visas, crossed through Canada or Mexico by performing whiteness and respectability, or benefited from lax enforcement by 19th-century shipping companies. —B. B. Pfleger, California State University Los Angeles

This book is critical, as are visits to libraries of lost maps.

—L. Yacher, emeritus, Southern Connecticut State University

Cheshire, James. The library of lost maps: an archive of a world in progress. Bloomsbury, 2025. 384p index ISBN 9781639734283, $40.00; ISBN 9781639734290 ebook, contact publisher for price.

Technological advances in recent years have affected how humans function daily. Using digital maps to navigate the landscape is no exception. Handheld devices take people anywhere while allowing them to prepare for far-flung destinations. This reality has devalued the use of traditional paper maps and atlases, rendering them as relics. Yet, their existence continues to bring value for specific uses. A paper map offers a fuller, detailed context, while an atlas provides continuity and comparison. Cheshire (Univ. College London, UK) reminds readers that a library of maps is a compilation of information providing opportunities for discovery and fascination with places over time. Such a collection includes varied samples, e.g., compelling a user to make a substantial time investment to fully appreciate its contents. The Library of Lost Maps reads as a personal account of unearthing new venues and experiences that would otherwise be impossible, except by setting foot in each locale. Cheshire transformed from a skeptic into someone fully enthralled by and immersed in how maps convey messages, stories, and interpretations of events and places, allowing the map percipient to critically evaluate and find meaning. This book is critical, as are visits to libraries of lost maps. Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; professionals. —L. Yacher, emeritus, Southern Connecticut State University

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The book is a useful supplementary text for practitioners and for courses in marketing analytics, digital marketing, or marketing technology.

—D. Aron, Dominican University

Venkatesan, Rajkumar. The AI marketing canvas: a five-step AI plan for marketers, by Rajkumar Venkatesan and Jim Lecinski. 2nd ed. Stanford Business Books, 2026. 263p index ISBN 9781503644335 pbk, $28.00; ISBN 9781503645851 ebook, contact publisher for price.

Venkatesan (Univ. of Virginia) and Lecinski (Northwestern Univ.) present a guide to applying AI to contemporary marketing. Targeting marketing managers but accessible to students and faculty, The AI Marketing Canvas outlines a five-step framework to move organizations from experiments to systematic integration. The authors distinguish between predictive AI and generative AI to produce content and communications at scale. Through case studies and examples, they demonstrate how firms can identify high-value opportunities using a 2×2 matrix that distinguishes between internal productivity gains and external growth initiatives. The book’s central metaphor—an AI “exosuit”—emphasizes augmenting over replacing human expertise, arguing that effective marketing strategy depends on human judgment and leadership. The authors address many concerns, including the ethical use of AI and emerging developments such as generative engine optimization and autonomous agents. Compared with other recent practitioner-oriented titles on AI in marketing, such as Roetzer and Kaput’s Marketing Artificial Intelligence (2022) and Penn’s AI for Marketers (2019), this volume stands out for its structured implementation road map, guiding organizations from experimentation to operational integration. The book is a useful supplementary text for practitioners and for courses in marketing analytics, digital marketing, or marketing technology. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals. —D. Aron, Dominican University

In the final chapter, Dempsey situates her work within other scholarship on agism and ableism, encouraging readers to cultivate these women’s approaches to life before approaching life’s edge themselves.

—M. D. Lagerwey, emerita, Western Michigan University

Dempsey, Corinne G. A view from life’s edge: discovering what really matters with older women across the globe. Rutgers, 2025. 198p bibl index ISBN 9781978844650, $130.00; ISBN 9781978844643 pbk, $29.95; ISBN 9781978844667 ebook, $29.95.

A View from Life’s Edge is part of the anthropological “Global Perspectives on Aging” series. This reviewer was captivated by the author’s exploration of what she describes in the subtitle as discovering what really matters with older women across the globe and by unexpected insights. Dempsey (Nazareth Univ.) marks her academic focus on religion as a starting point for this study, yet finds that the expected theme of spiritual evolution does not apply to these women. Her respect for the 91 women she interviewed over five years in four communities in California, northern Iceland, South India, and a New York convent is unmistakable. The writing is well organized and accessible. The text is divided into three sections that address unique contexts, the women’s challenges to fully embracing (or being embraced by) religion and culture, and the mysteries of inexplicable experiences, all interwoven with themes of uprooting and letting go. It is enriched by photos of participants with Dempsey and student assistants, as well as 16 pages of endnotes and a bibliography. In the final chapter, Dempsey situates her work within other scholarship on agism and ableism, encouraging readers to cultivate these women’s approaches to life before approaching life’s edge themselves. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers. —M. D. Lagerwey, emerita, Western Michigan University

This well-referenced book should be read by advanced undergraduates considering work in ecology, graduate students, and senior ecologists wishing to reflect on their careers.

—R. L. Wallace, emeritus, Ripon College

Fox, Jeremy. The ecology of ecologists: harnessing diverse approaches for a stronger science. Chicago, 2025. 248p bibl index ISBN 9780226844954, $115.00; ISBN 9780226844947 pbk, $35.00; ISBN 9780226844961 ebook, $34.99.

This reviewer suspects that few ecologists have received more than a brief review of the history and philosophical underpinnings of what was to become their future discipline, and, in practice, many do not have the time to review those fundamentals. In The Ecology of Ecologists, Fox (Univ. of Calgary, Canada) argues that there is no single approach to ecological research. Thus, most ecologists proceed with a collective fuzziness, but according to Fox this vague style is found in other fields; thus, it seems that ambiguity is prevalent in the sciences. Therefore, the question remains: Is ecology merely the collective sum of all our knowledge? Even if it is, we need not abandon all hope. Fox argues a trifold resolution: to start, take a generalist’s approach (research outside one’s personal field), though he also posits a new goal, “forecasting,” and a new approach, “coordinated distributed experiments.” This well-referenced book should be read by advanced undergraduates considering work in ecology, graduate students, and senior ecologists wishing to reflect on their careers. Regardless, this book will help fill in personal knowledge gaps, add perspective, and provide a deeper understanding of the discipline’s history. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals. —R. L. Wallace, emeritus, Ripon College

Her chapters center on the emotions that mothers are often forced to confront, including regret, exhaustion, rage, shame, guilt, and disgust; Landry gives multiple examples of films that fit this emotional pattern.

—G. R. Butters Jr., Aurora University

Landry, Olivia. Cinema of crushing motherhood: a new feminist cinema. Illinois, 2025. 204p bibl index ISBN 9780252046858, $110.00; ISBN 9780252088957 pbk, $28.00; ISBN 9780252048395 ebook, $19.95.

Landry (Virginia Commonwealth Univ.) makes an important contribution to film theory with The Cinema of Crushing Motherhood. She completes an in-depth analysis of Western films from the past 20 years that problematize the “maternal burden” and demonstrate that motherhood “can be agonizing and rife with bad feelings” (pp. 2–3). Crushing Motherhood succeeds on a number of fronts. Landry is remarkable at closely reading films such as The Babadook and The Last Daughter; her analyses are concise and accessible. Second, she integrates psychological and philosophical theories, particularly affect theory, in her analysis of this body of work. Finally, her organizational scheme is creatively brilliant. Her chapters center on the emotions that mothers are often forced to confront, including regret, exhaustion, rage, shame, guilt, and disgust; Landry gives multiple examples of films that fit this emotional pattern. Landry calls for a “new cinematic model of feminist subjectivity”; films such as Earth Mama and A Thousand and One and series such as The Baby and Pieces of Her demonstrate that something is in the air. One only wishes that Landry could have gotten ahold of If I Had Legs I’d Kick You in time to further cement her thesis. The Cinema of Crushing Motherhood is a must read for those in film studies. Summing Up: Essential. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals. —G. R. Butters Jr., Aurora University

Subtle but beautifully clear, this investigation by Craun (Washington and Lee Univ.) opens up this understudied aspect of communication by tracing its surprisingly durable roots in the Christianized versions of ancient Roman popular morality,

—A. Galloway, Cornell University

Craun, Edwin D. Strategies of the silent in medieval English literature. Pennsylvania State, 2025. 200p bibl index ISBN 9780271099910, $124.99; ISBN 9780271099941 pbk, $34.99; ISBN 9780271100593 ebook, contact publisher for price.

This is a short but richly grounded intellectual, literary, and sociolinguistic history of the meanings, powers, and risks of staying silent in 14th- and 15th-century English literary and other writings. Subtle but beautifully clear, this investigation by Craun (Washington and Lee Univ.) opens up this understudied aspect of communication by tracing its surprisingly durable roots in the Christianized versions of ancient Roman popular morality, Judaism, and Stoicism, and by comparing them with what modern sociolinguistic theory can offer. He then navigates between these deep traditions and modern theories with penetrating considerations of how some well-known, late-medieval English literary works adapt and innovate the intellectual, moral, and affective traditions shaping what it means to stay silent: from prudent social and political self-restraint and corrupt political acquiescence to defenses of nonconforming religious positions from inquisitorial pressures, to the strategies fashioned to confront social discrimination of mental illness, and the pursuit of philosophical and religious inquiry under all these pressures and possibilities. Chaucer, Thomas Hoccleve, 15th-century cycle drama, the accused heretic William Thorpe, and Piers Plowman are all freshly and sensitively examined in a study that caps Craun’s decades of analyses of late-medieval discourse. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Undergraduates through faculty. —A. Galloway, Cornell University

A model of superb scholarship, this book contains a list of archives consulted and notes. Archie Bunker for President is an essential purchase for a variety of disciplines, including television studies, political science, sociology, and American studies.

—C. McCutcheon, University of South Carolina Upstate

Winberg, Oscar. Archie Bunker for president: how one television show remade American politics. North Carolina, 2025. 257p bibl index ISBN 9781469690896, $99.00; ISBN 9781469690902 pbk, $29.95; ISBN 9781469686462 ebook, $23.99.

In Archie Bunker for President, Winberg (Univ. of Turku, Finland) writes that “in the 1970s, All in the Family [AITF] became the most popular and most discussed show on television” (p. 4), and argues that this series reshaped the relationship between television and politics. AITF’s creator and producer, Norman Lear, wanted the show to reflect real-life experiences and spark discussion of social and political issues, including bigotry, civil rights, feminism, inflation, sexual violence, sexuality, politics, and women’s health care. Winberg discusses how Tandem Productions, which Lear founded with Bud Yorkin, collaborated with activists and advocacy groups on the show’s scripts to raise awareness and educate audiences about these issues. Corporations, organizations, and schools used episodes for educational and advocacy purposes. A model of superb scholarship, this book contains a list of archives consulted and notes. Archie Bunker for President is an essential purchase for a variety of disciplines, including television studies, political science, sociology, and American studies. Regarding the show’s cultural importance, readers should consider Cullen’s Those Were the Days: Why All in the Family Still Matters (2020). Summing Up: Essential. General readers through faculty; professionals. —C. McCutcheon, University of South Carolina Upstate

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