Editors’ Picks for March 2025

10 reviews handpicked from the latest issue of Choice.

Posted on March 13, 2025 in Editors' Picks

This is an excellent addition to our understanding of Tsongkhapa’s thought and of Tibetan meditative practice.

—S. Wickhamsmith, Rutgers University

Bentor, Yael. The cosmos, the person, and the Sādhana: a treatise on Tibetan tantric meditation. Virginia, 2024. 304p bibl index ISBN 9780813951041, $120.00; ISBN 9780813951058 pbk, $34.50; ISBN 9780813951065 ebook, contact publisher for price.

In The Cosmos, the Person, and the Sādhana, Bentor (Hebrew Univ. of Jerusalem, Israel) has offered a translation and introduction to one of the most significant analyses of the nature and form of Buddhist meditation, written by the founder of the Gelukpa sect of Tibetan Buddhism, Tsongkhapa Lozang Drakpa (1357–1419). Tsongkhapa’s text offers a commentary on the Guhyasamāja sādhana and deals particularly with the relationship between tantric practice and the experience and lifestyle of a practitioner engaged in the practice and the relationship between this engagement and the cosmos. Bentor’s analysis of this commentary starts by unrolling these aspects of the text along various trajectories, examining the cosmic cycles as mirrors for the seasonal cycles and the human cycles of the practitioner. In her second chapter, she considers the idea of death in Tibetan Buddhism but specifically the nature of death, the conceptualization of the intermediate state (the bardo), and rebirth. These processes likewise relate to the process of the sādhana, in which the practitioner transcends the physical body and attains the “emanation body,” or nirmāṇakāya, of the Buddha. Bentor’s explanation of the sādhana is engaging, thoughtful, and thought provoking, while her translation of Tsongkhapa’s commentary is both elegant and accessible. This is an excellent addition to our understanding of Tsongkhapa’s thought and of Tibetan meditative practice. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty. —S. Wickhamsmith, Rutgers University

Well researched and cogently argued, this work is a model case study of one president’s effective response to a major challenge.

—M. J. Birkner, Gettysburg College

Busch, Andrew E. Ronald Reagan and the firing of the air traffic controllers. University Press of Kansas, 2024. 167p bibl index ISBN 9780700636907, $69.99; ISBN 9780700636914 pbk, $24.99; ISBN 9780700636921 pbk, contact publisher for price.

Ronald Reagan’s decision to fire nearly 10,000 air traffic controllers in 1981 made his reputation as a resolute leader. This was in the context of a Professional Air Traffic Controllers Association (PATCO) strike orchestrated by union officials who bet that the president would cave to their demands because not doing so would risk airline safety and potential chaos in the air. PATCO’s leaders lost that bet. In this compact and thoroughly absorbing work, Busch (Claremont McKenna College) discusses the strike’s antecedents, unfolding, and ramifications, including the disintegration of PATCO and public approbation for the president. The key to the strike’s failure proved to be a matter of law. Federal employees could legally negotiate better work conditions, but they could not strike. For Reagan—and the general public that supported him—that was the bottom line. Reagan’s instincts about how Americans would respond to his firing of the controllers proved astute. His key decision evidently contributed to an easing of labor demands along a broad front, thereby helping to quell inflation. Well researched and cogently argued, this work is a model case study of one president’s effective response to a major challenge. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty. —M. J. Birkner, Gettysburg College

An accomplished scholar, Kramer (Fordham Univ.) is quite capable of hanging ideas together.

—M. Dineen, emeritus, University of Ottawa, School of Music

Kramer, Lawrence. Experiencing sound: the sensation of being. California, 2024. 196p bibl index ISBN 9780520400849, $27.95; ISBN 9780520400856 ebook, $27.95.

These are not so much essays per se, but rather wide-ranging entries in a diary of discovery, as if the author were touring a hitherto neglected terrain. However, his subject lies at the very heart of musical discourse: sound. Suffice to say, the observations made are fresh and offer insight. They do not hang together, however, as the elucidation of a fixed and coherent subject. An accomplished scholar, Kramer (Fordham Univ.) is quite capable of hanging ideas together. It should be noted, then, that the book is aimed at sophisticated ears capable of following in the author’s intricate steps. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate students through faculty. —M. Dineen, emeritus, University of Ottawa, School of Music

Mochrie emphasizes the connection between ideas and practical implications

—K. J. Murphy, emeritus, Oakland University

Mochrie, Robbie. How to think like an economist: great economists who shaped the world and what they can teach us. Bloomsbury Continuum, 2024. 288p index ISBN 9781399408646, $24.00; ISBN 9781399408660 ebook, $16.80.

Using 24 biographical sketches, How to Think Like an Economist traces the development of economic thought from Aristotle to the present. Mochrie (Heriot-Watt Univ., Scotland) does an admirable job. Crisply and engagingly written, each chapter brings out the salient contributions of the profiled thinker. Not all the individuals covered are great economists. There are philosophers, mathematicians, political scientists, and psychologists as well. Still, there is no denying that all of them, economists or not, profoundly contributed to and moved knowledge of economics forward. The book proceeds chronologically, tying the flow and evolution of ideas from one chapter to the next. It presents a comprehensive list of important ideas, ranging from the invisible hand to Keynesian economics and the economics of the family and human behavior. Mochrie emphasizes the connection between ideas and practical implications. The biographical detail provided in each chapter helps bring the subject matter to life. Though the book lacks footnotes and a bibliography, Mochrie is highly knowledgeable about his subjects. The book provides an enjoyable, general-interest read. It is suited for undergraduates and would work well as an assigned text in an honors or capstone course and as a supplementary text in a course on the history of economic thought. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers, undergraduates, and professionals. —K. J. Murphy, emeritus, Oakland University

It is an important update, which continues to make the text helpful and relevant to persons casually curious about Indian law and practitioners in the field.

—G. Christensen, Stetson University College of Law

Pevar, Stephen L. The rights of Indians and tribes. 5th ed. Oxford, 2024. 560p bibl index ISBN 9780190077556, $99.00; ISBN 9780190077563 pbk, $29.95; ISBN 9780190077570 ebook, contact publisher for price.

The fifth edition of The Rights of Indians and Tribes continues and updates Stephen Pevar’s excellent treatise on Indian law. This text’s primary advantage is that it is both comprehensive and written for a nonlegal audience. In 17 chapters spread over more than 500 pages, Pevar (law, New York Univ.) describes in plain language how the complicated legal interaction between tribes, states, and the federal government plays out in various legal contexts. Each chapter is nicely subdivided into many smaller sections. Some sections ask and answer common questions about Indian law; others provide a more narrative description or a summary of important statutes and Supreme Court precedents. The chapters are well documented, with endnotes after each chapter pointing the reader to important primary texts. There is also a useful appendix listing federal and state-recognized tribes and a comprehensive index, making the text very helpful for researchers. The fifth edition offers new judicial, regulatory, and administrative materials. It is an important update, which continues to make the text helpful and relevant to persons casually curious about Indian law and practitioners in the field. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers through faculty; professionals. —G. Christensen, Stetson University College of Law

Rich in both history and science, this is an engaging, thought-provoking read, complete with extensive notes and references for further exploration.

—T. D. Oswalt, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Sokolsky, Pierre. The clock in the sun: how we came to understand our nearest star. Columbia, 2024. 336p bibl index ISBN 9780231202480, $32.00; ISBN 9780231554589 ebook, $31.99.

The Clock in the Sun is a fascinating account of humanity’s relationship with the sun. Sokolsky (emer., Univ. of Utah) weaves a compelling yarn that spans over 1,000 years of astronomical history, from humanity’s worship of the sun in ancient times to the constellation of spacecraft that monitor it 24/7 today. Readers will learn that the invention of the telescope sparked a heated controversy over the nature of sunspots and that there have been numerous questionable attempts to relate them to economic cycles, crop yields, illnesses, and the weather. They will also learn about the famous Maunder Minimum, a period of low solar activity that coincided with Europe’s Little Ice Age; how tree rings record solar activity; and the possible effects of solar activity on Earth’s long-term climate. Sokolsky chronicles more modern breakthroughs, such as the discovery of the link between solar activity and aurorae and the Nobel Prize-winning detection of solar neutrinos. Rich in both history and science, this is an engaging, thought-provoking read, complete with extensive notes and references for further exploration. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readership levels. —T. D. Oswalt, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

All are concerned with the question of who speaks for those with autism.

—J. L. Croissant, University of Arizona

Tan, Catherine. Spaces on the spectrum: how autism movements resist experts and create knowledge. Columbia, 2024. 400p bibl index ISBN 9780231206129, $130.00; ISBN 9780231206136 pbk, $32.00; ISBN 9780231556330 ebook, contact publisher for price.

Autism, conceptualized on a spectrum from needing full-time care to independence, is a heterogeneous diagnostic category, with similarly complex advocacy groups and strategies. Tan (Vassar, Sociology) provides a historical summary of the medical and sociocultural identification of autism and activists since its identification in the 1940s as distinct from “mental retardation.” Based on fieldwork and interviews with parents and activists, Tan compassionately engages two domains of contentious knowledge. For the first, an alternative biomedical framework, parents are trying to find the “normal” child within a child with behavioral and sensory challenges. For the second, an autism rights orientation, adults with autism argue they are different, not disabled, embodying a social model of disability that focuses on the lack of accommodations inhibiting their well-being: autism is a civil rights, not health, issue. Both challenge the dominant epidemiological paradigm (DEP), which focusses on a genetic and biomedical model. Each has different definitions of autism, implying causality and amelioration. All are concerned with the question of who speaks for those with autism. The need for services across the lifecourse and access to universal healthcare are points of agreement across the autism spectrum. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, researchers, and professionals. —J. L. Croissant, University of Arizona

This is a must for libraries and an excellent work for philosophy and non-philosophy classes studying the experience and resistance of gender non-conforming and trans peoples.

—L. L. Lovern, Valdosta State University

Trans philosophy, ed. by Perry Zurn et al. Minnesota, 2024. 320p bibl index ISBN 9781517917036, $120.00; ISBN 9781517917043 pbk, $29.95; ISBN 9781452972183 ebook, contact publisher for price.

Trans Philosophy is a collection of essays examining lived experiences, histories, and discriminations involving trans and gender non-conforming people. The essays address sexuality, disability, race, and other intersectional identifiers as well as calling for the recognition of trans philosophy as a philosophical subfield. In order to advance trans and non-conformist phenomenological experiences, the collection provides both direct and indirect knowledge. The articles are separated into meta-philosophy and categories; embodiment and the phenomenology of flesh; temporality and the bioethics of becoming; and politics and world making. The articles in each section explore these philosophical concepts in light of Western cultural positioning along with cultures such as Indigenous in order to provide alternative trans and non-conforming people’s positioning in epistemologies/ontologies. This collection lives up to the introduction’s claim to open important dialogues and to address the limits of Western identifiers. Trans Philosophy challenges Western barriers as well as Western philosophical categories. The text requires the reader to reassess knowledge standards and base assumptions. The text also offers opportunities for challenging and enlightened conversations within the classroom. This is a must for libraries and an excellent work for philosophy and non-philosophy classes studying the experience and resistance of gender non-conforming and trans peoples. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers through faculty; professionals. —L. L. Lovern, Valdosta State University

This is a hopeful development because climate change and human encroachment threaten to damage ecosystems.

—J. S. Schwartz, emeritus, CUNY College of Staten Island

Wills, Christopher. Why ecosystems matter: preserving the key to our survival. Oxford, 2024. 222p bibl index ISBN 9780192887573, $45.99.

This beautifully written work illustrates how modern genetic tools help reveal the diversity in ecosystems. Christopher Wills (emer., Univ. of California, San Diego) cites the work of past geneticists, particularly Theodosius Dobzhansky, to whom this book is dedicated. A fascinating section describes how Dobzhansky collected Drosophila pseudoobscura, a species of fruit flies in the Sierra Nevada foothills outside Yosemite Park. Dobzhansky made slides of the salivary gland cells from the larval stage of the flies, and studied the giant chromosomes of these cells. He correlated his cytological observations with his genetic data. Wills explains how interactions among organisms in an ecosystem promote diversity and complexity in ecosystems by natural selection, expanding on Darwin’s understanding of the power of the ecosystem. Genetic diversity in ecosystems provide resilience in reducing damage from changing environments and mitigates the impact of invasive species. This is a hopeful development because climate change and human encroachment threaten to damage ecosystems. Genetic tools help us understand and protect the living systems on which we depend. This book is a valuable guide for biologists as well as people concerned about the future of our planet. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through professionals. —J. S. Schwartz, emeritus, CUNY College of Staten Island

It shows how cultures intertwine, become implicated in world systems and empire, and how they might escape such limits.

—D. B. Levy, emeritus, Touro College

Zaritt, Saul Noam. A taytsh manifesto: Yiddish, translation, and the making of modern Jewish culture. Fordham, 2024. 240p bibl index ISBN 9781531509163, $125.00; ISBN 9781531509170 pbk, $35.00; ISBN 9781531509187 ebook, contact publisher for price.

This innovative work makes a positive contribution. Zaritt (Harvard Univ.) manifests the Yiddish parable “a nar zogt er vos er veyst, ober a kluger veyst os er zogt” (a fools says what they know but a wise person knows what they say). The readable text has the feeling of an ever bubbling river whose waters run deep. The book proposes a change in terminology, from Yiddish to taytsh, in order to promote reading methods that account for the modes texts named as Jewish move between languages—noted in the hyphen of Judeo-Arabic, Judeo-Spanish (Ladino), and Judeo-Persian—and cultures (Kultur/Bildgung/Tarbut). Taytsh is also a word that came to mean translation, such as the Shmuel Taytsh or translation into Yiddish of the Bible. To render into taytsh is to dwell between languages, as suggested in a supplemental article, “The Ethics, Hermeneutics, Politics, and Theology of Hebraica Translations” (2007). This book deploys taytsh as a paradigm that can be applied to a matrix of modern Jewish formations. It is organized around examples in chapters on Yiddish pulp fiction, Sholem Aleichem’s monologue, and popular and vulgar US culture. It shows how cultures intertwine, become implicated in world systems and empire, and how they might escape such limits. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers through faculty. —D. B. Levy, emeritus, Touro College

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