Editors’ Picks for May 2025

10 reviews handpicked from the latest issue of Choice.

Posted on May 8, 2025 in Editors' Picks

book covers

Alpaugh’s account is both accessible and fascinating.

—P. G. Wallace, emeritus, Hartwick College

Alpaugh, Micah. The people’s revolution of 1789. Cornell, 2024. 539p bibl index ISBN 9781501776618, $60.95; ISBN 9781501776625 ebook, contact publisher for price.

Alpaugh (Univ. of Central Missouri) chronicles the French Revolution’s course from early 1788 to the celebration of the First Year of Liberty in towns and villages throughout the country on July 14, 1790. In this account, common men and women were the driving force for revolutionary change through their collective actions in locality after locality. Successive poor harvests led to a subsistence crisis that fueled popular violence against bread prices, presumed grain-hoarding, and any commercial shipping. The bankrupt monarchy lacked the means, will, and foresight to address the crisis. Distrust of the old regime informed a flood of rumors and misinformation that compelled local elites to acquire weapons from royal arsenals and assume policing roles to preserve public order and personal property. In the French Caribbean, the breakdown of the old order, expectations regarding liberty for all, and sudden access to weapons nearly upended the slave regimes until white elites assumed control and crushed fledging and imaginary slave rebellions with brutal force. Alpaugh’s account is both accessible and fascinating. Given the text’s geographic scope, it would have benefited from maps of Paris, France’s provinces, and the French Caribbean. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers through faculty. —P. G. Wallace, emeritus, Hartwick College

Husen brings two decades of expertise in plant biology and herbal medicine, enhanced by his work with organizations like the World Bank and Indian Council of Agriculture Research.

—Z. G. Ngow, University of California San Diego

Antimalarial medicinal plants, ed. by Azamal Husen. CRC Press, 2024. 328p bibl index (Exploring medicinal plants, 19) ISBN 9781032457154, $230.00; ISBN 9781003378396 ebook, $230.00.

Antimalarial Medicinal Plants, edited by Professor Azamal Husen, is a vital reference work that bridges traditional plant-based malaria treatments with modern scientific validation. The book addresses the growing challenge of drug-resistant parasites in developing nations through meticulous research and scientific rigor, particularly relevant as malaria continues to affect large populations in third-world countries. Organized in two parts, the first section provides a comprehensive overview of antimalarial plants, covering their geographic distribution, biology, genetic improvements, cultivation practices, and sustainable harvesting techniques. The second half features detailed encyclopedia-style entries examining specific plant species’ bioactive compounds, therapeutic potential, and pharmacological properties. Rather than simply listing traditional uses, it critically examines and validates claims made by traditional medical practitioners, ensuring safe herbal drug formulation. Husen brings two decades of expertise in plant biology and herbal medicine, enhanced by his work with organizations like the World Bank and Indian Council of Agriculture Research. Part of the Exploring Medicinal Plants series, this reference proves invaluable for researchers, traditional healers, pharmacists, and students in plant sciences and economic botany seeking validated research on natural antimalarial treatments. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, and professionals. —Z. G. Ngow, University of California San Diego

Baker has written one of the finest scholarly histories of baseball in an ever-growing genre.

—J. Fischel, emeritus, Millersville University

Baker, Kevin. The New York game: baseball and the rise of a new city. Knopf, 2024. 528p bibl index ISBN 9780375421839, $35.00; ISBN 9780593537893 ebook, contact publisher for price.

This book of extraordinary brilliance makes an important contribution to the history of American popular culture. A contributing editor for Harper’s Magazine, Baker details how New York City and baseball came to mirror each other from the 19th century to the end of WW II. This riveting account details how the construction of New York City’s subway system, the Brooklyn Bridge, and the Chrysler Building, as well as the arrival of the “new immigrants,” who arrived between 1870 and 1914, all contributed to the material growth of New York and the flowering of popular culture in the US. Baker argues that in the early 1920s, baseball became the nation’s most popular pastime. Soon after, the Big Apple’s three baseball teams would come to dominate the sport. The book not only details the life of some of the legendary personalities in the history of baseball—e.g., Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio—but also the pastime’s darker side—e.g., the color barrier. Baker has written one of the finest scholarly histories of baseball in an ever-growing genre. The book also contains an annotated bibliography that should be useful to scholars and lay readers alike. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers through faculty; professionals. —J. Fischel, emeritus, Millersville University

Chiarello questions the ethics of limiting pain relief care. Interview data capture health care professionals and law enforcement collaborating and combating prescription drug monitoring programs.

—R. A. Harper, York College/CUNY Graduate Center

Chiarello, Elizabeth. Policing patients: treatment and surveillance on the frontlines of the opioid crisis. Princeton, 2024. 304p bibl index ISBN 9780691224770, $32.00; ISBN 9780691224787 ebook, contact publisher for price.

Policing Patients is a spellbinding and provocative exploration of how health care providers, hospitals, pharmacies, the criminal justice system, and lawmakers try, flail, and ultimately fail to treat an intractable national social problem—the drug use and abuse epidemic—while imposing a labyrinthine surveillance mechanism that polices and punishes all who seek medical treatment. Chiarello (sociology, Saint Louis Univ.) observes that regular surveillance can prevent people from getting the care they need while ensnaring the innocent and the guilty in the criminal justice system. The policy of distrust and legal gatekeeping upend customary US understandings of the right to privacy, medical professional obligations, and professionals’ identities. Chiarello questions the ethics of limiting pain relief care. Interview data capture health care professionals and law enforcement collaborating and combating prescription drug monitoring programs. Chiarello explores the difficulty of data collection among people who are often excluded as “vulnerable populations”—namely, elite interview subjects, like physicians and pharmacists, who have much to lose professionally, socially, and economically. The book is highly accessible and reads like a long-form magazine article. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals; general readers. —R. A. Harper, York College/CUNY Graduate Center

This brilliant combination of diverse voices and diverse situations make this outstanding for the researcher and art historian seeking to learn more about professional practice and more in the digital era.

—J. C. Burns, Utah Tech University

Critical digital art history: interface and data politics in the post-digital era, ed. by Amanda Wasielewski and Anna Näslund. Intellect, 2024. 210p bibl index ISBN 9781789389760, $122.95; ISBN 9781835950487 pbk, $34.95; ISBN 9781789389746 ebook, $34.95.

Critical Digital Art History, by Wasielewski (Uppsala Univ., Sweden) and Näslund (Stockholm Univ., Sweden) has several challenges while, at the same time, poses some wonderful opportunities in the digital arena. Two strong characteristics make it excel at contributing meaningfully to the growing conversation surrounding art history practice, tools, and method in the digital era. First, it is an anthology, and anthologies are highly recommended research gold mines because of the many voices and perspectives they can explore. Second, this book is rooted in diverse case study examples. This brilliant combination of diverse voices and diverse situations make this outstanding for the researcher and art historian seeking to learn more about professional practice and more in the digital era. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty. —J. C. Burns, Utah Tech University

Non-speciesist criminology has needed a book like this for quite some time. It is a major and highly original contribution.

—P. Beirne, emeritus, University of Southern Maine

Durrant, Russil. Invertebrate justice: extending the boundaries of non-speciesist green criminology. Palgrave Macmillan, 2024. 393p bibl index ISBN 9783031644429, $139.99; ISBN 9783031644436 ebook, contact publisher for price.

The premise of this excellent book by Durrant (Victoria Univ. of Wellington, New Zealand) is that many invertebrate species are likely to be sentient―they have the capacity for subjectively felt experiences―and hence should be considered to have at least some moral standing. Its 10 chapters are divided into three sections. Part 1 (“The Invertebrate World”) shows that humans harm a large number of invertebrates each year and are responsible for significant declines in invertebrate populations. Part 2 (“An Outline of Invertebrate Justice”) uses the Invertebrate Justice Model and the theory of sentientist value pluralism to highlight both the direct and the indirect justice that humans owe invertebrates because of our disastrous interactions with them. Part 3 (“Realising Invertebrate Justice”) identifies the numerous barriers―social, cultural, corporate, governmental, and legal―that threaten the achievement of justice for the innumerable invertebrate species that we use for feed and food, such as farmed and wild-harvested shrimp. Non-speciesist criminology has needed a book like this for quite some time. It is a major and highly original contribution. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty. —P. Beirne, emeritus, University of Southern Maine

Heimermann does not shy away from the horrors of exploitation and asks the reader to consider how neoliberal ideas affect both children and other social outsiders.

—L. Krajecki, Tennessee State University

Heimermann, Mark. Grotesque progeny: the commodification of dangerous and endangered children. University Press of Mississippi, 2024. 216p bibl index ISBN 9781496853561, $99.00; ISBN 9781496853578 pbk, $30.00; ISBN 9781496853592 ebook, contact publisher for price.

In Grotesque Progeny, Heimermann (Lakeland Univ.) asks a serious question: What does fiction about children tell us about their commodification? Using a diverse group of narratives, including books and graphic novels, Heimermann explores the connection between the idea of the grotesque (which he describes as being somewhere between human and non-human) and the neoliberal exploitation of children. These stories, he argues, can be discussed in a way that brings to light assumptions about childhood and how they affect its commodification. Titles discussed include Sweet Tooth, The Girl with All the Gifts, The Power, The Flame Alphabet, “Reeling for the Empire,” Geek Love, Elephantmen, The Beef, One of Us, and Never Let Me Go. Heimermann does not shy away from the horrors of exploitation and asks the reader to consider how neoliberal ideas affect both children and other social outsiders. He makes a strong argument that neoliberal policies tend to objectify people, especially those society deems even slightly other than human. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty. —L. Krajecki, Tennessee State University

Kwon shows in this exhaustively researched study that the Kim and Rhee governments successfully used the neighborhood association to sustain the same state-led, morally based authoritarian orders first introduced by Japan.

—M. C. Brose, Indiana University

Kwon, Shinyoung. Moral authoritarianism: neighborhood associations in the three Koreas, 1931–1972. Hawai’i, 2024. 379p bibl index ISBN 9780824895105, $68.00; ISBN 9780824896232 pbk, $28.00; ISBN 9780824896201 ebook, contact publisher for price.

Kwon’s study of the links between the three Koreas (colonial, North, and South) through the lens of the neighborhood association is a creative, new approach to understanding the history of the entire Korean Peninsula in the 20th century. Kwon (independent scholar) describes the traditional Korean neighborhood as a moral space, which the Japanese colonial administration revitalized in the 1930s to promote Asian values to their new Korean subjects. Kwon deftly tracks the enduring influence of that unique form of social organization in the semi-authoritarian states that emerged in the North and the South after World War II. Kwon shows in this exhaustively researched study that the Kim and Rhee governments successfully used the neighborhood association to sustain the same state-led, morally based authoritarian orders first introduced by Japan. Kwon’s excavation of the critical role of the traditional neighborhood association is an important counter to studies that focus on high state policy. It is also a helpful reminder that both postwar Korean states shared the same colonial roots. Readers might consult Todd A. Henry’s Assimilating Seoul: Japanese Rule and the Politics of Public Space in Colonial Korea, 1910–1945 (CH, Aug’14, 51-6896) for comparison. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals. —M. C. Brose, Indiana University

It will quickly become standard reading for students of American religion and American religious art.

—A. W. Klink, Duke University

Promey, Sally M. Religion in plain view: public aesthetics of American display. Chicago, 2024. 560p bibl index ISBN 9780226832333, $40.00; ISBN 9780226832340 ebook, contact publisher for price.

Art historian Promey (Yale Univ.) explores the public display of religious faith in the United States in a vast array of geographic locations and features, including buildings, murals, monuments, and fights over the development of lands that some communities consider to to be sites of sacred presence. She argues that power, law, politics, and economics helped to foster a climate where public displays of religion favored a vision that centered white, Protestant contributions to the history of the United States, to the exclusion of other voices and the repression, desecration, and destruction of the public religious sites and faith of others groups (e.g., the mosque in Lower Manhattan near the site of the world trade center). This richly illustrated and lucidly written book is probably one of the most important works on American religion published in the last several years. It will quickly become standard reading for students of American religion and American religious art. American historians, historians of art, and scholars of religion will be educated, challenged, and provoked by Promey’s work, which is simply an indispensable volume on religion in the United States. Summing Up: Essential. All readers. —A. W. Klink, Duke University

Numerous musical examples, copious footnotes, and a lengthy bibliography enhance the scholarly value of this work.

—D. Arnold, University of North Texas

Schubert’s piano, ed. by Matthew Gardner and Christine Martin. Cambridge, 2024. 378p bibl index ISBN 9781316515365, $130.00; ISBN 9781009022767 ebook, contact publisher for price.

The prolific Viennese composer Franz Schubert (1797–1828) wrote for a wide variety of instruments, among which the piano was very important. The editors of this comprehensive study, Gardner (Univ. Tübingen, Germany) and Martin (Univ. Tübingen, Germany), are musicologists also involved with the Neue Schubert Ausgabe, a monumental edition of all Schubert’s works. Schubert’s Piano goes beyond many earlier studies, which focused mainly on his piano sonatas. This volume consists of 15 essays by renowned Schubert experts who have explored the role of the piano in all the genres of Schubert’s compositions, such as his lieder and chamber music, and also the role and characteristics of pianos, which were unlike modern concert grands. The essays are divided into four sections: “The Piano in Schubert’s World,” “Instruments and Performance,” “Sound and Musical Imagery,” and “Understanding Schubert’s Writing for the Piano.” Numerous musical examples, copious footnotes, and a lengthy bibliography enhance the scholarly value of this work. It belongs in academic music libraries and is suitable for public libraries with significant music collections. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals. —D. Arnold, University of North Texas

Related Posts