Editors’ Picks: September 2022 Edition

10 reviews handpicked from the latest issue of Choice.

Posted on September 15, 2022 in Editors' Picks

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More than the you-go-girl fable the book’s title suggests, the protagonists’ feminine moxie was juiced by class privilege…

—J. Lembcke, emeritus, College of the Holy Cross

Becker, Elizabeth. You don’t belong here: how three women rewrote the story of war. Hachette Books, 2021. 320p bibl index ISBN 9781541768208, $28.00; ISBN 9781541768239 pbk, $17.99; ISBN 9781541768215 ebook, $16.99.

Before Vietnam, war reporting was a nearly all-male endeavor. An ambient “you don’t belong here” greeted the few women who wrangled assignments in the war zone. This exquisitely written book profiles journalists Kate Webb, Catherine Leroy, and Frances Fitzgerald who crossed that Rubicon to change Americans’ perception of the war. The details of their valor, discovered in archives and interviews, are engrossing. Webb was held captive in North Vietnam for 23 days, Leroy parachuted with the 173rd Airborne Brigade, and Fitzgerald’s reportage and elite ties influenced the course of the war. Becker, an award-winning journalist, uses the biographical form to illustrate the war behind the war being reported on. Readers meet such legendary figures as Daniel Ellsberg and Ward Just, with whom the three women associated. Having covered Cambodia for the Washington Post in 1973 and 1974, Becker also writes herself into the book. Her synopsis of Lon Nol’s overthrow of Prince Sihanouk and the rise of the Khmer Rouge is a credible primer for that tangled history. More than the you-go-girl fable the book’s title suggests, the protagonists’ feminine moxie was juiced by class privilege: all three spoke French; Henry Kissinger wooed Fitzgerald. Social class forms a collateral narrative to the avouched feminism, giving this book added depth. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers through faculty; professionals. —J. Lembcke, emeritus, College of the Holy Cross

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Overall, this text provides a comprehensive snapshot of the geotechnical response to the current pandemic and is especially recommended for scholars interested in integrating GIS, public policy, public health, and urban planning in their work.

—C. A. Badurek, SUNY Cortland

COVID-19 pandemic, geospatial information, and community resilience: global applications and lessons, ed. by Abbas Rajabifard, Greg Foliente, and Daniel Paez. CRC Press, 2021. 532p bibl index ISBN 9780367775315, $190.00; ISBN 9781000402940 ebook, open access.

One of the most compelling visualizations of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the Johns Hopkins COVID-19 Dashboard (https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html), a web-based mapping dashboard that millions continue to view. This edited volume highlights similar mapping technologies used worldwide primarily in urban resilience studies. Contributions from more than 120 scholars representing more than 30 countries are organized into 47 chapters, providing an extensive global resource. Reflecting a partnership between the UN Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) network and the University of Melbourne, the text includes studies of geotechnologies, spatial data infrastructure (SDI), and spatial behavior across the globe. Technical aspects of presented case studies include use of OpenStreetMap, web-based dashboards, and contact tracing applications. Discussions include coverage of social vulnerability analysis, social media analytics, network analysis, and image processing. Case studies of spatial behavior, including urban mobility, transportation use, and city park access, complement the technical discussions well. The text concludes with lessons learned and recommendations for handling future pandemics, stressing the urgent need for open data and development of SDI frameworks across local, national, and regional scales. Overall, this text provides a comprehensive snapshot of the geotechnical response to the current pandemic and is especially recommended for scholars interested in integrating GIS, public policy, public health, and urban planning in their work. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates. Graduate students, faculty, and professionals. —C. A. Badurek, SUNY Cortland

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This is an essential work for students of contemporary Egypt and the politics of the Arab world generally and also for those with a comparative focus on revolution, social movements, or democratization.

—G. E. Perry, emeritus, Indiana State University

El-Ghobashy, Mona. Bread and freedom: Egypt’s revolutionary situation. Stanford, 2021. 392p bibl index ISBN 9781503601765, $90.00; ISBN 9781503628151 pbk, $28.00; ISBN 9781503628168 ebook, contact publisher for price.

Bread and Freedom, whose title is inspired by the slogan that emerged during the mass demonstrations in Tahrir Square, is an outstanding scholarly study of the abortive Egyptian revolution of 2011 and the emergence two years later of an even more repressive, counterrevolutionary regime. El-Ghobashy (liberal studies, New York Univ.) relies heavily on published documents and draws on Charles Tilly’s analysis of social movements, particularly of “revolutionary situations,” but she also demonstrates a mastery of works by a host of other theorists. She shows that revolutionary situations have many contingencies and that the course of events produces outcomes that cannot be anticipated, concluding with a warning about “how formidable it is to construct democratic accountability from scratch” (p. 265). This is an essential work for students of contemporary Egypt and the politics of the Arab world generally and also for those with a comparative focus on revolution, social movements, or democratization. Though the author fails to ask some questions, this book’s rich analysis should induce many scholars to read it from cover to cover and to return to it again and again. Summing Up: Essential. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals. —G. E. Perry, emeritus, Indiana State University

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In fact, this encyclopedia should be made widely available to every public school teacher and required for student educators in teacher-training programs.

—A. J. Ramirez, Valdosta State University

Encyclopedia of queer studies in education, ed. by Kamden K. Strunk and Stephanie Anne Shelton. Brill, 2022. 814p bibl index (Critical understanding in education, 4) ISBN 9789004506718, $265.00; ISBN 9789004506725 ebook, $265.00.

Edited by Strunk (Auburn Univ.) and Shelton (Univ. of Alabama), this substantial encyclopedia offers considerable coverage of contemporary issues and terminology in queer scholarship but still maintains a distinct purpose and scope. The volume focuses primarily on queer terms, providing explanations when appropriate, and on areas of queer studies with particular relevance to education and educational research. Strunk and Shelton intentionally integrate an intersectional approach, concentrating especially on the intersections of white supremacist cisheteropatriarchy, which is notable. The volume was designed for use by those new to queer studies with no expertise in the field, making the chapters very easy to follow. Overall, this reference work represents an important contribution to LGBTQ studies and educational studies scholarship. It will be a valuable addition to all reference collections in academic and research libraries, particularly in institutions with women’s and gender studies and LGBTQ studies programs. It will also be useful in large public libraries and broadly across social science and humanities departments. In fact, this encyclopedia should be made widely available to every public school teacher and required for student educators in teacher-training programs. Summing Up: Essential. General readers through faculty; professionals. —A. J. Ramirez, Valdosta State University

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Intentionally preoccupied with the present, this occasionally polemical book is an insightful contribution to medical, Canadian, and Indigenous history.

—B. F. R. Edwards, Queen’s University

Hay, Travis. Inventing the thrifty gene: the science of settler colonialism. University of Manitoba, 2021. 208p bibl index ISBN 9780887559341 pbk, $25.00.

Hay (Lakehead Univ., Canada) traces how the production of scientific knowledge and interpretation of public health obscure the impact of settler colonialism on North American Indigenous peoples and erase the violence of Canadian federal Indian policy. Looking specifically at the Sandy Lake First Nation—which has long lacked access to health care, clean water, affordable food, and safe housing but not to well-funded scientists who use the community for medical inquiry—this book explains the foundations on which the science of settler colonialism rests and operates. Analyzing the “thrift gene” hypothesis—built on the assumption that North American Indigenous peoples were genetically predisposed to diabetes and obesity—Hay explains how this hypothesis wrongly emerged from the mythology that pre-contact Indigenous peoples lacked agriculture and were unable to secure steady food supplies because of their nomadic, hunter-gatherer lifestyle. Geneticist James V. Neel suggested a “thrifty gene” might emerge in hunter-gatherers as an evolutionary response to a feast-or-famine existence. Ultimately debunked in the early 2000s, this hypothesis has long been institutionalized within the Canadian state’s settler apparatus, demonstrating that science and settler colonialism worked together to forge the myth that Indigenous peoples are maladapted to Western civilization. Intentionally preoccupied with the present, this occasionally polemical book is an insightful contribution to medical, Canadian, and Indigenous history. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals. —B. F. R. Edwards, Queen’s University

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One particular strength of this handbook is that a wide range of methods for studying social-ecological systems are presented together.

—R. A. Delgado Jr., National Science Foundation

The Routledge handbook of research methods for social-ecological systems, ed. by Reinette Biggs et al. Routledge, 2021. 526p bibl index ISBN 9780367898403, $250.00; ISBN 9781000401530 ebook, open access.

The study of social-ecological systems is an important research field within the domain of sustainability. This area comprises a diverse array of disciplines ranging from ecology, marine science, and political science to economics, anthropology, and journalism. Hence, there is a need for an integrated, introductory-level guide to research methods for social-ecological systems. The challenge of providing a common grounding in theoretical and empirical approaches for understanding social-ecological systems is met adeptly in the volume under review. This compendium of 33 chapters, with its nearly 100 international subject matter experts as contributing authors, is an effective handbook for defining social-ecological systems and modeling the practice and design of research within the field. Further, five comprehensive “Methods” sections focus on data generation and systems scoping, knowledge coproduction and effecting system change, analyzing system components and linkages, analyzing system dynamics, and—perhaps most important—directly informing decision-making. One particular strength of this handbook is that a wide range of methods for studying social-ecological systems are presented together. Scholars will benefit from having such a comprehensive toolkit of approaches applicable to their research questions and objectives in one place, whether their sphere of activity be a particular data source, population, experimental problem, institutional setting, or set of case studies. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate students, faculty, and professionals. —R. A. Delgado Jr., National Science Foundation

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The authors have put together a new way of thinking about business negotiations and have made it clear and easy to read.

—T. M. Marini, University of Virginia

Sanders, Bill. Creative conflict: a practical guide for business negotiators, by Bill Sanders and Frank Mobus. Harvard Business Review Press, 2021. 272p bibl index ISBN 9781633699496, $30.00; ISBN 9781633699502 ebook, contact publisher for price.

The world of business is changing dramatically and so are the ways of doing business. The word disruptive has become the “new normal,” and companies need to understand the changing business landscape to grow and remain relevant in the world of commerce. Sanders (CEO, Mobus Creative Negotiating) and Mobus (founder, Mobus Creative Negotiating) have authored a book that may be controversial compared to normal negotiation strategies, but their ideas are solid. Their analysis focuses on negotiations simultaneously driven by competition and cooperation. They supply excellent examples of these methods, using what they believe to be a more efficient way of engaging in negotiations by focusing on three distinct negotiation areas: bargaining, creative dealmaking, and building relationships. They present these three areas clearly in their respective chapters and include summaries at the ends of all chapters. The authors have put together a new way of thinking about business negotiations and have made it clear and easy to read. Their ideas are broad enough to offer readers a sense of how they might apply these strategies in areas other than business. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readership levels. —T. M. Marini, University of Virginia

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This unparalleled contribution inserts seldom-heard Haitian voices and a much-needed postcolonial perspective into scholarly and personal narratives of Haiti.

—G. de Laforcade, Norfolk State University

Teaching Haiti: strategies for creating new narratives, ed. by Cécile Accilien and Valérie K. Orlando. University Press of Florida, 2021. 270p bibl index ISBN 9781683402107, $95.00; ISBN 9781683402442 ebook, contact publisher for price.

Rather than present sweeping new perspectives on Haitian history and culture in the vein of Jean Casimir’s The Haitians (CH, Aug’21, 58-3582), which may be considered a companion volume, this collection assists instructors in developing interdisciplinary lesson plans from a critical pedagogy perspective. This is a timely effort to overcome stereotypes and decolonize knowledge by cultivating learning communities that address art, theater, language, literature, gender, religiosity, and history. Privileging nuance and interactive inquiry over didactic curricula, contributors propose syllabi and teaching exercises while advancing core texts and crossing epistemological boundaries. Section 1 (“Teaching about Haitian Art, Literature, and Language”) explores representations of women in literature; the writings of Rodney Saint-Éloi; and understandings of Haiti through art, theater, and the Creole language. Section 2 (“Teaching about Haitian History and Politics”) considers the American presidencies of John Adams and John Quincy Adams through the Haitian Revolution, the 2004 coup against Jean-Bertrand Aristide and French neocolonialism, and the canonical films of Raoul Peck. Section 3 (“Teaching about Haiti in American Studies, Latin American Studies, and General Studies Contexts”) explores Haitian exceptionalism, anti-Haitianism in the Dominican Republic, and the invisibility of Haiti in Latinx studies. This unparalleled contribution inserts seldom-heard Haitian voices and a much-needed postcolonial perspective into scholarly and personal narratives of Haiti. Summing Up: Essential. Faculty and professionals. —G. de Laforcade, Norfolk State University

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Although not ignoring the major figures well known by the public, Thorburn’s work reminds readers of the importance of those who worked at the city and county level to ensure both voter turnout and the day-to-day operations needed to secure state-wide electoral victories.

—D. O. Cullen, Arkansas Tech University

Thorburn, Wayne J. The Republican Party of Texas: a political history. Texas, 2021. 496p index ISBN 9781477322512, $35.00; ISBN 9781477322529 ebook, contact publisher for price.

A former executive director of the Texas Republican Party, Thorburn provides a well-written, well-organized portrait of the origins, evolution, and political dominance of the GOP in Texas. Shortly after being organized in 1867, the Republican Party of Texas enjoyed a moment of success due largely to the Reconstruction Act, which barred experienced politicians from the Democratic Party from competing for public offices and limited the enfranchisement of African Americans. But with the political compromise of 1877, the GOP quickly became a political afterthought, and for the next 100 years, the only viable road to public office ran through the Democratic Party. Thorburn argues that the GOP built a political foundation during that time, which Republicans used to win over conservative Democrats who grew disenchanted with their party between 1954 and 1984. Although not ignoring the major figures well known by the public, Thorburn’s work reminds readers of the importance of those who worked at the city and county level to ensure both voter turnout and the day-to-day operations needed to secure state-wide electoral victories. Thorburn’s history provides a model for those who wish to understand Texas politics and why the phrase “Solid South” now best describes the Republican Party’s dominance of the region. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Undergraduates through faculty and general readers. —D. O. Cullen, Arkansas Tech University

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This book cements Zegart’s reputation as a leading historian and analyst of American foreign intelligence.

—D. McIntosh, emeritus, Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania

Zegart, Amy B. Spies, lies, and algorithms: the history and future of American intelligence. Princeton, 2022. 424p bibl index ISBN 9780691147130, $29.95; ISBN 9780691223087 ebook, contact publisher for price.

Placing intelligence organizations and methods in their historical context, Zegart (Stanford Univ.) shows how evolving threats, new actors, and developing technologies challenge the US government to expand its partnership with the private sector to gain the tools and skills required to function in the age of digital intelligence. She shows how the availability of artificial intelligence, quantum computing, bioengineering, biosurveillance, and open access to once-classified resources present the need for a fundamental change in organizational cultures to enable intelligence organizations to cope with a fast-moving world of open-source intelligence (OSINT), non-governmental intelligence actors, and cyberthreats. Along the way, Zegart shows how popular perceptions shaped by fictional spies mislead both the public and intelligence consumers about the true nature and problems of information collection, intelligence analysis, counterintelligence, covert action, and congressional oversight. Clinging to excessive secrecy and turf wars diminishes the ability of US intelligence professionals to cope with this new world. But if it can achieve a difficult paradigm shift, a more open and cooperative intelligence community can partner with the best of civilian society to produce the cutting-edge capability necessary to function and succeed. This book cements Zegart’s reputation as a leading historian and analyst of American foreign intelligence. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers. —D. McIntosh, emeritus, Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania

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