Reviews of the Month: August 2026

Spotlighting four book reviews for their relevance or pure reading pleasure

Posted on August 14, 2026 in Reviews of the Month

Any vacation plans? We kick off August’s reviews with Texas A&M’s Geographies of Travel. Susan L. Roberson examines travel narratives from the 19th century to explore changes in American travel over time. Next, August 2nd, 1790 marks the first ever US census. In commemoration, we highlight Kansas’s Counting Like a State: How Intergovernmental Partnerships Shaped the 2020 US Census. The title details the (long) US census process and how it touches local, state, and federal governments.

Next, we turn to nuclear energy with Washington’s Contaminated Country. Jessica Urwin traces the history of nuclear colonialism in Australia, highlighting the disproportionate harm inflicted on Aboriginal communities and the Indigenous movements in response. Last, as we approach another school year, Michigan’s Publishing Beyond the Market delves into the open access publishing ecosystem. In support of “researcher-led publishing,” the title provides a collective framework for scholarly publishing that works in conversation with university presses and libraries.

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Geographies of Travel: Impressions of America in the Long Nineteenth Century

Roberson, Susan L. Texas A&M, 2024
400p bibl index, 9781648432583 $55.00

Geographies of Travel appears to stand alone in covering the subject of travel narratives in the 19th century in the US, and it succeeds admirably in making one want to track down and read the original travel writings. Roberson (retired, Texas A&M Univ., Kingsville) does an excellent job presenting the material in a structured manner geographically, as well as showing how these travel narratives illustrate the changes that the US was undergoing throughout the 19th century. She presents interesting portions from each travel narrative to illustrate the various authors’ styles and unique perspectives. With extensive notes and a full bibliography, this scholarly volume would work well as a research tool. It is also very accessible to all levels of readers and simply a pleasure to read. As a book with “geographies” in the title, some maps of the travelers’ journeys would have been welcome.

Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.
Reviewer: W. J. Rafter, West Virginia University Libraries
Subject: Humanities – Language & Literature – English & American
Choice Issue: Jul 2025

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Counting Like a State: How Intergovernmental Partnerships Shaped the 2020 US Census

Rocco, Philip. University Press of Kansas, 2025
318p bibl index, 9780700638758 $59.99, 9780700639687 $29.99, 9780700638765 $29.99

Rocco (Marquette Univ.) offers an overview of how the US census works, which is more complicated than most Americans realize. It involves workers at the Census Bureau, collaborations with other levels of government and nonprofits, and participation from those who need to be counted. Overall, the book aims to demonstrate that the census is “a thoroughly intergovernmental undertaking, whose outcomes depend on interactions between federal, state, and local governments” (p. 250). Rocco succeeds by providing qualitative and quantitative examples of who is most likely to partner with the census to ensure an accurate count. Additionally, the book emphasizes the importance of an accurate census, the political consequences of who is counted, an account of how the census was done during the COVID pandemic, and how localities can address potential inaccuracies. It is essential reading for scholars studying intergovernmental relations, federalism, or bureaucracy, as well as for those who use census data or are interested in the US census. The book is also recommended for practitioners and general readers interested in the subject.

Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals; general readers.
Reviewer: C. Kinsella, Ball State University
Subject: Social & Behavioral Sciences – Political Science – U.S. Politics
Choice Issue: Apr 2026

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Contaminated Country: Nuclear Colonialism and Aboriginal Resistance in Australia

Urwin, Jessica. Washington, 2025
300p bibl index, 9780295753782 $110.00, 9780295753799 $30.00, 9780295753805

With a modicum of imagination, Contaminated Country could be read as a very sophisticated science fiction story: a race with pale skin and a hunger for poisonous rocks crosses the Pacific Ocean and makes landfall in Australia. The center of the plot grows out of the aliens’ attempts to convince the native people of Australia that the poisonous rocks will make them rich and happy. The real story here is how the Aboriginal people of Australia learn that their lives and lands would be wrecked in hideous ways by the uranium that the Europeans found in Australia, and how the Aboriginals fought to survive the ensuing nuclear colonialism. Urwin (environmental history, Univ. of Tasmania, Australia) has written an exquisite account of how Australia’s Aboriginal communities prevailed and how they will have to keep their guard up to shield against future attempts to turn nuclear colonialism into anything other than disaster. Urwin’s command of historical facts and context will draw readers into a history of how the native peoples of Australia melded their movement into others, such as the US Civil Rights Movement.

Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.
Reviewer: B. E. Johansen, emeritus, University of Nebraska at Omaha
Interdisciplinary Subjects: Environmental Studies , Racial Justice
Subject: Social & Behavioral Sciences
Choice Issue: May 2026

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Publishing Beyond the Market: Open Access, Care, and the Commons

Moore, Samuel A. Michigan, 2025
234p index, 9780472057634 $24.95, 9780472905225

Moore (Univ. of Cambridge, England) has been involved with open access since 2009 at the Public Library of Science and has watched the growing exploitation of this innovative form of publishing. The big business of extractive models has come to dominate, subverting the ideals of making bibliodiverse research openly available to all. Exploration in search of a sustainable, resilient business model continues, from the “regressive output-focused visions of Plan S” and policies/mandates to what Moore calls “radical experiments in scholar-led publishing” (chapter 3). A blend of history, theory, and publisher interviews provides for a trenchant argument for a commons-based perspective, which strives for local, community-produced knowledge creation and research communication rather than the “indiscriminate and homogenizing” global approach. A decentralized, noncommercial ecosystem of publishing in journals and repositories, as modeled in many Latin American countries, offers an exciting alternative with greater fairness to readers and authors alike. This concise volume fashions a coherent narrative of how community governance could be leveraged to counter commercialization, creating a publishing framework that allows communities to better govern the technologies they use.

Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readership levels.
Reviewer: S. E. Wiegand, Saint Mary’s College
Subject: Reference – Library & Information Sciences
Choice Issue: Feb 2026

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