Indiana University Press blog

Listen to an interview with Pravina Shukla

Pravina Shukla, author of The Grace of Four Moons, was interviewed about her book on WFHB (98.1 FM, Bloomington, IN). <Listen to the interview>

From All Points wins award

Congratulations to Elliott Barkan whose book From All Points won the Robert G. Athearn Award from the Western History Association. The award will be presented at a ceremony in Salt Lake City, Utah, on October 24.

Author interview: Christine Barbour, Home Grown Indiana

Christine Barbour recently took time out of her busy schedule to answer a few questions for the IU Press blog about her and Scott Hutcheson's latest book, Home Grown Indiana.

The Internet played an important role in your collaboration on this project. Describe how you met and came to work together on this book.

I had been reading Scott’s blog, The Hungry Hoosier, for some time and he was aware of mine. I can’t remember exactly who contacted who first, but it was clear we were interested in similar things, so we agreed to meet in Indy for lunch one day. We were both thinking about writing a book on local foods, and I had the IUP contract already and knew I could do a better and more thorough job covering Indiana if we split the state up. So we did!

Why is it important to eat local?

Lots of reasons:

• Tastes better (fresh food is more delicious than food that has sat on a truck for days, losing taste and texture.)
• Health (you know how the food is grown or what is in it. If you don’t know, you can ask.)
• Variety (there are lots of great foods out there that aren’t commercially viable on a large scale but are perfectly suited for market sales.)
• Economics (keeps your food money in the community.)
• Caring for the earth and earth’s creatures (local food is more likely to have been raised humanely and sustainably.)

Many local growers offer food that is not available in the mass market. During the course of your research for this book, what was the most unusual item you came across that was being sold by an Indiana grower?

I thought the most unusual was one Scott came across – I had no idea we produced caviar in Indiana!

As you dined at restaurants across the state, did you discover a “Hoosier” style of cooking? What ingredients or dishes define a Hoosier menu?

Not really. This is the second book I have written on Indiana food, and I have come to believe that there isn’t really a Hoosier cuisine that reaches beyond a few favored foods (things like pork tenderloins which are eaten everywhere in the state and brain sandwiches and snapper soup which are regional favorites in the south.) Our food at its best is defined by fresh wonderful ingredients, maybe with a German twist in some areas, or with a southern edge in others, but no clear “Hoosier style” of cooking.

Where are some of your favorite places to shop or eat local foods?

I live in Bloomington and love the Bloomington Community Farmers Market. And my favorite restaurant for eating local food (or any food) is Restaurant Tallent – in my opinion the best in the state! I also enjoy Finch’s and FARMbloomington. R bistro up in Indy.

Christine Barbour teaches American politics and the politics of food at Indiana University, Bloomington. She is food editor of Bloom Magazine and founding member and co-director of Slow Food Bloomington. She is author (with Scott Feickert) of Indiana Cooks! (IUP, 2005).

Tune into a profile on Norbert Krapf

Norbert Krapf, author of Invisible Presence and Bloodroot, will be featured in a profile piece on The Weekly Special tonight at 8 pm on WTIU (Channel 30, Bloomington, IN).

Online University Press Course Adoption Catalogs Available

Selectively view exam copy offers and discounts on 700+ books at:
http://www.aaupnet.org/programs/marketing/courseadopt/

The Association of American University Presses (AAUP) has made their new Spring 2009 Course Adoption catalogs available to view and print out online.

Choose from eight different subject catalogs, including American History, Environmental Studies, Multicultural Studies, and Political Science. All contain examination offers, adoption policies, and special discounts for Four-Year and Graduate level faculty. These titles, which include professional, reference and paperbacks, represent the finest in academic publishing.

IU Press titles are included the following catalogs:

• American History
• Anthropology & Folklore
• Literature & Lit. Criticism
• Multicultural Studies
• Philosophy
• Political Science
• Women’s Studies

September Choice reviews

The following books were reviewed in the September issue of Choice magazine (subscription only):

The Symphonic Repertoire, Vol. 3, Part B
"Written with both scholarly appeal and wry good humor, this volume uncovers a rich world of previously underappreciated masterpieces. Serious students of music—including conductors, performers, and avid listeners—will find this both informative and readable. ...Highly recommended."

The Grace of Four Moons
"For folklorists and cultural anthropologists, this is a treasure trove of information. For students of religion, it provides the material reference to the system of beliefs. ...Highly recommended." 

Juan Bautista Plaza and Musical Nationalism in Venezuela
"Making extensive use of primary sources, Labonville chronicles Plaza's productivity in the realms of composition, musical nationalism, music education, musicology, and journalism. In so doing she demonstrates how Plaza exemplifies the Latin American nationalist musicians of his generation, not only because of his compositions but also because of the broader service he provided to the musical culture of Venezuela. ...Highly recommended."

Lost People
"This compelling ethnography matches Bakhtinian dialogism with Dostoevskian detail. ...Graeber...is a masterful narrator, allowing contradictions in people's accounts to be what they are—different takes on given circumstances—as he brokers more speculative hypotheses and historical understandings about the nature of society. A humanistic sense of flow results, as Graeber talks with and about people while shedding light on the paradoxically 'perverse, extreme scientism' of postmodernist quests for 'real knowledge.' ...Recommended."

The Man-Leopard Murders
"In the mid-1940s, 200 people were murdered in mysterious circumstances in southern Nigeria, allegedly killed by voracious man-leopards. A public worldview attributed the deaths to witchcraft. However, as anthropologist Pratten...points out, an anonymous letter written to the Nigerian Eastern Mail newspaper on March 10, 1945, exposed how a head court messenger was ultimately implicated in the murder; the messenger was executed in March 1946. The shape-shifting leopards were killing for motives that could not be explained by witchcraft or attributed to animals. The author's main contribution, based on solid evidence, cogent arguments, clear prose, and thick description, is to explain the causes. ...Recommended."

Masterworks from the Indiana University Art Museum
"This catalogue is particularly interesting for its African, Pacific, and South American collections, the quality of which may be attributed directly to eminent African art historian Roy Sieber, who served as curator for the collection from 1962 through the 1980s. ...Recommended."

Palestinian Cinema
"Exploring Palestinian cinema from both Israeli and Palestinian perspectives, Gertz...and Khleifi...find that as the conflict between Israel and Palestine worsens, Palestinian cinema reflects a changing and more difficult social, political, and economic environment. ...The films the authors examine are well chosen: they chronicle the Palestinian effort at self-definition and preservation in the midst of continual national chaos emerges. ...[T]wo elements mark this work as seminal: the ongoing conflict makes analysis of Palestinian society and politics rare; even rarer is a concerted analytical effort by representatives of both sides. The latter, in particular, makes this volume important scholarship and (one hopes) a model for future collaboration. ...Highly recommended."

Book review: A Dictionary of Nonprofit Terms and Concepts

"The collection of terms and concepts for which definitions are offered here is wide-ranging, and the great majority of them are of real significance for those with broad interests in the nonprofit sector and the organizations related to it. The definitions are cogent, clear . . . I would say this volume has substantial utility as a reference tool." --Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, September 2008 (requires subscription)

Natural Heritage of Indiana documentary premieres this Sunday

The National Geological Survey will present a free screening of the re-mastered first episode of The Natural Heritage of Indiana miniseries at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater Sunday, Sept. 21 at 3 pm. The first episode entitled "The Indiana That Was" is one of four parts in the miniseries, which will be broadcast on Indiana and Kentucky PBS stations later this fall. The miniseries is inspired by the IU Press book of the same name, which will be available for purchase at the screening. For more information, visit the Buskirk-Chumley website.

Blogging left-handed

A mundane evening of washing dishes turned into an eventful night for me at the ER yesterday. As I was washing a Wusthof knife, it slipped and sliced the index finger on my right hand (Wusthof isn't kidding when it says its knives are known for their "incredible sharpness"!) Three stitches later, I'm back in the office typing with nine fingers and attempting to use the mouse with my left hand. The one positive that came of this is that I might have made a book sale. The nurse practitioner who sewed up my wound is a vegetarian and locavore. I told her that she would enjoy reading the local food guidebook Home Grown Indiana. Unfortunately, the ER staff doesn't accept books as payment for their services!

Listen to an interview with Alex Rabinowitch

Alex Rabinowitch, author of The Bolsheviks in Power, was recently interviewed by Marshall Poe for New Books in History. Listen to the podcast.