Indiana University Press blog

Listen to a podcast with Scott Russell Sanders

Scott Russell Sanders, author of A Conservationist Manifesto, discusses his forthcoming book with WFIU's Yael Ksander. <Listen now>

Read an article by Lee Hamilton

Lee Hamilton, author of How Congress Works and Why You Should Care and the forthcoming Strengthening Congress, discusses the importance of conference committees in an article for The News-Enterprise:

Conference committees fade, democracy suffers

In the official record, you will find that the economic stimulus package recently passed by Congress was drawn up by a conference committee — a bipartisan group of House members and senators who sat down together to wrangle over its fine print. In truth, nothing like this took place. <continue reading article>

Tune into author Samuel Kassow on Book TV

Book TV will air a program with Samuel Kassow, author of Who Will Write Our History?, Saturday, Feb. 21 at 8:30 p.m. and Sunday, Feb. 22 at 8:30 a.m.

About the Program

Samuel Kassow recounts the efforts by Polish historian Emanuel Ringelblum and a group of amateur and professional historians, the Oyneg Shabes, who worked secretly from 1940 to 1943 to record Jewish suffering and subsequently hid thousands of records prior to the destruction of the Warsaw ghetto. This event was hosted by the Tenement Museum in New York City.

Author event: Scott Russell Sanders at FARM Feb. 23

Porch Light Indiana and WFIU will present "An Evening with Scott Russell Sanders" Feb. 23 from 5 to 7 p.m. at FARMBloomington.

Sanders will premiere his latest book, A Conservationist Manifesto, at the event. The evening will also include live music by Tom Roznowski (author of the forthcoming book An American Hometown), a "moveable feast" of selected tapas by chef Daniel Orr (author of the forthcoming book FARMfood), samplings of beer from the Brewers of Indiana Guild and wine from Oliver Winery, and readings by the author. A limited number of advanced copies of A Conservationist Manifesto will be signed by Sanders and available for purchase at the event.

The theme of the evening is an awareness of sustainability and natural resources throughout south-central Indiana. A portion of all proceeds will benefit the land preservation and restoration programs of The Sycamore Land Trust.

Tickets are $50 and are available at Bloomingfoods and the Sunrise Box Office.

Book review: An American in Gandhi's India

"Asha Sharma, the author of this lovingly detailed and enormously moving biography, is a granddaughter of Stokes. She graduated from Columbia University's school of journalism and served as a research associate at the University of California, Berkeley.

Her excellent combination of smooth storytelling and primary-source digging (drawing on such family material as Stokes' 25 years of letters to his mother back here) reflects those affiliations. Sharma makes Stokes' story alluring in both its early Philadelphia moments and its long unfolding in India." —Carlin Romano, Philadelphia Inquirer

Watch a live webcast with author David McGill on Feb. 18

David McGill, author of Sound in Motion and principal bassoonist for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, will present a workshop and masterclass featuring George Etheridge and the Capital Wind Symphony this Wednesday, Feb. 18, at 7:30 p.m. (EST). The workshop/masterclass will be broadcast live on banddirector.com. Sign up for an email reminder about this event.

Darwin's Ark poet and illustrator to present workshop during ArtsWeek

Darwin's Ark poet Philip Appleman and illustrator Rudy Pozzatti will be presenters at the workshop "Darwin, the Arts, and the Aesthetics of the Ordinary" Feb. 19 at 10 a.m. at The Stone Age Institute in Gosport, IN. The workshop is part of IU's 25th annual ArtsWeek, a winter festival showcasing an array of arts, entertainment and discussion surrounding the theme "Politics and the Arts." Details on the workshop follow:

Marking the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin's Origin of the Species, this workshop/conversation directly links Darwin, biological and evolutionary sciences, and the visual, poetic and performing arts. Printmaker Rudy Pozzatti, poet Philip Appleman, artist Betsy Stirrat, scientists Rudy Raff, John Colbourne, Michael Muehlenbein, surgeon/photographer Mark Pescovitz, biologist Roger Hangarter and choreographer Liz Lerman will examine the question of what we consider beautiful in nature and ordinary human life versus our ability to create "perfection" through technology and genomic science.

Blog for Darwin

Today marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin. In honor of this occasion, we are participating in the blog swarm hosted by the Blog for Darwin site. Below are some suggested readings to further your understanding of Darwin and evolution:

Darwin's Ark
Now in a new paperback edition, this book is a collection of Philip Appleman's poems on Darwinian themes, stunningly illustrated by internationally known printmaker Rudy Pozzatti.

Owen's Ape and Darwin's Bulldog
With the debate between Richard Owen and Thomas Huxley on the differences between the ape and human brains as its focus, this book explores several ways in which philosophical ideas and scientific practice influenced the discussion of evolution in the years before and after Darwin's publication of The Origin of Species.

Islands in the Cosmos
Forthcoming later this summer, this book traces a path from the dawn of the universe to speculations about our future on this planet. It focuses on the physical and biological processes in evolution, which interact to favor more successful, and eliminate less successful, forms of life.

February Choice reviews

The following titles were reviewed in the February issue of Choice magazine (requires subscription):

Antisemitic Myths: "...has great potential for class use. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries."

Built to Move Millions: "A hobbyist's enthusiasm, curiosity, and attention to detail exude from this technological history of Ohio's streetcar industry. ...Summing Up: Highly recommended. All general, academic, and professional libraries."

A History of Paleontology Illustration: "...[O]ffers an informative and expert introduction to an interesting intersection of art and science—the illustration of fossils in books from the Renaissance to the present. ...Davidson brings together the key figures and themes in this genre and provides basic information on them. Eight color plates and many black-and-white illustrations (especially of 19th- and 20th-century examples), along with a full bibliography, ensure that this will be a useful resource for years to come. Summing Up: Recommended. Researchers/faculty, professionals/practitioners, and general readers."

Insiders and Outsiders in Russian Cinema: "...The nine essays are wonderful in their analyses of films. ...Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty."

John Dewey's Ethics: "John Dewey, perhaps the most prolific figure in American philosophy and pragmatism, is roundly considered deficient with respect to ethics. Pappas (Texas A&M) addresses this misconception by demonstrating that ethics is the organizing center of Dewey's entire philosophical approach. ...This book handles Dewey's disparate texts and broad research adeptly, and focuses on the issues of experience and experiment in a holistic treatment of pragmatic ethics. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-level undergraduates through faculty/researchers; general readers."

Preserving Petersburg: "This collection brings together history, literature, architecture, and the politics of memory. ...The book includes a number of excellent images (both photographs of the city and images of art works showing different aspects of Petersburg life). Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty." 

Refiguring the Ordinary: "Weiss (George Washington Univ.) insightfully bridges phenomenology and critical theory in a way that leads to a mutual enrichment of the two fields. Her study renders hallmark phenomenological terms, such as "horizon" and "world," more concrete by insisting on the need to supplement their spatial and temporal aspects with the social and political determinations of the most ordinary human behavior, including perception and habituation. ...Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-level undergraduates through faculty/researchers."

Science in the New Russia: "...Graham (MIT and Harvard), the leading historian of modern Russian science outside Russia, and Dezhina (Institute of World Economy and International Relations, Moscow), a leading research scholar, collaborate to tell how Russian scientists, the Russian state, Russian institutions, and foreign funding agencies interacted to help Russian science recover from virtual bankruptcy. ...This remarkable story is told concisely and clearly with ample documentation. A valuable resource for historians of modern science and post-Soviet Russia. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduate through professional collections."

Volunteers: "Sociologists Musick (Univ. of Texas) and Wilson (Duke Univ.) offer a fairly comprehensive review of the current state of the art in the use of volunteers in the US, with one chapter addressing international issues. ...Well referenced and indexed. Summing Up: Recommended. Libraries serving departments of counseling, sociology, or social work, upper-division undergraduates and above."

Listen to a podcast with Elsa Marston

Elsa Marston, author of Santa Claus in Baghdad, was recently interviewed about her book on Muslim Voices. Listen to the podcast here.