Indiana University Press blog

Book reviews: Connected in Cairo

"Connected in Cairo provides an accessible and instructive reading of the everyday construction and negotiation of what is oftentimes glossed as globalization, and will be of value to students and academics interested in the importance of social imagination in the making of local worlds in global times." —Journal of African History

"This book is thus a valuable contribution for scholars in a variety of social sciences who have taken the wave of revolutions in the Arab world as their subject matter, and for those who will be paying close attention to how these elites in Cairo and elsewhere respond to existential threats to their structural privileges." —Anthropological Quarterly

Book review: Prince Twins Seven-Seven

"This book is essential reading for students of culture and personality in folklore and anthropology and oral history and autobiography." —Journal of American Folklore

Book review: Mercury, Mining, and Empire

“In Mercury, Mining and Empire, Nicholas Robins provides a superbly researched piece of interdisciplinary history that argues that the post-Conquest genocide of the indigenous population of what is now Bolivia and Peru occurred as a result of a highly exploitative system of silver and mercury mining. Thus Robins analyzes a ‘double genocide’ that initially entailed the death of up to ninety percent of the indigenous peoples due to illnesses brought to the Americas by the Spanish, and continued with the subsequent genocidal destruction wrought by the toxic effects of the emerging mining industry.” —Journal of Genocide Research

Three IUP books reviewed in American Ethnologist

Three IUP books are reviewed in the current issue of American Ethnologist:

The American War in Contemporary Vietnam
"The American War in Contemporary Vietnam is essential reading for anyone teaching or wanting to understand Vietnam today and would be useful in teaching seminars or upper-level courses on Vietnam, Asia, memory, and history, as well as discussions of ethnographic methodology."

Islamophobia/Islamophilia
"Overall, the volume is an impressive collection of serious discursive analyses that heighten our sensitivities to the forms arguments about Islam take; while always indexes of power, it is clear that the shared terms of global debates about Islamic reform do not always correspond
to shared meanings."

Live from Dar es Salaam
"In Live from Dar es Salaam, Alex Perullo focuses on the creative practices Tanzanians in the music economy in Dar es Salaam utilize as they try to make something of a living in difficult economic times. Perullo also shows how music in Tanzania transitioned from work to a commodity as the country itself moved from a socialist to a capitalist political–economic ideology."

Book review: Labor Disorders in Neoliberal Italy

"What does neoliberalism feel like? ... Anyone interested in the social life of the precariat ... should read Noelle Molé’s Labor Disorders. This superb ethnography astonishes on many fronts and is a unique contribution to our understanding of what it means to live and breathe under a hyper-flexibilized labor regime." —Council for European Studies

Podcast: Jo Paoletti discusses 'Pink and Blue' (now available in paperback)

Jo Paoletti's book, Pink and Blue, is now available in paperback! Paoletti’s journey through the history of children’s clothing began when she asked, “When did we start dressing girls in pink and boys in blue?” Her book analyzes that question by looking at advertisments, catalogs, and other popular media. 

To learn more about this book and the fascinating discoveries Paoletti made while writing it, listen to this IU Press podcast, originally recorded in 2012 when the hardcover version of Pink and Blue came out:

And for those of you in the Maryland area, don't miss your chance to see Jo Paoletti in person! She will discuss her book at the University of Maryland's Speaking of Books series March 26 from 4:30 to 6:00 p.m. in the McKeldin Library of Special Events Room. For more information, visit the University of Maryland Libraries website.

Book review: Playing on the Edge

"Staci Newmahr's exploration of the public SM scene is interesting, thought-provoking, and in some cases, challenging. Her involvement in the field and her willingness to share at least the surface details of her experience are extraordinary. Moreover, her commitment to understanding the community of public SM players with rigor, intellectual honesty, and sensitivity is the hallmark of a great ethnography." —Symbolic Interaction

Book reviews: Being Maasai, Becoming Indegenous

Being Maasai, Becoming Indigenous was reviewed in the following publications:

"This book is written in a lucid, direct style. ... Those of us working in East African rangelands should be grateful to Dorothy Hodgson for this thoughtful, timely, and important work." —African Affairs

"[P]rovide[s] invaluable insight into the regional context, as well as useful analyses for those researching ethnic conflict and policy implications in other parts of the world." —Leeds University Centre for African Studies

"The book is a wonderful achievement and evident in it is the author's genuine hopefulness and sensitivity about the goals and future of Maasai in Tanzania." —Pastoralism

"Overall this serves as an important reminder of the ongoing struggle for political representation and recognition of rights and resources faced by marginalized pastoralist communities throughout Africa." —Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies

"Through what she terms 'nodal' ethnography, Hodgson provides a fascinating and close-up look at the origins, motivations, and complications of the emergent NGO sector among one of Africa’s most iconic groups." —International Journal of African Historical Studies

Book reviews: Love in the Time of AIDS

Love in the Time of AIDS was reviewed in the following publications:

"This is a sobering and complex book, and the powerful ethnographic excavation of the multiple factors transforming everyday intimacy in contemporary South Africa is a testament to Hunter’s skills as a researcher and author." —Gender, Place, & Culture

"[C]ontribute[s] a stirring history of the present of South Africa, and of the unequal world of which it has been and remains a materially and ideologically formative part." —South African Historical Journal

"Mark Hunter’s work is an important contribution to the historical and anthropological literature on the South African HIV/AIDS epidemic and should be considered required reading for scholars and graduate students interested in the social, cultural, and economic dynamics of post-apartheid South Africa." —Journal of African History

"In this timely and important book, Hunter interrogates misperceptions about AIDS, sexuality, human rights, and gender injustices that perpetuate harmful constructions of African sexuality. Challenging the assumption that Africa is 'loveless,' an emancipatory concept typically reserved for those living in modern Western democracies, Hunter restores questions of love, tenderness, and intimacy in this rich ethnography of gender and sexuality in South Africa." —American Journal of Sociology

"Love in the Time of AIDS is one of the most important books on AIDS in Africa that has been published so far." —African Studies Review

"Many books continue to be written on the phenomenon of AIDS. Most of these limit themselves to particular facets of this multifaceted disease. Love in the Time of AIDS attempts, and achieves, a remarkable comprehensiveness." —English Academy Review

Three books reviewed in The American Historical Review

Three of our books were reviewed in The American Historical Review:

War of Words, War of Stones

"This book is painstakingly researched, providing a compelling portrait of the intricacies of Zanzibari politics in the post-independence period and the historical legacies that shaped those politics. ... [I]t will stimulate the sorts of discussions about race, nationalism, and memory that can help to reshape and move scholarship forward." 

The Question of Gender

"[The editors] provide fresh analyses of the state of gender studies and the dynamic theories of 'sexual difference' as proposed, tested, and critiqued by Joan Wallach Scott." 

Mercury, Mining, and Empire

"With meticulous research and vivid prose, Nicholas A. Robins examines silver mining's human cost in the royal mercury mines of Huancavelica, Peru, and the silver mines of Potosi."