Indiana University Press blog

Choice reviews - December 2013

The following books were reviewed in the December issue of Choice (requires subscription):

American Post-Judaism

"[R]equired reading for anyone directly concerned with Jewish survival, and for everyone interested in the state of institutional religion and personal spirituality in the US today. ...Highly recommended."

In Pursuit of Early Mammals

"[A]n assortment of excellent figures, e.g., drawings and reconstructions of fossils and wonderful photos of fieldwork and nearly all of the major Mesozoic mammal researchers. ...Highly recommended."

Zimbabwe's Cinematic Arts

"Thompson analyzes identity discourses through cinematic arts—films, documentaries, television programs, videos—consumed (whether or not produced) in Zimbabwe. ... Beside bringing issues of race, financing, ethnicity, and language to the discussion, she also considers the 2001 Broadcasting Services Act, which was meant to liberalize the field and stem Western influence. ...Recommended."

Muslim Societies in Africa

"Loimeier's impressive book presents a critical assessment of scholarship on the 1,300 years of the historical development and evolution of Muslim societies in Africa. ...Highly recommended." 

Land, Mobility, and Belonging in West Africa

"The author shows how competing historical narratives have been invoked in contemporary struggles over resources; she highlights growing conflicts over who belongs and who is stranger in the current climate of economic scarcity. This significant study enhances understanding of the dynamics of rural societies across the continent. ...Highly recommended."

Book review: Plato and the Question of Beauty

"Although 'beautiful' is not a usual term of praise in reviews, it is singularly apt in this case. If beauty, as Hyland shows to be the case in the dialogues, is the phenomenon most suited to awaken and energize the philosophic eros of the soul, then not only are Plato’s dialogues beautiful, but so too is Hyland’s new book about the dialogues, and precisely because it so clearly reveals their beauty. ... Hyland has brought the spirit of philosophy in the dialogues to life as few others have done—and so given us a gift very much in the spirit of Plato’s own." —International Journal of the Classical Tradition

Book review: Finding Persephone

"[This] volume spans nearly a millennium of the Greco-Roman world. It offers a snapshot of the best work in a burgeoning subfield. Especially welcome is the fresh attention paid to issues of female agency, local differentiation in cult practices, and the precise literary, material, and socio-political contexts of our evidence." —Journal of Folklore Research

Book review: Basic Concepts of Aristotelian Philosophy

"This set of lectures from 1924 offers a refreshing and productive picture of Aristotle. ...Heidegger opens up possibilities in these lectures for reading philosophy and for putting our thought in touch with the concrete." —Philosophy in Review

Book review: Basic Concepts of Aristotelian Philosophy

"This text will be of vital interest to scholars interested in the genesis of Being and Time and Heidegger’s early formulations of its central arguments in the 1920s. ...[A]n important addition to Heidegger’s works on Aristotle available in English." —Journal of the History of Philosophy

Book Review: Ancient Greek Lyrics

"With the work of more than seventy poets from the Greek, Hellenistic, Byzantine, and Roman periods, the distinguished translator Willis Barnstone offers us a very rich selection. ...William E. McCulloh’s fine introduction traces the development of the Greek lyric, while Barnstone’s notes on the poets provide valuable contexts. It is hard to conceive of a more satisfying anthology than this, but the still unsatisfied can consult the Loeb Library volumes." —ForeWord Magazine