Short Takes

The New York Times Sunday Magazine mentions REAL PHONIES as an excellent tool for understanding the reality TV show "The Bachelor," where contestants must profess that they are on the show to 'find love' rather than to promote themselves: "This demand on the players brings to mind Abigail Cheever’s fascinating new book, Real Phonies, about the American drama of personal authenticity."

Ron Slate reviews SERIOUSLY FUNNY: "A poet can accept any criticism except the charge that his or her verse is humorless...say he/she has no sense of humor and the poet will become violent or morose."

In the new American Historical Review: THE UNEMPLOYED PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT ("Given current US unemployment rates, the story of this book could speak to the growing number of organizers and policy makers looking to again harness the grassroots.") and HERE, GEORGE WASHINGTON WAS BORN ("A book that should receive serious consideration from all historians interested in the presentation and interpretation of the past. Bruggeman's study adds an important piece of the puzzle to our understanding of public history and the ways in which the past has been presented to general audiences during the last eighty years.")

H-Net Reviews (H-1960s) on LIBERALISM, BLACK POWER, AND THE MAKING OF AMERICAN POLITICS, 1965-1980: "Fergus offers a compelling read that poses many provocative questions."

Matthew H. Bernstein's SCREENING A LYNCHING was named a finalist for the Richard Wall Memorial Award from the Theater Library Association, which honors a book of exceptional scholarship in the field of recorded performance.

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune gives an early teaser for new Flannery O'Connor Short Fiction award winner Linda LeGarde Grover. Her winning collection, THE DANCE BOOTS, will be out in September.

The blog Canopy Roads of South Georgia enthusiastic about THE ART OF MANAGING LONGLEAF.

The Tuscaloosa News on DIXIE EMPORIUM.

Suite 101 article on GLASS CEILINGS AND 100-HOUR COUPLES.

Short Takes

Keith Gilyard discussed JOHN OLIVER KILLENS on GPB's Cover to Cover this past Sunday. The interview, with historian Stan Deaton, should be posted soon with Cover to Cover's podcasts.

From Hawk Migration Notes on Dyana Furmansky's ROSALIE EDGE, HAWK OF MERCY: "I encourage anyone who cares about our incredible planet to read this eye-opening and well-written book." Following Furmansky's talk on Edge at their annual meeting, the Delaware Valley Ornithological Society has renamed their Conservation Award the Rosalie Edge Conservation Award.

Video is now available from the BLACK NATURE panel discussion held at the Berkeley Institute for the Environment this spring. The discussion includes poets C.S. Giscombe, Camille Dungy, Evie Shockley, Robert Hass, Ed Roberson, Al Young, Carl Phillips, Carolyn Finney and Harryette Mullen.

Journal of the History of Biology on THE OYSTER QUESTION: "An exciting contribution to both the history of science and environmental history. In this case study of the Maryland oyster fishery, Keiner does an excellent job of combining these two historical perspectives to shed new light on the depths of a problem that has challenged all of the American oyster states since the early nineteenth century. Through her analysis, Keiner effectively reframes how environmental historians have analyzed histories of common resources and provides a working model for integrating historical and ecological information to bridge the histories of science and environmental history."

Upcoming area events:
Saturday, June 12 @ 2:00 PM
Atlanta History Center
John Burrison will speak on FROM MUD TO JUG and the living tradition of folk pottery in north Georgia.

Short Takes

Robin Ekiss and THE MANSION OF HAPPINESS have won the Shenandoah/Glasgow Prize for Emerging Writers.

The new issue of Booklist suggests that CORNBREAD NATION 5 "should be required reading both for southerners themselves and for anyone else seeking enlightenment."

Christopher Waldrep, author of the forthcoming title JURY DISCRIMINATION, quoted in a New York Times article on the persisting practice in the South of eliminating jurors based on race.

Keith Gilyard's biography of JOHN OLIVER KILLENS praised in the Neworld Review. In addition, the editor notes: "The more I read of Professor Keith Gilyard’s excellent and well written account of the internal battle Killens faced between being a social activist, and a solitary person which creative writing demands, I couldn’t help but note that what an exciting time in world history it must have been to have lived as a creative, thinking black person."

The new issue of Aperture features Reuben Cox and THE WORK OF JOE WEBB, with an excerpt from Cox's introduction.


Now available:

BROTHERS OF A VOW
Ami Pflugrad-Jackisch

In this detailed study of secret fraternal organizations in Virginia prior to the Civil War, Pflugrad-Jackisch connects the culture of secret orders to changing definitions of Southern white manhood in a tumultuous era.

CONTENTIOUS LIBERTIES
Gale Kenny

Oberlin College sent a mission to Jamaica in the 1830s in the wake of emancipation, expecting to be able to use the transition as an argument in favor of abolition in America. Kenny examines the American-Jamaican encounter from both sides, illuminating the cultural assumptions and differing ideas about freedom that kept this mission from going as expected.

STREETS OF MEMORY
Amy Mills

Geographer Amy Mills looks at one particularly interesting neighborhood in Istanbul to understand how cultural memory can preserve the idea of a tolerant, multi-ethnic neighborhood even as a place in reality becomes less and less diverse.

SUFFERING CHILDHOOD
Anna Mae Duane

Using a wide range of early American writing, Duane investigates the powerful image of the child-victim and its relationship to American understandings of colonization and power.