Weekly Book List, June 8, 2018

ANTHROPOLOGY

Settling Hebron: Jewish Fundamentalism in a Palestinian City by Tamara Neuman (University of Pennsylvania Press; 238 pages; $69.95). An ethnographic study of the Jewish settler populations in Kiryat Arba and the adjacent Jewish Quarter in the Old City of Hebron.

ARCHAEOLOGY

Archaeological Perspectives on Warfare on the Great Plains edited by Andrew J. Clark and Douglas B. Bamforth (University Press of Colorado; 440 pages; $99). Includes research on warfare in the region in both the pre- and post-contact periods.

Cahokia’s Complexities: Ceremonies and Politics of the First Mississippian Farmers by Susan M. Alt (University of Alabama Press; 158 pages; $49.95). Presents evidence of Cahokian administration of upland farmlands east of the population center, bringing Cahokians and immigrant farmers into direct contact.

ART AND ARCHITECTURE

Charlotte Salomon and the Theatre of Memory by Griselda Pollock (Yale University Press; 544 pages; $60). A study of the German Jewish artist’s Life? or Theatre? a series of 784 paintings created while she was in hiding in the south of France before her deportation to Auschwitz; challenges the autobiographical emphasis in previous interpretations of the works.

Nefertiti’s Face: The Creation of an Icon by Joyce Tyldesley (Harvard University Press; 240 pages; $25.95). Traces the history of Thutmose’s famous bust of the Egyptian queen as art, ancient artifact, and iconic image.

COMMUNICATION

Networked Press Freedom: Creating Infrastructures for a Public Right by Mike Ananny (MIT Press; 296 pages; $35). Argues for a view of press freedom that goes beyond removing constraints on journalists, and toward a public’s “right to hear” and the development of structures that further democratic self-governance.

NGOs as Newsmakers: The Changing Landscape of International News by Matthew Powers (Columbia University Press; 240 pages; $90 hardcover, $30 paperback). A study of NGOs’ communications strategies and their growing role in shaping international news; includes a case study of human-rights reporting at the Turkey-Syria border.

CULTURAL STUDIES

White Rebels in Black: German Appropriation of Black Popular Culture by Priscilla Layne (University of Michigan Press; 280 pages; $75). Discusses postwar white German writers’ appropriation of black music and other popular culture as a means of distancing themselves from the country’s authoritarian legacy; also examines identity in autobiographical writings by the black Germans Hans Jurgen Massaquo, Theodor Michael, Gunter Kaufmann, and Charly Graf.

ECONOMICS

Hayek and the Evolution of Capitalism by Naomi Beck (University of Chicago Press; 208 pages; $40). Discusses the Austrian-born theorist’s problematic use of selection and other concepts from evolutionary science to ground his view of markets and society.

The Infinite Desire for Growth by Daniel Cohen, translated by Jane Marie Todd (Princeton University Press; 165 pages; $24.95). Translation of a 2015 French study on the desire for economic growth since the dawn of civilizations; considers the prospects today of redefining social progress.

Top Incomes in France in the Twentieth Century: Inequality and Redistribution, 1901--1998 by Thomas Piketty, translated by Seth Ackerman (Harvard University Press; 1,280 pages; $35). First English translation of the French economist’s 2001 study of taxation, inheritance, and factors contributing to income inequality in 20th-century France.

ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

Kaiaulu: Gathering Tides by Mehana Blaich Vaughan (Oregon State University Press; 272 pages; $19.95). Documents an increasingly threatened local culture of fishing and environmental stewardship on the northeast coast of the Hawaiian island of Kaua‘i.

FILM STUDIES

The Image in Early Cinema: Form and Material edited by Scott Curtis and others (Indiana University Press; 376 pages; $39). Topics include how image-making in early cinema both drew from and challenged the practices of other media.

Screening Transcendence: Film under Austrofascism and the Hollywood Hope, 1933-1938 by Robert Dassanowsky (Indiana University Press; 496 pages; $66). Documents how Austrian filmmakers during the period created two overlapping industries, one geared to an “Aryanized” product intended for export to Germany, the other using emigre and Jewish talent and aimed at broader Western markets.

Transforming Harry: The Adaptation of Harry Potter in the Transmedia Age edited by John Alberti and P. Andrew Miller (Wayne State University Press; 212 pages; $84.99 hardcover, $27.99 paperback). Essays on cultural, political, aesthetic, and pedagogical aspects of the film adaptations of Harry Potter novels, beginning in 2001 with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone; also discusses fan culture and other offshoot media.

The Zoom: Drama at the Touch of a Lever by Nick Hall (Rutgers University Press; 226 pages; $99.95 hardcover, $26.95 paperback). Documents controversies over the uses of the zoom lens in American cinema, and later television, since the late 1920s.

GENDER STUDIES

The Evils of Polygyny: Evidence of Its Harm to Women, Men, and Society by Rose McDermott and others, edited by Kristen Renwick Monroe (Cornell University Press; 158 pages; $95 hardcover, $19.95 paperback). Links the practice of polygyny to violence against women and children and considers its wider economic and societal impact.

HISTORY

American Baroque: Pearls and the Nature of Empire, 1492-1700 by Molly A. Warsh (University of North Carolina Press; 312 pages; $39.95). Pays particular attention to Spanish exploitation of island pearl fisheries off the coast of Venezuela.

Bernardo de Galvez: Spanish Hero of the American Revolution by Gonzalo M. Quintero Saravia (University of North Carolina Press; 616 pages; $38). A biography of the Spanish commander and viceroy of New Spain (1746-86), whose forces’ campaigns against British settlements on the Mississippi River, and later in Mobile and Pensacola, prevented Britain from concentrating all its might against Washington’s Continental Army.

The Constant Liberal: Pierre Trudeau, Organized Labour, and the Canadian Social Democratic Left by Christo Aivalis (University of British Columbia Press; 296 pages; US$89.95). Disputes characterizations of Trudeau as either a socialist or a pragmatic leftist; argues that the Canadian statesman was a classic liberal whose leftist activities were a warning to fellow liberals about the dangers of a lack of reformism.

Crusader for Democracy: The Political Life of William Allen White by Charles Delgadillo (University Press of Kansas; 304 pages; $34.95). A biography of the Kansas newspaper editor, political leader, and author (1868-1944), who was known as the “Sage of Emporia.”

Fighting Means Killing: Civil War Soldiers and the Nature of Combat by Jonathan M. Steplyk (University Press of Kansas; 336 pages; $29.95). Draws on letters, diaries, and memoirs in a study of what soldiers and veterans on both sides thought about killing, from distant death by sharpshooter to hand-to-hand combat.

A History of Occupational Health and Safety: From 1905 to the Present by Michelle Follette Turk (University of Nevada Press; 416 pages; $44.95). Focuses on the greater Las Vegas area, including issues involving railroad construction, Hoover Dam, nuclear testing, megaresorts, and wartime chemical manufacturing.

Liberia, South Carolina: An African American Appalachian Community by John M. Coggeshall (University of North Carolina Press; 296 pages; $90 hardcover, $29.95 paperback). Combines ethnography and history in a study of a community in northern Pickens County on land obtained immediately after the Civil War.

MacArthur’s Coalition: US and Australian Military Operations in the Southwest Pacific Area, 1942-1945 by Peter J. Dean (University Press of Kansas; 464 pages; $39.95). Examines the key role played by the U.S.-Australian coalition in operations in the southwest Pacific, from the Kokoda Trail campaign to the reconquest of the Philippines and Borneo.

Magic Bean: The Rise of Soy in America by Matthew Roth (University Press of Kansas; 344 pages; $45 hardcover, $24.95 paperback). Documents how the soybean, a transplant from China, went from being grown chiefly for forage in the United States to becoming a cash crop second only to corn.

The Men of Mobtown: Policing Baltimore in the Age of Slavery and Emancipation by Adam Malka (University of North Carolina Press; 352 pages; $39.95). Discusses white vigilantism’s shaping of policing during and after the final decades of slavery; documents the rise and present-day legacy of an institutionalized belief in black criminality.

No Small Thing: The 1963 Mississippi Freedom Vote by William H. Lawson (University Press of Mississippi; 208 pages; $90 hardcover, $30 paperback). Analyzes speeches, campaign materials, news coverage, and other data in a study of the rhetoric, methods, and impact of a fall 1863 campaign and mock election in which more than 80,000 black Mississippians cast ballots in an event that helped set the stage for the Freedom Summer.

One Job Town: Work, Memory and Betrayal in Northern Ontario by Steven High (University of Toronto Press; 392 pages; US$90 hardcover, US$39.95 paperback). Traces the long-term process and impact of deindustrialization in the paper-making town of Sturgeon Falls, both before and after mill closure in 2002.

Osage Women and Empire: Gender and Power by Tai S. Edwards (University Press of Kansas; 219 pages; $45 hardcover, $24.95 paperback). Documents how the traditional gender roles of both men and women shaped the rise and fall of the Osage empire, both before and after the encounter with U.S. settler colonialism.

Petersburg to Appomattox: The End of the War in Virginia edited by Caroline E. Janney (University of North Carolina Press; 320 pages; $35). Writings on the final period of fighting in the Civil War’s eastern theater and on Lee’s surrender; topics include the Confederate collapse at Five Forks, Va., and the destruction of Confederate records during the Appomattox campaign.

A Rhetorical Crime: Genocide in the Geopolitical Discourse of the Cold War by Anton Weiss-Wendt (Rutgers University Press; 246 pages; $99.95 hardcover, $34.95 paperback). Examines how genocide figured in U.S.-Soviet propaganda battles during the Cold War, a period that saw nearly 80 countries accused of the practice.

The Troubled Life of Peter Burnett: Oregon Pioneer and First Governor of California by R. Gregory Nokes (Oregon State University Press; 288 pages; $19.95). A biography of the controversial pioneer, politician, and jurist (1807-65), who worked to exclude blacks and other minorities from the West.

HISTORY OF MEDICINE

Be Wise! Be Healthy! Morality and Citizenship in Canadian Public Health Campaigns by Catherine Carstairs, Bethany Philpott, and Sara Wilmshurst (University of British Columbia Press; 310 pages; US$89.95). Describes how health was cast as a duty of citizenship in Health League of Canada campaigns from the 1920s to the 1970s---from programs to combat venereal disease to efforts to promote fluoridation.

Children and Drug Safety: Balancing Risk and Protection in Twentieth-Century America by Cynthia A. Connolly (Rutgers University Press; 260 pages; $99.95 hardcover, $37.95 paperback). A study of the development, use, and marketing of pediatric drugs, set against wider racial, class, and gender politics as well as changing views of children.

Malignant Growth: Creating the Modern Cancer Research Establishment, 1875--1915 by Alan I Marcus (University of Alabama Press; 328 pages; $59.95). Discusses the first efforts to determine the cause of cancer in a crusade heavily influenced by the “germ theory of disease.”

Prelude to Hospice: Florence Wald, Dying People, and their Families by Emily K. Abel (Rutgers University Press; 156 pages; $24.95). Draws on records compiled by Wald, the founder of the first U.S. hospice, in a study of the rise of hospice care.

Rest Uneasy: Sudden Infant Death Syndrome in Twentieth-Century America by Brittany Cowgill (Rutgers University Press; 250 pages; $99.95 hardcover, $34.95 paperback). Traces multiple shifts in the understanding of SIDs from mid- through late century.

LABOR STUDIES

Labor in Israel: Beyond Nationalism and Neoliberalism by Jonathan Preminger (ILR Press/Cornell University Press; 252 pages; $60). Analyzes a resurgence in labor organizing in Israel, beginning in 2007, and considers the changing nature of a movement that is decades in decline from its one-time prominence; topics include the influx of migrant labor.

The Rise of the Working-Class Shareholder: Labor’s Last Best Weapon by David Webber (Harvard University Press; 331 pages; $35). Focuses on union pension funds, and shareholder activism, as a source of power for American labor.

LAW

Class Actions in Canada: The Promise and Reality of Access to Justice by Jasminka Kalajdzic (University of British Columbia Press; 224 pages; US$89.95). Evaluates the effectiveness of class action in Canadian law, with particular attention to Ontario.

The Trouble with Minna: A Case of Slavery and Emancipation in the Antebellum North by Hendrik Hartog (University of North Carolina Press; 208 pages; $27.95). Uses Force v. Haines, an obscure 1840 case involving an enslaved woman named Minna, as a starting point to examine the vagaries of New Jersey’s legal approach to slavery and “gradual emancipation.”

LINGUISTICS

Language Variety in the New South: Contemporary Perspectives on Change and Variation edited by Jeffrey Reaser and others (University of North Carolina Press; 448 pages; $90 hardcover, $60 paperback). Essays on such topics as the impact of de facto and de jure segregation on African-American English, English-origin loanwords in a newly forming Latino community in North Carolina, and variable r-lessness in Cajun English.

LITERATURE

Ecocritical Aesthetics: Language, Beauty, and the Environment edited by Peter Quigley and Scott Slovic (Indiana University Press; 219 pages; $80 hardcover, $30 paperback). Essays that challenge the sidelining of beauty or aesthetics in ecocriticism.

The End of Eden: Agrarian Spaces and the Rise of the California Social Novel by Terry Beers (University of Nevada Press; 232 pages; $49.95). Focuses on Joaquin Miller’s Unwritten History: Life Amongst the Modocs, Helen Hunt Jackson’s Ramona, Frank Norris’s The Octopus, and Mary Austin’s The Ford.

Hispanicism and Early US Literature: Spain, Mexico, Cuba, and the Origins of US National Identity by John C. Havard (University of Alabama Press; 224 pages; $44.95). Describes how ideas of American exceptionalism drew on contrasting notions of Spain and Spanish America in U.S. early national and antebellum literature.

The Image of Christ in Russian Literature: Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Bulgakov, Pasternak by John Givens (Northern Illinois University Press; 329 pages; $60). Emphasizes the Russian writers’ apophaticism or negative theology, or saying what God is not.

Imperial Fictions: German Literature Before and Beyond the Nation-State by Todd Kontje (University of Michigan Press; 342 pages; $85). Examines the varied forms of German identity in local and imperial contexts imagined by writers from late antiquity to the present.

Interruptions: The Fragmentary Aesthetic in Modern Literature by Gerald L. Bruns (University of Alabama Press; 216 pages; $34.95). A study of fragmentary or interrupted writing as a device in avant-garde poetry and prose by such figures as Beckett, Joyce, J.H. Prynne, John Wilkinson, and Charles Bernstein.

Invisible Ball of Dreams: Literary Representations of Baseball behind the Color Line by Emily Ruth Rutter (University Press of Mississippi; 190 pages; $70). Examines images of black baseball in literature, film, and drama by such figures as William Brashler, Jerome Charyn, August Wilson, Gloria Naylor, Harmony Holiday, Kevin King, Kadir Nelson, and Denzel Washington.

Margaret Laurence and Jack McClelland, Letters edited by Laura K. Davis and Linda M. Morra (University of Alberta Press; 544 pages). Annotated edition of letters exchanged between the writer and her publisher that shed light on Canadian publishing from the late 1950s to the mid-1980s.

Posthumanism in Young Adult Fiction: Finding Humanity in a Posthuman World edited by Anita Tarr and Donna R. White (University Press of Mississippi; 289 pages; $70). Works discussed include Marissa Meyer’s Cinder, Julianna Baggott’s Pure, Leah Bardugo’s Grisha trilogy, and Michael Grant’s Gone series.

The Rise of the African Novel: Politics of Language, Identity, and Ownership by Mukoma Wa Ngugi (University of Michigan Press; 228 pages; $70 hardcover, $24.95 paperback). A study of South African and African-language literature from the late 1880s to the early 1940s; considers why that body of writing has been neglected, it is argued, in favor of literature from the later periods of decolonization and postcolonial independence.

The Russian Revival of the Dithyramb: A Modernist Use of Antiquity by Katherine Lahti (Northwestern University Press; 384 pages; $120 hardcover, $39.95 paperback). Traces the impact on Russian avant-garde art, literature, and music of a revival of a poetic form of verse and dance that the Greeks used to summon Dionysus.

Tragedy and the Return of the Dead by John D. Lyons (Northwestern University Press; 276 pages; $99.95 hardcover, $39.95 paperback). Develops a view of the tragic story that links early modern culture with ancient and contemporary forms; works discussed include Le Cid, Hamlet, Frankenstein, The Spanish Tragedy, Romeo and Juliet, Phedre, and Macbeth.

The Written World: Space, Literature, and the Chorological Imagination in Early Modern France by Jeffrey N. Peters (Northwestern University Press; 260 pages; $99.95 hardcover, $34.95 paperback). Draws on Plato’s concept of chora or space in the Timaeus to examine 17th-century French literature, including works by such figures as Corneille, Moliere, Racine, Boileau, Madame de Lafayette, and Honore d’Urfe.

MUSIC

Allusion as Narrative Premise in Brahms’s Instrumental Music by Jacquelyn E.C. Sholes (Indiana University Press; 328 pages; $85 hardcover, $38 paperback). A study of Johannes Brahms’s allusions to the work of other composers, including Beethoven, Scarlatti, J. S. Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Schumann, and Wagner; describes how references in one movement of a composition resonated with material in other movements, creating a broad narrative.

The Devil’s Music: How Christians Inspired, Condemned, and Embraced Rock ’n’ Roll by Randall J. Stephens (Harvard University Press; 337 pages; $29.95). Traces evangelicals’ shift from condemning rock in the 1950s and 60s to embracing a Christian version of the music as a vehicle for their message; also examines how the music and worship styles of Southern Pentecostalism influenced Elvis, Little Richard, and other early rockers.

Whitechapel Noise: Jewish Immigrant Life in Yiddish Song and Verse, London 1884--1914 by Vivi Lachs (Wayne State University Press; $85.99 hardcover, $32.99 paperback). Discusses songs, poems, and other aspects of Yiddish popular culture in London’s East End; topics include how common themes of music-hall numbers reflect changing sexual roles in the community.

PHILOSOPHY

Heidegger’s Poietic Writings: From “Contributions to Philosophy” to “The Event” by Daniela Vallega-Neu (Indiana University Press; 205 pages; $70 hardcover, $39 paperback). A study of the German philosopher’s non-public writings on “the event” in manuscripts from 1936 to 1942.

The Inconspicuous God: Heidegger, French Phenomenology, and the Theological Turn by Jason W. Alvis (Indiana University Press; 249 pages; $65). Extends Heidegger’s notion of the phenomenology of the inconspicuous through discussion of Levinas, Marion, Lacoste, Janicaud, and other thinkers associated with the “theological turn,” as well as paradoxes of the religious experience.

Leo Strauss and His Catholic Readers edited by Geoffrey M. Vaughan (Catholic University of America Press; 345 pages; $75). Essays on Catholic readings of the German-born American thinker and his project to recover Platonic political philosophy; topics include his view of natural law, and parallels between his thought on modernity and that of Pope Benedict XVI.

Richard Kearney’s Anatheistic Wager: Philosophy, Theology, Poetics edited by Chris Doude van Troostwijk and Matthew Clemente (Indiana University Press; 264 pages; $65). Essays on the Irish philosopher and the meaning and dynamics of his anatheistic wager, or bet against the existence of God.

POLITICAL SCIENCE

The Collision of Political and Legal Time: Foreign Affairs and the Supreme Court’s Transformation of Executive Authority by Kimberley L. Fletcher (Temple University Press; 296 pages; $99.50 hardcover, $39.95 paperback). A study of the high court’s interpretation of presidential authority in foreign policy since 1936.

Empire of the People: Settler Colonialism and the Foundations of Modern Democratic Thought by Adam Dahl (University Press of Kansas; 260 pages; $45 hardcover, $24.95 paperback). Sets the development of American political thought in the context of the appropriation of indigenous land; describes how this link, and its disavowal, shaped key concepts in democratic theory, including consent, equality, and popular sovereignty.

Four Guardians: A Principled Agent View of American Civil-Military Relations by Jeffrey W. Donnithorne (Johns Hopkins University Press; 288 pages; $49.95). Describes how the cultures, operational environments, and histories of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps shape those services’ different responses to civilian defense policies; case studies include the creation of the Rapid Deployment Joint Task Force in the early 1980s.

Participation Without Democracy: Containing Conflict in Southeast Asia by Garry Rodan (Cornell University Press; 300 pages; $95 hardcover, $32.95 paperback). Draws on fieldwork in Singapore, the Philippines, and Malaysia in a study of forms of expanded representation said to constrain political contestation more than promote it.

Political Corruption and Scandals in Japan by Matthew M. Carlson and Steven R. Reed (Cornell University Press; 204 pages; $39.95). A study of major political-corruption scandals in Japan since the early postwar era, with particular attention to changes in the levels of corruption after structural reforms in 1994.

Politics and Capital: Auctioning the American Dream by John Attanasio (Oxford University Press; 304 pages; $39.95). Links the outcomes of pivotal campaign-finance cases to growing income inequality in the United States.

The Politics of the Headscarf in the United States by Bozena C. Welborne and others (Cornell University Press; 264 pages; $95 hardcover, $22.95 paperback). Draws on survey data from nearly 2,000 Muslim women in 49 states, as well as on focus-group interviews with 72 women in seven cities with large Muslim populations.

Salafism in Lebanon: Local and Transnational Movements by Zoltan Pall (Cambridge University Press; 264 pages; $99.99). A study of Lebanese Salafi groups that focus on peaceful proselytization rather than jihad; pays particular attention to their links to the Gulf.

Stopping the Bomb: The Sources and Effectiveness of US Nonproliferation Policy by Nicholas L. Miller (Cornell University Press; 330 pages; $49.95). Includes case studies of U.S. responses to nuclear programs in France (1954-60), Taiwan (1967-77), Pakistan (1972-87), and Iran (1974-2015).

Wars of Law: Unintended Consequences in the Regulation of Armed Conflict by Tanisha M. Fazal (Cornell University Press; 327 pages; $39.95). Analyzes and contrasts the strategic use of the laws of war by both states and rebel groups engaged in interstate and civil conflicts; covers the past 150 years.

RELIGION

Jesus Becoming Jesus: A Theological Interpretation of the Synoptic Gospels by Thomas G. Weinandy (Catholic University of America Press; 478 pages; $34.95). Focuses on the theological content of the Synoptic Gospels---Matthew, Mark, and Luke---particularly in light of Roman Catholic tradition and specifically Vatican II’s Dogmatic Constitution, Dei Verbum.

Jesus in Asia by R.S. Sugirtharajah (Harvard University Press; 320 pages; $29.95). Focuses on China, India, and other lands east of Christianity’s birthplace in a study of Asian perspectives on the historical Jesus, beginning in the seventh century; topics include a biography composed in the 16th-century court of the Mughal emperor Akbar.

Many Tongues, One Faith: A History of Franciscan Parish Life in the United States by David J. Endres (Academy of American Franciscan History, distributed by Catholic University of America Press; 210 pages; $40 hardcover, $25 paperback). Discusses 14 highly diverse Franciscan parishes in the 19th and 20th centuries; topics include one of the oldest Italian churches in New York City, a church in Hazard, Ky., in Appalachian “no priest land”; and varied African-American, Latino, and American Indian parishes.

Mother Teresa and the Mystics: Toward a Renewal of Spiritual Theology edited by Michael Dauphinais, Brian Kolodiejchuk, and Roger W. Nutt (Sapientia Press of Ave Maria University, distributed by Catholic University of America Press; 288 pages; $29.95). Essays on the famed nun and missionary, canonized in 2016 as St. Teresa of Calcutta; focuses on what she termed, in private letters, her experience of spiritual darkness.

Strangers and Friends at the Welcome Table: Contemporary Christianities in the American South by James Hudnut-Beumler (University of North Carolina Press; 288 pages; $34.95). Combines scholarly and personal perspectives, and interview data, in an account of the diverse practice of Christianity in both the urban and rural South; topics include LGBT-supportive evangelicals, and Spanish-language churches.

Thomas Aquinas and His Predecessors: The Philosophers and the Church Fathers in His Works by Leo J. Elders (Catholic University of America Press; 376 pages; $75). English edition of a 2015 French work on Aquinas’s knowledge and citations of his philosophical and theological predecessors.

SOCIOLOGY

Constructing the Dynamo of Dixie: Race, Urban Planning, and Cosmopolitanism in Chattanooga, Tennessee by Courtney Elizabeth Knapp (University of North Carolina Press; 264 pages; $29.95). Combines history and ethnography in a study of the racial and other politics of development and gentrification in the city.

From Miracle to Mirage: The Making and Unmaking of the Korean Middle Class, 1960-2015 by Myungji Yang (Cornell University Press; 204 pages; $45). Documents the forces of speculation and exclusion that created South Korea’s middle class, as well as factors that have contributed to a recent decline in that sector’s fortunes.

Homeward: Life in the Year After Prison by Bruce Western (Russell Sage Foundation; 224 pages; $29.95). Documents the struggles of men and women released from the Massachusetts state prison system who returned to Boston-area neighborhoods.

No Slam Dunk: Gender, Sport and the Unevenness of Social Change by Cheryl Cooky and Michael A. Messner (Rutgers University Press; 314 pages; $99.95 hardcover, $39.95 paperback). Combines empirical and theoretical perspectives in a study of challenges that remain for gender equity in sports.

THEATER

Affect, Animals, and Autists: Feeling Around the Edges of the Human in Performance by Marla Carlson (University of Michigan Press; 274 pages; $75 hardcover, $29.95 paperback). Explores audiences’ responses to “neurodiverse” characters and non-human animals on stage, from such hit plays as The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time to avant-garde theater.

Viral Performance: Contagious Theaters from Modernism to the Digital Age by Miriam Felton-Dansky (Northwestern University Press; 246 pages; $99.95 hardcover, $34.95 paperback). Examines how notions of viral contagion and circulation can be used to discuss theater that pre-dates the digital era, such as the Artaudian Living Theatre.

Yiddish Empire: The Vilna Troupe, Jewish Theater, and the Art of Itinerancy by Debra Caplan (University of Michigan Press; 352 pages; $85 hardcover, $39.95 paperback). Traces the history, from 1915 to 1936, of a traveling theater troupe that revolutionized the Yiddish stage, journeying across countries and continents and performing in venues that had previously not allowed Jews.

WOMEN’S STUDIES

Maternal Bodies: Redefining Motherhood in Early America by Nora Doyle (University of North Carolina Press; 272 pages; $32.95). Draws on literary, visual, and other sources in a study contrasting the lived experience of maternity with shifting idealizations from the 1750s to the 1850s.