Bookshelf

Faculty Books

Cross Purposes: Pierce v. Society of Sisters and the Struggle over Compulsory Public Education

Paula Abrams, professor of law, explores the 1925 U.S. Supreme Court case Pierce v. Society of Sisters, which sought to address the fundamental question: Do parents have the right to determine how their children should be educated? Over the years, Pierce has provided a precedent in many cases pitting parents against the state.

University of Michigan Press, 2009. 296 pages. $65.

The Calculus Collection: A Resource for AP and Beyond

Roger Nelsen, professor emeritus of mathematics, co-edits this useful resource for those who teach calculus in high schools or colleges. It consists of 123 articles, selected by a panel of six veteran high school teachers, that focus on engaging first-time calculus students. (In spring 2009, while leading the college’s overseas study program to Seville, Nelsen took the book’s cover photo of the Cachorro or Chapina bridge. Its pedestrian awnings are in the approximate shape of a hyperbolic paraboloid.)

Mathematical Association of America, 2009. 527 pages. $75.

Understanding Torture: Law, Violence, and Political Identity

John Parry, professor of law, examines the legal and ethical complexities of torture in the modern world.

University of Michigan Press, 2010. 328 pages. $27.

Envisioning Nature, Science, and Religion

James Proctor, professor of environmental studies and director of the Environmental Studies Program, edits a collection of 16 essays that examine and compare different aspects of five central metaphors or “visions” of biophysical and human nature.

Templeton Press, 2009. 376 pages. $55.

Alumni Books

Family, Gender, and Law in a Globalizing Middle East and South Asia

Ken Cuno BA ’72, an associate professor of history at the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign, coedits this volume, which addresses the impact of colonialism on law, family, and gender relations; the role of religious politics in writing family law and the implications for gender relations; and the tension between international standards emerging from U.N. conferences and conventions as well as various nationalist projects.

Syracuse University Press, 2009. 308 pages. $34.

Days of Fire and Glory: The Rise and Fall of a Charismatic Community

Julia Duin BA ’78 details how, while working as the religion writer for the Houston Chronicle, she uncovered the ethical misconduct of Graham Pulkinghambroke, leader of the Episcopal Church of the Reedemer in Houston’s blighted East End. The resulting scandal rocked the charismatic and Christian community movements as well as the Episcopal Church.

Crossland Press, 2009. 388 pages. $25.

Integral Ecology: Uniting Multiple Perspectives on the Natural World

Sean Esbjörn-Hargens BA ’95 coauthors a comprehensive volume that applies integral theory to ecology and environmental studies. The book identifies 200 distinct approaches to nature and provides a metaframework for including their insights in problem solving. It also features three in-depth case studies: work with marine fisheries in Hawai’i, strategies of eco-activists to protect Canada’s Great Bear Rainforest, and a study of community development in El Salvador.

Integral Books, 2009. 832 pages. $45.

We Don’t Know We Don’t Know: Poems

Nick Lantz BA ’03, who won the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference Bakeless Prize for this poetry collection, borrowed the book’s title from Donald Rumsfeld’s justification of the war in Iraq. According to Publishers Weekly, “Lantz’s powerful book of political satire addresses the brutal limits of sympathy and imagination and assesses what it means to claim new knowledge within a culture that professes to know everything already.”

Graywolf Press, 2010. 96 pages. $10.

Branding the Man: Why Men Are the Next Frontier in Fashion Retail

Bertrand Pellegrin BA ’88 immerses the reader in a discussion of men’s retail environments spanning every level: store design, buying/sourcing, merchandising, marketing and advertising, and promotion. In doing so, he lays out a blueprint for how men can be developed as the “next frontier” in retail.

Random House/Allworth Press, 2009. 224 pages. $20.

Why Don’t We Listen Better? Communicating and Connecting in Relationships

Jim Petersen BA ’56 offers a rich menu of listening techniques to aid personal and professional relationships, based on his 40 years of experience as a pastor, professional counselor, and workshop leader.

Petersen Publications, 2007. 225 pages. $19.