Nonfiction Reviews: Week of 12/17/2007

The third of eight surviving children, Isabella de' Medici (1542–1576) was unusually close to her father, Cosimo, the powerful grand duke of Tuscany who built the Uffizi, and whose protection allowed her to live an autonomous, glittering Florentine life apart from her debt-ridden, abusive, playboy husband in Rome. After Cosimo's death in 1574, his spiteful eldest son and heir, Francesco, eager to make his mistress, the first lady of Florence, reneged on the inheritance Cosimo left Isabella and her children and effectively banished her lover from Florence by branding him a murderer. When the treasonous behavior and extramarital affairs of Isabella's sister-in-law Leonora became a symbol for the anarchy of Francesco's court, Francesco sanctioned Leonora's murder at her husband's hands and, soon after, Isabella's murder by her husband as well. Like the Kennedys or Windsors, the Medicis are a dynasty brimming with biographical gold, and this supple, smart account of a lesser-known daughter will engage modern readers as it vivifies both Renaissance Florence and an extraordinary woman who paid the ultimate price for flouting her era's traditional gender roles. Murphy (The Pope's Daughter) is an art history professor at UC-Riverside. A Medici family tree, map of Florence and b&w illustrations of Renaissance Florence are welcome embellishments. (Apr.)

I AM N-N-NOT DYING!” screamed Willie Francis, a 17-year-old African-American convicted of murder by an all-white Louisiana jury in 1946, during the failed electrocution that kicks off this tale of justice gone awry in the segregated American South. As told in a sometimes repetitious avalanche of detail by King (Woman, Child for Sale), Francis's story is emblematic of the time and place—a prominent white man in a Cajun town was gunned down, and soon Francis was picked up and, under duress and without an attorney, confessed to the crime. Despite no eyewitnesses and scant physical evidence, Francis was convicted and sentenced to death. After surviving the first execution attempt, he waited in prison nearly a year while the battle over his fate went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. After a page-turning start with the ill-fated execution attempt described in gripping detail, King runs out of steam. What's of interest is the horrifying botched execution and the fact, revealed late in the narrative, that Francis never denied committing the murder. While his eventual execution is tragic, this account doesn't add much to our understanding of U.S. race relations. 16 page b&w insert not seen by PW. (Apr.)

In 1996, Dave Hall, an unemployed ex-biker, found himself facing a prison sentence for a minor marijuana charge. With biker friends who associated with the Ohio branch of the Aryan Nations—then considered the FBI's most dangerous domestic terrorist group—and its charismatic, bloodthirsty pastor, Harold “Ray” Redfeairn, Hall agreed to help the FBI infiltrate the AN. Hall encounters this quasi-Christian cult that interprets the Bible as a bizarre racist, anti-Semitic tract and advocates violent revolution to destroy non-Aryan races. Swallowing his disgust, he patiently wins Redfeairn's confidence, eventually becoming his right-hand man and designated successor. As presented here, the world of gun-obsessed, antigovernment fringe groups, whose weapon-worship becomes their ultimate undoing, horrifies and entertains. Hall's work led to several arrests and eventually crippled the AN, which has not recovered. Neither has Hall, who claims, “When you dance with the devil, the devil doesn't change, the devil changes you.” The book shifts between Hall's and FBI agent Burkey's perspectives, but the main voice belongs to crime writer Ramsland who knits these stories into a seamless drama filled with suspense, vivid characters and colorful events. (Apr. 15)

Despite efforts at producing clean energy, mankind is going to continue burning coal and oil, say environmental sciences professor Broecker and science writer Kunzig. The pair offers a history of the scientific enquiry that solidified global warming theory, tracing the story from the 19th century through the 1957 “dawn of the modern era of greenhouse studies” when Americans Roger Revelle and Hans Seuss determined that the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide was increasing and predicted the world's climate would be affected. Reducing emissions that cause global warming is commendable, the authors contend, but is too little too late. Their solution? Bury the stuff: extract CO2 from the atmosphere then pack it into deep ocean aquifers or within layers of volcanic basalt. They envisage 80 million small collectors each scrubbing a ton of CO2 daily from the world's atmosphere to balance what is produced by burning coal and oil. In a best-case scenario, these efforts will also stop the acceleration of global warming. Prototypes have already been constructed, but even the authors admit that “trying to see that far into the future is crazy.” (Apr.)

In what is surely one of the most memorable and intelligent recent books about animal-human interaction, Hess (Lost and Found: Dogs, Cats and Everyday Heroes at a Country Animal Shelter) tells the story of Nim Chimpsky, who in the 1970s was the subject of an experiment begun at the University of Oklahoma to find out whether a chimp could learn American Sign Language—and thus refute Noam Chomsky's influential thesis that language is inherent only in humans. Nim was sent to live with a family in New York City and taught human language like any other child. Hess sympathetically yet unerringly details both the project's successes and failures, its heroes and villains, as she recounts Nim's odyssey from the Manhattan town house to a mansion in the Bronx and finally back to Oklahoma, where he was bounced among various facilities as financial, personal and scientific troubles plagued the study. The book expertly shows why the Nim experiment was a crucial event in animal studies, but more importantly, Hess captures Nim's “legendary charm, mischievous sense of humor, and keen understanding of human beings.” This may well be the only book on linguistics and primatology that will leave its readers in tears over the life and times of its amazing subject. (Mar. 4)

Investigative journalist Weinberg (Armand Hammer: The Untold Story) briskly recounts the story of the rise of the Standard Oil monopoly in the late 19th century and muckraking reporter Ida Tarbell's role in bringing it down. The book is a study in opposites: John D. Rockefeller used his enormous wealth “to establish the staid, stable family life he had lacked as a youngster.” Tarbell—raised in bourgeois stability, intellectually ravenous and interested in the women's movement from an early age —resisted women's traditional domestic role. Wishing to help address society's problems, Tarbell was lured into magazine writing, where she developed what Weinberg calls her trademark “tone of controlled outrage.” In her articles on Standard, published just after the turn of the 20th century in McClure's and then in book form, she amassed evidence that Rockefeller engaged in “unfair competition” and argued forcefully that all Americans should be concerned with business ethics. Her reporting helped create the modern genre of investigative journalism, and the author's brief references to Wal-Mart and contemporary journalism suggest that he hopes this engaging account—a likely pick for journalism classes—can help inspire more reporters to follow in Tarbell's footsteps. 16 pages of illus. (Mar.)

In cogent and entertaining language, astrophysicist and popular writer Bennett (On the Cosmic Horizon) explains that the determining factor in whether we can locate intelligent life elsewhere in the universe is whether such a civilization—and our own—can continue long enough to develop the highly sophisticated technology needed for interstellar travel. If humans are going to meet that challenge, Bennett argues, we must solve “global warming, debilitating disease, terrorism, poverty, and war. We must use our compassion to teach all people to respect all others, regardless of their ethnicity, religion, or gender.” This political message is couched in fascinating and completely accessible science. Bennett does a wonderful job of explaining the conditions necessary for simple life, how we might discern its existence and where we should be looking. He then does the same thing for intelligent life. While he is fair to those who believe life is incredibly rare, he makes a compelling case that life is likely to be abundant. He also predicts that we will gather incontrovertible proof of intelligent life in the universe within the next 20 to 30 years. 8 color, 30 b&w illus. (Mar.)

Anxiety is an unfortunate fact of life, but can be a positive force in business success, says psychologist Rosen, contending that today's rapid rate of change is particularly anxiety provoking for businesses and those who work to build them. Rosen believes that business leaders can manage their own anxiety to yield positive company results. Though our minds try to protect us from anxiety by using ego defense mechanisms that can be productive or destructive, either too much or too little anxiety can be a hindrance to performance. But the right amount of anxiety can motivate and encourage. With checklists, questionnaires and self-evaluation forms, Rosen offers tools and guidelines to help readers assess and understand their personal reactions to the emotion. Concrete, real-life examples and explanations of anxiety's various forms, personal effects and potentially positive aspects teach managers how to work with the emotion and elicit its healthy side from employees. Rosen's insights are thought provoking and helpful. (Mar. 13)

Turning to a source of wisdom that has withstood the ages, Gimian and Boyce offer a written version of the interpretive seminars they conduct on the teachings of Sun Tzu's The Art of War. While guiding today's corporate warriors on spiritual journeys to solve management issues in a group setting may result in an abundance of insights, the authors' presentation of these journeys is less than compelling. Their material is vaguely familiar and hard to argue with, but is presented without passion, much-needed breaks or conclusions. Sun Tzu's concepts are never translated into tools or methods of practice for today's leaders to grasp quickly and introduce into their daily office battles. Rather, they are presented in the abstract and the reader must figure out what use to make of them. For those with the time to contemplate metaphorical “blades of grass” in hopes of discovering blades of insight, this could be enlightening. For those looking for immediately practicable answers to managing actual episodes of chaos or conflict, this volume may not be of much help. (Mar.)

Choosing a spouse and choosing a career are important life decisions—but perhaps even more predictive of our all-round personal happiness is our choice of living location, argues Florida (The Rise of the Creative Class) in this informative if somewhat dry tome. As globalization makes the world effectively smaller, economic growth concentrates in certain mega-regions of large “superstar” cities, leaving other regions in the proverbial dust. The areas where we live are also affected by our increasingly mobile culture, housing priorities that change as we age (from starter homes to family-friendly suburbs to empty nests and finally retirement centers) and the global economy. Few of the author's conclusions are new—people gather where they can make friends with others like them, personality types tend to cluster—type A to urban areas, type B to rural—and the book's tone wanders from broad, Friedmanesque discussion of the world economy to home-buying advice as well as statistic-and-theory-heavy text as though unsure of its intended audience. Yet the author opens up a complex, underexamined subject along the way. (Mar.)

Blogs, wikis and other Web 2.0 accoutrements are revolutionizing the social order, a development that's cause for more excitement than alarm, argues interactive telecommunications professor Shirky. He contextualizes the digital networking age with philosophical, sociological, economic and statistical theories and points to its major successes and failures. Grassroots activism stands among the winners—Belarus's “flash mobs,” for example, blog their way to unprecedented antiauthoritarian demonstrations. Likewise, user/contributor-managed Wikipedia raises the bar for production efficiency by throwing traditional corporate hierarchy out the window. Print journalism falters as publishing methods are transformed through the Web. Shirky is at his best deconstructing Web failures like “Wikitorial,” the Los Angeles Times's attempt to facilitate group op-ed writing. Readers will appreciate the Gladwellesque lucidity of his assessments on what makes or breaks group efforts online: “Every story in this book relies on the successful fusion of a plausible promise, an effective tool, and an acceptable bargain with the users.” The sum of Shirky's incisive exploration, like the Web itself, is greater than its parts. (Mar.)

This book is a cri de coeur by former Republican congressman Edwards, a veteran conservative founding trustee of the Heritage Foundation who once ranked as the national chairman of the American Conservative Union. Edwards believes that conservatism has abandoned the ideas of limited government that once inspired it. This has been, he argues, the paradoxical price of conservative electoral success, and the process of winning and retaining this power has brought its own temptations. Taking Washington required coalition forming with neoconservatives, the religious right and former supporters of George Wallace who all owed little to the Goldwater-style conservatism “in which the thing being 'conserved' was the liberal revolution embodied in the Constitution.” According to Edwards, these other views have intensified as the Bush administration presides over an evolving security state, and the movement Edwards once held sacrosanct is now unrecognizable. This is a critique with force and eloquence, but its author is better at defining what has, from his perspective, gone wrong, than providing persuasive suggestions as to how conservatives of his mindset are meant to win elections today. (Mar.)

In his dense cultural history of the car in post-WWII society, Packer logically distills the complex relationship between Americans, their automobiles and their love and fear of driving. North Carolina State University professor Packer examines a variety of issues, including the evolution of the station wagon from outdoorsy sport vehicle to family car, the explosion of CB radio use among truckers in the 1970s and the significance of Cadillacs to African-Americans (Ralph Ellison dubbed them “coon cages” in his story Cadillac Flambé). The author carefully lays out the emergence of “automobility” or the organization of society based on the desires of an automobile-addicted population following the country's first major expansion of its highway network (and subsequent increase of government regulations for those highways). Packer rattles off stats and studies with ease, though at times his prose can be more cumbersome than informative. But by choosing to study cultural “evidence”—films, advertising, magazine articles and others—and centering each of his chapters on a specific demographic group—for example, hot-rodders, hitchhikers, suburbanites—Packer produces a well-rounded study of an essential aspect of the average American's daily life. (Mar.)

The subtitle of this latest offering from Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Wood (The Radicalism of the American Revolution) is far grander than what he delivers between the covers: a collection of 21 book reviews of works by Simon Schama, Theodore Draper and Joyce Appleby, among others, written over the past three decades for periodicals like the New York Review of Books and the New Republic. Though reviews are occasional pieces not designed to be republished years later, some of Wood's pieces make enduring points. He lambastes scholars who clutter their writing with unintelligible jargon, and he worries that today's historical scholarship, too driven by present concerns, fails to retain a sense of how the past really is different. He makes clear that he prefers old-fashioned political history to cultural history that draws on postmodern theory. Indeed, the book is maddeningly repetitive: Wood invokes Peter Novick's This Noble Dream over and over, though not as often as he laments the use of theory in cultural history and the “radical Foucault-like agendas” that seem to drive certain literary historians. This volume is not without merit, but rather than appending a short afterword to each review, Wood would have done better to craft a new, unified reflection on the discipline of history. (Mar. 17)

Major league baseball was vastly different 30 years ago when free agency and the designated hitter were relatively new concepts, and most games were not televised. But one thing was the same: the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox were fierce rivals. In the 1978 season, it all came down to a roller-coaster ride of a pennant race that culminated in one Monday afternoon playoff game to decide the winner of the American League East. Bradley (American Son: Portrait of John F. Kennedy, Jr.) scores a solid hit with his first baseball book, recounting the sudden-death game and the season leading up to it. He deftly staggers chapters, alternating a pitch-by-pitch account of the playoff innings with the backstory of the season and most of the players and coaches. Two of the many compelling plot threads include the dramatics of meddling Yankees owner George Steinbrenner and the feisty, hard-drinking manager Billy Martin, and the touching son-finds-lost-father saga of Bucky Dent, the light-hitting infielder who hit a three-run home run that made him a hero. Many other heavyweight names in baseball lore move across these pages, including Lou Piniella, Don Zimmer, Reggie Jackson, Goose Gossage, Catfish Hunter, Mike Torrez, Ron Guidry and Thurman Munson. The latter chapters of the book are filled with vivid description, particularly of Dent's classic at bat and the slow advance of the evening shadow across the Fenway Park grass. (Mar.)

With flawless agility, Tharps (coauthor of Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America) juggles a coming-of-age story, a portrait of the writer as a young woman, a travel book and a detective story along with a memoir about learning to love oneself and one's world. A child of privilege, Tharps “experienced the world as a middle-class suburbanite.” That she was black presented complications but not trauma. (The third grade International Day offered the happy prospect of “a smorgasbord of international flavors” and the awkward prospect of dressing like a slave. She enjoyed the former and passed on the latter.) In a narrative sense, little happens of a dramatic nature. She attends college, goes on an American Field Service stint to Morocco, studies abroad in Spain, falls in love, gets married, has children and becomes a freelance writer. What matters is that Tharps infuses this narrative with the pleasure of shared discovery, taking the reader along to the kids' party where they're playing “Nigger pile-on!” (“They're not talking about you. It's just a game”) and into the chaste arms of the boys she has crushes on. Tharps has written a thought-provoking, answer-seeking consideration of race in the Western world that one can lie back and enjoy. The thoughts and answers will continue to haunt. (Mar.)

In 1926, when Gertrude Ederle became the first woman to swim the English Channel, the event was publicized around the world, and she was celebrated as an American hero in a series of public events, including a ticker-tape parade in New York City. Yet when she died in 2003 at the age of 97, her accomplishment was often mentioned in newspaper obituaries in only a few brief lines. British journalist and historian Mortimer has done Ederle—and sports history in general—a huge service in this wonderfully written book by detailing what was one of the biggest media events of the 1920s: the attempt by four Americans to become the first woman to swim and survive the brutal waters of the channel. He explores in great depth their differing personalities as well as the effects the race had on their lives. He also explains the cultural impact of the “great Swim,” such as how the “revolution” in women's bathing suits from a “neck-to-knee bathing dress over woolen tights and shoes” to a two-piece bathing suit was a key event in getting the International Olympic Committee to begin incorporating more swimming events into its women's schedule. (Feb.)

With this collection of 27 blogs culled from disparate corners of the Internet, Boxer, who writes for the New York Times, attempts to impose some kind of fixed order on a form that generally relies on the satisfaction of timely updates. For many blog-savvy readers, this collection would appear to have all the appeal of a new MP3 converted into 8-track format, but much of the writing contained in the book is well worth browsing for even the most hardened Web aficionado. The highlights in book format, predictably, are the blogs that maintain relatively tight spelling and grammar standards and focus on subjects beyond the writer's petty complaints. Benjamin Zimmer's “Language Log” reads like a wonderfully expansive and more self-aware William Safire column, while Sean Carroll's “Cosmic Variance” manages to be wryly humorous even while discussing theoretical physics at the Ph.D. level. Ringers like Alex Ross of the New Yorker and Matthew Yglesias of the Atlantic Monthly hardly seem like fair choices to demonstrate the democratization of the Web, but their blogs, on music and classical politics, respectively, are must-reads. Other, less conventional highlights include the neocon-spoofing comic “Get Your War On,” the ruminative expat diary “How to Learn Swedish in 1000 Difficult Lessons” and the cheerfully hyperactive idea stockpile “Ironic Sans.” (Feb.)

Subtle and nuanced, this study is something of a sequel to Miller's Lincoln's Virtues. Here he examines Honest Abe's moral and intellectual life while in the White House, prosecuting a bloody war. Miller finds that early in his presidency, Lincoln balanced two strong ethical imperatives—his duty to preserve the union and his determination not to fire the first shots. Of course, Miller also addresses that other great moral challenge: slavery. In short, says Miller, Lincoln believed slavery was “not only profoundly wrong but profoundly wrong specifically as measured by this nation's moral essence,” and he used a terrific amount of political savvy to push through emancipation. But more original is Miller's discussion of what Lincoln thought was at stake in the war. Through a close reading of the president's papers, Miller persuasively argues that Lincoln believed secession would not merely “diminish” or “damage” the United States but would destroy it. That, in turn, was an issue of global import, for if the American experiment failed, free government would not be secure anywhere. Miller has given us one of the most insightful accounts of Lincoln published in recent years. (Feb. 5)

Based on his W.E.B. Du Bois lectures at Harvard, Stanford professor emeritus Fredrickson (Arrogance of Race) wades into a controversial arena: was Lincoln a heroic emancipator or a racist who didn't care about slaves at all? Stating that in between “pathological” racism and egalitarianism lies a spectrum of possibilities, Fredrickson says that Lincoln is not easily classified. After opening with a quick, useful survey of the relevant historiography, Fredrickson addresses Lincoln's thoughts about issues ranging from white supremacy to colonization and black military service. One question that looms large for Fredrickson is whether Lincoln meant the most racist comments he made during the 1850s. He hated slavery yet “clearly... could not readily envision a society in which blacks and whites could live in harmony as... equals.” Fredrickson suggests that Lincoln's public statements may have reflected both his real thoughts and the savvy political sensibility of an ambitious man who knew he couldn't get elected without invoking white supremacist shibboleths; furthermore, Lincoln's thoughts about blacks—especially about their capacity for citizenship—may have changed during the Civil War. This brief book will be widely discussed by historians and will provide nonacademic readers a lucid introduction to some of the most heated debates about the 16th president. (Feb.)

This slender, powerful salvo offers a sure-to-be controversial alternative to the recent cottage industry of high-brow happiness books. Wilson, chair of Wake Forest University's English Department, claims that Americans today are too interested in being happy. (He points to the widespread use of antidepressants as exhibit A.) It is inauthentic and shallow, charges Wilson, to relentlessly seek happiness in a world full of tragedy. While he does not want to “romanticize clinical depression,” Wilson argues forcefully that “melancholia” is a necessary ingredient of any culture that wishes to be innovative or inventive. In particular, we need melancholy if we want to make true, beautiful art. Though others have written on the possible connections between creativity and melancholy, Wilson's meditations about artists ranging from Melville to John Lennon are stirring. Wilson calls for Americans to recognize and embrace melancholia, and he praises as bold radicals those who already live with the truth of melancholy. Wilson's somewhat affected writing style is at times distracting: his prose is quirky, and he tends toward alliteration (“To be a patriot is to be peppy” “a person seeking slick comfort in this mysteriously mottled world”). Still, beneath the rococo wordsmithing lies provocative cultural analysis. (Feb.)

Network producer and onetime Miami Herald columnist Huddy tells a gripping story of greed, violence, theft and public relations. Las Vegas had just launched its new blitz of advertising—advancing itself not as “Sin City” but as a family-friendly vacation destination—when Jose Vigoa (a Cuban-born commando veteran of the Soviet Army) hit town in the late 1990s. Vigoa and a small crew embarked on a violent 16-month crime wave, targeting some of the Strip's most prominent (and, as Vigoa showed, vulnerable) institutions. A 23-year veteran of the Las Vegas Police Force, Lt. John Alamshaw was charged with finding and capturing the men behind the crime spree—without allowing the robberies to become national news and spoil Vegas's new image. Huddy traces Vigoa's personal history from his childhood in Castro's Cuba to fighting for the Red Army in Afghanistan, his return to Cuba and eventual resettlement in the United States. Then he chronicles the Cuban's increasingly audacious grabs for Vegas riches and his ultimate sentencing to more than 500 years in prison with no possibility of parole. This debut is a must for true-crime enthusiasts. B&w photos. (Feb. 19)

In this chilling account, retired FBI agent Hess details his years of correspondence with serial killer Robert Browne, as he tried to coax out details of Browne's alleged 49 murders. Sentenced to life without parole in 1995 for the first-degree murder of 13-year-old Heather Church in Colorado, Browne began taunting investigators in 2000 with vague hints of other victims. Hess—a former FBI and CIA agent with years of experience as a polygraph analyst—had volunteered to investigate cold cases in Colorado Springs; assisted by homicide detective Lou Smit and former newspaper publisher Scott Fischer, Hess began writing to Browne in the hopes of uncovering (based on Browne's letters) clues to as many as 48 unsolved murders. The men traded letters for years, each one bringing Hess and his team one step closer to proving the murderer's grisly claim. In clean, vivid prose that avoids melodrama, Hess and Seay (coauthor, With God on Our Side) explore not only Browne's troubled Louisiana childhood and his string of abusive marriages but also the lives of the investigators. With Hess's first-person narrative and excerpts from his and Browne's letters, this is an unsettling account of a man who is possibly the most prolific and twisted of serial killers. (Feb.)

According to London psychotherapist and clinical researcher Kahr, virtually every sexually mature adult generates sexual fantasies that fulfill a wide variety of often unconscious psychological needs. What is the stuff of British and American erotic fantasies? Rape, infidelity, homosexuality, pedophilia, incest and, apparently for some Brits, kinky sex with the queen and Margaret Thatcher. For a 2005 British television documentary on the subject, Kahr collected data from 13,000 adults via a computer-administered questionnaire, supplemented with 122 face-to-face interviews. In 2006, he also surveyed approximately 3,000 American men and women. A building contractor's strip-poker masturbatory fantasy, says Kahr, signifies hostility toward women, tracing back to a father who quickly remarried a “hottie” after his young wife's death. A heterosexual woman's lesbian fantasies represent an attempt to recreate a family unit in which parents wield a more benign sexuality than her own abusive parents did. A happily married costume designer's fantasies turn unpleasant memories of sexual abuse by a learning-disabled older brother into a highly arousing experience. Some will no doubt find the subject matter titillating, but Kahr approaches his interviewees with respect and decorum. His prose is unabashedly enthusiastic and sometimes overwritten, and although his analyses are perceptive, the material is mostly familiar and unsurprising. (Feb. 4)

Animal rights activist Dawn is familiar to readers of her memorable opinion pieces for the Washington Post as well as her daily e-newsletter DawnWatch, but her first book should gain her a wider audience. This is a cogent and thoroughly researched overview of all the major issues in animal rights, past and present, She defines animal rights “more loosely than some would like,” focusing on the general movement to advance the interest of animals and “discourage the use of animals as objects of commerce.” Her goal is “to tell you everything you wanted to know about animal rights—but were afraid to get into a fight about—and to let you weigh that information against your own values,” and she succeeds admirably. Often supplying hilarious but pointed illustrations and quotes from well-known animal lovers such as Bill Maher and Natalie Portman, she illuminates the use of animals as pets, entertainment, food, in scientific testing and the “Green” movement. This has the potential to become a big hit for a general reading audience that wants to know what the fuss is about animal rights, as well as the many college students at the forefront of animal rights activism. (Feb. 26)

In this colorful but sometimes superficial survey of the history and present role of the U.S. dollar, Wall Street Journal reporter Karmin tackles the complex dynamics that have placed American currency at the top of the global economy and the forces that now threaten its position there. In six loosely linked chapters—one offers a peek inside a currency-trading hedge fund, while another takes readers to Ecuador, which in 2000 abandoned its own currency and adopted the dollar as its only legal tender—Karmin examines the dollar's unprecedented role as the first truly global currency that is trusted and accepted around the world, a phenomenon based on little more than faith in the U.S. government and “the idea of America.” The book is studded with interesting trivia, especially in a chapter about the Department of Engraving and Printing, which produces $529 million in banknotes every day and once printed counterfeit Cuban pesos as part of a government plan to destabilize Castro's regime, but Karmin occasionally sacrifices depth and explication in order to maintain the book's fast pace and glib tone. It's a fun read, but doesn't add up to more than the sum of its disparate parts. (Feb. 26)

Inspired by Richard Hofstadter's trenchant 1963 cultural analysis Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, Jacoby (Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism) has produced an engaging, updated and meticulously thought-out continuation of her academic idol's research. Dismayed by the average U.S. citizen's political and social apathy and the overall “crisis of memory and knowledge involving everything about the way we learn and think,” Jacoby passionately argues that the nation's current cult of unreason has deadly and destructive consequences (the war in Iraq, for one) and traces the seeds of current anti-intellectualism (and its partner in crime, antirationalism) back to post-WWII society. Unafraid of pointing fingers, she singles out mass media and the resurgence of fundamentalist religion as the primary “vectors” of anti-intellectualism, while also having harsh words for pseudoscientists. Through historical research, Jacoby breaks down popular beliefs that the 1950s were a cultural wasteland and the 1960s were solely a breeding ground for liberals. Though sometimes partial to inflated prose (“America's endemic anti-intellectual tendencies have been grievously exacerbated by a new species of semiconscious anti-rationalism”), Jacoby has assembled an erudite mix of personal anecdotes, cultural history and social commentary to decry America's retreat into “junk thought.” (Feb. 12)

In 1979, while also moonlighting to save the Detroit Symphony Orchestra from ruin, Steve Miller left a mid-level executive career at Ford to join Lee Iacocca and Jerry Greenwald in rescuing Chrysler from the brink of bankruptcy. At Chrysler, Miller was fanatical about everyone sharing pain—including executives who agreed to $1 salaries—and reward, and used politicians, the media and language to skillful advantage; he refused to use the word “bankruptcy.” After completing a much-lauded, successful turnaround, Miller left the company in 1992 and embarked on a series of jobs managing corporations that were near collapse. The rescue efforts Miller describes reveal how his approach to corporate disaster changed radically. By the time he arrived at the Delphi Corporation in 2005, he took the company into bankruptcy while managing to circumvent changing bankruptcy laws, refused to speak to the media and enraged workers and creditors by securing executive bonuses. This strong, straightforward business autobiography also lightly touches upon Miller's personal life and his wife's struggles with cancer. Miller's is a gripping, understated story and an important business book. (Feb.)

Internal migration in China has reached epic proportions as the masses are exchanging the countryside for the city. Through 12 individual profiles, Dutch journalist van Luyn fleshes out the lives of these migrants, notably from their point of view. The peasant class in China lacks many basic rights, but van Luyn is careful not to make victims of his subjects. Instead, he provides well-rounded portraits of prostitutes, garbage collectors and factory workers, offering insight into their notions of sacrifice and progress. Van Luyn shows both sides of this migration, the peasants who stay and continue to live in ways that have been uninterrupted for decades and the ones who go to factory cities. For the most part, these stories reveal the people who put together coats, computers and other goods that find their way across the globe to propel China's explosive growth in the world economy. Photos of children playing in medical waste and men whose baths are contingent upon collecting sufficient rainwater enhance these portraits of daily privations. Though the personal narratives do much to explicate the push-and-pull factors affecting migration today, hard evidence in the form of statistics and socioeconomic analyses would have helped ground these stories in a larger social trend. B&w photos. (Feb.)

Correction: In A Chant to Soothe Wild Elephants (Reviews, Dec. 10.), author Jaed Coffin travels to his mother's hometown in Thailand, not Taiwan.

In his second cookbook (after New Italian Cooking) Conant, chef and part owner of two respected New York City restaurants, shares recipes he enjoys making at home, all of which “celebrate, translate and update dishes from various regions of Italy.” The author starts with small plates like Seared Scallops with Leeks, Potato, and Sausage and traditional Mozzarella in Carozza updated with Cherry Tomato Sauce. Each appetizer accomplishes Conant's goal, which is, he explains, “to wake up the palate, excite the senses... and create anticipation for the meal to come.” Light salads like Roasted Beets with Robiola Cheese are included as well as simple, elegant soups such as Cranberry Bean Soup with Rosemary and Pancetta. He entices with pasta and gnocchi recipes such as Pappardelle with Duck Ragu and Black Olives, and Chicken-filled Gnocchi with Lentil Sauce. Such main dishes as Black Cod with Caramelized Fennel and Concentrated Tomatoes; Whole Roast Chicken with Pumpkin, Mushrooms, and Ginger; Pork Loin with Butternut Squash; and Rib Eye with Kale are accessible, and, indeed, offer bold new spins on traditional dishes. (Apr.)

Wolf and Abrams, have participated in all manner of bake sales, from Moveon.org's Bake Sale for Democracy to fund-raisers at their kids' schools, and all that time in oven mitts paid off in the form of 210 recipes that pass the bake sale test (“portable, delicious, and look great”). From Rice Krispie Treats—all 23 variations—to sections on brownies, muffins and cupcakes, this book demonstrates that bake sales needn't be boring. Every recipe includes serving and storage suggestions, and most offer tips for prep-time activities, such as crushing peppermint candies, as well as advice for safe transportation. For the time-deprived, the “Not From Scratch” section offers ideas for perking up slice-and-bake cookies and boxed-mix treats. Nutritional information is not provided (and real butter is heartily embraced), but there is a back-of-the-book “Special Diets” section with a trio of recipes: gluten-free, peanut-free and vegan. The business side of bake sales is covered, too: the introduction includes advice for soliciting donations, identifying and pleasing your bake-sale audience (resulting in higher sales) and creating enticing and appealing table displays. Another key tip from the authors: as in real estate, when it comes to setting up your bake-sale table, location is everything. (Apr.)

Schwartz (Arthur Schwartz's New York City Food) breathes life into Yiddish cooking traditions now missing from most cities' main streets as well as many Jewish tables. His colorful stories are so distinctive and charming that even someone who has never heard Schwartz's radio show or seen him on TV will feel his warm personality and love for food radiating from the page. Oddly, even the shorter anecdotes often run longer than the actual recipes; anyone intending to cook from the book should have some kitchen experience or risk frustration at the often brief instructions. Dishes run the gamut from beloved appetizers like gefilte fish to classic meat and dairy main items (cholent, blintzes), plus less familiar items like onion cookies and Hungarian shlishkas (light potato dumplings). Schwartz intersperses engaging commentary on everything from farfel and matzo to Romanian steakhouses and why Jews like Chinese food. Those with Westernized palates may recoil at the thought of gelled calf's feet, but Schwartz shows how stereotypically heavy Ashkenazi food can be improved and made at least somewhat lighter when prepared properly. Cooks and readers from Schwartz's generation and earlier, who know firsthand what he's talking about, will appreciate this delightful new book for the world it evokes as much as for the recipes. (Apr.)

Healthy isn't an adjective usually paired with Jewish cooking, but Levy (Feast from the Mideast) puts a distinctive California spin on notoriously rich recipes to make them palatable to the waistline conscious. In addition to lightening classics like cholent and kugel, Levy features many “Ashkephardic” fusion dishes where the healthier (Sephardic) cooking traditions restore flavor when it is lost in the slimming down of east European Jewish (Ashkenazi) recipes. Hearty buckwheat blintzes are filled with goat cheese and ratatouille; turkey schnitzel is served over an Alsatian sweet-sour onion compote. Elsewhere Levy livens things up by adding New World and East Asian ingredients to old standbys, making a staid Israeli salad pop with pepitas and papaya, and accompanying potato latkes for Hannukah with baked tofu in sweet-and-sour ginger sauce. The book's first half progresses through the year's main holidays, from Rosh Hashanah to Shavuot, providing a dozen or so modernized recipes for each; the second half features dishes for separate courses, almost all venturing far afield from stereotypical Jewish food so that they could almost be from any cookbook. Those who are less sure-footed with kosher rules and techniques may be frustrated by Levy's focus on recipes' nutritional aspects rather than on religious questions. Still, anyone who has despaired of being able to reconcile healthy eating with hearty, comforting Jewish favorites will be thrilled at Levy's demonstrations of the contemporary possibilities for the cuisine. (Mar. 11)

Cohen (The Gefilte Variations) celebrates both the variety and spirit of Jewish holidays and the variety of Jewish cooking in this appealing book. Each major holiday throughout the year, from Rosh Hashanah in the fall to Shavuot in early summer, has its own section of recipes, as does the weekly Sabbath; strictly observant Jews as well as those who are not entirely familiar with the religious significance of all the events will appreciate Cohen's detailed comments on their history and meaning at the beginning of each section. Those with less experience in planning big feasts will also be grateful for the variety of menu suggestions that accompany each holiday: Passover seders, a Hanukkah latke party with superb traditional and nontraditional latkes, a vegetarian dinner for Sukkot. Cohen draws on Jewish cuisine from every tradition: Leek Croquettes from Rhodes, stuffed chicken soup from Iran and a pineapple-coconut milk kugel from Bombay are just a few of the pleasantly exotic yet authentic offerings; she also puts new twists on old standards, as with Moroccan-flavored brisket and “deconstructed” kasha varnishkes that feature portobello mushrooms and eggplant in lieu of quantities of fat. Each recipe is helpfully coded to indicate whether it is meat, dairy or pareve, though she often provides variations to accommodate all needs in this book that's enjoyable to read and inspiring to cook from. (Mar.)

Cox, a former editor at Organic Gardening magazine, has been promoting organics since long before it was fashionable. Using his 30 years of organics knowledge in this guide-cum-cookbook, he attempts to untangle, for the average consumer, the confusing mess of what to eat. Readers will find concrete advice in this basic primer: the science of organic farming is followed by a product-by-product guide to organically farmed foods that can be found in the market. Organized by food group (vegetables, fruits, protein, etc.), each food is broken down by season—how to shop for it, the reason to buy the organic version, and a simple recipe or two that showcases the strength of the main ingredient. The best answer for the health of humans and the health of the planet is to buy everything organic, and the eventual redundancy of the “organic advantage” paragraph on each food reveals just that; there are only so many ways to explain that the product tastes better and that the farming method doesn't destroy the soil. The best parts of the book are the informational inset boxes; Cox is knowledgeable about all the food issues facing consumers and these boxes—including information on mad cow, local agriculture, fair trade and food labeling—showcase his expertise. (Feb.)

Paul (Pornified: How Pornography Is Damaging Our Lives, Our Relationships, and Our Families), mother of two, probes the business of parenting, exposing the high price of raising kids in our consumer-driven nation. Paul points out that it costs upwards of a million dollars to raise a child in the U.S. these days, especially if one buys into the theory that baby must have everything on the market. Following the money, Paul dissects the booming baby business, including “smart toys” that don't really make kids smarter, themed baby showers and parenting coaches and consultants. The text is a tireless rundown of parents' seemingly bottomless pocketbooks when it comes to bringing up baby, and according to Paul this is not just an upscale, cosmopolitan phenomenon—throughout the country parents are reaching deep into their pockets to fuel this spiraling craze. Though Paul incorporates the pithy quotes of a number of experts, such as psychologist David Elkind's observation, “Computers are part of our environment, but so are microwaves and we don't put them in cribs,” readers may find themselves wishing for more commentary and less litany. But Paul isn't preachy, although she does reveal that what babies really need is holding, singing, dancing, conversation and outdoor play. (Apr.)

For first-time moms without time or inclination to dally in stores comparing various items for their babies, Maclean and Schultz have compiled a handy baby-gadget buying encyclopedia. The authors, founders of BabyGizmo.com, which tests baby products, have “buil[t] stroller obstacle courses, weight[ed] products, throw[n] food at them, and run through parking lots with them.” The authors' most reliable expertise is that they have young kids and know from experience the advantages and disadvantages of, say, side-by-side versus stadium-seating strollers. This guide doesn't review based on brands; it compares the range of a product to narrow the choices and help you decide what kind of stroller is best for your needs, and then within that type, which accessories and gadgets are necessary. Covered are safety considerations and suggestions for a “no-nonsense registry list.” The bulk of the book is organized alphabetically and offers advice on packing a well-equipped diaper bag, tips on saving money; they conclude with a glossary for “every baby product on the planet” so readers will know the difference between a Boppy and a Binky and what an Itzabeen is. (Feb.)

This sobering review of the current research on and recommendations for Alzheimer's argues for identifying and combating risk factors decades before symptoms appear. Like other major conditions affected by obesity, high blood pressure and cholesterol levels, among others, Alzheimer's is growing at a rapidly increasing rate. Neurologist Sabbagh has been involved in many important Alzheimer's research trials and founded the Sun Health Research Institute's Cleo Roberts Center, a facility for studying age-related diseases, located in the geriatric community–dense Sun City area of Phoenix. He explains the mechanisms by which the brain undergoes devastating changes that manifest as Alzheimer's; the differences between age-related memory loss, Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia; and ways to assess genetic liabilities and risk factors from lifestyle choices. Although treatment goals and expectations for those with Alzheimer's are modest, Sabbagh says most risk factors can be offset well before retirement age through diet, physical and mental exercise, brain-specific supplements and, in some cases, medications that lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels, manage blood sugar and decrease inflammation. Sabbagh covers such concerns as exposure to toxic substances linked to neurological conditions and suggests many potent weapons to counteract development of brain plaque: omega-3 fatty acids, resveratrol, quercetin, folic acid, huperzine A, green tea and curcumin, among others. A guide to symptoms, diagnosis and treatment will prove helpful to patients and their families, while an overview of new drugs that could halt progression and possibly heal damaged brain cells offers hope for the future. (Feb.)