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BOOKSHELF

The Fourth Creation: God’s Solution for the Devil’s Dilemma by Norman Lauchlin MacLeod Jr. ’35. The language and meanings of the Bible are examined in order to develop an understanding of God’s plan and intentions for mankind (self-published, $25).

Geriatric Bioscience: The Link between Aging & Disease by Dr. David Hamerman ’46. The author sheds light on the links among biology, natural aging, longevity and disease by translating geriatrics into concepts for clinical application (Johns Hopkins University Press, $45).

Hello Bones and Other Poems by Robert DeMaria ’48. The author’s first collection of poetry offers a range of topics from personal to philosophical, and satirical political observations (Vineyard Press, $19.95).

Shadow World by Robert DeMaria ’48. In this novel, there exists a parallel Earth in another dimension. As the true Earth moves closer to extinction, the government launches a top-secret plan to migrate to this new, unexplored world (Vineyard Press, $19.95).

Positive Parenting: Raising Healthy Children from Birth to Three Years by Dr. Alvin N. Eden ’48. A revised edition of the classic parenting book, with new discussions of current parent concerns — from vaccines to videogames (Hatherleigh, $15.95).

The Analects of Confucius translated by Burton Watson ’50. Watson’s newest translation is a rendering of the Analects, an influential collection of aphorisms and anecdotes compiled by Confucius’ disciples (Columbia University Press, $19.95).

Science for Sale: The Perils, Rewards, and Delusions of Campus Capitalism by Daniel S. Greenberg ’53. In this book, based on interviews with scientists and administrators, journalist Greenbert explores the complicated issue of corporate funding for academics’ scientific research (University of Chicago Press, $25).

Producing & the Theatre Business: Working in the Theatre edited by Robert Emmet Long ’56. A collection of insight from more than 100 top producers, advertising and marketing executives, union officials, critics, writers and actors on the business aspects of the theater (Continuum, $14.95).

Writing: Working in the Theatre edited by Robert Emmet Long ’56. Gathering wisdom from 85 notable playwrights, lyricists, and directors, this book offers guidance for students and writers working in theater (Continuum, $14.95).

Levels of Consciousness by Mark Sicherman ’56

Levels of Consciousness by Mark Sicherman ’56

Levels of Consciousness by Mark Sicherman ’56. The author, a psychotherapist and specialist in mind-body medicine, investigates the ways in which characters cope with illness and pain in this first collection of short stories (iUniverse, $12.95).

Happiness: Classic and Contemporary Readings in Philosophy by Steven M. Cahn ’63 and Christine Vitrano

Happiness: Classic and Contemporary Readings in Philosophy by Steven M. Cahn ’63 and Christine Vitrano

Happiness: Classic and Contemporary Readings in Philosophy by Steven M. Cahn ’63 and Christine Vitrano. A gathering of classic and contemporary readings on how happiness has been regarded in ethical theory (Oxford University Press, $20.95).

The Meaning of Life: A Reader edited by E.D. Klemke and Steven M. Cahn ’63. This collection of philosophical essays explores this topic in three parts: section one defends the view that without faith in God, life has no meaning or purpose; section two defends the idea that life without theism can be meaningful; and section three asks whether the question of the meaning of life is itself meaningful (Oxford University Press, $29.95).

Busy Dying by Hilton Obenzinger ’69. In April 1968, during the Columbia protests, Obenzinger was one of the students who occupied the president’s office in Low Library. Now associate director of honors writing at Stanford, he revisits the days of ’68 — and remembers his Polish Jewish family — in an autobiographical novel (Chax, $19.95).

The Best American Poetry 2007 edited by Heather McHugh and David Lehman ’70. The 20th edition of this series includes works from established poets such as Louise Glück and Robert Hass, as well as younger talents such as Ben Lerner and Matthea Harvey (Scribner, $16).

Visions of Awakening Space and Time: Dogen and the Lotus Sutra by Taigen Dan Leighton ’71. The author explicates the worldview of the Zen religion through the writings of Zen master Eihei Dogen (Oxford University Press, $55).

- The Unknown Black Book: The Holocaust in the German-Occupied Soviet Territories edited by Joshua Rubenstein ’71 and Ilya Altman

The Unknown Black Book: The Holocaust in the German-Occupied Soviet Territories edited by Joshua Rubenstein ’71 and Ilya Altman

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The Unknown Black Book: The Holocaust in the German-Occupied Soviet Territories edited by Joshua Rubenstein ’71 and Ilya Altman. A compilation of testimonies from Jews who lived in hiding, forcibly moved to ghettos, survived concentration camps and experienced other atrocities of the Germans and their allies (Indiana University Press, $34.95).

Modernism and Colonialism: British and Irish Literature, 1899–1939 edited by Richard Begam ’72 and Michael Valdez Moses. In this collection of essays, literary scholars demonstrate that many modernist writers opposed colonialism and its negative impacts for the colonized and the colonizers (Duke University Press, $24.95).

Critique for What?: Cultural Studies, American Studies, Left Studies by Joel Pfister ’73. The combined perspectives challenge the academic idea of critique-for-critique’s sake and consider new, creative possibilities for using and developing critiques so that cultural studies will not lapse into cynicism studies (Paradigm Publishers, $28.95).

Strategic Intuition: The Creative Spark in Human Achievement by William Duggan ’74. A necessity for success in the modern world is strategic intuition — a clear, creative thought or solution to a long-held problem that hits at an unexpected moment. The author demonstrates how this intuition has been the source of great human achievements (Columbia Business School, $27.95).

- Human Goods, Economic Evils: A Moral Approach to the Dismal Science by Edward Hadas ’76

Human Goods, Economic Evils: A Moral Approach to the Dismal Science by Edward Hadas ’76

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Human Goods, Economic Evils: A Moral Approach to the Dismal Science by Edward Hadas ’76. The author argues that economic activity is best understood as part of the great moral enterprise of humanity and that the current view of man as selfish and materialistic leads to an incomplete economic theory (Intercollegiate Studies Institute, $22).

Piety and Plague: From Byzantium to the Baroque edited by Franco Mormando ’77 and Thomas Worcester. A volume of essays about the epidemic disease and its influence on Europe’s society and culture (Truman State University Press, $55).

Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA by Tim Weiner ’78. Using official archives and interviews with the CIA, the author offers a definitive history on how the agency has failed in its mission to understand the world, why nearly every director has left it in worse shape and how these failures have jeopardized national security (Doubleday, $27.95).

- Psychotherapy and Medication: The Challenge of Integration by Fredric N. Busch and Larry S. Sandberg ’79

Psychotherapy and Medication: The Challenge of Integration by Fredric N. Busch and Larry S. Sandberg ’79

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Psychotherapy and Medication: The Challenge of Integration by Fredric N. Busch and Larry S. Sandberg ’79. An informational volume for psychoanalysts on the use of medication, how attitudes toward medication have changed and the issues and questions of combining medication with psychodynamic treatment (The Analytic Press, $39.95).

The Half Life of Tears: A Novel by Lawrence Richette ’83. The continuing saga of the Monti family, last seen in the author’s novel The Secret Family (Xlibris, $20.99).

- Human Goods, Economic Evils: A Moral Approach to the Dismal Science by Edward Hadas ’76

Joining Places: Slave Neighborhoods in the Old South by Anthony E. Kaye ’84

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Joining Places: Slave Neighborhoods in the Old South by Anthony E. Kaye ’84. The author shows how slave men and women in the South opened paths from their owners’ plantations to neighboring farms, creating a neighborhood where slaves could cultivate family ties, build alliances, socialize, work and find spouses (University of North Carolina Press, $34.95).

The Thumpin’: How Rahm Emanuel and the Democrats Learned to Be Ruthless and Ended the Republican Revolution by Naftali Bendavid ’85. Key races and national strategy-making that led the Democrats to victory in the 2006 midterm elections — largely thanks to Emanuel, the colorful head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (Doubleday, $23.95).

Pot Politics: Marijuana and the Costs of Prohibition edited by Mitch Earleywine ’86. The various ethical, religious, economic, psychological and political arguments for cannabis policies, which range from firm prohibition to unrestricted legalization (Oxford University Press, $45).

Taking Away the Distance: A Young Orphan’s Journey and the AIDS Epidemic in Africa by Miles Roston ’86. The inspiring story of Kevin, a young orphaned African boy suffering from AIDS, and his journey (with the author) to the world’s major cities to confront policymakers and grassroots activists in the hope of bringing about change (Carrroll & Graf, $15.95).

The Drama of Masculinity and Medieval English Guild Culture by Christina M. Fitzgerald ’91. In this new interpretation of the late-medieval biblical plays of York and Chester, England, Fitzgerald argues that these works are concerned with the fantasies and anxieties of being male in an urban, mercantile world (Palgrave Macmillan, $65).

Modernist Aesthetics and Consumer Culture in the Writings of Oscar Wilde by Paul L. Fortunato ’91. This book portrays playwright Wilde as a consumer modernist, working in the very heart of 1890s London’s mass-culture industry (Routledge, $110).

- The Unknown Black Book: The Holocaust in the German-Occupied Soviet Territories edited by Joshua Rubenstein ’71 and Ilya Altman

Black on the Block: The Politics of Race and Class in the City by Mary Pattillo ’91

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Black on the Block: The Politics of Race and Class in the City by Mary Pattillo ’91. Conflicts arise between poorer and middle-class blacks when the more affluent members of the black community on the south side of Chicago work toward lifting historically impoverished neighborhoods out of abject poverty (University of Chicago Press, $29).

God in Your Body: Kabbalah, Mindfulness and Embodied Spiritual Practice by Jay Michaelson ’93. As a guide to treatment of the body in Jewish spiritual practice, the book offers meditation practices, physical exercises, visualizations and sacred text (Jewish Lights Publishing, $18.99).

All Roads Lead to Congress: The $300 Billion Fight Over Highway Funding by Costas Panagopoulos and Joshua Schank ’97. A step-by-step examination of the legislative process, which shows how a transportation bill is gradually made into law (CQ Press, $26.95).

Racing the Dark by Alaya Dawn Johnson ’04. In this debut fantasy novel, heroine Lana becomes the apprentice to a one-armed witch. When she uses a dark spell to save a life, she is set on the path of becoming a creature beyond her wildest dreams (Agate Publishing, $24).

Semites: Race, Religion, Literature by Gil Anidjar, associate professor of Middle East and Asian languages and cultures. This book delves into the now-mostly extinct notion of “Semites,” invented in the 19th century and strangely united Jew and Arab under one term, and the circumstances that led to the term’s disappearance (Stanford University Press, $19.95).

State Death: The Politics and Geography of Conquest, Occupation, and Annexation by Tanisha M. Fazal, assistant professor of political science. To explain why the disappearance, or “death,” of countries has become a rare occurrence since 1945, the author looks at reasons why some states survive and others die, and analyzes the military invasions and occupations of the last 200 years (Princeton University Press, $27.95).

- The Unknown Black Book: The Holocaust in the German-Occupied Soviet Territories edited by Joshua Rubenstein ’71 and Ilya Altman

Escaping the Resource Curse

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Escaping the Resource Curse edited by Macartan Humphreys, assistant professor of political science; Jeffrey D. Sachs, Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development, professor of health policy and management and director of the Earth Institute; and Joseph Stiglitz, University Professor. Leading economists, lawyers and political scientists examine the major decisions a country must make when it possesses an abundance of a resource, and identifies possible problems and solutions to the “resource curse” (Columbia University Press, $29.95).

Desiring Arabs by Joseph A. Massad, associate professor of Middle East and Asian Languages and Culture. The author looks at the ways in which Arabs have represented their sexual desires, in a diverse selection of Arabic writings from the 19th century to the present (University of Chicago Press, $35).

- The Unknown Black Book: The Holocaust in the German-Occupied Soviet Territories edited by Joshua Rubenstein ’71 and Ilya Altman

At Home and Abroad: The Transcendental Landscapes of Christopher Pearse Cranch (1813-1892) by Nancy Stula, with foreword by Barbara Novak, Professor Emerita of Art

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At Home and Abroad: The Transcendental Landscapes of Christopher Pearse Cranch (1813-1892) by Nancy Stula, with foreword by Barbara Novak, Professor Emerita of Art. Cranch was well known as a poet, but he also devoted many years to landscape painting and exploring transcendental concepts through visual means. This book studies how he portrayed the continual shifts he saw in nature (Lyman Allyn, $35).

- Music at the Limits by Edward W. Said, former University Professor

Music at the Limits by Edward W. Said, former University Professor

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Music at the Limits by Edward W. Said, former University Professor (deceased). An anthology of three decades of the author’s essays that address music’s social, political and cultural contexts. He also assesses the work of a variety of composers, musicians and performers (Columbia University Press, $29.95).

Rose Kernochan ’82 Barnard,
Carmen Jo Ponce ’08

Columbia College Authors!

Please send us your latest book, to be included in an upcoming issue. We welcome new or recently published books by College alumni, faculty and students as well as books about the College and its people. Please send early-stage copies as promptly as possible to:

Bookshelf Editor
Columbia College Today
475 Riverside Dr., Ste 917
New York, NY 10115-0998

Please be patient — we receive a great many submissions and your book may not appear for several issues.
We also advise that alumni send an update about the book (and themselves) to their Class Notes correspondent
so as to gain additional publication coverage.

 

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