Fear of Judging: Sentencing Guidelines in the Federal Courts by Kate Stith and José A. Cabranes '61. A Yale Law School professor and a federal judge in New York's Second Circuit provide a history and critique of the recent judicial reform movement, which was designed to redress sentencing inequities but has instead created new disparities and quadrupled the number of federal prisoners (University of Chicago Press, $17 paper).

Writing New York: A Literary Anthology, edited by Philip Lopate '64. Reminiscences from New York City's most erudite observers -- including selections from the mordant diarist George Templeton Strong (Class of 1838), Langston Hughes '25 on the Harlem Renaissance, and "Mugging" by Allan Ginsberg '48 -- mark Gotham's centenary (Library of America, $40).

Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 by Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace '64. A Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the world's greatest city -- its economy, culture, and politics -- from the original Native American inhabitants to the consolidation of the five boroughs into Greater New York City (Oxford University Press, $49.95).

Carnival and Culture: Sex, Symbol and Status in Spain by David D. Gilmore '65. Using the political theories of Mikhail Bakhtin, a distinguished SUNY-Stony Brook anthropologist argues that the riotous, ritualized and ribald annual carnaval of Andalusia can be reactionary and conservative as well as morally and politically subversive (Yale University Press, $30).

Broken Poems for Evita by John Elsberg '67. A slender volume of new, abstract poems, dedicated to the Argentine icon, from the editor of BOGG: A Journal of Contemporary Writing (Runaway Spoon Press, $12.95 paper).

Cleveland's Treasures From the World of Botanical Literature by Stanley H. Johnston, Jr. '68. This digest of botanical drawings compiled from early American printed books is not only a testament to the skill of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century scholarship but also an introduction to the rich collections of three little-known Cleveland cultural institutions (Orange Frazer, $24.95 paper).

The Last Avant-Garde: The Making of the New York School of Poets by David Lehman '70. The disciplines of history, sociology, biography and criticism illuminate the work of four influential American poets -- John Ashbery, Frank O'Hara, James Schuyler, and Kenneth Koch, Professor of English and Comparative Literature -- whose experimentation, competition and collaboration transformed modern expectations of their craft (Doubleday, $27.50).

All Too Human: A Political Education by George Stephanopoulos '82. The long-awaited political memoir of life in the Clinton campaign and administration, including last-minute revisions assessing the Lewinsky scandal, by the former White House strategist and current ABC News commentator (Little, Brown and Company, $27.95).

Rolling Stone: The Seventies, edited by Ashley Kahn '83, Holly George-Warren, and Shawn Dahl. From John Dean to Johnny
Rotten, Kent State to Hotel
California, the 70 essays (both new and classic), 100 photographs, and comprehensive time-line in this volume assess the people, events, and ideas that shaped the decade (Little, Brown and Company, $29.95).

Does the World Need the Jews? Rethinking Chosenness and American Jewish Identity by Daniel Gordis '81. Arguing that assimilation into American society has cost Jews their distinctive voice and undermined Jewish identity, the author of God Was Not in the Fire insists that Jews should be willing to stand out rather than fit in (Scribner, $24).

If the Earth...were a few feet in diameter by Joe Miller, artwork by Wilson McLean. This richly illustrated volume for younger readers celebrates our world's ecological wonders and includes fact-filled sidebars contributed by Thomas J. Vinciguerra '85, former managing editor of Columbia College Today (Greenwich Workshop Press, $16.95).

Three Worlds of Michelangelo by James Beck, Professor of Art History. The noted Renaissance specialist argues that the Michelangelo's oeuvre can only be understood in reference to three influences -- his father, Lodovico; his great Florentine patron, Lorenzo the Magnificent; and the domineering Pope Julius II, for whom he completed the murals in the Sistine Chapel (W.W. Norton & Company, $25.95).

Q & A: Queer in Asian America, edited by David L. Eng, Assistant Professor of English and Comparative Literature, and Alice Y. Horn. Essays, testimonials, fiction and art that document an emerging gay and lesbian Asian American community, examine how Asian-American identity and queer sexuality have interacted, and challenge common perceptions of American history and culture (Temple University Press, $69.95 cloth, $27.95 paper).

Imagined Histories: American Historians Interpret the Past, edited by Anthony Molho and Gordon S. Wood. This collection of essays by distinguished historians reflects on peculiarly American ways of interpreting the past, from the notion of American "exceptionalism" to George Sansom Professor of History Carol Gluck's analysis of American history writing on Japan (Princeton University Press, $65 cloth, $24.95 paper).

The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory by Brian Greene, Professor of Physics and Mathematics. A foray for non-specialists into the revolutionary hypothesis of superstrings, a developing "theory of everything" that the author expects will reconcile the contradictory principles of quantum physics and general relativity -- and lay bare the fundamental physical principles of the universe (W.W. Norton & Company, $27.95).

The Jazz Cadence of American Culture, edited by Robert G. O'Meally, Zora Neale Hurston Professor of English and Comparative Literature. A wide-ranging compendium of interviews, essays and speeches illustrates how the jazz beat and ethos have permeated all areas of twentieth-century American culture (Columbia University Press, $49.50 cloth, $19.50 paper).

Contempt and Pity: Social
Policy and the Image of the Damaged Black Psyche, 1880-1996 by Daryl Michael Scott, Assistant Professor of History. A revisionist analysis with implications for American racial policy describes, then challenges, long-standing and widespread beliefs -- by both conservatives and liberals -- that African Americans are psychologically damaged (University of North Carolina Press, $39.95 cloth, $14.95 paper).

Inner Revolution: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Real Happiness by Robert Thurman, Jey Tsong Khapa Professor of Indo-Tibetan Studies; foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. An authoritative introduction to
Buddhism and a provocative exploration of the potential for real happiness, both for individuals and society, through the acceptance of Buddhist principles, by the first American Tibetan monk (Riverhead Books, $24.95 cloth; Penguin, $14 paper).

T.P.C

Bookshelf continued

Columbia College Today features books by alumni and faculty as well as books about the College and its people. For inclusion, please send review copies to: Bookshelf Editor, Columbia College Today, 475 Riverside Drive, Suite 917, New York, NY 10115.