Reporting Vietnam. Part One: American Journalism, 1959–1969. The stories, essays and dispatches in this anthology, including Professor Emeritus of History Henry F. Graff's essay on a 1966 Washington, D.C. teach-in and Frank Harvey '37 on the aerial spraying of defoliants over Danang, trace America's involvement in the Vietnam conflict from the deaths of the first U.S. advisers through the military escalation of the Johnson administration (Library of America, $35).

Reporting Vietnam. Part Two: American Journalism, 1969–1975. A troubling 1971 portrait of South Vietnamese General Nguyen Ngoc Loan by Tom Buckley '50 and a 1972 "Letter from Hanoi" by Joseph Kraft '47 are featured in this volume that follows the slide of America's involvement in Southeast Asia from chaos to debacle (Library of America, $35).

The Columbia History of the 20th Century, edited by Richard W. Bulli et, Professor of History. In addition to the editor, director of Columbia's Middle East Institute, home-grown contributors to this thematically organized epitome on the modern world include Ainslie Embree, professor emeritus of history, on imperialism and decolonization; the late Eric Holtzman, professor of biological sciences, on scientific thought; and Kenneth T. Jackson, Jacques Barzun Professor of History and the Social Sciences, on cities (Columbia University Press, $49.95).

The Rise and Fall of Class in Britain by David Cannadine, Professor of History. Treating "class" as a phenomenon to be explained rather than as an all-purpose explanation, the director

 

 

of London's Institute of Historical Research delves into modern Britons' preoccupation with social rank and status, asking if it is really possible to form a "classless" society in Britain (Columbia University Press, $29.95).

Morningside Heights: A History of Its Architecture & Development by Andrew S. Dolkart '77 Architecture, Adjunct Associate Professor of Architecture. The decision by University President Seth Low and the Board of Trustees to move Columbia from its Collegiate Gothic halls on Madison Avenue and create a new educational "acropolis" to the north transformed out-of-the-way Manhattan farmland into one of the city's most architecturally distinguished neighborhoods (Columbia University Press, $50). For an excerpt, see Columbia Forum this issue.

The Neighborhoods of Brooklyn, by The Citizens Committee for New York City; introduction by Kenneth T. Jackson, Jacques Barzun Professor of History and the Social Sciences; John Manbeck, contributing editor. A comprehensive compendium on the history and heterogeneity of Gotham's most populous borough, which Jackson, editor of The Encyclopedia of New York City, hopes will "remind New Yorkers that Brooklyn is an urban delight and convince skeptics that the borough is a center of culture" (Yale University Press, $29.95).

The Art of Poetry: Poems,
Parodies, Interviews, Essays, and Other Work
by Kenneth Koch, Professor of English and Comparative Literature. A far-ranging compilation of the poet's rather informal critical writing, including "The Art of Poetry," an extended poem on his craft, and an interview with Allen Ginsberg '48 (University of Michigan Press, $13.95 paper).

 

The Picasso Papers by Rosalind E. Krauss. Exploring notions of "Picasso as counterfeiter," the Meyer Schapiro Professor of Modern Art and Theory delves into the famed artist's numerous styles and analyses changing scholarly and popular interpretations of him (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $25). For an excerpt, see Columbia Forum this issue.

The Covenant of Reason: Rationality and the Commitments of Thought by Isaac Levi, John Dewey Professor of Philosophy. The author, a preeminent theorist of pragmatic rationality and epistemology, argues that rationality not only imposes certain logical obligations of "reasonableness" but that as moral agents, we must expand our ability to reason to confront the intellectual complexities that face us (Cambridge University Press, $59.95).

Atlas of the European Novel, 1800–1900 by Franco Moretti, Professor of English and Comparative Literature. Originally published in Italian, this pioneering study, based in part on experimental seminars held at Columbia, charts the "geography of literature" where the earth's surface can be fictionalized and a good map is worth a thousand words (Verso, $22).

The Great Wall and the Empty Fortress: China's Search for
Security
by Andrew Nathan,
Professor of Political Science, and Robert S. Ross. Urging Americans to resist calls of alarm, the authors insist that the People's Republic of China remains a vulnerable giant, beset by internal security problems, troubled by the implications of its burgeoning economy, and threatened by rival powers (W.W. Norton & Company, $27.50).

 

Making Room: The Economics of Homelessness by Brendan O'Flaherty, Associate Professor of Economics. Recourse to market economics rather than to sociopathology reveals the modern crisis of homelessness to be the result of a shrinking housing market and the expanding discrepancy between rich and poor in America rather than failed Great Society programs (Harvard University Press, $43).

Sunset Park: Photographs by Thomas Roma, Associate Professor of Art. These evocative black-and-white photographs, taken at a public pool by the director of photography at the School of the Arts, offer a compassionate portrait of the inhabitants of one of Brooklyn's most beleaguered, yet resilient, neighborhoods (Smithsonian Institution Press, $16.95 paper).

The Columbia Guide to Online Style by Janice Walker and Todd Taylor. A concise and groundbreaking guidebook for those writing for the Internet as well as for those writing about it (Columbia University Press, $35 cloth, $17.50 paper).

For Kings and Planets by Ethan Canin. In his fourth novel, hailed by many as one of the best books of 1998, the author (a Stanford grad) follows the tragic, entangling friendship of two young men, which begins when they enter Columbia College together in 1974 (Random House, $24.95).

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.