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
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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).
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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).
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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
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