Westview Press

Sport, Power and Society: Institutions and Practices

priyanka — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 16:00:00 +0000

Edited by Robert E. Washington, David Karen

Presenting the multifaceted world of sports, this book introduces a multitude of perspectives into the sports world. While encompassing many specifics about the whole idea of what makes up sport, this book offers views into aspects that create the sports world into a fully participatory and also a spectator-oriented institution. With many selections of essays that delve into specific topics like ownership, media, participation, violence and more, the institution of sport becomes a full-on demanding, powerful, industry like many other money-making organizations. In-depth and relatively stimulating, this compilation serves as terrific resource for readers interested in how sport has become, and continues to be, the "institution" it represents in many perspectives.

Not without rhetorical and sociological views, the book elaborates on many scholarly issues. The editors elaborate on each chapter heading to outline the premise for each collection of essays, culminating in the possible problems with sport in modern society. With this in mind, the reader may pick and choose essays that fit their own interests, from race issues to the politics of to fans of various sport to the money that supports specific sports. In sum, this book offers a huge amount of reading materials as well as resources for the readers.

Although published in 2010, some references for articles are gathered from 2000 and earlier. These research bases are older, and they serve a good base for starting research, but with technology and ten years, the articles in the book are outdated—a more recent selection of research may offer more current ideas and objective facts. As a compendium of resources, this reader or anthology serves as a good base for future research. For example, essays of sports ownership date to the late 1990s, and they are somewhat outdated for the reader of today.

However, in the end, the reader is left with a better understanding of the sports world and how it exists in our day-to-day living regardless of how much or how little we want it there. Its influence on society and children (as well as on adults) definitely makes the idea of sport a powerful tool in our lives. Modern society grabs onto the business of sport in many cases, and this leads to immense financial investments. Shocking at times, clearly disturbing at others, Sport, Power and Society: Institutions and Practices gives all of its readers a little more to chew on in its presenting of critical thinking about sport. Definitely one to keep on the shelf.

Written by: Carolyn Espe, October 4th 2010

Philosophy: An Innovative Introduction: Fictive Narrative, Primary Texts, and Responsive Writing

admin — Thu, 13 May 2010 00:00:00 +0000

By Michael Boylan, Charles Johnson

Westview Press

I was interested in Philosophy: An Innovative Introduction because I so thoroughly enjoyed Steven Church’s Theoretical Killings. Church’s book could appear to be a group of essays on many aspects of philosophy, but actually is as innovative as it is entertaining, ranging from the formally philological to rampant pop-culture rampages. If Theoretical Killings is a fun amusement park ride of the life of the mind, Philosophy: An Innovative Introduction is a more informative museum installation, with relevant interactive exercises at every turn. Muriel Rukeyser stated that, "The universe is made up of stories, not atoms." Applicable to the study of ethics and humanities as well as philosophy, the book utilizes a strong manifestation of ‘fictive narrative philosophy’—a perspective that respects the role of story in philosophical discussion.

Boylan and Johnson’s work innovatively seeks to engage by taking historical figures from dusty pages to serve as protagonists of life’s travails and intrigues. Aristotle, Plato, Kant, Hume, Murdoch, and King are included. Short stories are juxtaposed with excerpts from original texts. Students gain comprehension through indirect argument in the stories and via direct, deductive sections. Each group of readings is followed by study questions and essay suggestions as an aid to an understanding and construction of creative arguments.

This is a work of relative diversity for its genre, with the Buddha accompanying Plato and Arendt balancing Aquinas. The attempts to humanize these historical figures can be inadvertently amusing—readers learn of Kant’s dinner menu and Marx’s choice of color in neckties—but the overall quality of the fiction is of the caliber indicated by Johnson’s MacArthur Fellowship and National Book Award. Recommended for both classroom and informal study.

Written by: Erika Mikkalo, May 12th 2010

Women's Movements in the Global Era: The Power Of Local Feminisms

admin — Mon, 10 May 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Edited by Amrita Basu

Westview Press

The fight for equal rights is not an easy one. What many consider basic rights in one country are denied to women in another. Nevertheless, advocates for the women's movement continue to fight throughout the world. Women's Movements in the Global Era documents the history and current activity of the women's movements in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Pakistan, India, China, Poland, Brazil, Venezuela, Chile, Bolivia, Mexico, Palestine, Iran, and the United States. Each chapter begins with basic information fact sheet about the country, such as language and population, as well as detailed information about the current status of women, including literacy, political representation, and economic position.

Despite the differences in political conditions and the location in the world, many of these movements share similarities. For example, the words used in the movement have a big impact, or moreover, the creation of new words in the language needed for the women's movement. In the chapter, “The Chinese Women's Movement in the Context of Globalization,” authors Naihua Zhang and Ping-Chun Hsuing note that the Chinese language did not have a word for domestic violence until 1995. Before then, the closest word was dalaopo, which means wife beating and indicates that the wife is a piece of property.

Another word that has a stigma attached to it in many countries, including the United States, is feminism. Elzbieta Matynia, author of the chapter “Polish Feminism Between the Local and the Global: A Task of Translation,” states, “feminism, the word, which exists in [the Slavic] languages, is so pejoratively loaded that for a long time it was considered political suicide for a woman active in public life to identify herself with feminism and feminist issues.” To keep these movements going, many activists chose to identify their work as “gender equality” or “women's movement” to prevent alienating other people who have the negative connotation of the word feminist.

While a thick book, Women's Movements in the Global Era provides great insight to the work women are doing around the world in the name of gender equality. Some of the chapters include photographs of the work activists are doing. Each of the authors give an in-depth coverage of the women's movement in their country, and what they hope for in the future.

Written by: Elizabeth Stannard Gromisch, May 9th 2010

Privilege: A Reader

admin — Sat, 08 May 2010 08:00:00 +0000

Edited by Michael Kimmel, Abby L. Ferber

Westview Press

A historian once said that the more one can know about something, the more you can control it. Michel Foucault was specifically talking about the control of psychiatric patients, prison inmates, and people's sex lives, but we can certainly extend his thoughts to a plethora of other examples. What Foucault did not say, however, was how exposing and learning about power and dominance can lead to their dismantling.

After more than two decades since his passing, the inheritors of Foucault's ideas make an appearance in a handsome new book that explores the invisible power of privilege; namely the privilege of being White, heterosexual, and middle class in America. Privilege: A Reader is a collection of essays compiled and edited by Michael Kimmel and Abby L. Ferber, both scholarly experts in masculinities and ethnic studies respectively. The book takes on a welcoming and accessible feel with essays that come a personal place, many written from a first-person perspective by heavyweights like Patricia Hill Collins, bell hooks, and Tim Wise.

Some, like Allan Bérubé's experience as a gay rights activist brings to light the complications of being White in anti-racist gay rights movement. Not being White, I found Bérubé's angst about pointing out the Whiteness of influential gay groups in the U.S. an eyeopener. For White people, it seems, it was convenient to remain racially invisible and to depend on the unspoken rules about keeping that Whiteness unchecked. Awkward silences, defensiveness, and hostility form the repertoire of White discomfort when the racial gaze is turned to Whiteness.

In Michael A. Messner's piece on "Becoming 100 Percent Straight," he raises questions that heterosexual people rarely ask: how do we know for sure we're straight? And what made us straight? Messner's question is interwoven in a study of his own sexuality that touches on his memories as a young man who was infatuated with a male classmate and friend. In repressing this infatuation, he belittles and rejects his friend—a process Messner calls the heterosexualisation of his masculinity.

With every chapter I am reminded of the discomfort the topic of privilege raises and how important that it should remain unsettling. I learn that Black men and working class White people, as privileged groups, are highly contested categories in the face of institutional racism and poverty. And dishearteningly, I discover that the gateway to social mobility undermined by the unearned privilege of being accepted to Ivy League colleges by virtue of having parents who are alumni.

Kimmel and Ferber's book takes us on a journey of self-reflection, of deconstructing the power of invisibility, and asks us some difficult questions about our many roles in maintaining oppression. But it does not try leave us beset with racial or class guilt. Rather, it invites us to pursue, both on a theoretical and practical level, ways of recognising the overlapping nature of social privileges and overcoming differences in the name of solidarity against oppressions.

Though Privilege: A Reader could be a more comprehensive, far-reaching catalogue of dominance, both insidious and overt, if it had taken on board the narrative of privilege from other non-White experiences and interrogated what being able-bodied and cisgendered mean. The absence of trans, disabled, Asian, and Native American voices speaks, ironically, of Kimmel's and Ferber's privilege of omitting these important experiences that are key to dismantling the edifice of privilege.

I praise Privilege: A Reader nonetheless, for its courage to speak from a place that prefers to remain silent, for raising attention to a things that want to stay hidden, and its overall critique of life's many taken for granted experiences and “common sense.” I'm sure Foucault would be proud of that.

Written by: Alicia Izharuddin, May 8th 2010

Doing Gender Diversity: Readings in Theory and Real-World Experience

admin — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 09:00:00 +0000

Edited by Rebecca F. Plante, Lis M. Maurer

Westview Press

What does it mean to be female or male in modern American society? How does this limit the endless ways in which human beings are capable of expressing themselves? More importantly, how do we promote open-mindedness in a world that grooms people from birth to fit in one of two check-yes boxes? I cautiously pose an attitude change as necessary, with all due respect given to gender’s role in society. Reading Doing Gender Diversity, a collection of essays and articles, only confirmed what I’ve suspected for years: what we need is not a dissolution of gender divisions, but rather a softening of expectations that allows for identities ranging from “elective-straight queer men” to heterosexual women with typically masculine qualities, and everything in between.

Jamison Green affirms this eloquently in his contribution, "Part of the Package: Ideas of Masculinity among Male-Identified Transpeople," by quoting sociologist Holly Devor: “The time is upon us to reevaluate how we think about gender, sex and sexuality. It now seems perfectly clear to me that we live in a world which is far more diverse than any number of simplistic dichotomies can describe.” Hear, hear.

Doing Gender Diversity is a skillfully edited collection of eye-opening accounts of gender issues from multiple perspectives—that of activists, social scientists, and individuals living gender expressions that make them virtually invisible (or worse). The academic leanings and sheer heft of the book make Doing Gender Diversity appear more like a textbook than casual reading, but don’t let that fool you. The majority of the articles have main points in layman’s terms and make for interesting reading. Not a page-turner, certainly, but thought-provoking in all the right ways.

The only criticism I have is that the summary of research methodology can be dry occasionally, and anyone who has not taken a statistics class might have difficulty deciphering the majority of the figures quoted. However, this doesn’t interfere with its overall accessibility, as every article includes a section that explains the significance of the quantitative data.

Americans are so anxious to catalog every individual into a cookie-cutter construction of gender. This is understandable: gender is one of the most influential ways with which we make meaning out of our lives and interactions. This collection of refreshing articles emphasizes that the real problem lies not with those individuals who, through no choice of their own, land in a gender-bending gray area (be it physical, behavioral, or emotional), but with a society that causes so much heartache and pain for anyone that doesn’t meet a stringent list of heteronormative gender criteria.

Above and beyond its educational use, this skillfully edited grouping of gender articles is the perfect read for anyone who has ever—in any way—felt he or she missed the mark in gender expression. Everyone can take something away from Doing Gender Diversity: the straight man who’s surprisingly nurturing, the “top” in a gay relationship who prefers being the little spoon, the straight woman who can fix a flat tire, and the lesbian who can’t. You are not alone—and there is nothing wrong with you.

Written by: Sam Williams, November 26th 2009

Social Theory: The Multicultural and Classic Readings

admin — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 01:03:00 +0000

Edited by Charles Lemert

Westview Press

The fourth edition of Social Theory: The Multicultural and Classic Readings offers a lesson in sociological practice that moves beyond the atmosphere of a university auditorium. This collection is arranged in chronological order and organizes the Modern Era into distinct historical categories. However, the overarching themes of decentering, discourse, and difference are incorporated into the discussion of each era in a way that is seamless yet meaningful.

Lemert’s expressed goal in creating a comprehensive collection that combines sociological masterpieces with yet unexplored pieces is to simply provide people with the knowledge to live better lives. Social theory, argues Lemert, can bring people power, pleasure, understanding about their social worlds, and most importantly, the ability to put their experiences and observations into words. Social theory thus allows people to explore and express inequalities and social disruption, investigate class warfare and communication breakdowns, and discern how differences between people can be magnified, nullified, or respectfully approached.

It’s especially interesting to read this collection at this point in time. Honestly, it will probably always be considered a reflexive, thoughtful text, but some of the pieces that I read were almost predictive of the current global state of affairs. For instance, in 1919, John Maynard Keynes offered an economic philosophy that recommended state policies which would control and direct the economy. In recent history, conservative talking heads could be heard lambasting “Keynesian Economics,” as the government takeover of the free market. Today, we know that the market doesn’t always stabilize as effectively as Capitalists say it does, and it could be argued that Keynesian Economics seems to be more sensible than Socialism.

The role of women in this collection of essays is hardly marginalized, however, since the writings move from older to more recent, a greater selection of feminist writers emerges towards the book’s end. The feminist selections in this anthology are theoretical yet practical, and seem to focus mainly on the topic of difference. Both social theorists and non-theorists can garner inspiration and motivation from the lessons provided in these pieces. In "The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House," Audre Lorde states that meaningful discourse can help women and other historically oppressed groups to “take our differences and make them strengths.” Likewise, Nancy Hartsock advises that “we can construct an understanding of the world that is sensitive to difference.” Within the context of globalization, Saskia Sassen moves beyond the realm of language and argues that issues of participation and representation should take center stage in current feminist analysis.

Could this mean that globalization is helping the world to become more sensitive to difference? I’m not sure, and they authors don’t say either. But that’s one of the goals of this collection: to make you ask questions and decide on the answers yourself.

Social Theory: The Multicultural and Classic Readings certainly provides readers with an array of arguments that don’t always coincide with one another. However, Lemert’s personal argument to readers can be witnessed in nearly every essay. That is, to think about the social world around all of us. Because by thinking, observing, and expressing our sentiments about this fascinating world, we are using a critical eye, and ultimately, improving our own lives and hopefully, others’ too.

Written by: Rachel Muzika Scheib, November 19th 2009

Race, Place, and Environmental Justice After Hurricane Katrina: Struggles to Reclaim, Rebuilt and Revitalize New Orleans and the Gulf Coast

admin — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 09:09:00 +0000

By Robert D. Bullard, Beverly Wright

Westview Press

Hurricane Katrina was one of those events that it was impossible not to be affected by because the images we all watched on our televisions and in the newspapers were so horrible. There was a sense of shock that U.S. citizens could be treated so poorly in their own country. Yet this outrage seems to have faded along with the general public’s memory of the storm.

Hurricane Katrina will forever alter the course of history in New Orleans and the life paths of thousands of families from the region. Bullard and Wright’s set of essays, Race, Place, and Environmental Justice After Hurricane Katrina, begins to make sense of the government policies that allowed New Orleans to flood, as well as post-Katrina efforts to rebuild the city and region. This collection is a reminder that there is a lot of work that still needs to be done in New Orleans, particularly in poor and African American communities, which have suffered disproportionately.

The twelve essays that make up the book are broken into four sections, encompassing the challenges of racialized place, health and environment post-Katrina, equitable rebuilding and recovery and policy choices for social change. Essay topics range from disparities in access to transportation to environmental contaminants after the hurricane. The most powerful aspect of the book is that it sheds light on the fact that Hurricane Katrina was only partly a natural disaster, which was substantially exacerbated by the way that government and society as a whole chose to (not) respond.

The authors argue that the lack of preparedness and dismal response to victims of Hurricane Katrina are profoundly impacted by race and class. The essays force the reader to ask themselves again and again, “What would have happened if New Orleans was full of predominantly wealthy white people?”

Race, Place, and Environmental Justice After Hurricane Katrina isn’t exactly an easy or light-hearted read, but it is full of important information that will be of particular interest to people interested in the theoretical importance of the concept of place, as well as anyone interested in better understanding environmental justice and racial disparities.

Written by: Liz Simmons, July 20th 2009

Christotainment: Selling Jesus through Popular Culture

admin — Sat, 23 May 2009 18:11:00 +0000

Edited by Shirley Steinberg, Joe Kincheloe

Westview Press

For years now, “Bible-thumping ideology” has clashed with a mainstream popular culture that seems to stand for everything fundamentalist Christians oppose. That is, however, until fundamentalist Christians discovered how they could harness the power of popular culture to sell their own messages of purity, penance, and prayer.

This is where Shirley Steinberg and Joe Kincheloe’s anthology Christotainment: Selling Jesus through Popular Culture begins. Christotainment looks at how conservative Christians have sold movies, NASCAR, music, toys, and even talking vegetables—and, in the process, peddled their own ideologies and values to a blossoming market of believers. Chapters dissect the social, cultural and political identities afforded to members of the “Christotainment” community, as well as the implications of turning faith into a commodity that one can purchase on DVD or wear as a shirt.

“Christotainment” is also approached as a political movement. Joshua Newman and Michael Giardina’s chapter “Onward Christian Drivers” examines how the Republican Party harnessed the loyal fan base of the “NASCAR nation” to win votes that propelled Republicans to massive victories in 2000 and 2004. Later, the politicization of faith is discussed within the context of censorship and the war against rock music. Through these, the authors suggest that the “ever ready army of right-wing Christian fanatics and demagogic populists” nurtured by “Christotainment” promote intolerance and threaten democratic ideals.

Like all good anthologies, Christotainment tackles a core issue from several different perspectives and engages a variety of audiences in the process. Ultimately, the critical lens they use to explore “Christotainment” may turn off those who are already a part of the “Christotainment” culture. However, their scholarly examination of the ramifications associated with the commercialization of faith remains sensibly balanced with enough cultural vignettes to keep it accessible and interesting to all readers.

Written by: Gwen Emmons, May 23rd 2009

Is the Holocaust Unique?: Perspectives on Comparative Genocide

admin — Sat, 09 May 2009 16:02:00 +0000

Edited by Alan S. Rosenbaum

Westview Press

In the third edition of this book, Alan Rosenbaum has collected a selection of brilliant, incendiary, and questionable essays addressing a sensitive yet much argued question. To quote Israel W. Charny in the foreword, “This book is outstanding because it brings together in one volume the contentious and often unsavory Tower of Babel of scholars’ voices in the field of Holocaust and genocide studies.” Rosenbaum tries to include a range of voices to create a comprehensive approach.

Rosenbaum says that his goal is to “underscore, in one way or another, the centrality of the Holocaust in any broad-based, contemporary inquiry made within the emerging area of comparative genocide studies.” Meaning, should the Holocaust remain the benchmark for modern genocides? Further, can we study the Holocaust alongside the twentieth century atrocities in Rwanda, Cambodia, and Sudan? Or is the Holocaust a particularly unique case of genocide, and should it be studied only within the context of Holocaust scholarship? Whichever side you support, you would be surprised to find that there are many people who vehemently believe the opposite. When we speak of genocides, especially in the twentieth century, the discussion often becomes personal and fraught with emotion.

For me, the chapters hardest to swallow are those too essentialist and definitive. They try to define exactly what a genocide is and therefore exclude certain atrocities from the category of genocide. This is the case in Barbara B. Green’s "Stalinist Terror and the Question of Genocide," where she determines that the Great Famine was not genocide because extermination was not the intent. Comparatively, there are essays that illuminate how learning about the Holocaust can shed light on other atrocities and the danger of future genocides, such as in Kinue Tokudome’s "The Holocaust and Japanese Atrocities" and Ben Kiernan’s "Hitler, Pol Pot, and Hutu Power: Common Themes."

The danger of this book is that it assumes a high level of critical thinking on the part of the reader. Due to the fact that questionable claims are made, one must be discerning and comprehensive in her reading of the essays. Do not assume that you can randomly choose one essay to answer the question “is the Holocaust unique?” I would not choose to teach this book, unless we had the time to read and discuss every essay. I would also only read this with a book group that is ready, critical, and understanding enough to discuss the destruction of human life.

Approaching human rights from an academic and intellectual standpoint can alienate and frustrate many people. To aid with a cohesive reading, Charny has included a very helpful list of questions in the foreword to help guide a reading of each chapter. Is the Holocaust Unique? is a challenging and valuable book for many readers. Even if you have your mind made up regarding your answer to this question you not only will find support for your opinions, but also will learn about other atrocities throughout the world. The mass destruction of human life is always wrong, no matter the ideology framing it, and Rosenbaum’s collection of essays helps to build awareness and knowledge about the roots of genocidal violence.

Written by: Claire Burrows, May 9th 2009

Feminist Thought: A More Comprehensive Introduction

admin — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 23:24:00 +0000

By Rosemarie Tong

Westview Press

Rosemarie Tong’s Feminist Thought: A More Comprehensive Introduction offers a clear, thorough introduction to feminist theory. With detailed chapters on Liberal Feminism; Radical Feminism; Marxist and Socialist Feminism; Psychoanalytic Feminism; Care-Focused Feminism; Multicultural, Global, and Postcolonial Feminism; Ecofeminism; and Postmodern and Third Wave Feminism, the book presents even-handed coverage of the major schools of feminist thought.

The chapters are on average thirty to thirty-five pages long. The text is, thus, concise enough to be useful in survey or introductory feminist theory courses. The theoretical origins of each school thought are examined, and each chapter also considers supportive and opposing views in relation to the different ‘branches’ of feminism. As such, the book offers a useful dialogue that not only reveals the important contributions of these different feminisms (and the key thinkers from each branch), but also scrutinizes the unexamined assumptions and biases in each approach.

While portions of the book are dry and a bit tedious to wade through, this is understandable given the wide-ranging coverage and the textbook type format. It would be difficult for any author, even one as obviously well-versed in feminist theory as Tong, to share a history of feminist thought that didn’t sometimes tend towards an encyclopedic style. Moreover, even though the coverage of primary sources becomes wearisome at times (especially for readers already well versed in feminist theory), the comprehensive approach that considers the strengths and weaknesses of each theoretical branch is well worth wading through (and particularly useful for those new to feminist theory).

One area that seems missing in this revised addition is a consideration of transnational feminism. An overview of this branch, especially considering its current importance to the field, would have improved the chapter entitled “Multicultural, Global, and Postcolonial Feminism.” Another missing area of feminist thought is sexuality studies and queer theory. Given the explosive growth of these branches of thought, this seems an odd omission. However, in spite of these absences, the book is certainly a very useful introduction to feminist thought. In addition to being useful for survey courses in feminist theory, the book also serves as a great reference text to have on hand, especially given the excellent bibliography.

Written by: Professor What If, October 21st 2008

Rigoberta Menchu and the Story of All Poor Guatemalans

admin — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 12:44:00 +0000

By David Stoll

Westview Press

For those unfamiliar with 1983’s I, Rigoberta Menchu, or the controversy that surrounded the initial publication of David Stoll’s contentious academic countering in 1998, it would be best to revisit the debates that have raged for the last ten years. Rigoberta Menchu, an indigenous Guatemalan woman who won a Nobel Peace Prize for her now twenty-five-year-old testimonio and subsequently found her book added to the multicultural canon in colleges around the world, has drawn sharp criticism from both scholars like Stoll and her own country’s people, who do not believe their stories have been represented by hers.

As Stoll is a white, Western, male academic, his initial deconstruction of her story felt problematic for many. Yet, after conducting nearly 120 interviews with Guatemalan people who refute some of Menchu’s base claims, it becomes hard to remain optimistically objective, even if her story speaks to a wide range of real and existing experiences of oppression and revolution in Latin America and the Global South. In this case, Stoll’s criticisms also feel particularly significant as Menchu’s book has been lauded for its supposed authenticity, rather than as a literary masterpiece.

For the tenth anniversary reprinting of Rigoberta Menchu and the Story of All Poor Guatemalans, Stoll solicited a new foreword by Menchu’s original biographer, Elizabeth Burgos. Estranged from Menchu after Menchu’s dismissal of the book and Burgos in the years following Stoll’s criticism, Burgos does an admirable job of explaining her side of the story while remaining neutral about Stoll’s accusations and findings. Perhaps the best reason for buying this updated version of the book, Burgos’s introduction is an appropriate report of a story within a story—a deeply moving recount of the events leading to her help with I, Rigoberta Menchu and the fallout in her own life following accusations of inaccuracies in the narrative.

Despite appreciating Stoll’s in-depth analysis and research, and the supplementary back-story from Burgos, I caution anyone not already deeply familiar with the Guatemalan people’s revolutionary history or Menchu’s story to find better ways to ease into discussions about the legitimacy of her work. Having read I, Rigoberta Menchu nearly five years ago for the first time, I struggled with the details Stoll calls into question, and at times, I felt only a Guatemalan scholar would be able to keep up despite Stoll’s reasonable, clear explanations, maps, and timelines. The fault of Rigoberta Menchu and the Story of All Poor Guatemalans is not about Stoll or the actual text. It’s about what’s either a personal mental lapse of important details or the way our culture collectively misunderstands indigenous stories that we believe have no weight on our own existence.

A solid academic analysis of a once (and in some circles, still) widely accepted story about Guatemalan history, violence, oppression, and uprising, Stoll’s book is an excellent and necessary wake up call for privileged academics too ready to validate stories of oppression as total truth. Understanding how and why we readily accept the stories of the subaltern is its own interesting debate, and concerns about Menchu’s credibility aside, this book speaks to a host of issues including Western privilege, class bias, academic credibility, and what testimonio and memoir really mean.

Written by: Brittany Shoot, July 6th 2008

The Lesbian and Gay Movements: Assimilation or Liberation?

admin — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 14:12:00 +0000

By Craig A. Rimmerman

Westview Press

The Lesbian and Gay Movements: Assimilation or Liberation? is a history of post-Stonewall GLBTQ activism as seen through three focused battles: the AIDS crisis, the ban on gays in the military, and the conflict over gay marriage. Craig Rimmerman presents a detailed breakdown of each, assembling them into a supposed study of the differences and relative importance of assimilationist and liberationist strategies. The result of his work here is a book deeply limited as a piece of writing and as an argument, but deeply compelling as a piece of history.

In aesthetic terms, Rimmerman is not much of a writer. His sentence structure is clunky, his rigid adherence to the classic “tell them what you’re going to tell them; tell them; tell them what you told them” structure almost laughable. In terms of structure and argument, his insistence on a thesis overly simplistic and overly focused—that both assimilationist and liberationist movements are needed for political progress—limits the energy and momentum of his book, and the book’s surveying take on its subjects makes many of the chapters and segments feel rushed. He fails to define terms key to making a leftist book accessible to a broader public, such as “the Christian Right,” while defining basic terms about the lesbian and gay movements that any leftist audience would understand. As such, _The Lesbian and Gay Movements _can be a frustrating book to read.

However, the facts in the book are indubitably fascinating and well-assembled. Rimmerman is a professor of political science and public policy at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, and his skill as a teacher is clear in his work here. He presents shocking facts as part of a collection. He casually and gracefully introduces elements of the pre-Stonewall gay liberation (“homophile”) movements that are rarely seen in mainstream press or history. He breaks down the historical steps of each of his topics in a clear and accessible manner. A few days after reading The Lesbian and Gay Movements, I found myself using information I had gained directly from the book in a discussion with my students about Ronald Reagan, and the details of Bill Clinton’s disappointing performance with regard to gay and lesbian rights—particularly with the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy—were new and deeply informative.

The Lesbian and Gay Movements is not, in the end, a very good book. It is, however, a marvelous teaching tool. I’ve been privileged to use it as such already and hope that many other educators will find the same use for it. I also hope that students at Hobart and William Smith Colleges will take any opportunity available to take a class with Craig Rimmerman. His skills as a teacher shine through every part of this book.

Written by: Gemma Cooper-Novack, April 17th 2008