The Dance of Politics
Gender, Performance, and Democratization in Malawi
Lisa Gilman

Reviewed in the Journal of American Folklore 126 (2013). The review read, "The Dance of Politics is a valuable contribution to the scholarly literature on gender, performance, and socio-political transformation in Africa.... This book provides a deep exploration of music and dance in the context of a specific African nation during a key moment in its history....The Dance of Politics offers insightful theoretical discussions and concrete examples/experiences that are of great interest for scholars from various disciplines focused on performance, gender, and politics in Africa."

Troubling Gender
Youth and Cumbia in Argentina's Music Scene
Pablo Vila and Pablo Semán

Reviewed in the May 2013 issue of Contemporary Sociology. The review read, "Anybody interested in gender, sexuality, and especially how music becomes part of the fabric of everyday life, should read Troubling Gender. The subtlety of its analysis makes the book a must for scholars of what is now called 'music sociology.'"

An Immigrant Neighborhood
Interethnic and Interracial Encounters in New York before 1930
Shirley J. Yee

Reviewed in the May 2013 issue of Contemporary Sociology. The review read, "An Immigrant Neighborhood is an excellent addition to historical studies in community and urban racial and ethnic relations. It provides us with rich stories of individual daily lives in pre-1930 New York’s Lower Manhattan and with various analyses of class, ethnicity, race, and gender. It would be particularly useful for an advanced undergraduate course in American studies, ethnic studies, history, or sociology, and it would also be appropriate for a graduate course."

Transnationalizing Viet Nam
Community, Culture, and Politics in the Diaspora
Kieu-Linh Caroline Valverde

Reviewed in Amerasia, Volume 39, No. 1. The review read, "The book offers the first 'insider' perspective that grapples candidly with Vietnamese American community formations, particularly its anticommunist politics. It serves as an invaluable resource for students and researchers interested in understanding the Vietnamese American community, but also offers a model that adeptly bridges Area Studies research with Asian American Studies through the framework of transnationalism.... [A]n important foundation for the study of Vietnamese diaspora."

The Public and Its Possibilities
Triumphs and Tragedies in the American City
John D. Fairfield

Reviewed in American Studies, Vol. 52, No. 2. The review read, "An ambitious work of scholarly synthesis, The Public and its Possibilities braids together descriptions of socioeconomic trends, cultural conflicts and political philosophy from the late colonial era to the present... Resting on vast historical scholarship, The Public and its Possibilities would provide a useful interpretive spine for an undergraduate history course, comparable in some ways to Eric Foner’s The Story of American Freedom."

Oye Como Va!
Hybridity and Identity in Latino Popular Music
Deborah Pacini Hernandez

Reviewed in American Studies, Vol. 52, No. 2. The review read, "To take on the task of explicating or analyzing Latin popular music presents a difficult endeavor; with the hybrid nature of the Latin music and US adaptations and appropriations, one could easily get lost in the array of musical styles, genres, artists, and record labels. Yet, in her book Oye Como Va, Deborah Pacini Hernandez provides an organized, concise, and informative overview of Latin popular music, specifically in regards to the recording industry’s relationship to Latina/o musicians and audience in the United States....[T]his text offers valuable histories and perspectives on the performance, recording, and marketing of Latin popular music."

To the City
Urban Photographs of the New Deal
Julia L. Foulkes

Reviewed in American Studies, Vol. 52, No. 2. The review read, "As a collection of photographs To the City comprises a useful complement to the many anthologies emphasizing the FSA’s rural pictures."

Sustainable Failures
Environmental Policy and Democracy in a Petro-dependent World
Sherry Cable

Reviewed in the April 2013 issue of CHOICE. The review read, "Cable offers a sweeping analysis of how humans live outside their means, fostering a false duality between society and biosphere with decidedly unsustainable technological and petroleum energy dependence.... Written for a broad audience, the work deftly combines a jargon-free sociological lens on human behavior with biophysical science questions of sustainability. Summing Up: Recommended."

Catheters, Slurs, and Pickup Lines
Professional Intimacy in Hospital Nursing
Lisa C. Ruchti

Reviewed in the April 2013 issue of Gender & Society. The review read, "[A] compelling ethnography that skillfully explores the work of professional intimacy in hospital nursing.... The book is a major contribution to the newly burgeoning scholarship on care work, and Ruchti’s findings pose numerous questions to anyone interested in bringing recognition to professionally intimate labor.... This book is a must-have for those of us teaching and researching in medical worlds. Our students will gain valuable insight into the day-to-day work of caring for patients, and our research will benefit from consideration of the many lessons contained in this richly documented exploration of professional intimacy."

Modeling Citizenship
Jewish and Asian American Writing
Cathy Schlund-Vials

Reviewed in the Spring 2013 issue of MELUS. The review read,"[Schlund-Vials] read[s] Jewish and Asian American texts side-by-side to investigate how both ethnic groups have participated in and been shaped by model-minority discourse.... [Her] book is organized historically around a number of couplings between Jewish and Asian American writing that prove particularly fruitful for analyzing how shifting attitudes toward naturalization and immigration policy have determined whether or not, and to what degree, these two minority groups can obtain the status of model citizens.... [She] provid[es] nuanced, historically contextualized readings of literary works... [and] yield[s] strong insights into how cross-ethnic relations have bearing on the meanings of whiteness, transnationalism, model-minority identity, and citizenship."

A Midwestern Mosaic
Immigration and Political Socialization in Rural America
J. Celeste Lay

Reviewed in the Spring 2013 issue of International Migration Review. The review read, "A Midwestern Mosaic makes important contributions to several literatures. To political scientists, the book offers insights about the roles of time and racial context in the political socialization of adolescents and the importance of systematically analyzing rural politics. Contributions to immigration research focusing on non-traditional destinations includes information about how quickly adolescents can adapt to demographic change, the emphasis on political socialization, and the formal comparison of immigrant-receiving communities that, on their face, might appear to be quite similar. [Lay's] qualitative data also yield important insights about what high schools and other institutions in rapidly changing communities can do to encourage positive relationships between long-time residents and newcomers. For all of these reasons, this book will be of great interest to scholars, community leaders, policymakers, and others."

Reading Up
Middle-Class Readers and the Culture of Success in the Early Twentieth-Century United States
Amy L. Blair

Reviewed in the Spring 2013 issue of American Periodicals. The review read, "Blair is detailed in her examination of [Hamilton Wright] Mabie's opinions and in her analysis of how he misread or reinterpreted his subjects in service of his goals.... What is most significant for periodical studies in Blair's work is the insight it provides into the culture wars of the turn of the last century."

Governing How We Care
Contesting Community and Defining Difference in U.S. Public Health Programs
Susan J. Shaw

Reviewed in the March/April 2013 issue of Public Administration Review. The review read, "This book is a must-read for policy makers, researchers, health care administrators, public officials, and others who are interested in the complex issues surrounding health care delivery in the United States.... [Shaw] explores the risks and norms of drug prevention research... [Her] illumination of this phenomenon in the injection drug user population provides a challenging perspective to the field.... Governing How We Care provides a concretely rooted lesson about the experience of vulnerable populations in public health programs. Readers will gain valuable insight into programs that aim to correct short-term behavior and long-term behavior adaptations."

Speaking of Race and Class
The Student Experience at an Elite College
Elizabeth Aries with Richard Berman

Reviewed in the March 28 issue of Times Higher Education. The review read, "One of the study’s strengths lies in its research design....The book can also be recommended for its breadth of coverage of students’ experiences and the consideration of the salience of race and class across a wide range of situations.... [T]he authors...aim primarily to document the challenges of class and race at an elite college, for both the privileged and the less privileged. In this, they have admirably succeeded."

Church and State in the City
Catholics and Politics in Twentieth-Century San Francisco
William Issel

Reviewed on the website, BeyondChron, on March 21. The review read, "[The book] restores the Catholic role in San Francisco’s development through the 1960’s to its rightful place in the city’s history.... Issel convincingly shows that Catholic institutions shaped San Francisco’s history far more than is understood. And from its backing of unions, civil rights, and the needs of the very poor, the Catholic Church fulfilled its mission of working for San Francisco’s greater good."

Church and State in the City was also reviewed in the Spring 2013 issue of The Institute for Historical Study Newsletter. The review read, "William Issel's latest book, Church and State in the City, provides an important missing chapter in the telling of the history of San Francisco.... [It] is a 'must'—both for its content and its wealth of references—for any historians whose research is focused on San Francisco. It will make many readers rethink what they thought they knew about the evolution of the city politic and what place religion has played in San Francisco's social, economic, and cultural evolution."

Rebuilding the News
Metropolitan Journalism in the Digital Age
C.W. Anderson

Reviewed in the March 15 issue of Library Journal. The review read, "Anderson explores whether and how emerging online news has changed the practice of reporting. Using a variety of research techniques including ethnography, social-network analysis, and archival content research, he takes an in-depth look at one city (Philadelphia) to study changes in journalism from the 1990s to the present.... Scholars in journalism and organization sociology will appreciate Anderson’s meticulous methodology and his analysis of the responses of journalists and news organizations to a rapidly changing environment."

In a Queer Voice
Journeys of Resilience from Adolescence to Adulthood
Michael Sadowski, foreword by Carol Gilligan

Reviewed in Chronogram, March 1. The review read, "[A] valuable call to action....In a Queer Voice effectively elevates the professional discourse on LGBTQ youth."

Don't Call Me Inspirational
A Disabled Feminist Talks Back
Harilyn Rousso

Reviewed in the March 2013 edition of the blog Wordgathering. It read, "[A] remarkably even-handed account and reflection on a life with cerebral palsy."

Rousso and her book were also showcased in the March 3 Chronicle of Higher Education blog Tenured Radical. The article read, "This is a book that is full of generative critique, embedded in the story of a life that itself has many lessons to teach. Don’t call it inspirational: call it energizing. It is written in short chapters, with an accessible style that is alternately funny, wry, serious and acerbic."

In addition, the website Global Comment reviewed Rousso's book on March 5. The review read, "Rousso skillfully blends activist autobiography, coming-of-age memoir, disability narrative, short form poetry, and manifesto.... Rousso has created a multifaceted, well-written, and decidedly nontraditional work with Don’t Call Me Inspirational."

The Politics of State Feminism
Innovation in Comparative Research
Dorothy E. McBride and Amy G. Mazur

Reviewed in the March 2013 issue of Perspectives on Politics. The review read, "Superb.... This exhaustive and nuanced scholarship is what allowed for both the identification and testing of the fundamental research question found in this capstone book."

Recasting Welfare Capitalism
Economic Adjustment in Contemporary France and Germany
Mark I. Vail

Reviewed in the March 2013 issue of Perspectives on Politics. The review read, "[Vail] covers a [broad] spectrum of welfare-state policies, including social insurance, antipoverty programs, and labor market policy.... One of Vail's most interesting conclusions is that in order to be able to change and adapt, the traditionally 'dirigiste' French state has had to engage to a great degree in negotiations with interest groups, while the traditionally more consensual and neocorporatist German state has had to become more conflict oriented."

Closure
The Rush to End Grief and What It Costs Us
Nancy Berns

Reviewed in the March 2013 issue of Contemporary Sociology. The review read, "[A] well-researched, theoretically-guided cultural analysis and critique of a new and socially-constructed emotion.... Berns’ arguments are compelling and backed up with sociological theory, data, and amusing anecdotes. Given the lively writing style, clear organization, lack of sociological jargon, and snappy synopses of current events and practices to achieve closure, this book will have great appeal to general audiences as well as undergraduates with limited backgrounds in sociology.... The book’s real strength is showing how the socially-constructed emotion of closure has been commodified, and used to sell products and services to the bereaved—who may yearn desperately for anything that will dull their pain or resolve their unanswered questions."

How Racism Takes Place
George Lipsitz

Reviewed in the March 2013 issue of Contemporary Sociology. The review read, "This big-hearted and incisive book reveals how policies and practices related to the demarcation, commodification, and valuation of urban space reinforce hierarchies of race and class.... This work both painstakingly documents the ways in which the white spatial imaginary excludes people, and particularly women, of color, even as it seduces them with promises of upward mobility and consumer citizenship.... [T]he book mounts a powerful challenge to the recent justifications of racialized inequalities through revanchist scientific racism or the various 'culture of poverty' concepts."

The Disability Rights Movement
From Charity to Confrontation
Updated Edition
Doris Zames Fleischer and Frieda Zames

Reviewed in in Metapsychology on March 5. The review read, "[A] thorough history of the disability rights movement with a clear emphasis on discrimination against disabled individuals and their many struggles to gain access to different institutions as well as to gain rights concerning health and visibility..... The Disability Rights Movement is a truly great book that is useful for a wide range of readers; those working within disability communities and organizations, in the classroom, and for the layperson interested in the history of activism and disabilities."

The Steelers Encyclopedia
Chuck Finder

Tony Norman's column in the March 3rd issue of The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette praised Chuck Finder and his book, The Steelers Encyclopedia. It read, "Is there anyone more qualified than former PG sports writer Chuck Finder to chronicle the Steelers in all of their labyrinthine history? Maybe, but for now, Mr. Finder's book is the most definitive and authoritative resource for all things Stillers [sic]."

Prisons and Patriots
Japanese American Wartime Citizenship, Civil Disobedience, and Historical Memory
Cherstin M. Lyon

Reviewed in the March 2013 issue of The Journal of American History. The review read, "Prisons and Patriots provides an insightful analysis of the causes and consequences of civil disobedience by Nisei (second-generation Japanese Americans) during World War II.... Lyon effectively uses oral histories and government records to show the variety of perspectives displayed by draft resisters during and after the war.... One can hope that other scholars will be inspired by Lyon's thorough research and elegant narrative to develop a comparative analysis of the postwar discrimination faced by draft resisters and other Japanese Americans branded as 'disloyal.'"

Teaching Marianne and Uncle Sam
Public Education, State Centralization, and Teacher Unionism in France and the United States
Nicholas Toloudis

Reviewed in the March 2013 issue of Choice. The review read, "Toloudis deals with the origins of teachers unions in France and the US in the late-19th and early- and middle-20th centuries. The book has some valuable historical information about teachers unions and politics in the two nations, and utilizes some interesting archival material that should be of interest to historians of education generally and of teachers unions in particular.... Summing Up: Recommended."

Chang and Eng Reconnected
The Original Siamese Twins in American Culture
Cynthia Wu

Reviewed in March 2013 issue of the Fortean Times. The review read, "Wu's excellent study is supplemented by a detailed analysis of the metaphors represented by conjoined twins.... [Chang and Eng Reconnected is] full of fascinating details unearthed by Wu's thorough research — not just about the Bunkers, but about the social treatment and subsequent fate of 'freaks' generally."

Music, Style, and Aging
Growing Old Disgracefully?
Andy Bennett

Reviewed in Library Journal on February 15. The review read, "The interviews are freewheeling and often very frank....[A]n important—and enjoyable—contribution to the scholarly literature on popular culture and aging."

Don't Call Me Inspirational
A Disabled Feminist Talks Back
Harilyn Rousso

Reviewed in the February 6 issue of the New York Jewish Week. The review read, "[E]xtraordinary... Memoirs succeed when they provide readers with a gut feeling of what the author’s life is like, and Rousso indeed opens the door to her world... [She] writes with intelligence, passion, humor and spunk."

The Steelers Encyclopedia
Chuck Finder

Reviewed in the February 2013 issue of Pittsburgh Magazine. The review read, "Chuck Finder’s The Steelers Encyclopedia is the perfect guide to have at the ready next time you need to settle an argument before half-time ends. A giant compendium of stats, player biographies, schedules and photos, this book should be in every serious fan’s home."

Blow Up the Humanities
Toby Miller

Reviewed in the February 2013 issue of Choice. The review read,"Miller takes a lively, well-researched look at the dilemma facing the modern humanities.... Summing Up: Recommended."

The Enigmatic Academy
Class, Bureaucracy, and Religion in American Education
Christian J. Churchill and Gerald E. Levy

Reviewed in the February 2013 issue of Choice. The review read, "Their research method is ethnographic case studies of three kinds of schools (for which the book is organized into three parts).... Each part ends with a conclusion that is a superb summary of the previous analysis, and the summaries will make the blood of readers concerned with social justice boil.... Summing Up: Recommended."

Prisons and Patriots
Japanese American Wartime Citizenship, Civil Disobedience, and Historical Memory
Cherstin M. Lyon

Reviewed in Rafu Shimpo, the Los Angeles Japanese Daily News, on February 9. The review read,"Lyon’s book is bold, balanced, and solid. Her research will get readers to view and think of history in a new way."

An Immigrant Neighborhood
Interethnic and Interracial Encounters in New York before 1930
Shirley J. Yee

Reviewed inFebruary 2013 issue of the American Historical Review. The review read, "Yee’s analysis illustrates how working-class immigrants of diverse backgrounds often crossed the borders of well-established ethnic neighborhoods. The book is well researched, particularly in secondary sources; the author’s argument is cogent and her style is clear."

Blow Up the Humanities
Toby Miller

Reviewed in the current issue (vol. 20, no. 1-2) of symplokē. The review read, "Miller’s distinctions and evidence ... provide an intriguing point of entry into current debates concerning the humanities.... Miller’s suggestions for renewal in the humanities not only have the potential to re-energize the humanities, but also to offer a way out of the crisis in the humanities."

Envisioning Emancipation
Black Americans and the End of Slavery
Deborah Willis and Barbara Krauthamer

Reviewed in the January 22, 2013 issue of the Huffington Post . The review read, "This is a stunning book of recently discovered photographs of African Americans from the 19th century. This book challenges the predominant image of African Americans during this period as downtrodden and hopeless, and beautifully reveals rarely seen before photographs of African Americans before, during, and after the Civil War."

200 Years of Latino History in Philadelphia<
The Staff of Al Día

Featured in Reforma's online newsletter on January 11. The review read, "[A] fun coffee table book.... More importantly you see a history of Philadelphian Latinos trabajando duro, participating in their communities and making a name for themselves."

Catheters, Slurs, and Pickup Lines
Professional Intimacy in Hospital Nursing
Lisa C. Ruchti

Reviewed in the January 2013 issue of the American Journal of Sociology. The review read, "Ruchti’s fascinating new ethnography asks us to imagine the selfless, moral calling of Florence Nightingale and consider the effects of this fantasy image on the work of nurses... Ruchti’s interviews demonstrate the often contradictory joys and perils of doing intimate labor.... Her book clearly shows how arduous and demanding the job can be; that is, caring is not natural or innate but a constellation of skills that one must learn.... This book would be useful for anyone conducting research or teaching advanced undergraduate courses or graduate seminars on gender, work and occupations, globalization, care work, or qualitative research methods."

Reading Up
Middle-Class Readers and the Culture of Success in the Early Twentieth-Century United States
Amy L. Blair

Reviewed in the January 2013 issue of H-Net. The review read, "Reading Up is certainly about books, but it is also about a way of using books that reveals the do-it-yourself nature of popular literary advice.... Blair has tapped into a fascinating turn-of-the-century relationship.... Scholars interested in the business of literature, the hierarchies of culture, and the construction of the striver as a social type will find Reading Up to be a good investment."

Ecomusicology
Rock, Folk, and the Environment
Mark Pedelty

Reviewed in the January 2013 issue of The Journal of Ecocriticism. The review read, "In this elegantly argued book, Pedelty...probes deeply the relationship between music, especially rock and folk, and the environment.... [T]he great value of Pedelty's book is that... [t]rue to his field work roots, Pedelty himself straps on a guitar in order to make music and to participate in a local music scene.... Pedelty urges us to get up off our chairs and dance, sing, clap, dig, vote, and record as we move from being passive recipients of music to being active creators of the soundscape of our lives."

Sport and Neoliberalism
Politics, Consumption, and Culture
edited by David L. Andrews and Michael L. Silk

Reviewed in the January 2013 issue of Choice. The review read, "[A]n extensive collection of essays that provide a look at sport from political, social, and economic points of view (with a neoliberal slant).... [T]his book attempts to redefine how sport is viewed, discussed, and understood. It will be particularly useful to those interested in the intersection of politics, economics, and sport. Summing Up: Recommended."