Faculty Books

Architectural Space in Eighteenth-Century Europe: Constructing Identities and Interiors

(Ashgate)

Denise Amy Baxter, associate professor and interim chair of the Department of Art Education and Art History; and Meredith Martin, Wellesley College, editors

The book explores how a diverse group of patrons, including bankers, bishops, bluestockings and courtesans, used architectural space and décor to shape and express identity.

It addresses identity formation as it relates to ideas of gender, class and ethnicity, and it addresses the role that spatial environments played in producing identity at defining historical and cultural moments. Interiors covered by the book's contributors include palaces in Saint-Cloud and Würzburg, courtesans' homes and gentlemen's galleries in post-Napoleonic London.

Out of the Dark: A History of Radio and Rural America

(University of Alabama Press)

Steve Craig, professor of radio, television and film

The impact of radio on rural America in the three decades before the arrival of television is the subject of Out of the Dark. Craig addresses the political and economic impact the rural audience had on the development of the broadcasting industry and the role of the USDA in promoting and developing rural radio.

His study shows that as radio connected isolated families to the rest of the nation, its advertising and entertainment produced more uniform values that led to a stronger national identity. It also contributed to the demand for consumer goods among rural families, bringing them into modern America.

American Iconographic: National Geographic, Global Culture and the Visual Imagination

(University of Virginia Press)

Stephanie L. Hawkins, assistant professor of English

Hawkins traces the rise of National Geographic to cultural prominence, from its first publication of nude photographs in 1896 to its influence on popular culture in the 1950s.

Drawing on the National Geographic Society's archive of readers' letters and its founders' correspondence, she focuses on how the magazine both reflected public attitudes and influenced them, encouraging readers to identify with the values of other nations.

She also explores how the magazine presented a window, not just on the world, but on American cultural attitudes, drawing forth complex responses to changes resulting from immigration, the Depression and war.

Call Her a Citizen: Progressive-Era Activist and Educator Anna Pennybacker

(Texas A&M University Press)

Kelley M. King, assistant professor of teacher education and administration

In an era that relegated women to the private sphere, Anna J. Hardwicke Pennybacker promoted progressive causes including public education, women's suffrage and social reform. She was the author of A New History of Texas, the state-adopted textbook for Texas history, which remained in classroom use for 40 years.

King reconstructs the life of the Texas educator, writer, lecturer and activist who filled one of the most powerful positions for a woman in America when she served as president of the General Federation of Women's Clubs from 1912 to 1914.

Freedom Flyers: The Tuskegee Airmen of World War II

(Oxford University Press)

J. Todd Moye, associate professor of history and director of the Oral History Program

The United States' first African American military pilots, who flew more than 15,000 sorties and destroyed more than 200 German aircraft during World War II, first had to fight racial inequality at home.

Telling the story in the pilots' own words, Moye draws on more than 800 interviews recorded for the National Park Service's Tuskegee Airmen Oral History Project, which he directed from 2000 to 2005.

In this first scholarly study of the entire Tuskegee experience, he says the Army Air Corps' training program for black pilots in Tuskegee, Ala., began over the objections of top generals, but by the war's end, the Tuskegee aviators and support crew had helped prove that racial segregation in the armed forces was counterproductive to the nation's defense.

Springer Handbook of Crystal Growth

(Springer-Verlag)

Govindhan Dhanaraj, Advanced Renewable Energy Co.; Kullaiah Byrappa, University of Mysore, India; Vishwanath 'Vish' Prasad, vice president for research and economic development and professor of mechanical and energy engineering; and Michael Dudley, Stony Brook University, editors

Most modern advances in semiconductor and optical devices would not have been possible without the development of many elemental, binary, ternary and other compound crystals. Written for professionals and practitioners, and including more than 1,200 color illustrations and a fully searchable DVD, the handbook presents state-of-the-art knowledge of both bulk and thin-film crystal growth.

Nearly 100 leading scientists, researchers and engineers in academia and industry from 22 countries wrote chapters covering the basics of commonly employed growth processes, materials produced and defects generated. The volume is part of Springer's internationally recognized series of handbooks.

The Literatures of the U.S.-Mexican War: Narrative, Time and Identity

(University of Texas Press)

Jaime Javier Rodríguez, assistant professor of English

The book explores how literary narrative from the U.S.-Mexican War, fought from 1846 to 1848, shaped relationships today among Anglo Americans, Mexicans and Mexican Americans.

Rodríguez, who analyzes dime novels, accounts from the front, Mexican American writings and other popular writings about the war, says historical awareness of the war and its effects lies at the center of modern cultural issues, such as anxieties about Mexican immigration or concern for recognition among Mexican Americans.

His book is the first major comparative study to analyze key Mexican war texts and their impact on Mexico's national identity.

Multi-Ethnic Bird Guide of the Sub-Antarctic Forests of South America

(UNT Press/Universidad de Magallanes)

Ricardo Rozzi, associate professor of philosophy and religion studies and director of UNT's Chile Sub-Antarctic Biocultural Conservation Program and Field Station; and collaborators

This combination bird guide and cultural ethnography contains entries on 50 bird species of southern Chile and Argentina, such as the rufous-legged owl, giant hummingbird and Andean condor, as well as indigenous accounts of the birds in history and folklore.

Rozzi says the Yahgan and Mapuche people of the area have handed down bird stories for hundreds of years. Accompanying the book are two audio CDs of bird narratives translated from interviews with elders, birdcalls and pronunciations of the birds' names in four languages.

Quicksand: America's Pursuit of Power in the Middle East

(Penguin Press)

Geoffrey Wawro, the Maj. Gen. Olinto Mark Barsanti Chair in Military History and director of the Military History Center

Wawro traces the United States' involvement in the Middle East over the last 100 years, covering events such as the establishment of Israel, the death of Anwar Sadat, the energy crisis, the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the rise of Al-Qaeda.

Approaching America's role in the Middle East in a new way, Wawro covers the last century of the entire region rather than focusing on a particular country or era. He drew from archives in the United States and Europe and traveled the Middle East for new insights into what shaped some of the century's most tumultuous events. Drawing parallels between the past and the present, he concludes that the U.S. continues to repeat mistakes in the region.

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