Surrender:
Appeasing Islam, Sacrificing Freedom
By Bruce Bawer
BP171 .B35 2009
New Book Island, 2nd floor
With the eight-year anniversary of the 11 September terrorist attacks just the other day, this book naturally jumped out at me when browsing the shelves.
Bawer, a highly-respected cultural critic, looks at the effects on human rights not by former presidential administration, but by Muslim extremists. The author posits the idea that the combination of fear of radical Islam and political and social correctness threatens to silence the freedoms of speech and press. He points out that individuals that accommodate even the most illiberal aspects of the restrictive religion are helping further their cause. This book is an eye-opening account to the potential harm done to individual rights in the future.
The author’s 2006 book, While Europe Slept, a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist, is available in the Main Collection, 3rd floor, at call number D1056.2 .M87 B39 2006.
The Myth of Digital Democracy
By Matthew Hindman
JK1764 .H56 2009
New Book Island, 2nd floor
The Internets have revolutionized the way we live our lives. You get your news of the day from CNN.com as opposed to flipping through a newspaper or turning on the television. Instead of making phone calls, you send e-mails. You rely on online product reviews to make purchasing decisions. You blog about your opinions to the world on everything from how you’re feeling at the moment to your political leanings. The electronic series of webs and tubes have given the power to the people, right?
Not so fast there, buddy, says Hindman, political science professor at Arizona State University. The popular belief that the Internet has made politics and the public sphere more accessible given the proliferation of political websites and blogs doesn’t hold up. The author contends that the power has not shifted, that when in reality, it has only strengthened the elite media outlets. He and his colleagues not only looked at the top political and news websites, but also examined link structures and search engine queries to find out just how individuals end up at particular sites. Hindman’s work demonstrates that while the Internet has definitely changed political participation in some ways, the corporate media, the big guys if you will, still control the scene.
The Supreme Court is in the news: On May 26th President Obama nominated Sonia Sotomayor, a federal appellate court judge (U. S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit), to replace retiring Justice David Souter.
Curious about how this process works? After all, Supreme Court justices are appointed for life, not just for a President’s term. Here are places for more info:
- Search CQ Electronic Library for “supreme court” and nomination, and the results list will show items such as “History of appointments: The Senate’s role” (from Guide to Congress, 6th ed.). To see the newest results first, click the down arrow under “Date” and find items such as the CQ Weekly article “Supreme Court Nominees Are Presented, Not Just Announced”.
- Search the Library Catalog for keywords (judges or “supreme court”) and selection to find books such as Pursuit of justices: Presidential politics and the selection of Supreme Court nominees (3rd-Floor Main Collection, KF8742 .Y35 1999) and Advice and consent: The politics of judicial appointments (3rd-Floor Main Collection, KF8776 .E67 2005). This catalog search also finds government publications, such as Congressional confirmation hearings of previous nominees to the Court: Confirmation hearing on the nomination of Samuel A. Alito, Jr. (2nd-floor Federal Documents, Y 4.J 89/2:S.HRG.109-277).
- A more recent title, available to UWW students and faculty from other UW libraries by using the free Universal Borrowing service, is The next Justice: Repairing the Supreme Court appointments process (2007).
- Search Oxford Reference Online to find information about the Court, the nomination process, and a listing of “Nominations and Succession of the Justices” from sources such as The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States.
You can read Sotomayor’s decisions also, using the LexisNexis Academic database: Select the Legal portion of the database, then on the left select “Federal & State Cases” and then search for her as a judge:
The University Library is a federal depository with many federal, state, local, and international documents on a variety of current and relevant issues available to you in print, microfiche, CD-ROM, and electronically. Come check out your government at the University Library!
Making Milwaukee Mightier:
Planning and the Politics of Growth, 1910-1960
By John McCarthy
HT177 .M48 M33 2009
New Book Island, 2nd floor
As a person that is from the “wrong” side of the border, I can’t say that I know a whole about the city of Milwaukee (you mean there’s more there than just Summerfest?). So when I saw this title on the shelf, I was intrigued learn more. When I showed the book to my colleague (and Milwaukee native), her eyes lit up and she thought it was perfect to feature on New Stuff Tuesday.
McCarthy, a history professor from Robert Morris University, investigates the growth of the city of Milwaukee in the first half of the twentieth century. While the rest of the Midwest’s urban centers were stagnating, Milwaukee’s population and size continued to expand. The author details the influential players, such as Charles Whitnall, city planner, and Frank Zeidler, the last Socialist mayor in modern US history, as well as the turf wars with the surrounding suburban neighbors. The book provides an excellent starting point for learning more about Milwaukee, as it is extensively researched and gives many opportunities for further exploration.
I know, I know, after the recent presidential election, we’ve probably all had our fill of campaign commercials. But this web site is worth a few minutes of your time, I promise. The Museum of the Moving Image put together The Living Room Candidate: Presidential Campaign Commercials, 1952-2008. You can watch campaign commercials starting with the Dwight D. Eisenhower v Adlai Stevenson contest of 1952, all the way up to Barack Obama v John McCain in 2008.
The site is easy to browse. Just choose the year for the campaign you are interested in and at the bottom of the screen, thumbnails of the commercials appear, divided into Democrat and Republican. Click the one you want to view, and voila, you’re watching the commercial. You can even watch the “Peace Little Girl (Daisy)” commercial from Lyndon B. Johnson’s 1964 campaign, called by this web site: “the most celebrated and perhaps most notorious of all political commercials.” It aired only once, and was so controversial it even made the cover of Time.
Besides the pure entertainment value, what I really liked is the additional information provided by the site. The credits and a transcript for each commercial chosen are easily accessible, and tabs to the right of the commercial provide information on the campaign, each candidate, and the results of the election (including the number of popular votes, states, and electoral votes won by each candidate).
So take a moment and check out this site. It’s cool, it’s funny–and who knows what you might learn along the way?
Capitol Men:
The Epic Story of Reconstruction Through the Lives
of the First Black Congressmen
By Philip Dray
E668 .D76 2008
New Book Island, 2nd floor
Yes, today is one historic day. Barack Obama, the first African-American president has taken the oath and now holds the highest office in the nation. To commemorate the occasion, I conveniently stumbled upon this week’s featured title about some other famous first politicians.
Dray, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, resurrects history that is often left out of the textbooks and therefore not common knowledge – the story of the first African-Americans elected to Congress. Though many of you have seen the portrait of the seven of the first sixteen men (featured on the book’s cover), you may not have known it. The author takes the reader back to the period just after the Civil War, where the nation had the task of putting a broken country back together again, a time where black and white didn’t describe the picture on the television screen. These newly-minted lawmakers, hailing from diverse backgrounds themselves, faced outright discrimination and humiliation during their terms as politicians and faded away as the Reconstruction came to a painful close. The book serves to give these men their rightful place in the chronicles of the era.
The Mediated Presidency:
Television News and Presidential Governance
by Stephen Farnsworth & S. Robert Lichter
E176.1 .F228 2006
New Book Island, 2nd floor
If you can break away from the television for a second, I’d like to feature a book that is PERFECT for today.
The media has become a major force in our society today, and presidents are no exception when it comes to scrutiny or praise. Farnsworth and Lichter, professors at University of Mary Washington and George Mason University respectively, analyze the impact of the news outlets on the Executive Office of the United States. It also takes into account the issues facing the nation, such as the economy (that’s not a big problem, right?) and in times of war. Focusing on the events of the past two decades, the authors critically evaluate the media coverage surrounding the individual tasked with running one of the most powerful countries in the world. The book also includes an extensive list of references for further research on the topic.
The fall 2008 Fairhaven Lecture Series theme is “Election 2008: Political Processes, Presidents, and Prognostications.”
Lectures are open to the public and free. All take place on Mondays at 3 p.m. at Fairhaven Retirement Community’s Fellowship Hall (435 West Starin Road, Whitewater, WI).
If you can’t attend, podcasts of the lectures will be posted at the series web site.
- Sept. 15 “North-South Divide: Regional Partisan Divisions in Presidential Elections” by Larry Anderson (Political Science Dept.)
- Sept. 22 “The Role of New Media on National Elections” by James Kates (Communication Dept.)
- Sept. 29 “Action on the Front Line: Managing a Local Political Campaign” by Carol Scovotti (Marketing Dept.)
- Oct. 6 “Direct Democracy: Initiatives/Referendums in the General Election” by Jolly Emrey (Political Science Dept.)
- Oct. 13 “Comparing the 1968 and 2008 Elections: War, Race, and the Politics of Change” by Richard Haven (Interim Dean of the College of Arts and Communication)
- Oct. 20 “Politics, Personality, and Hypocrisy: Using Psychology to Understand Political Perceptions, Behavior, and Party Differences” by Dan Stalder (Psychology Dept.)
- Oct. 27 “Presidential Libraries: Dust Bunnies from the White House Attic” by Richard Haney (Emeritus Professor, History Dept.)
- Nov. 3 “The Operation and Strategies of the Electoral College” by John Kozlowicz (Emeritus Professor, Political Science Dept.)
- Nov. 10 “Where Will This Election Lead Us?” by a panel of Faculty from the Political Science Dept.
- Nov. 17 “How the New Administration Will Treat and Affect the Economy” by Jeffery Heinrich (Economics Dept.)
- Nov. 24 “International Affairs and the New Administration” by Anne Hamilton (Political Science Dept.)
The University Library has resources for those of you who want to know more.
For example, if the Sept. 22nd topic interests you, search the Library Catalog for books, and you will find titles such as “Generation digital: Politics, commerce, and childhood in the age of the Internet” and “Blog! How the newest media revolution is changing politics, business, and culture.” Search article databases such as Academic Search Premier and find articles such as “Flickring here, twittering there” in Economist (8/16/2008 issue on pp. 30-31), which, according to the abstract, “reports on the significant impact the Internet has had on American politics” and examines “[t]he use of the Internet by 2008 presidential candidates Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain.” Materials related to other lecture topics are also available. For assistance please contact a Reference librarian (call 262-472-1032 or email refdesk@uww.edu).
Gusher of Lies:
The Dangerous Delusions of “Energy Independence”
by Robert Bryce
TJ163.25 .U6 B79 2008
New Book Island, 2nd floor
With oil prices nearing $143 a barrel, one has to wonder about this energy independence that has been buzzing around Washington and the rest of the world. This week’s new book has some beef with this notion of a self-sustaining United States.
“All of them are full of methane,” states the book description, in reference to Bush, Obama, Greenpeace and everyone that supports weaning the country off of foreign oil. Bryce, fellow at the Institute for Energy Research and managing editor of the Energy Tribune, takes issue with the idea of energy independence, saying that it’s neither possible nor advantageous. Furthermore, he holds nothing back against its proponents, which are not limited to just the crazy liberals or the staunch conservatives. He examines both the past, current and future alternative energy sources and their viability (or lack thereof). The book includes references and a bibliography for further reading.
The Library also has another book by Bryce, Pipe Dreams: Greed, Ego, and the Death of Enron, available in the Main Collection (HD9502.U54 E573 2002).
Generation Digital:
Politics, Commerce & Childhood in the Age of the Internet
by Kathryn Montgomery
HQ784 .M3 M66 2007
New Book Island, 2nd floor
The cover of this book, as you may notice, has a picture of a young girl on a cell phone. The photo represents the theme of the book – how technology has changed growing up in the world and its effect on childhood. Montgomery, professor at American University and co-founder of the Center for Media Education, brings an interesting point of view to the table, as a media analyst/scholar, advocate and parent of a millenial. In Generation Digital, she explores how the media landscape has transformed childhood, resulting in techno-savvy youth that balance multitasking with a variety electronic devices look easy. The author also looks at the parallel policy debates that seek to protect these children from the dangers of the Internet. All of this comes into play when examining digital marketing and how it has evolved into what it is today. Packed with a historical perspective and tons of references, this is a great place to begin when researching the digital generation.
