Book Marks
Recent books by Indiana University faculty members and titles from IU Press
Rural Free: A Farmwife's Almanac of Country Living. Rachel Peden was a woman and a writer both behind and ahead of her time. When American culture was all outward-looking, optimistic and bustling, she wrote carefully and lovingly with close attention to place. Living and writing on a Monroe County, Ind., farm, she described nursing a sick calf, mending fences, hunting mushrooms and picking blackberries, the first killing frost of fall, the "glory of the Lord in a cloud" at sunset. Quarry Books, an imprint of Indiana University Press, has republished Rural Free, Peden's 1961 almanac of a year on the farm, with a foreword by Jennifer Meta Robinson and drawings by Sidonie Coryn. At a time of new attention to locally grown foods, environmental sustainability and carbon footprints, the book could hardly be more timely or compelling. "How much finer our lives would be if we were as attentive to our surroundings as Rachel Peden was to her family, farm, neighbors, and neighborhood," writes Scott Russell Sanders, distinguished professor of English at IU Bloomington and the author of A Conservationist Manifesto and other books. Peden (1901-75) wrote a long-running series of newspaper columns for the Indianapolis Star, called "The Hoosier Farm Wife Says . . .," which led to her three books: Rural Free, The Land, The People and Speak to the Earth.
Stories of Resilience and Hope: Reflecting on War, Ethnicity, and Liberation Struggle in Burma. May Oo fled Burma as a high school student after the military crushed pro-democracy demonstrations in 1988. Two decades later, the Indiana University doctoral student and research fellow at IU's Center for Constitutional Democracy has made several trips back to her homeland, slipping across the border from Thailand into her native Karen State in eastern Burma. May Oo, who also goes by A. MO. Mutraw, has produced a book about the struggle of the Karen people for self-determination. "I have learned so much from these people, in the face of troubles that are in my opinion beyond description, as they struggle and celebrate life on a daily basis," she writes. Stories of Resilience and Hope bears witness to efforts by the Karen people, one of the largest minority groups participating in an insurgency against the military dictatorship of Burma (also known as Myanmar). Divided into sections on "Home," "Resilience," "Hope" and "Dreams," it includes first-hand descriptions of daily life and dozens of photographs of people working, playing, studying and training to fight against a lush, mountainous backdrop. The book is a project of the Karen exile program Going Home Where We Belong. Sales support the New Generation School, which provides practical education for young people in the Karen State conflict zone.
Elderburbia: Aging with a Sense of Place in America. Aging isn't about time and the body. It's about place and relationships. So argues Phil Stafford, of the Center on Aging and Community at Indiana University Bloomington, in this new book from Greenwood Publishing Group. Elderburbia draws on ethnography to give readers a deeper understanding of how the experience of aging is shaped by where people call home. It also looks at what makes a place well suited for post-retirement living. Combining scholarship and practical advice, the book provides an introduction to research on aging and place, including studies of migration and relocation, along with profiles of community development initiatives, design guidelines for elder-friendly communities, graphics depicting elder-friendly community indicators and an extensive bibliography. Stafford is also an adjunct professor in the Department of Anthropology in the IU College of Arts and Sciences. The Center on Aging and Community is part of the Indiana Institute on Disability and Community at IU Bloomington.
The Making of a Reform Jewish Cantor: Musical Authority, Cultural Investment. How do contemporary cantors, the singers of liturgical solos who lead Jewish congregations in worship, attain musical authority? How do aspiring cantors adapt traditional forms to today's circumstances. What is the cantor's role in American Jewish religious life today? Judah M. Cohen, the Lou and Sybil Mervis professor of Jewish Culture and assistant professor of folklore and ethnomusicology at Indiana University, pursues those questions and more in his new book. Published by Indiana University Press, The Making of a Reform Jewish Cantor follows cantorial students at the School of Sacred Music, Hebrew Union College, over the course of their training. Describing the pursuit of the cantorate as "both a calling and a career choice," Cohen provides insight into issues of musical tradition, identity, gender, community and high and low musical culture. Rabbi Jeffrey A. Summit of Tufts University calls the book "an important, richly detailed work, the first comprehensive study of the training and professional enculturation of this central liturgical/musical leader . . ." Cohen is also the author of Through the Sands of Time: A History of the Jewish Community of St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands.
Gridiron Gauntlet: The Story of the Men Who Integrated Pro Football in Their Own Words. One year before Jackie Robinson broke the color line in major league baseball in 1947, four black players joined the Cleveland Browns and Los Angeles Rams to become the first professional football players of African-American descent in the modern era. While blacks had played on professional teams in the early days of pro football, none had joined a team since 1934. In his book Gridiron Gauntlet: The Story of the Men Who Integrated Pro Football in Their Own Words (Taylor Trade Publishing), Andy Piascik tells the stories of 12 players, including IU's George Taliaferro, who began their careers from 1946 to 1955. In the chapter about Taliaferro, who was a member of IU's only outright Big Ten championship team, he recalls both the support he received at IU as well as the segregation he faced, common at that time. "Perhaps of greater significance, the Hoosiers featured seven black players during George's time as a student." wrote Piascik, also author of the book, Best Show in Football: The 1946-1955 Cleveland Browns -- Pro Football's Greatest Dynasty. "No school other than the historically black colleges had ever had an athletic team with that many blacks, and George is quick to give Indiana administrators and coaches credit for being ahead of the curve. Typical of the racial schizophrenia of the era, however, George experienced more than his share of slights and outright hostility even as tens of thousands of Hoosier fans yelled their approval of him as a football player." Among the stories Taliaferro tells about his pro football career is a recollection of Hall of Famer Jack Kemp telling him about playing catch with him as a 14-year-old, after a Los Angeles Dons practice. "He said. 'You are on my wall of fame with Muhammad Ali, Dr. Martin Luther King, Thurgood Marshall,' and he named several other people," Taliaferro told Piascik. "And then when he got up to make his speech, Jack Kemp said, 'The greatest football player I have ever seen is in the audience this evening, George Taliaferro.'" Other oral histories presented include those of Hall of Famers Bill Willis and Joe Perry.
