Book Reviews
Gender and Political Communication in America
Respected communication scholar Erika Falk also extends her previous work by examining gender bias and maintenance in the press coverage of Hillary Clinton’s announcement to seek the presidency in 2008. Editor Edwards furthers her investigation of political cartoons by making “an examination of twenty years worth of masculinity as an interpretive frame” in editorial cartoons. Optimistically she notes that as more women enter presidential politics it could lead to a more neutralized gender depiction in cartoons. She notes the dearth of press coverage for women candidates both from the beginning of their presidential efforts in 1872 to today. That Barack Obama credited Chisholm for paving the way for his presidential success, should make race and gender scholars consider her important 1972 presidential race. more »
CultureWatch: Talking About Detective Fiction and The Museum of Innocence
This section covers everything from technical developments; to scientific advances like DNA which provide new investigative methods; to movie and television links; to new access to detective fiction from foreign countries (e.g. the Swedish Wallander series); to new avenues of research (she still prefers to do her own). Anent the latter, that there is a nifty little bibliography and list of suggested reading at the end of the book. more »
Book Review: The Education of a Black Radical: A Southern Civil Rights Activist’s Journey 1959-1964
Jo Freeman writes: Colleges and universities were a major source of civil rights activists in the Sixties. Whether black or white, as long as they did their activism after leaving school, they were heralded as heroes. But if they were active while still students, even off-campus, they were troublemakers. This was particularly true for state supported schools. Legislators often wanted the schools they funded to keep their students off the streets. When campus administrators couldn’t control student activists, someone suffered. more »
December 2009 CultureWatch
Abigail & John: Portrait of a Marriage is important because it helps to regender early American history which remains overly focused on generals and male political leaders. Lori Hahnel’s collection of short fiction, Nothing Sacred, is spare, subtle and literary but not pretentious in any way, and very pleasing. Now in paperback, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Olive Kitteridge, give the reader a deep sense of the connectedness of the small town and its inhabitants, and of Olive’s place in the scheme of things. more »