Duke University Press Log

1 in 100 American Adults Behind Bars

The Pew Center on the States issued a report today stating that one in 100 American adults are currently behind bars. The New York Times reports that one in 15 black Americans are incarcerated and one in 9 young black men. Duke Press's book Warfare in the American Homeland: Policing and Prison in a Penal Democracy provides some context to this troubling news. Editor Joy James assembles scholars, activists, and current and former prisoners in this interesting and disturbing collection. Through biography, diary entries, and criticism, the contributors collectively assert that the United States wages war against enemies abroad and against its own people at home.

Tribute to Thomas Glave

Here's a nice tribute on YouTube to Thomas Glave, author of the forthcoming Our Caribbean: A Gathering of Lesbian and Gay Writing from the Antilles, by a fan of his earlier book Words to Our Now.

Resources on Cuba

Major papers today lead with news that Cuba's National Assembly has selected Raúl Castro as the country's new president. All the papers agree that not much is expected to change in Cuba over the next few years. Bad news for Cubans, but it does mean that all the great Duke Press books on Cuba are still great resources for better understanding the island nation. For a wide view of the politics, history, and culture of Cuba, try The Cuba Reader, a great collection of fiction, poetry, primary documents, art, and scholarship. For a journalistic look at life in Cuba as it entered the 21st Century, check out Capitalism, God, and a Good Cigar, edited by Lydia Chávez. To learn more about religion and spirituality in Cuba, and to see some fabulous photojournalism, turn to Crosssing the Water: A Photographic Path to the Afro-Cuban Spirit World by Claire Garoutte and Anneke Wambaugh. For books exploring the arts in Cuba, we offer Sujatha Fernandes's Cuba Represent! Cuban Arts, State Power, and the Making of New Revolutionary Cultures and Helio Orovio's encyclopedic Cuban  Music from A to Z.

Mavor Reviewed in LA Times

Carol Mavor's Reading Boyishly has been reviewed in the Los Angeles Times. Reviewer Susan Salter Reynolds writes: "It is a sigh of relief, this book, a defense of things that make us feel guilty: nostalgia, apron strings, the "good-enough mother," the lost mother, the nest, the childhood home, the beauty of boys at play. . . . Food and kissing, eating and not eating, boredom and tenderness—Mavor's is a style to be savored."

Being Gay in the Caribbean

The New York Times features an article about recent violent attacks on gays in Jamaica. Reporter Marc Lacey writes: "Being gay in Jamaica is not easy. For years, human rights groups have denounced the harassment, beating and even killing of gays here, to little avail. No official statistic has been compiled on the number of attacks. But a recent string of especially violent, high-profile assaults has brought fresh condemnation to an island otherwise known as an easygoing tourist haven." In June Duke Press will publish Thomas Glave's collection of lesbian and gay writing from the Caribbean. Our Caribbean features fiction, poetry, and prose from all over the Antilles, including Jamaica. Many of the writers speak to the severe repression faced by gay people in the region.

Weisbard Reviewed in Times Higher

Eric Weisbard's Listen Again, a collection of essays collecting some of the finest presentations from the celebrated Experience Music Project Pop Conference, has been reviewed in the Times Higher Education Supplement. Reviewer David Hesmondhalgh writes: "Time and again, I found myself putting down the book to download a song or to search YouTube for a dimly recalled performer evocatively discussed here. But this isn't a book of pop trivia, a scholarly version of TV nostalgia shows. Anyone who wants to revisit the pop past will find enjoyment in Listen Again, but learning and scholarship too."

Living with Bad Surroundings

Today’s New York Times features an article about the agreement that the Ugandan Government and the Lord’s Resistance Army have come to concerning the prosecution of war crimes that have taken place during the LRA’s bloody rebellion in Northern Uganda. Duke Press author Sverker Finnström’s new book,  Living with Bad Surroundings:  War, History, and Everyday Moments in Northern Uganda, is an ethnography about the ways that Northern Ugandans understand and attempt to control their moral universe and material circumstances in the midst of this civil war.

Two Reviews of Mavor's Reading Boyishly

Carol Mavor's third book, Reading Boyishly, has just been reviewed in Library Journal. They call the book “a passionate study of nostalgic representations of the maternal in the artistic creations of five distinguished and famous—albeit boyish men" and find it "highly recommended for large and comprehensive literature collections, a good choice for public libraries, and essential for academic institutions.” Reading Boyishly was also reviewed in The Daily Item of Sunbury, Pennsylvania. Reviewer Michael Payne calls the book "beautiful, deeply pleasurable, and thought-provoking" and raves about how beautiful it is as an object:  "Like the typical French paperback, it has that distinctive, sensual, cream-colored cover; but its pages are neatly cut, its type-face is crisp and clean, and its hundreds of visual reproductions are exquisite. Just to hold this book and to thumb through it initially is to be reminded why no electronic text can ever hope to displace a book like this. It reminds us of books we have treasured since we were children—perhaps just a few now in their devastated state—or a truly rare old book (for me, that's a 1618 King James Bible)—or a sumptuous modern reproduction, such as of an elegant medieval Book of the Hours."  The book was designed by Amy Ruth Buchanan.

Chris Kelty on Open Access to Journals

Anthropologist Christopher M. Kelty, author of the forthcoming book Two Bits: The Cultural Significance of Free Software (July 2008), is quoted in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Kelty is a contributor to the February special issue of Anthropology News dedicated to open access. On the anthropology blog Savage Minds, Kelty and others have expressed dismay that the American Anthopological Association does not seem committed to open access to scholarship. (Among the ironies they point out is that the issue devoted to open access will be archived on March 1 on the subscription only AnthroSource site.) Kelty argues that open access to scholarship will allow readers to comment quickly an publicly on published articles allowing a productive dialogue. He and Duke University graduate student Jason Cross tried to convince the AAA's staff to allow the special issue of Anthropology News to be published under a Creative Commons license, but were unable to persuade them. Kelty then wrote a Valentine's Day letter to the AAA on Savage Minds, saying "the more I deal with the AAA, especially the component dealing with publications, promotion and public policy, the more I am disheartened by the state of affairs. . . . [T]his is not only a failure of Open Access, its a profound failure of leadership and a failure to create dialogue." Kelty's own book with Duke University Press will be published under a Creative Commons license and will be freely available online.

Sernett Answers Query about Tubman Quote

"Goodbye to All That, #2," an essay by Robin Morgan in defense of Hillary Clinton has been circulating all over the internet during the past few weeks. The Cliopatra blog on the History News Network features a critique by Ralph E. Luker in which he tries to find out whether a quote by Harriet Tubman that Morgan uses in her piece was actually ever said by Tubman at all. Luker contacted Milton Sernett, author of Harriet Tubman: Myth, Memory, and History to try to set the record straight. Sernett told him, "I have not found the quotation in question in any of the primary sources that purport to be faithful renditions of Tubman sayings/comments/aphorisms or the like. My impression is that this is a late 20th century quote from a fictionalized account of Tubman's life. ... Whoever wishes to use the dubious quote as a political zinger ought to cite a reliable source." To which Luker replies: "Robin Morgan: Cite your source or quit pimpin' out Harriet Tubman!"