A Multnomah County Library Booklist for KBOO Listeners
Many thanks to Multnomah County Librarian Steve Casburn
Four strong winds : Ian & Sylvia
by John Einarson with Ian Tyson & Sylvia Tyson. (Toronto : McClelland & Stewart, c2011.)
CALL # 782.421620092 I117e 2011.
An acclaimed music historian brings us the long-awaited story of Ian & Sylvia - marking the first time that the legendary folk duo has endorsed a biography of their groundbreaking career.
(Music)
The Foxfire 45th anniversary book : singin', praisin', raisin'
edited by Joyce Green, Casi Best, and Foxfire Students. (New York : Anchor, 2011.)
CALL # 975.04 F795ff 2011.
For almost half a century, Foxfire has brought the philosophy of simple living to hundreds of thousands of readers, teaching creative self-sufficiency and preserving the stories, crafts, and customs of Appalachia. Inspiring and practical, this classic series has become an American institution.
(Sustainable Living)
Top secret America: the rise of the new American security state
by Dana Priest and William M. Arkin. (New York : Little, Brown and Co., 2011.)
CALL # 363.325170973 P9491t 2011.
The top-secret world that the government created in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks has become so enormous, so unwieldy, and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs or exactly how many agencies duplicate work being done elsewhere. The result is that the system put in place to keep the United States safe may be putting us in greater danger.
(Politics)
Derrida : a very short introduction
by Simon Glendinning. (Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2011.)
CALL # 194 D438gs 2011.
Jacques Derrida, the French philosopher, wrote such famed works as Writing and Difference, Speech and Phenomena, and On Grammatology, has made important contributions to both post-structuralism and post-modern philosophy, and indeed has challenged some of the unquestioned assumptions of our philosophical tradition. But he is most renowned--or condemned--for his critical technique known as "deconstruction." In this Very Short Introduction, Simon Glendinning explores both the difficulty and significance of the work of Derrida.
(Philosophy)
Understanding multicultural education : equity for all students
by Francisco Rios and Christine Rogers Stanton. (Lanham, Md. : Rowman & Littlefield Education, c2011.)
CALL # 370.1170973 R586u 2011.
Multicultural education has evolved over the last 25 years to become a promising, productive, and positive approach to education within an increasingly diverse schooling context. The academic discipline has developed models, robust definitions and goals, and specific pedagogical principles related to an education that is multicultural.
(Education)
Garbage : investigate what happens when you throw it out
by Donna Latham ; illustrated by Beth Hetland. (White River Junction, VT : Nomad Press ; Chicago, IL :[Distributed by] Independent Publishers Group, c2011.)
CALL # j 363.7285 L3522g 2011.
Teaching children that the battle against the worlds overwhelming waste problem begins with them, this plethora of projects investigates the science of “garbology.” The guide highlights the choices people make in creating garbage in the first place, suggesting ways kids can reduce, reuse, and recycle as well as rethink their actions for the future. Along the way, hands-on activities encourage children to make even more discoveries.
(Children's)
Atomic frontier days : Hanford and the American West
by John M. Findlay and Bruce Hevly. (Seattle : Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest in association with University of Washington Press, c2011.)
CALL # 623.451190979751 F4947a 2011.
On the banks of the Pacific Northwest's greatest river lies the Hanford nuclear reservation, an industrial site that appears to be at odds with the surrounding vineyards and desert. The 586-square mile compound on the Columbia in eastern Washington is known both for its origins as part of the Manhattan Project, which made the first atomic bombs, and for the monumental effort now under way to clean up forty-five years' of waste from manufacturing plutonium for the U.S. nuclear weapons complex. Hanford routinely makes the news, as scientists, litigants, administrators, and politicians argue over its past and its future.
(Pacific Northwest)
A plague of prisons : the epidemiology of mass incarceration in America
by Ernest Drucker. (New York : New Press : Distributed by Perseus Distribution, 2011.)
CALL # 365.973 D7941p 2011.
When Dr. John Snow first traced an outbreak of cholera to a water pump in the Soho district of London in 1854, the field of epidemiology was born. Taking the same public health approaches and tools that have successfully tracked epidemics of flu, tuberculosis, and AIDS over the intervening one hundred and fifty years, Ernest Drucker makes the case that our current unprecedented level of imprisonment has become an epidemic—a plague upon our body politic.
(Crime)
Scorched earth : legacies of chemical warfare in Vietnam
Fred A. Wilcox ; photographs by Brendan B. Wilcox. (New York : Seven Stories Press, c2011.)
CALL # 615.9513709597 W6675s 2011.
Scorched Earth is the first book to chronicle the effects of chemical warfare on the Vietnamese people and their environment, where, even today, more than 3 million people—including 500,000 children—are sick and dying from birth defects, cancer, and other illnesses that can be directly traced to Agent Orange/dioxin exposure. Weaving first-person accounts with original research, Vietnam War scholar Fred A. Wilcox examines long-term consequences for future generations, laying bare the ongoing monumental tragedy in Vietnam, and calls for the United States government to finally admit its role in chemical warfare in Vietnam.
(Military)
The face of imperialism
by Michael Parenti. (Boulder, CO : Paradigm Publishers, c2011.)
CALL # 325.320973 P2285f 2011.
In the last half-century we have witnessed a dramatic expansion of American corporate power into every corner of the world, accompanied by an equally awesome growth in U.S. military power. This book analyzes this global empire: what interests it serves and what effect it has on the peoples of the world and on their struggles for real democracy and social justice. The enormous cost of this superpower expansionism is borne by the U.S. public. The empire feeds off the republic. A richly financed corporate-military complex is matched at home by increasing poverty, the defunding of state and local governments, drastic cutbacks in human services, decaying infrastructure, and impending ecological disaster.
(Politics)
Arts, Inc. : how greed and neglect have destroyed our cultural rights
Bill Ivey. (Berkeley : University of California Press, c2008.)
CALL # 700.10309073 I95a 2008.
In this impassioned and persuasive book, Bill Ivey, the former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, assesses the current state of the arts in America and finds cause for alarm. Even as he celebrates our ever-emerging culture and the way it enriches our lives here at home while spreading the dream of democracy around the world, he points to a looming crisis. The expanding footprint of copyright, an unconstrained arts industry marketplace, and a government unwilling to engage culture as a serious arena for public policy have come together to undermine art, artistry, and cultural heritage--the expressive life of America. In eight succinct chapters, Ivey blends personal and professional memoir, policy analysis, and deeply held convictions to explore and define a coordinated vision for art, culture, and expression in American life.
(Art, Politics)
Debt : the first 5,000 years
by David Graeber. (Brooklyn, N.Y. : Melville House, c2011.)
CALL # 332 G734d 2011.
Every economics textbook says the same thing: Money was invented to replace onerous and complicated barter systems—to relieve ancient people from having to haul their goods to market. The problem with this version of history? There’s not a shred of evidence to support it.
Here anthropologist David Graeber presents a stunning reversal of conventional wisdom. He shows that for more than 5,000 years, since the beginnings of the first agrarian empires, humans have used elaborate credit systems to buy and sell goods—that is, long before the invention of coins or cash. It is in this era, Graeber argues, that we also first encounter a society divided into debtors and creditors.
(Anthropology, Economics, World History, Business)
Eco Amazons : 20 women who are transforming the world
by Dorka Keehn ; photography by Colin Finlay ; [foreword by Julia Butterfly Hill].(Brooklyn, NY : PowerHouse Books, 2011.)
CALL # 333.720820922 K262e 2011.
It’s a fact: individuals have the power to change the world. And in an age of rampant environmental devastation, nothing is as vital as saving our planet and the health of its inhabitants. Eco Amazons brings together the women leading the charge to create a sustainable future. They are individuals at the forefront of the global preservation movement, making a noticeable difference in all of our lives. Through intimate interviews conducted by journalist Dorka Keehn and arresting images by award-winning photographer Colin Finlay, Eco Amazons chronicles and illuminates the critical environmental issues of our time and shows how concern leads to passion, and how passion leads to action that can be emulated by all.
(Environmental Studies, Photography)
What every environmentalist needs to know about capitalism : a citizen's guide to capitalism and the environment
by Fred Magdoff and John Bellamy Foster. (New York : Monthly Review Press, c2011.)
CALL # 330.122 M189w 2011.
This short, readable book is a sharply argued manifesto for those environmentalists who reject schemes of "green capitalism" or piecemeal reform. Environmental and economic scholars Magdoff and Foster contend that the struggle to reverse ecological degradation requires a firm grasp of economic reality. Going further, they argue that efforts to reform capitalism along environmental lines or rely solely on new technology to avert catastrophe misses the point. The main cause of the looming environmental disaster is the driving logic of the system itself, and those in power--no matter how "green"--are incapable of making the changes that are necessary.
What Every Environmentalist Needs To Know about Capitalism tackles the two largest issues of our time, the ecological crisis and the faltering capitalist economy, in a way that is thorough, accessible, and sure to provoke debate in the environmental movement.
(Business, Economics)
Soundbitten : the perils of media-centered political activism
by Sarah Sobieraj. (New York : New York University Press, c2011.)
CALL # 324.730973 S6775s 2011.
There is an elaborate and often invisible carnival that emerges alongside presidential campaigns as innumerable activist groups attempt to press their issues into mainstream political discourse. Sarah Sobieraj's fascinating ethnographic portrait of fifty diverse organizations over the course of two campaign cycles reveals that while most activist groups equate political success with media success and channel their energies accordingly, their efforts fail to generate news coverage and come with deleterious consequences. Sobieraj shows that activists' impact on public political debates is minimal, and carefully unravels the ways in which their all-consuming media work and unrelenting public relations approach undermine their ability to communicate with pedestrians, comes at the expense of other political activities, and perhaps most perniciously, damages the groups themselves.
(Sociology)