Yale Bulletin and Calendar

February 14, 2003|Volume 31, Number 18

Yale Books in Brief

The following is a list of books recently or soon-to-be published by members of the Yale community. Descriptions are based on material provided by the publishers.

To submit information about books for this column, send e-mail to opa@yale.edu.

The Way to Eat
Dr. David L. Katz, associate clinical professor of epidemiology and public health, and medicine
(Sourcebooks, Inc.)

The challenge of eating well and controlling weight is the subject of this sixth book by Dr. David L. Katz and co-author M.H. Gonzalez. Katz compares humans struggling with a fast-food culture to polar bears in the Sahara desert, and he characterizes more than 50 commonly encountered obstacles to healthful eating and weight control. The book details the skills and strategies needed to achieve lifelong weight control, good health and contentment with food. An extensive resource section addresses such topics as selecting brands and products at the supermarket and preparing healthful and convenient snacks for children.

World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability
Amy Chua, professor of law
(Doubleday)

When global markets open, ethnic conflict worsens and politics turns ugly and violent, Amy Chua argues in "World on Fire." Drawing on examples from around the world -- from Africa and Asia to Russia and Latin America -- Chua contends free markets do not spread wealth evenly throughout the whole of these societies. Instead, she claims, they produce a new class of wealthy plutocrats (individuals as rich as nations) who are almost always members of a minority group -- such as Chinese in the Philippines, Croatians in the former Yugoslavia, whites in Latin America, Indians in East Africa and Jews in post-communist Russia. These "market-dominated minorities," Chua contends, have become targets of violent hatred. Adding democracy to this mix unleashes supressed ethnic hatreds and brings to power ethnonationalist governments that pursue agressive policies of confiscation and revenge, Chua says. She also shows how individual countries are often viewed as dominant minorities, explaining this phenomenon of ethnic resentment in the Arab-Israeli conflict and the rising tide of anti-American sentiment around the world.

How Fra Angelico and Signorelli Saw the End of the World
Creighton E. Gilbert, professor emeritus of the history of art
(Penn State University Press)

The frescoes of the Cappella Nuova in the Cathedral of Orvieto have fascinated visitors from Michelangelo to Freud and Czeslaw Milosz because of their dramatic portrayal of the end of the world and the Last Judgment. Creighton Gilbert's study draws on previously overlooked documents to explain the commissioning of this cycle of paintings, begun by Fra Angelico in the early 1400s and completed a half-century later by Luca Signorelli. In contrast to other art historians who ascribe the iconographic and formal of structure of the paintings to Signorelli, Gilbert contends that his predecessor, Fra Angelico, devised the entire program of decoration. Gilbert also situates the cycle in the contexts of liturgical practice, humanistic studies and the body of texts and images shaping the Renaissance conception of the coming of the Antichrist and the world's final moments.

The Story of My Typewriter
Paul Auster and Sam Messer, senior critic in painting/printmaking, School of Art
(Distributed Art Publisher, Inc.)

Artist Sam Messer collaborated with writer Paul Auster in this tribute to the the tool of Auster's trade: a manual Olympia typewriter he has used since the 1970s to write his novels, stories and other works. Messer contributed to the book more than 30 paintings and drawings of the typewriter and of Auster at work, done primarily in oils, and Auster wrote the text. The New York Times described their collaboration as "a whimsical delight," and Publishers Weekly said of the book: "This is an undeniably odd but captivating book, in which Messer, in Auster's words, turns 'an inanimate object into a being with personality and a presence in the world.'"

T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

Stamp honors legendary Yale football coach

New test proves better than SAT at predicting college success

Peers and players applaud Meredith's winning ways

CBS executive talks about TV news in 'a world of infinite choice'

Event highlights alternative approaches to law

School of Architecture exhibit showcases design team's work

Katz and Katz bringing talents to Kramer Initiative programs

Terry Lectures examine human quest to exorcise 'demons'

Production of rarely seen play celebrates expatriates' collaboration

Yale physician contributes to artist's show linking art and science

Program Honors Accident Victims

Dwight Hall names two new staff members

Yale Books in Brief

Campus Notes