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June 27, 2003|Volume 31, Number 32|Four-Week Issue



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In "Worlds Apart," School of Forestry and Environmental Studies Dean James Gustave Speth and contributors explore the challenges of globalization in connection with environmental issues.



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.


Diversity in America: Keeping Government at a Safe Distance
Peter H. Schuck, the Simeon Baldwin Professor of Law
(Harvard University Press)

In this book, Peter Schuck explains how Americans have understood and embraced diversity and how the government regulates it now. Offering conceptual, historical, legal, political and sociological analysis, he argues that diversity is best managed not by the government but by families, ethnic groups, religious communities, employers, voluntary organizations and other civil society institutions. He analyzes some of the most controversial policy arenas where politics and diversity intersect -- immigration, multiculturalism, language, affirmative action, residential neighborhoods, religious practices, faith-based social services and school choice -- and examines the conflicts, trade-offs and ironies entailed by the American commitment to diversity. Schuck concludes with recommendations to help manage the challenge of diversity in the future.


The Yale Guide to Careers in Medicine & the Health Professions: Pathways to Medicine in the 21st Century
Edited by Dr. Robert M. Donaldson, the David Paige Smith Professor of Medicine Emeritus; Kathleen S. Lundgren, a teaching fellow in bioethics and editorial fellow at the Institution for Social and Policy Studies; and Dr. Howard M. Spiro, professor of medicine emeritus
(Yale University Press)

Students, medical residents, scientists, scholars, nurses, administrators, physicians and others offer reflective, personal discussion of the issues and options students should consider as they contemplate a career in medicine or any of the health professions in this new book. Each tells a personal story to help readers answer the question: "Is this for me?" The contributors also offer an assessment of the psychological preparation needed to pursue a medical career, as well as some practical guidance for the application process. Sharing their varied experiences, physicians and others who practice medicine tell of the positive and negative feelings they have experienced in their jobs, discussing frankly the difficulties and rewards of such a profession.


The Diary of Georgi Dimitrov, 1933-1949
Introduced and edited by Ivo Banac, the Bradford Durfee Professor of History
(Yale University Press)

Georgi Dimitrov (1882-1949) was a high-ranking Bulgarian and Soviet official who was one of the most prominent leaders of the international Communist movement and a trusted member of Stalin's inner circle. Accused by the Nazis of setting the Reichstag fire in 1933, he successfully defended himself at the Leipzig Trial and became an international symbol of resistance to Nazism. Stalin appointed him head of the Communist International in 1935, and he held this position until 1943. After World War II, he returned to Bulgaria and became its first Communist premier. He kept a diary that described his career and revealed much about the inner workings of the international Communist organizations, the opinions and actions of the Soviet leadership, and the Soviet Union's role in shaping the postwar modern Europe. This edited version of his diary by Ivo Banac provides new insights about Stalin and the events of his time.


Baseball in New Haven
Sam Rubin, writer and photographer for the Department of Athletics
(Princeton University Press)

Sports writer and photographer Sam Rubin documents New Haven's long history of minor-league baseball in this new work, showing how Yale baseball has been closely linked to the minor-league system over the years. The book includes more than 200 rare images, including one of former President George H.W. Bush -- then the captain of Yale's baseball team -- with Babe Ruth 1948; Lou Gehrig at Yale Field for an exhibition game in 1933; local semi-professional and amateur leagues throughout New Haven's history; Ty Cobb in an exhibition game, circa 1915; and today's New Haven Ravens.


Worlds Apart: Globalization and the Environment
Edited by James Gustave Speth, dean of the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
(Island Press)

Dean James Gustave Speth and leading environmental thinkers examine the social and environmental dimensions of globalization and the evolution of global environmental governance in "Worlds Apart." The book addresses the globalization of the economy and the transition to a sustainable society. Essays explore such topics as the scientific indicators of global environmental change; the ways in which small, local groups can achieve success in protecting the environment through self-rule; the Rio Earth Summit and the future course of environmentalism; energy; the forestry industry, and other topics. Says Speth in the introduction: "Our efforts to build systems that allow us to respond effectively to severe threats of environmental degradation are still in their infancy, but the challenges we have created for ourselves are far along in their maturation. If we do not act quickly, we likely will lose our opportunity to protect much of what we value in the natural world."


The First Urban Christians: The Social World of the Apostle Paul
Wayne Meeks, the Woolsey Professor Emeritus of Biblical Studies
(Yale University Press)

This is the new paperback edition of Meeks' book, which was a co-winner of the Biblical Archaeology Review Publication Award for the Best Book on the New Testament and the American Academy of Religion's Award for Excellence in Book Publication in the Historical Category. The book analyzes the earliest extant documents of Christianity -- the letters of Paul -- to describe the tensions and the texture of life of the first urban Christians. In a new introduction, Meeks describes the evolution of the field of New Testament scholarship over the past 20 years, including new developments in fields such as archaeology and social history.


Hamlet: Poem Unlimited
Harold Bloom, Sterling Professor of Humanities and English
(Riverhead)

Harold Bloom's "Hamlet: Poem Unlimited" is a thorough examination of and guide to one of Shakespeare's most famous plays and his renowned protagonist. He explores such questions as: Was Hamlet suicidal? Did he love Ophelia? and, Why was he so ambivalent? Bloom argues that Hamlet was likely a child neglected by his parents who moved through life in a detached way. Yorick the Jester, Bloom asserts, was the closest thing to a parental figure in the young Prince of Denmark's life. Bloom also devotes a portion of the book to an examination of the place of "Hamlet" in Western cultural heritage.


The Peloponnesian War
Donald Kagan, Sterling Professor of Classics and History
(Viking Books)

The 30-year conflict between Athens and Sparta is described in this work by Donald Kagan. Kagan, who had authored a four-volume book on the same subject, wanted to offer a shorter narrative of the war for a non-scholarly audience. Often compared to World War I because of the way in which both wars transformed government, a way of life and politics, the Peloponnesian War brought an end to ancient Greece's era of glory.


Knowledge and Learning in Natural Language
Charles Yang, assistant professor of linguistics
(Oxford University Press)

In this new book, Charles Yang explores how children learn language. He asserts that children are born with a fixed set of hypotheses about language -- called "universal grammar" -- and these hypotheses compete to match the child's ambient language in a Darwinian fashion. The book presents evidence for this perspective from the study of children's words and grammar, and how language changes over time.


A Way Out: America's Ghettos and the Legacy of Racism
Owen Fiss, Sterling Professor of Law
(Princeton University Press)

Owen Fiss proposes a national policy initiative that would give inner-city residents rent vouchers so that they could move to better neighborhoods, thereby ending the informal segregation, by race and by income, of the nation's metropolitan regions. Fiss' book traces the legal, political and economic factors that created today's ghettos. The book also contains 10 essays by scholars, journalists and practicing lawyers in response to Fiss' proposal and a final rebuttal by the Yale scholar.


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

Faculty win Blue Planet Prize; second Yale win in two years

Renowned neurosurgeon named acting dean of Medical School

High school students sample university life

City youths learn the fine art of playwriting

Changes in cloud elevation may affect Northeastern forests . . .

Students' winning house design parts with tradition

Summer music flourished under pianist's direction

MEDICAL SCHOOL NEWS

Yale artist's painting wins award from National Academy of Art

Two faculty members elected into renowned society

Yale Glee Club has named its newest director

ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERIES

Law professor Burke Marshall dies . . .

Thomas Greene, renowned literary scholar, dies at age 77

Leonard Kaplow dies; renowned pathologist

Symposium honors Shulman's work with NMR

Yale Books in Brief

Campus Notes


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