We Have Moved

Loving University Presses

Anis Shivani has put together another feature on small presses for the Huffington Post; this time, he highlights the work of university presses and their contributions to the publishing scene, including noteworthy recent and upcoming projects from Yale University Press.

The previous feature is here.

Eero Saarinen at 100

Today marks the 100^th birthday of Eero Saarinen, the Finnish-American architect whose work both reflected and defined a post-World War II American national aesthetic. Saarinen, who passed away in 1961, was born on August 20, 1910 in Kirkkonummi, Finland, a few miles southwest of Helsinki. Saarinen’s father, Eliel, was a prominent Finnish architect and, when the family immigrated to the United States in 1923, secured a teaching job at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan. Strongly influenced by his father’s artistic vocation, Saarinen studied sculpture and design, first at Cranbrook, then at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris, and finally at the Yale School of Architecture, where he received his degree in 1934. For the next 16 years, Saarinen would work closely with his father, developing an architectural style strongly influenced by his modern contemporaries, such as Philip Johnson, Mies van der Rohe, and Le Corbusier.

After his father’s death in 1950, Saarinen opened his own architectural firm, Eero Saarinen and Associates. From the firm’s inception until Saarinen’s untimely death in 1961, Eero Saarinen and Associates would help usher in a second generation of architectural modernism. This group of architects retained the first generation’s interest in new construction technologies, but broke sharply from its forbears by shunning abstraction and minimalism. These second generation architects, led by Eero Saarinen, instead embraced a search for variety and visual effects, promoting a “style for the job” approach that catered much more specifically to the needs and demands of individual clients.

From the TWA Terminal at JFK airport to the Ingalls Hockey Rink at Yale University, from the Gateway Arch in St. Louis to the General Motors Technical Center outside of Detroit, Eero Saarinen’s works in the 1950s are emblematic of a post-World War II American national identity. Strongly associated with the nation’s post-war ideals of higher education, automobile culture, air travel, suburbanization, and the newest information technologies, Saarinen’s works operate on a scale designed to impress and inspire its audience. These works are grand, sleek, and powerful. As Eeva-Liisa Pelkonen and Donald Albrecht write in their 2006 illustrated study, Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future, these monuments reflected and defined the aspirations and values of mid-twentieth century America; with their swooping concrete vaults and thin glass veneers, they were both popular and “potent expressions of national power.”  

Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future, published by Yale University Press, is available for purchase here.

From Suffrage to Suffering? Modern Mothers’ Work

On August 18, 1920, the 19^th Amendment was officially ratified, bringing fruition to the women’s suffrage movement and acting as a platform for modern day feminism. Since that time, commonly known as feminism’s first wave, women’s rights movements have progressed. During the early 1900s, suffrage was a primary concern of feminists. Today, though, the issue is quite literally closer to home – family life.

Neil Gilbert’s book, A Mother’s Work: How Feminism, the Market and Policy Shape Family Life, discusses the modern family and the choices faced by women today in terms of motherhood versus an occupation. He begins by prompting the question: is motherhood in decline? Articles appeared in newspapers all across the nation, talking about an “opt-out revolution”, or the story of women choosing to stay home and raise families instead of pursuing a career. Gilbert claims, however, an assumption that women are choosing family over work is misplaced.  

He continues on by talking about the effects of capitalism on motherhood, addressing both a literal and what is known as a “psychic” income, the latter being any non-material changes that result from motherhood. In addition to this cost-benefit analysis, he asks the reader to consider feminist expectations. What is the true meaning of independence? Privilege, choice, and material possessions are all subjects that are broached, which prompt a deeper consideration of how our society affects our families.

To tie this back to voting, the issue of “family friendly” policies is one worth noting. Gilbert concludes his book that different policies may be conducive to certain lifestyles, but not others. Controversies such as day care are discussed. Ultimately, Gilbert encourages a new perspective on the pro-family debate—he advocates consideration for alternatives for balancing work and family life. He cites family/work policies of several other countries, saying that ultimately, women need to educate themselves and seek the changes that they desire.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Hitchcock

Today, August 13, marks the 111^th anniversary of Alfred Hitchcock’s birth.  His movies have become enduring classics, and many remain as surprising as when they were when first released.  The book Hitchcock’s Music by Jack Sullivan, examines the use and importance of music in Hitchcock’s films.  Sullivan describes Hitchcock as a maestro, creating films which were orchestrated much in the same way as music.

His movies are carefully matched to their soundtracks, although the genres and styles of music did not always evoke the same emotions throughout.  While a film score like the one in Rear Window served as a “paean to popular music” and often came from a clear source like the composer or a radio, sometimes, as was the case in Rebecca, the score was an omnipresent force that revealed the many dark emotions of its characters.

This year also marks the 50^th anniversary of the release of Psycho, a Hitchcock film whose score impacted its reception in ways unlike those of Rear Window and Rebecca.  Writing in the Wall Street Journal to mark that anniversary, Sullivan explains that Bernard Herrmann’s score is what ensured the film became the success it did.  The transformation from nearly scoreless film to one filled with the second highest amount of music of all of Hitchcock’s films also transformed a film that Hitchcock felt was lacking and not working into one that strongly affects its viewers.

Both the Hitchcock films themselves and the masterful use of music Sullivan details continue to serve as inspiration for other creative projects.  The 39 Steps, which Hitchcock directed in 1935, was transformed into a play which ran in London and New York.  Today’s artists also work to pay homage to the vision of the blend of music and cinema.  Not least of these artists is Lady Gaga; Hitchcock allusions appear throughout her work, including the lyrics and video of her smash singles “Bad Romance” and “Paparazzi” respectively, and many of her videos are of lengths and production values akin to short films.  

Sullivan offers even more insights into Hitchcock’s use of music throughout his works in Hitchcock’s Music, a perfect companion for celebrating his birthday today.

More on the Marriage and Discrimination Debate

In November 2008, California voters approved Proposition 8, a decision that had a considerable impact on the same-sex marriage debate. Though the proposition had passed with 52% of the vote, its constitutionality was challenged in a 2009 case brought by two gay couples.The case, Perry v. Schwarzenegger, argued that Proposition 8 was a violation of the constitutional rights due process and equal protection. On August 4, a San Francisco federal judge, agreed with the plaintiff and struck down this ban by ruling it unconstitutional.

Other states still have laws similar to Proposition 8 that ban same-sex marriage, however – and there are no provisions in federal law that recognize these unions. So what happens when a couple moves from a state that accepts their marriage to one that does not?

Same Sex Different States: When Same Sex Marriages Cross State Lines, written by Andrew Koppelman, addresses this issue by drawing upon historical precedents from when states held differing views on marriage (between very young couples, kin and interracial couples) as well as seeking workable legal solutions.

In his introduction, Koppelman takes the stance that both extremes of non-recognition and “full faith and credit” are wrong. Rather, established legal rules exist that can be applied to this situation. Each chapter discusses a law and its connection to recognizing marriages, opening with a directly relevant case. Toward the end, Koppelman talks about when to recognize same-sex marriages, defining a multitude of examples—evasive marriage, when the couple deliberately moves to another state just to be married and returns to their home state; migratory marriage, when the couple is married and then moved to a state where their marriage is prohibited, and so on. With each example, he summarizes the approach the law should take by applying a rule, an exception, and an exception to the exception. He concludes by explaining the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and how both sides of the debate may need to take compromises.

For a different facet of the same issue, Koppelman’s more recent book, A Right to Discriminate?, asks whether noncommercial associations have a right to discriminate against their potential members. This work speaks in more general terms about the history of discrimination, integrating legal history, constitutional theory, and political philosophy. 

 

Tuesday Studio: For All the World to See

This summer, the International Center for Photography in New York is presenting the exhibition For All the World to See: Visual Culture and the Struggle for Civil Rights, curated by Maurice Berger, a professor at University of Maryland, Baltimore County.  The show presents film and television clips, photography, newspapers, and other objects in order to demonstrate the role that they played in enabling civil rights changes and in establishing the character of the movement. 

For those of you unable to get to the exhibition, reviewed by Laila Pedro in Idiom magazine as “one of the most careful and engaging curatorial efforts I’ve seen in a long time,” there are a host of other ways to experience the exhibit.  There is an online version of the exhibition, which offers some of the images and written ideas behind the organization of the show, and an online film festival which matches seventeen films with short essays.  All of the films are easily available on DVD, and the corresponding essays establish their connections to and influences on the civil rights movement.

The exhibition will also be travelling to the National Museum of American History in Washington D.C. and the Center for Art, Design, and Visual Culture at University of Maryland Baltimore County.  Whether or not you make it to the show, you can bring the experience home with the exhibition catalogue, which is available from the Yale Press website. 

To learn more about the exhibition, check out this video from PBS’s Sunday Arts.  They featured the exhibition in their August 1 show, and posted the piece online.

Digging Up the Past with Chávez

This past month, on July 16, in the middle of the night, Venezuelan President, Hugo Chávez, along with aides, soldiers, a television crew, and forensics experts gathered to exhume Simón Bolívar.  Simón Bolívar helped free six countries from the Spanish Empire, rendering him the hero of most of Latin America.

Chávez has explained that Venezuela intends to perform tests to determine whether Bolívar died not from tuberculosis but in fact from arsenic poisoning, a hypothesis which is tied to a broader conspiracy scheme which also implicates Andrew Jackson and the King of Spain.  Though the scientist who initially suggested a reexamination of Bolívar’s cause of death points to possibly contaminated water or medicine which contained arsenic, Chávez and the commission investigating this three-year study have seized upon murder as the origin of the potential arsenic poisoning.

The history behind Bolívar’s death, as is described in John Lynch’s biography Simón Bolívar: A Life, is that he died at the country house of Joaquin Mier three miles from St. Marta in Colombia, with a funeral held on December 20, 1830.  Lynch strongly disagreed with the new assessments of arsenic poisoning, saying to NPR that “Historically, [Chávez has] got it all wrong…In spite of the disagreements, my own view remains that of the tradition that he died of tuberculosis.”

Why this interest in Bolívar?  As Lynch explains in the final chapter of the biography, a cult has developed surrounding Bolívar, molding him into sometimes propagandistic fiction.  Bolívar was first exhumed much earlier, in November 1842 to Caracas, his hometown in Venezuela.  Since this move from Colombia to Venezuela, the term Bolívarian, which referred to his close advisors, became a title for the many who promoted an idealized vision of Bolívar. 

Lynch also begins to address Chávez’s efforts to continue to connect Bolívar and Venezuela, the latter which Lynch notes Chávez renamed the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.  The political message of this exhumation clearly goes beyond scientific research and continues these goals of Chávez.  Once Bolívar’s remains have been tested they will be moved to a new pantheon, replete with golden urn for his bones.  With this new exhumation, many are examining the actions of Chávez and how they fit in with what we know about Bolívar.  Chávez has worked hard for a long time to be seen as an heir to Bolívar.  This connection that Chávez has developed is refuted by a number of people, including Thor Halvorssen, a descendant of Bolívar’s youngest sister.  Halvorssen argues that Chávez’s socialist leanings stray far from the Enlightenment ideals of Simón Bolívar, who Halvorssen sees as Chávez’s chief competition.

To better understand the history behind this complex issue, John Lynch’s biography Simón Bolívar: A Life is a close and deeply researched look at the life and work of Bolívar.

Ahmed Rashid on ABC News This Week

This Sunday, August 1, the internationally acclaimed journalist and author Ahmed Rashid appeared as a featured guest on ABC News This Week. In a roundtable discussion with George Will, Donna Brazile and Paul Krugman, Rashid discussed the significance and concerns behind the recent exposure of information on the Afghanistan war by WikiLeaks. Christine Amanpour, the new host of ABC's Sunday news program, acknowledged Rashid as "the world's leading authority on the Taliban." The second edition of Taliban, Rashid's seminal work on the infamous terrorist organization from the Middle East, is currently available for purchase.

Flavell: When London Was Capital of America

This Sunday the New York Times Book Review featured an excellent review of Julie Flavell's "When London Was Capital of America", an historical appraisal of the cultural, political and economic significance of the city on the Thames in the early 18th century. As Flavell recounts, London in the decades before the American Revolution was seen as an essential and inimitable city of opportunity for all who lived in the colonies. "Wealthy Southern plantation owners and New England merchants, husbands and wives, children and slaves all arrived in what was thought to be the most exciting city in the world," reviewer and author Andrea Wulf writes. London was a city of learning, a city of freedom, a city rich with history and political importance. Even in the heady days of the Revolution, Americans of all social types recognized the British capital as a place of international prestige. "Beautifully reimagining a city that was a distant but integral part of American life," Wulf concludes, "Flavell’s book is essential reading for anyone interested in the colonial period."