June 1, 2006
From Cecil B. DeMille's production of King of Kings in 1927, to Mel Gibson's recent The Passion of the Christ, films that discuss the meaning of Jesus have provoked interest, discussion, and reevaluation on a large scale. Hollywood films that deal with this subject have consistently managed to augment their inherent power by commenting simultaneously on political and cultural matters, and drawing from alternative cultural and mythological sources. The Greatest Story Ever Told, for instance, uses a landscape similar to that of the American West, while The Last Temptation of Christ deals with themes related to modern American notions of sexuality and sin. More ...
April 3, 2006
Douglas Ambrose, the Sidney Wertimer Associate Professor of History, and Associate Professor of Government Robert Martin co-edited a recently published book titled The Many Faces of Alexander Hamilton: The Life and Legacy of America's Most Elusive Founding Father. More ...
March 1, 2006
Hamilton College Associate Professor of Religious Studies Richard Hughes Seager examines Japan's Soka Gakkai Buddhism movement. Seager's research for a previous book, Buddhism in America, piqued his interest in Daisaku Ikeda, the organization's longtime president, and the history of modern Japan. More ...
February 28, 2006
Visiting Professor of Art History Scott MacDonald is the author of a recently published book titled Art in Cinema: Documents Toward a History of the Film Society. The Art in Cinema Society, led by filmmaker Frank Stauffacher, pioneered the promotion of avant-garde cinema in America. More ...
February 23, 2006
Guyana (formerly the colony British Guiana) gained its independence in the 1960’s. The U.S. government saw in this move the possibility of another communist state in Latin America, this one under the leadership of Marxist Cheddi Jagan. In U.S. Intervention, Rabe suggests that the CIA was responsible for funding the labor unrest, race riots, and general chaos that forced Jagan from office in 1964. The U.S.-supported leader Forbes Burnham gained power and went on to lead a twenty-year dictatorship in which he persecuted the majority Indian population. More ...
January 30, 2006
In The Contracted World, Peter Meinke brings us new poems and old, including in this collection work from four of his previous volumes. The poems show what it is like to live and grow up in America; they are full of images of “love, nature, cities, sports, war, and peace” as well as grief, confusion, and death. “Despite feelings of anger and loneliness, the narrator speaks to us in a personal, accessible, and often humorous voice.” More ...
January 1, 2006
Visiting Professor of Art History Scott MacDonald is the author of A Critical Cinema 5: Interviews with Independent Filmmakers, a new book published by the University of California Press. It is the fifth and probably final volume in a series by MacDonald that is considered to be the most comprehensive, in-depth exploration of independent cinema available in English. More ...
December 30, 2005
Ericson gives an “extensively annotated catalog” of works both by Pound and about him; McWhirter prefaces the work with an illustration and highly informative sketch of the poet. More ...
December 1, 2005
This collection of essays expresses Henry Adams’s interest in knowledge and his need to clarify the role of critical intelligence in public life. At the turn of the century, Adams saw a new world, where the place of the mind was redefined by technology and geopolitical conflict. Each essay affirms, in one way or another, that to study Adams is to discover his continuing and astonishing relevance. More ...
November 30, 2005
Leading Leaders will tell you, as the title suggests, how to deal with influential, talented, and valuable people. The problem is that, being all of the above, they are not extremely tractable, nor extremely cooperative. Salacuse shows the reader how to “leverage the expertise of the elites that work in and around any organization, and how to bring strong personalities and opinions together while leaving the common power struggles and politics behind.”
Salacuse is the Henry J. Baker Professor of Law and former dean of the Fletcher School of Law at Tufts University. He has served as executive, consultant, Wall Street lawyer, and director of several mutual funds listed on the New York Stock Exchange. More ...