Digital Commons Network^™

[Review Of] Douglas Henry Daniels. A Social And Cultural History Of Black San Francisco, Michael Patrick

Explorations in Sights and Sounds

Pioneer Urbanites focuses on the quality of life and urban identity of Black residents of the San Francisco Bay area from 1850 to World War II. The author has organized the book topically, rather than chronologically. Because Daniels has chosen this organization, the reader has to keep historical chronology constantly in mind while reading in order to avoid confusion.

[Review Of] Michael D'Innocenzo And Joseph P. Sirefman. Immigration And Ethnicity, American Society - "Melting Pot" Or "Salad Bowl?", Daniel Mitchell

Explorations in Sights and Sounds

"Salad Bowl" best describes the American Immigration experience, as the editors of this volume aptly picture it. Like a salad bar, this volume offers a variety of articles for academics and the general public to pick and choose, if interest in immigration concerns them in the least. Overall, this book is divided into three major sections, with a theme underlying each division of essays and research pieces. The offerings include: a select study of ethnic minorities and their history with varieties of social-cultural experiences of ethnic groups; a look at the impact of ethnic challenges to the United States; a …

[Review Of] Juan Flores. Divided Borders: Essays All Puerto Rican Identity, Migdalia Reyes

Explorations in Sights and Sounds

Juan Flores makes an important contribution to the literature on the Puerto Rican experience with his new book, Divided Borders: Essays all Puerto Rican Identity. The essays are exemplary of a serious exploration of the Puerto Rican identity as it has been defined and portrayed by a variety of writers, popular movements, and social movements.

[Review Of] Anny Bakalian. Armenian-Americans: From Being To Feeling Armenian, Arlene Avakian

Explorations in Sights and Sounds

Aside from work on the 1915 genocide of Armenians in Turkey and some work on ancient Armenia, there is precious little published work on the Armenian people. Even the Armenian genocide in which 1.5 million of the 2 million Armenians in Turkey were killed has been largely ignored by the world community and was named by one scholar, "the forgotten genocide (Dickran H. Boyajian, Armenia: The Case for a Forgotten Genocide, Westwood, NJ: Educational Book Crafters, 1972). Particularly missing from the scholarship is work about contemporary Armenians in diaspora. Anny Bakalian's book begins to fill that void.

[Review Of] M. Inez Hilger. Chippewa Child Abd Its' Cultural Background, James L. Litwin

Explorations in Sights and Sounds

Recent movies (e.g., Geronimo, Last of the Mohicans, and Dances with Wolves) have generally shown a sympathetic, if yet still stereotypical view of Native Americans. These cinematic treatments are replete with furious battles, frenetic romances, and the stuff of heroic legends. Hollywood, however, would not know what to do with M. Inez Hilger's Chippewa Child Life and Its' Cultural Background. It is a quiet book, a narrative of the everyday culture of the Chippewa Indians as she observed them on nine Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan reservations between 1932 and 1940.

[Review Of] Kenneth Robert Janken. Rayford W. Logan And The Dilemma Of The African-American Intellectual, Jennifer L. Dobson

Explorations in Sights and Sounds

Rayford W. Logan has been little more than an obscure shadow in African-American historicity leaving, as his biographer notes, "a rich intellectual legacy without, it appears, having left a visible imprint on historic events" (198). Earning a Ph.D. from Harvard in 1932, Logan proceeded to become a trailblazer in the field of African-American history, seeking to use his intellect in the fight against racism.

[Review Of] Brian W. Dippie. George Catlin And His Contemporaries: The Politics Of Patronage, John Antoine Labadie

Explorations in Sights and Sounds

Although Americans in the 1990's often argue whether an artist's or researcher's work merits public funding, many agree that we should fund both the arts and scientific inquiry in nearly all their diverse forms. But the basic question of patronage remains. Federal and private funding of arts and science-related work were much in question over a hundred years ago, when the artist George Catlin requested that the United States government purchase his American Indian collection.

[Review Of] Charlotte H. Bruner, Ed. African Women's Writing, Larene Despain

Explorations in Sights and Sounds

African Women's Writing is a companion volume to Bruner's Unwinding Threads, first published by Heinemann ten years ago. In her "Preface" to this volume, Bruner says that this book came about because "new writers, or hitherto unpublished ones, were not only writing fiction but were recording the New Africa." Thus, only two writers reappear in this volume: Bessie Head of South Africa and Assia Djebar of Algeria, and a good many of the authors were born after 1945.

[Review Of] K. Tslanina Lomawalma. They Called It Prairie Light, Raymond A. Bucko

Explorations in Sights and Sounds

This work adeptly weaves the documentary history of the Chilocco Indian Agricultural School of Oklahoma (1884-1980) with the oral histories of sixty-one Indian students spanning the years between 1920 and 1940. While there are many works on Indian education, this one is unique because the core of the history is presented through the voices of former students.

[Review Of] Charles F. Lummis. Pueblo Indian Folk-Stories, Silvester J. Brito

Explorations in Sights and Sounds

Pueblo Indian Folk-Stories is composed of forty-two stories (tales) that range from the teachings (and/or) exploits of Coyote to the adventures of the Wise Bear. These folk tales were collected and translated from Spanish to English, as well as interpreted by the late Charles F. Lummis. The original title of this book was Tile Mall Who Married the Moon, published in 1894 by Century Company New York. This Bison edition is a reprint of another version published in 1910 by Century Company New York; being expanded and retitled. It also has an informative, new introduction by Robert F. Gish. In …

[Review Of] Rebecca R. Martin. Libraries And The Changing Face Of Academia: Responses To Growing Multicultural Populations, Deborah Hollis

Explorations in Sights and Sounds

With great anticipation I sat down to read Rebecca R. Martin's work about academic libraries services to multicultural populations in the United States. I had hoped to read about reasoned and responsible approaches to this current hot topic. What I found instead was an anthology of the politically correct chatter pulled from the last ten years of library literature. Martin's book raises no new issues for the academic library administrator. Libraries And The Changing Face of Academia is a tame discussion of a serious issue that has kept academic librarians wringing their hands over the past decade. Rebecca Martin does …

[Review Of] James B. Mckee. Sociology And The Race Problem: The Failure Of A Perspective, Vernon J. Williams Jr

Explorations in Sights and Sounds

In his sweeping study of the treatment of African Americans in American sociology from the 1920s until the 1960s, James B. McKee, a professor emeritus of sociology at Michigan State University, concludes that sociologists "need to revive an older democratic commitment to speak to a larger public that includes and cuts across the conflicting racial identities whose fates are inexorably bound together in the same historical struggles" (366-7).

[Review Of] Seymour Menton. Latin America 'S New Historical Novel, Faye Vowell

Explorations in Sights and Sounds

Seymour Menton's eight chapter description and analysis of the new historical novel in Latin America is a comprehensive and well written discussion of the topic. However, treatment of ethnic issues is not a dominant concern.

[Review Of] C. Hart Merriam. The Dawn Of The World: Myths And Tales Of The Miwok Indians Of California, Susan L. Rockwell

Explorations in Sights and Sounds

Naturalist C. Hart Merriam devoted the last years of his life to research on Indians of California, meticulously recording and documenting his observations and the knowledge he gained from the various tribes. In 1910, he published a collection of myths and tales told to him by the elders of the California Mewan Indians under the title, The Dawn of the World: Myths and Weird Tales Told by the Mewan Indians of California. Eighty-three years later the University of Nebraska Press has published a Bison Book Edition of Merriam’s collection. Except for the change in title, the Bison Book Edition is …

[Review Of] Suzanne M. Sinke And Rudolph J. Vecoli, Eds. A Century Of European Migrations, 1830-1930, Liliane M. Vassberg

Explorations in Sights and Sounds

This collection of sixteen essays stems from the proceedings of a 1986 symposium commemorating the twentieth anniversary of the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota. Based on work by American and European scholars, this volume owes its strength to transnational and comparative perspectives and to theoretical approaches strongly inspired by Frank Thistlethwaite’s influential 1960 essay “Migration from Europe Overseas in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Century.” Reprinted in the present volume, Thistlethwaite’s paper advocated studying European migration -- and return migration -- as a means of social mobility in the context of industrialization and capitalism, within Europe and …

[Review Of] Jan Nederveen Pietrse. White On Black: Images Of Africa And Blacks In Western Popular Culture, Yueh-Ting Lee

Explorations in Sights and Sounds

White on Black: Images of Africa and Blacks in Western Popular Culture, by Jan Nederveen Pieterse, a Dutch social scientist, provides us with insightful thoughts about the ethnic conflict between the dominant Whites and the dominated Blacks.

[Review Of] Henry Louis Taylor, Jr. Race And The City: Work, Community, And Protest In Cincinnati, 1820-1970, Cedric D. Page

Explorations in Sights and Sounds

This collection of essays offers diverse perspectives on the social, political, and economic currents that shaped racial and ethnic geography of Cincinnati from the antebellum period through the post-World War II era. Henry Louis Taylor, Jr. offers a unique and instructive collection of works that contribute to a clear understanding of the impact of city-building, economic transition and social-political transformation on the residents of Cincinnati between 1820 and 1970. Throughout the book, the spatial character of the city is the focus while the influence of site and situation of the ”Queen City” proscribe its economic fortunes and quality of urban …

[Review Of] Carol Trosset. Welshness Performed: Welsh Concepts Of Person And Society, Phillips G. Davies

Explorations in Sights and Sounds

Wales, ruled by native princes until the thirteenth-century and subsequently governed from London, contains a population of about three million, twenty percent of which speak an indigenous language.

[Review Of] Bette Woody. Black Women In The Workplace: Impacts Of Structural Change In The Economy, Alfred B. Konuwa Jr

Explorations in Sights and Sounds

Bette Woody’s latest book is an incisive attempt to particularize the economic effects of structural changes in American society. As the title suggests, the book explores changes in the work content, job opportunities, and wages of Black women as a result of the trend towards a service economy in America.

[Review Of] John Wrench And John Solomos, Eds. Racism And Migration In Western Europe, Liliane M. Vassberg

Explorations in Sights and Sounds

This collection of fifteen essays edited by Wrench and Solomos is derived from the proceedings of a 1991 conference on "Racism and Migration in Europe in the 1990s,” held in England and organized by the Centre for Research in Ethnic Relations at the University of Warwick and the Public Policy Centre of the Department of Politics and Sociology, Birkbeck College, University of London. The purpose of this international meeting was to bring together scholars working on these topics and to examine the European situation today. The proceedings analyze the social and political debates surrounding immigration in European countries, where the …

[Review Of] Doris Davenport. Voodoo Chile -Slight Return: Poems, Opal Palmer Adisa

Explorations in Sights and Sounds

doris davenport's poetry collection, Voodoo Chile - Slight Return, firmly connects her to the southern African roots that she embraces. The poems speak from the perspective of a world-traveled feminist as well as a concerned humanist. davenport's poetry moves between being so caustic they singe, to an almost light-hearted, humorous tone. In both extremes, davenport's underlining motive seems to be to expose ills and ridicule contradictions inherent in the society.

[Review Of] Diane Glancy. Claiming Breath, Laurie Lisa

Explorations in Sights and Sounds

In her seventh book of poetry, Diane Glancy presents a moving account of the portrait of the artist as Native, woman, and poet. Of German, English, and Cherokee descent, Glancy's prose poetry, as she states in her "Preface," is often "about being in the middle ground between two cultures, not fully a part of either. I write with a split voice, often experimenting with language until the parts equal some sort of a whole." The Sixty-three poems in this volume (with the last composed of eight parts) are a non-linear journey, a physical and psychological traveling through the senses and …

[Review Of] Magdalena Garcia Pinto. Women Writers Of Latin America: Intimate Histories, Kristina Brooks

Explorations in Sights and Sounds

Talking with Mexican writer and critic Margo Glantz, Magdalena Garcia Pinto describes the interview process as "a dialogue with your mirror" (117). The exchanges she has with ten Latin American women are less transparent reflections of these writers, however, than they are guided conversations about their development as writers and their views about the distinctiveness of female literature. As a general introduction to Latin American women writers, Garcia Pinto's interviews do not provide the reader with a coherent or thorough view of how these women fit into (or break free from) Latin American literary movements or feminine/feminist traditions; rather, the …

[Review Of] Americo Paredes. The Hammon And The Beam And Other Stories, Carl R. Shirley

Explorations in Sights and Sounds

Américo Paredes is a seminal figure in Mexican-American studies. Professor Emeritus of English and Anthropology at the University of Texas at Austin, he is best known for his work in folklore, principally With His Pistol in His Hand: A Border Ballad and lts Hero. But after a distinguished career as teacher and scholar, he has turned in recent years to literature (mostly written years ago), with the publication of a novel (George Washington Gomez) in 1990 and a collection of poetry (Between Two Worlds) in 1991. The present accumulation of seventeen stories, combined with Paredes’ novel and poetry, provide a …

[Review Of] Clifton M. Jean. Behind The Eurocentric Veils: The Search For African Realities, Freddie G. Young

Explorations in Sights and Sounds

This book represents a thoughtful critique of Eurocentric traditions of social and historical analysis. The principal thesis, advanced in the idea of moving along the same cultural ideals and the same dynamic forces as the west, is an exceptionally brilliant idea. Both the liberal and Marxist systems subsume Third World cultural processes under universalist theories of evolution that do not apply universally.

[Review Of] Chalmers Archer, Jr. Growing Up Black In Rural Mississippi, Aloma Mendoza

Explorations in Sights and Sounds

Archer's book is a non-fictional account of the pain and anguish of one extended family's struggle and fight during the 1930s and 1940s to survive the racist south.

[Review Of] Rafael Castillo. Distant Journeys, Julie Schrader Villegas

Explorations in Sights and Sounds

Rafael Castillo's collection of short stories takes us to the borders, whether they be geographic or psychic, where ironic humor laced with existential angst always looms. His characters range from academic Chicanos negotiating identities, to gorilla freedom fighters in EI Salvador. Their commonality lies in their struggles to find self-agency and identity within a rearranged world.

[Review Of] Genaro M. Padilla. My History, Not Yours: The Formation Of Mexican American Autobiography, Susan L. Rockwell

Explorations in Sights and Sounds

Genaro Padilla and University of Wisconsin Press should be commended for the publication of a much needed addition to the study of American autobiography, in general, and ethnic autobiography, in particular. Early Mexican American autobiographies remain largely ignored and forgotten. The importance of these autobiographies should not be ignored, however, especially with regard to the study of the West and Southwest. With this book, Padilla opens the door to the retrieval and study of these important historical documents.

[Review Of] Constance Wall Holt. Welsh Women: An Annotated Bibliography Of Women In Wales And Women Of Welch Descent In America, Martha A. Davies

Explorations in Sights and Sounds

To be a Welsh woman, it seems, was to be doubly doomed to obscurity. Not only were women a less-public sector of society, but there was "Welshness" to contend with. It has been a case of Bibliographic Ethnic Discrimination. Too often entries have read: "Women, Welsh, See Women, English." And this occurs in spite of the fact that Welsh, being Celts, are a distinct group with their own language and culture, though they have long been subject to English rule.

Advertising Budget Reduction Impacts On Effective Communication: A Descriptive Analysis : Evaluation Of Virginia State Parks 1994 Advertising Campaign, Lois Ann Delbueno

Theses and Dissertations

A descriptive analysis to determine the communication effects of a reduced advertising budget, this study evaluated the 1994 Virginia State Parks advertising campaign. The campaign's objective was to provide Virginians more information about the parks, which in the previous 1992 Virginia Outdoor Survey, was said to be needed.

The author sought to answer questions relative to the overall effect of reducing the advertising budget, as well as the amount and nature of awareness resulting from it.

In order to measure these relationships, the author collected data into two random seven-day periods to compare 1994 versus 1993 for awareness, cost-effectiveness and …