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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
[Review Of] William L. Andrews. To Tell A Free Story: The First Century Of Afro-American Autobiography, 1760-1865, Suzanne Stutman
[Review Of] William L. Andrews. To Tell A Free Story: The First Century Of Afro-American Autobiography, 1760-1865, Suzanne Stutman
Explorations in Sights and Sounds
William L. Andrews' To Tell a Free Story is a fine study of the history and development of the Afro-American narrative in its first century. Andrews presents the narrative in the hands of its creators as a dynamic form which, when studied for its process of telling, expresses the movement of its writers from an absence of self to a celebration of both self and community. It follows in the footsteps of Andrew's' other important contributions to the field of black studies, and promises to serve as a resource to which other studies of the genre can look.
[Review Of] Lucia Chiavola Birnbaum. Liberazione Della Donna. Feminism In Italy, Phylis Cancilla Martinelli
[Review Of] Lucia Chiavola Birnbaum. Liberazione Della Donna. Feminism In Italy, Phylis Cancilla Martinelli
Explorations in Sights and Sounds
A book on feminism in Italy might draw a bewildered look from the average American. The image of Italian women, cultivated by the popular media, is of either a sultry sex pot or a black garbed mamma stirring a spaghetti pot. In both examples these women are seen as subservient to the Italian male. It is unfortunate that these images are so pervasive, and that accurate information on Italian women in our society is limited, since their experiences can be instructive.
[Review Of] John Bodnar. The Transplanted: A History Of Immigrants In Urban America, Gloria Eive
[Review Of] John Bodnar. The Transplanted: A History Of Immigrants In Urban America, Gloria Eive
Explorations in Sights and Sounds
The Transplanted is represented as a synthesis of the immigrant experience in urban America. Bodnar posits the confrontation with capitalism as sole explanation for migration, emigration and immigrant behavior in the new country. His stated intent is to "rescue" immigration history from older views of immigrants as hapless victims of circumstance.
[Review Of] Silvester Brito. Red Cedar Warrior, Simon J. Ortiz
[Review Of] Silvester Brito. Red Cedar Warrior, Simon J. Ortiz
Explorations in Sights and Sounds
Red Cedar Warrior, the collection of poems by S.J. Brito, is very obvious in its depiction of trepidations against Native Americans, in its mourning for the loss of culture and traditions, and its expression of anger. We easily see the obvious signs of Native Americanism in most of the poems included in his book. The warrior could not be anything other than Native American, astride a pony, feathered and painted. There are the drums, the ceremonial life, the peyote prayers, the shamans, and such references. We easily see the images and hear the voices that most let us know of …
[Review Of] Vinson Brown. Native Americans Of The Pacific Coast, William Oandasan
[Review Of] Vinson Brown. Native Americans Of The Pacific Coast, William Oandasan
Explorations in Sights and Sounds
In the introduction to Native Americans of the Pacific Coast, Vinson Brown presents many admirable ambitions for any scholar writing on human existence. Brown proclaims that he will attempt to make the first Americans "live" in the style of the 1500s to 1700s during the "days of old" and of "glory and independence." He then proceeds to assert that, in order to accomplish this goal, antiquated concepts used to "justify" the conquest of tribal Peoples must be "put aside." He urges us, "instead," to be inquisitive and open so that we can "see and hear" what indigenous life was like …
[Review Of] John J. Bukowczyk. And My Children Do Not Know Me: A History Of The Polish Americans, Joseph T. Makarewicz
[Review Of] John J. Bukowczyk. And My Children Do Not Know Me: A History Of The Polish Americans, Joseph T. Makarewicz
Explorations in Sights and Sounds
Bukowczyk provides us with an easily readable and brief general history of Polish Americans. Unfortunately, there is nothing new in it. The works of Helena Z. Lopata, Victor Greene, Ewa Morawaka, and John Bodnar give a more intimate understanding of Polonia.
[Review Of] Carlos Bulosan. America Is In The Heart: A Personal History, S. E. Solberg
[Review Of] Carlos Bulosan. America Is In The Heart: A Personal History, S. E. Solberg
Explorations in Sights and Sounds
First published in 1946, America Is in the Heart has reached a seventh printing (1986). Carlos Bulosan's "personal history" has evidenced remarkable staying power, and that mainly in the Asian American ethnic communities and the academic programs which describe and support them. This is all the more remarkable in a book that has been damned by Philippine critics for giving a distorted view of the Philippines, and by American critics for distorting the history of the Filipino in America. Despite all this, the popularity, and the sense of "rightness" that surrounds the book can be explained rather easily once certain …
[Review Of] Jane Campbell. Mythic Black Fiction: The Transformation Of History, Abby H. P. Werlock
[Review Of] Jane Campbell. Mythic Black Fiction: The Transformation Of History, Abby H. P. Werlock
Explorations in Sights and Sounds
Jane Campbell's timely study -- a revision of her 1977 Ph.D. dissertation -- appears as an early and sustained response to Afro-American mythmaking, one of the central concerns of current black scholarship. Campbell posits that, to counter the dehumanized experience of blacks in America, Afro-American writers from 1853 to the present have utilized the romance genre to infuse history "with a mythic dimension," thereby transforming their characters from victims into actors who can change history. Beginning with William Wells Brown's Clotel (1853) and ending with David Bradley's The Chaneysville Incident 1981), Campbell's exploration of the transcendent nature of black writing …
[Review Of] Sarah Blacher Cohen, Ed. From Hester Street To Hollywood: The Jewish-American Stage And Screen, Louise Mayo
[Review Of] Sarah Blacher Cohen, Ed. From Hester Street To Hollywood: The Jewish-American Stage And Screen, Louise Mayo
Explorations in Sights and Sounds
The considerable Jewish American presence on the stage and screen (and now television), has long been marveled at and discussed. Jewish "dominance" in mass media has been a source of pride to Jews and anguish to anti-semites. Nevertheless, it has only been since the 1960s that numbers have been translated into content. From Hester Street to Hollywood attempts to analyze the Jewish presence and experience in areas as varied as serious drama and stand-up comedy.
[Review Of] Nicholas Colangelo, Dick Dustin, And Cecelia H. Foxley, Eds. Multicultural Nonsexist Education: A Human Relations Approach, Margaret A. Laughlin
[Review Of] Nicholas Colangelo, Dick Dustin, And Cecelia H. Foxley, Eds. Multicultural Nonsexist Education: A Human Relations Approach, Margaret A. Laughlin
Explorations in Sights and Sounds
Despite earlier efforts to reduce prejudice and eliminate discrimination, the decade of the 1980s continues to be marked by ongoing assaults on human dignity. Enforcement of earlier hard-earned civil rights laws are declining, oppression of various groups and individuals in our society continues, and attitudes of prejudice and examples of discrimination are reported in the media on a regular basis. Adults are often unable or unwilling to confront their own values, beliefs, and behaviors concerning human oppression. As a result, young people are often presented with inaccurate, incomplete, or inadequate information concerning forces which help to shape our institutions and …
[Review Of] Carmen Gertrudis Espinosa. The Freeing Of The Deer-And Other New Mexico Indian Myths, Silvester J. Brito
[Review Of] Carmen Gertrudis Espinosa. The Freeing Of The Deer-And Other New Mexico Indian Myths, Silvester J. Brito
Explorations in Sights and Sounds
The Freeing of the Deer is an unusual collection of southwest American Indian-Spanish lore. What makes the book so distinct is that it offers the reader the unique opportunity to appreciate Native American tales which have been preserved in Spanish and translated into English. Moreover, there is a special feature to this collection, for the English-Spanish versions are set up en-face. This collection of Native American world views as seen through their Spanish renditions also makes this an important book to have in one's library. There is, however, a drawback to this collection, namely the lack of eloquence in translation …
[Review Of] Rodney Frey. The World Of The Crow Indians: As Driftwood Lodges, Robert Gish
[Review Of] Rodney Frey. The World Of The Crow Indians: As Driftwood Lodges, Robert Gish
Explorations in Sights and Sounds
Ethnographic studies have long been plagued by questions of credibility. Can the ethnographer believe his or her sources? And, in turn, can readers believe the ethnographer? Ronald Frey knows full well that such issues of "believability" plague anyone attempting to understand a culture's otherness from the outside. He is determined to explain general historical, religious, and cultural aspects of "the world of the Crow Indians" from as close to the inside as he possibly can tell them.
[Review Of] Minrose C. Gwin. Black And White Women Of The Old South: The Peculiar Sisterhood In American Literature, Louise Mayo
[Review Of] Minrose C. Gwin. Black And White Women Of The Old South: The Peculiar Sisterhood In American Literature, Louise Mayo
Explorations in Sights and Sounds
In this book, Minrose Gwin explores the interrelationships between women as a model of Southern racial experiences. In order to understand "this volatile, often violent connection between black and white women of the Old South," she examines a wide variety of books including proslavery and abolitionist fiction of the mid-nineteenth century, slave narratives, diaries, and modern fictional versions of the Southern slave experience by Faulkner, Cather and Margaret Walker.
[Review Of] Shivalingappa S. Halli. How Minority Status Affects Fertility: Asian Groups In Canada, Celia J. Wintz
[Review Of] Shivalingappa S. Halli. How Minority Status Affects Fertility: Asian Groups In Canada, Celia J. Wintz
Explorations in Sights and Sounds
The broad subject of ethnicity and its impact on the social behavior of immigrant and minority groups is topical and is of interest both to scholars and to the general public. As a result, Halli's study of fertility rates among Asian immigrants and their descendants in Canada addresses a timely subject.
[Review Of] Katherine Spencer Halpern, Mary E. Holt, And Susan Brown Mcgreevy.Guide To The Microfilm Edition Of The Washington Matthews Papers, Paul G. Zolbrod
[Review Of] Katherine Spencer Halpern, Mary E. Holt, And Susan Brown Mcgreevy.Guide To The Microfilm Edition Of The Washington Matthews Papers, Paul G. Zolbrod
Explorations in Sights and Sounds
Today it is being argued that ethnology and literature intersect in some useful ways. Yet Washington Matthews demonstrated as much a century ago, before either of those disciplines had been developed within the American academic system. And although it has been overlooked, his achievement in having done so is considerable, as this potentially useful volume suggests.
[Review Of] Trudier Harris. Black Women In The Fiction Of James Baldwin, Kathleen Hickok
[Review Of] Trudier Harris. Black Women In The Fiction Of James Baldwin, Kathleen Hickok
Explorations in Sights and Sounds
Trudier Harris walks a narrow line between a feminist critique of James Baldwin's shortcomings as a masculinist writer and a critical appreciation of the complexity and progression in Baldwin's fictional portrayals of black women. It is not an easy maneuver, but her balance is sure and steady.
[Review Of] Dirk Hoerder, Ed. The Immigrant Labor Press In North America, 1840s-70s (Three Volumes), Cary D. Wintz
[Review Of] Dirk Hoerder, Ed. The Immigrant Labor Press In North America, 1840s-70s (Three Volumes), Cary D. Wintz
Explorations in Sights and Sounds
Dirk Hoerder has undertaken a truly mammoth task -- the identification, analysis, and the location of surviving collections of the immigrant labor press published in the United States and Canada from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. For the most part his efforts have been successful. Without question he has provided researchers interested in the American immigrant experience or American labor history with a valuable research tool.
[Review Of] Langston Hughes. I Wonder As I Wander: An Autobiographical Journey, Cary D. Wintz
[Review Of] Langston Hughes. I Wonder As I Wander: An Autobiographical Journey, Cary D. Wintz
Explorations in Sights and Sounds
I Wonder As I Wander, originally published in 1956, is the second and last volume of Langston Hughes's autobiography. In the first volume, The Big Sea, Hughes focused on his early life and his involvement in the Harlem Renaissance; to a large degree it constitutes his memoirs of the Harlem Renaissance. I Wonder As I Wander is more personal. It is an account of his experiences and his musings during the 1930s, after he had distanced himself from the Harlem Renaissance, while he was in the most political phase of his long career, and while his travels took him across …
[Review Of] Peter Iverson, Ed. The Plains Indians Of The Twentieth Century, Richard F. Fleck
[Review Of] Peter Iverson, Ed. The Plains Indians Of The Twentieth Century, Richard F. Fleck
Explorations in Sights and Sounds
Iverson' s new volume of collected essays by authorities on reservation life serves as an invaluable aid to a further understanding of the sometimes agonizing social problems vis-a-vis the federal government. The book contains, in addition to Iverson's short introduction, eleven essays (three by Native Americans) dealing with the complex cultural problems of twentieth-century Plains Indian reservations. Iverson's essay stresses cultural independence despite overwhelming odds which face the modern Indian.
[Review Of] Martin S. Jankowski. City Bound: Urban Life And Political Attitudes Among Chicano Youth, Homer D.C. Garcia
[Review Of] Martin S. Jankowski. City Bound: Urban Life And Political Attitudes Among Chicano Youth, Homer D.C. Garcia
Explorations in Sights and Sounds
This work ranks as one of the most significant analyses of urban Chicano political socialization to date. Unlike contemporaries who are either theoreticians or numbers crunchers, Jankowski undertakes a quantitative analysis that is theoretically based. Hypotheses developed from three theories are tested to ascertain which best explains the political assimilation of Chicano adolescents in San Antonio, Albuquerque, and Los Angeles. The theories compared are: the Wirth/Chicago School which argues that the length of urban residence promotes assimilation; the neighborhood solidarity model which proposes that upward socioeconomic mobility and neighborhood integration promote assimilation; and the Marxist theory which argues that the …
[Review Of] Jacqueline Jones. Labor Of Love, Labor Of Sorrow: Black Women, Work And The Family, From Slavery To The Present, Helan E. Page
[Review Of] Jacqueline Jones. Labor Of Love, Labor Of Sorrow: Black Women, Work And The Family, From Slavery To The Present, Helan E. Page
Explorations in Sights and Sounds
Jacqueline Jones' Labor of Love, Labor of Sorrow examines the struggle of African-American women to protect their household and community based "labor of love" while controlling their wage-earning "labor of sorrow." Illustrated by a rich collection of photographs, extensively referenced and supplemented by appendices, Jones' study relates changes in the structure and management of black households to changes in the kinds of work African-American women have done.
[Review Of] Jerry Kammer. The Second Long Walk: The Navajo-Hopi Land Dispute, George W. Sieber
[Review Of] Jerry Kammer. The Second Long Walk: The Navajo-Hopi Land Dispute, George W. Sieber
Explorations in Sights and Sounds
The job of the social sciences and sometimes investigative reporters is to deal with on-going problems that cannot be solved, but must be coped with; Jerry Kammer has found an example of this in the Navajo-Hopi Land Dispute. His first contact with the subject was during summer, 1974, as a newspaper reporter. His book includes interviews with people involved, thoughtful analysis of their statements, chronology of events, two maps, 27 photographs, an adequate index, and chapter endnotes.
[Review Of] Susan E. Keefe And Amado M. Padilla. Chicano Ethnicity, Joe Rodriguez
[Review Of] Susan E. Keefe And Amado M. Padilla. Chicano Ethnicity, Joe Rodriguez
Explorations in Sights and Sounds
Chicano Ethnicity is a valuable contribution to ethnic scholarship and the question of why people of Mexican descent in the U.S. choose different names. Chicano, Mexican-American, American of Mexican descent, and Mexicano are distinct. Since this population is heterogeneous, Keefe and Padilla study how three primary factors, Cultural Awareness, Ethnic Loyalty, and Assimilation/Acculturation account for such diversity. These three primary factors shape unique expressions of group identity and an extended sense of the self.
[Review Of] Judy Nolte Lensink, Ed. Old Southwest! New Southwest: Essays On A Region And Its Literature, Sergio D. Elizondo
[Review Of] Judy Nolte Lensink, Ed. Old Southwest! New Southwest: Essays On A Region And Its Literature, Sergio D. Elizondo
Explorations in Sights and Sounds
Here are sixteen essays by various genres of thinkers, among which we find poets, fiction writers, scientists, historians, academic and lay scholars, librarians and artists who presented papers in 1985 at a conference bearing the book's title. N. Scott Momaday, Frank Waters, R. Hinojosa Smith, Janice Monk and Vera Norwood, Rudolfo A. Anaya, and John Nichols are among the contributors. Their papers are the text of this work on the cultures of the American Southwest. Old Southwest indeed becomes an American culture reader, like a treatise on its epistemology and the forms of literature past and present of the region …
[Review Of] Ronald L. Lewis. Black Coal Miners In America: Race, Class, And Community Conflict, 1780-1980, David M. Gradwohl
[Review Of] Ronald L. Lewis. Black Coal Miners In America: Race, Class, And Community Conflict, 1780-1980, David M. Gradwohl
Explorations in Sights and Sounds
As an historian, Ronald L. Lewis has researched the role of blacks in the coal mining industry, an overall topic which has been largely ignored in treatments of American history. The resulting publication goes far in meeting the need to recognize the fact that blacks were an important part of this national economic enterprise. Lewis' book is interestingly written, well-organized, and extensively documented. Having been born and raised in a coal town, Lewis has been a witness to some of the events he describes. He argues, insightfully, that "Black miners did not share a monolithic experience. American coal miners have …
[Review Of] D. H. Melhem. Gwendolyn Brooks: Poetry And The Heroic Voice, William H. Hansell
[Review Of] D. H. Melhem. Gwendolyn Brooks: Poetry And The Heroic Voice, William H. Hansell
Explorations in Sights and Sounds
This book might have worked out as an article, but it was a gross mistake in book form. That is to say, on the development of what Melhem calls the "heroic voice" there might have been an intelligent and informative study of about article length. I can't be certain, however, that Melhem had a definite sense of her subject, because "voice" sometimes means "prosody," sometimes "form," sometimes "subject" (or "theme"), most often (possibly!), "style."
[Review Of] John P. Miska. Canadian Studies On Hungarians, 1886-1986: An Annotated Bibliography Of Primary And Secondary Sources, Eniko Molnar Basa
[Review Of] John P. Miska. Canadian Studies On Hungarians, 1886-1986: An Annotated Bibliography Of Primary And Secondary Sources, Eniko Molnar Basa
Explorations in Sights and Sounds
Canadian Studies on Hungarians presents a wealth of information on most aspects of Hungarian and Hungarian-Canadian studies. Some 1271 entries range from reference works to theater, music, and sports. History and literature seem to predominate, although commercial relations and immigration and ethnic questions also form important sections. Independent monographs and parts of books are included, as are dissertations and periodical articles, so that the listing is truly comprehensive.
[Review Of] S. Frank Miyamoto. Social Solidarity Among The Japanese In Seattle, Neil Nakadate
[Review Of] S. Frank Miyamoto. Social Solidarity Among The Japanese In Seattle, Neil Nakadate
Explorations in Sights and Sounds
Social Solidarity among the Japanese in Seattle is a rare and irreplaceable study of Japanese American life prior to World War II. Its focus is "the social relational network of the Japanese community" as dominated by the immigrant, first generation Issei -- the intimate fusion of expectations, obligations, and reciprocity that prevailed in the years between immigration and internment. First published in 1939, Miyamoto's monograph was reprinted in 1981 and 1984 by the Asian American Studies Program at the University of Washington, each time with a new introduction by the author.
[Review Of] David Montejano. Anglos And Mexicans In The Making Of Texas, 1836-1986, Helen M. Castillo
[Review Of] David Montejano. Anglos And Mexicans In The Making Of Texas, 1836-1986, Helen M. Castillo
Explorations in Sights and Sounds
Montejano presents an organized historical perspective of Anglos and Mexicans in the making of Texas. Four major time periods of incorporation, reconstruction, segregation and integration are used effectively to compartmentalize major historical events, serve as accurate sociopolitical descriptors and facilitate reader comprehension of these events. This approach is particularly helpful to the novice historian in conjunction with the tables and maps used to illustrate the content discussed. Sensitive ethnic cultural issues are discussed objectively with inflammatory or emotion laden terms avoided. Though subtle, subjectivity is present in the author's interpretative comments of Texas-Mexico history; the reader gains a sense of …
[Review Of] Alexandru Moscu (Director/Co-Producer) And Joel Geyer (Writer/Co-Producer). In Search Of Freedom: Nebraskans From Latvia, David M. Gradwohl
[Review Of] Alexandru Moscu (Director/Co-Producer) And Joel Geyer (Writer/Co-Producer). In Search Of Freedom: Nebraskans From Latvia, David M. Gradwohl
Explorations in Sights and Sounds
Alexandru Moscu and Joel Geyer have produced a program which provides many penetrating insights into the dimensions of ethnicity in the United States. Furthermore they packaged the program in a manner which is not only instructive but also emotionally moving and aesthetically pleasing. The result is a scholarly and artistic gem.