From physics to poetry, professors at UC Davis publish 100 or so new books every year. Many of the latest titles would enrich any summer reading list:
A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World
Economics professor Gregory Clark's latest work, A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World, spent a short time at No. 17 on Amazon's bestseller list. For a 440-page economics treatise, that is a lofty height indeed. Clark's book earned admiring write-ups in the New York Times, Washington Post, Newsweek, Time and the New York Review of Books, among other major publications. It will change how you think about wealth disparities among nations — and put the current U.S. economic straits into historical perspective.
The Great Depression and the New Deal: A Very Short Introduction
A look back at the Great Depression can put $4-a-gallon gas in a new perspective. Eric Rauchway, professor of history, has published the only concise history of the Depression and New Deal on the market. The Great Depression and the New Deal: A Very Short Introduction is part of Oxford University Press' 195-title Very Short Introductions series. At a highly readable 160 pages, the book tells the story of one of history's great policy revolutions. Rauchway is also the author of Blessed Among Nations: How the World Made America and Murdering McKinley: The Making of Theodore Roosevelt's America. He writes an online column for The New Republic and has contributed to Slate and The American Prospect.
A Land So Strange: The Epic Journey of Cabeza de Vaca
Gas prices may keep us closer to home this summer, but we can still enjoy vicarious adventures — like the one that Andrés Reséndez, an associate professor of history, recounts in A Land So Strange: The Epic Journey of Cabeza de Vaca. The critically acclaimed book tells the story of 300 conquistadores who set out from Spain in 1528 to colonize what is now Florida. Only four survived. Carolyn See of the Washington Post compared the book to Moby Dick and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Publishers Weekly called it "a marvelous addition to the corpus of survival and adventure literature."
Back on the Fire: Essays
If day trips to the Sierra are part of your summer "homecationing" plans, bring along poet Gary Snyder's latest book of essays, Back on the Fire: Essays. Inspired by the Sierra foothills where Snyder makes his home, the essays include meditations on cave art, the Maidu coyote myth, haiku, the making of families, and Allen Ginsberg's death. The slim volume also makes the case for a more balanced attitude toward land and forest preservation. Snyder, a professor emeritus of English, is one of the best-known poets of his generation. He has won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award and the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize.
Expectation Days
Another distinguished UC Davis poet, Sandra McPherson, has published a collection of poems that speak to anyone who has gone through post-9/11 airport security, climbed a coastal cliff or lost a loved one. The book, Expectation Days, was nominated for the 2007 Northern California Book Award in Poetry. A professor of English, McPherson is the recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship and an award in literature from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. She was featured on the Bill Moyers television series, "The Language of Life."
The Talented Women of the Zhang Family
As the summer Olympics focus the world's attention on Beijing, Susan Mann's latest book illuminates a part of China that has been largely invisible: the lives of 19th century Chinese women. "The people you are about to meet lived and died a long time ago, but they left behind a treasure: beautiful copies of their own writings in woodblock print," Mann writes in the book's prologue. "They did not want to be forgotten." In the pages of The Talented Women of the Zhang Family, Mann ensures that they will not. Mann, a professor of history, is known for her pioneering work on the history of women in China.
Chinese Modernity and Global Biopolitics: Studies in Literature and Visual Culture
For scholarly insights into China in the 21st century, turn to Chinese Modernity and Global Biopolitics: Studies in Literature and Visual Culture, by Sheldon Lu, professor of comparative literature. Lu draws on Chinese literature, film, art, photography and video to document the daily lives of contemporary Chinese as they make the transition from a socialist lifestyle to the new capitalist economy.
Darkening Peaks: Glacier Retreat, Science, and Society
No time like a Sacramento summer to think about global warming. Benjamin Orlove, a professor of environmental science and policy, has combined the perspectives of social and natural scientists from five continents as editor of the critically acclaimed new book, Darkening Peaks: Glacier Retreat, Science, and Society. "Whatever your interest in glaciers, you will find this rich, broadly ranging volume exciting," writes Jared Diamond, author of Guns, Germs, and Steel, in one of the book's many accolades.
Gorilla Society: Conflict, Compromise, and Cooperation Between the Sexes
Another vanishing entity — the gorilla — is the subject of Alexander Harcourt and Kelly Stewart's new book, Gorilla Society: Conflict, Compromise, and Cooperation Between the Sexes. The husband-and-wife research team — Harcourt is a professor of anthropology, Stewart is an anthropology research associate — has synthesized decades of ecological and behavioral research into a fascinating explanation of gorilla life. Stewart is the author of one earlier book on gorillas, and the co-author of another. She and Harcourt have done extensive fieldwork with primates in Africa.
Water War in the Klamath Basin: Macho Law, Combat Biology, and Dirty Politics
In the summer drought of 2001, the federal Bureau of Reclamation outraged farmers by shutting down the headgates of the Upper Klamath Basin in southern Oregon to conserve water for endangered species. It was the first time in U.S. history that the headgates of a federal irrigation project were closed in favor of conservation. The protests, vandalism and apocalyptic rhetoric that greeted the decision are the subject of a new book by law professor Holly Doremus, Water War in the Klamath Basin: Macho Law, Combat Biology, and Dirty Politics. Written with a professor at the Chicago-Kent College of Law, the book offers a comprehensive look at the events leading up to the historic federal decision.
The Entire Predicament
For those who would rather escape into fiction, Lucy Corin has published her first book of short stories, The Entire Predicament. One critic, writing in the Rain Taxi Review of Books, called the collection "fiercely strange" and "vivid and sharp." "You don't read these stories," the reviewer said. "You undergo them." An assistant professor of English, Corin has published short stories in numerous journals, including Ploughshares, the Iowa Review and the Mid-American Review. Her first novel, Everyday Psychokillers: A History for Girls, was published in 2004, establishing her as an original voice in contemporary avant-garde fiction.
Field Guide to Butterflies of the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento Valley Regions
Butterfly watching is a time-honored summer pastime. With the help of a new book by evolution and ecology professor Arthur Shapiro, you will be able to distinguish a West Coast lady from a golden oak hairstreak. Shapiro's superbly illustrated Field Guide to Butterflies of the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento Valley Regions discusses and identifies more than 130 species found in this region. Written for both beginning and experienced butterfly watchers, it includes tips on photography, butterfly-friendly gardening and more. The guide is part of the popular California Natural History Guide series. Shapiro is one of the nation's best-known professional lepidopterists.
