Books

In an insightful assessment of the study and teaching of writing against the larger theoretical, political, and technological upheavals of the past thirty years, Fragments of Rationality questions why composition studies has been less affected by postmodern theory than other humanities and social science disciplines.

Winner of the 1994 CCCC Outstanding Book Award Winner of the 1992 MLA Mina P. Shaughnessy Prize

Fourteen essays examine, through a public policy focus, the 1978 civil service reform and its aftermath.

A collection by a poet whose work is by turns humorous, dark, quirky, romantic, and lyric.

An in-depth view of the vital aspects of local politics-access to political office, individual office holder’s accountability to the public, the performance of councils as collective political bodies, and the often high turnover of personnel.

American Mosaic presents the recollections of 140 immigrants from six continents and fifty countries who have settled all across the United States.

Winner of the 2009 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought

An insider’s look at the Soviet dissident movement—the intellectuals who, during the Khrushchev and Brezhnev eras, dared to challenge an oppressive system and demand the rights guaranteed by the Soviet constitution. Fired from their jobs, hunted by the KGB, “tried,” and imprisoned, Alexeyeva and other activists, through their dedication and sacrifices, focused international attention on thuman rights in the USSR.

Steven Reed takes on the task of demystifying Japanese culture and behavior. Through examples that are familiar to an American audience and his own personal encounters, he argues that the apparent oddity of Japanese behavior flows quite naturally from certain objective conditions that are different from those in the United States. Two aspects of the Japanese economy have particularly baffled Americans: that Japanese workers have “permanent employment” and that the Japanese government cooperates with big business. Reed explains these phenomena in common sense terms. He shows how they developed historically, why they continue, and why they helped produce economic growth. He concludes that these practices are in fact, not very different from the United States.

The first in a trilogy of books by one of the leading figures in American dance, Dance and the Specific Image includes more than 100 improvisational structures that Daniel Nagrin created with his company, the Workgroup, and taught in dance classes and workshops throughout the United States. Robby Barnett of the Pilobolus Dance Theater called the book “a vivid and fascinating document of his thinking—more movement and performance and, of course, on his own extraordinary life in dance.”

Winner of the 1992 Associated Writing Programs’ Award Series in Poetry

A book of poems about “children” in the widest sense—from children of the Nazi-torn Warsaw ghettos to the American poor, as well as poems of domesticity, love and daily life.

Savoie examines the war of bureaucratic reform waged by the leaders of theree major industrial countries. Reagan, Thatcher and Mulroney were equally committed to reform and initiated wide-ranging changes. By the end of the 1990s, the changes were dramatic. Many governments operations had been privatized, and new management techniques had been introduced. Savoie suggests that the reforms overlooked problems now urgently requiring attention and, at the same time, attempted to address non-existent problems. He combines theory and research based on sixty-two interviews, nearly all with members of the executive branch of the governments of Britain, Canada and the United States.

A Meditation on Fall’s Fiery Beauty in the Appalachian Mountains

Crisis in Bethlehem provides an insider’s look at Bethlehem Steel’s bonanza years, its collapse, how it coped (and did not cope) with crisis, and the human costs involved.

Inspired by an incident during a field trip in 1989, David Schaafsma has written a powerful and compelling book about the struggle of teaching literacy in a racially divided society and the importance of stories and storytelling in the educational process.

Ted Kooser’s third book in the Pitt Poetry Series is a selection of poems published in literary journals over a ten year period by a writer whose work has been praised for its clarity and accessiblity, its mastery of figurative language, and its warmth and charm.