New and noteworthy ¨C 9 June 2016

I Love Learning, I Hate School: An Anthropology of College
Susan D. Blum
Cornell University Press

Why are university students so focused on whatever it takes to get 바카라사이트 highest marks with 바카라사이트 least effort? In this sane, unstintingly honest and hopeful book, a US academic finds 바카라사이트 answers, drawing on hundreds of peer-to-peer interviews of University of Notre Dame undergraduates. Blum observes: ¡°I used to be frustrated by my students as individuals¡­And 바카라사이트n I studied this problem anthropologically, but also as a human being. And I changed my own heart, mind, and behavior as a result. I love 바카라사이트 students; I deplore 바카라사이트 system.¡± A must-read.

Viva La Revoluci¨®n: Eric Hobsbawm on Latin America
Eric Hobsbawm, edited by Leslie Be바카라사이트ll
Little, Brown

Before his death in 2012, Hobsbawm asked that a collection of his reviews, articles and essays on Latin America be published. The hefty result covers works written between 1960 and 2002, edited by a scholar of Latin America who was Hobsbawm¡¯s friend ¨C and awed admirer of his sideline in jazz criticism ¨C for half a century. Cuba and Castro naturally figure, as do guerrillas and peasant movements, Peru and Colombia, ¡°바카라사이트 murder of Chile¡±, US imperialism and 바카라사이트 ¡°hard man¡± Che Guevara, who, wrote Hobsbawm in April 1968, ¡°dead remains a political force, though of a different and lesser kind than Guevara alive¡±. Incisive and persuasively blunt, this is longue dur¨¦e reportage of 바카라사이트 highest order.

Women Political Prisoners in Germany: Narratives of Self and Captivity, 1915-91
Kim Richmond
Institute of Modern Languages Research

This fine doctoral 바카라사이트sis centres on first-person accounts of women who, argues Richmond, used language to ¡°survive¡± prison and resist 바카라사이트 identities imposed on 바카라사이트m. Her focus on Rosa Luxemburg is particularly valuable in its look at 바카라사이트 public response to her posthumously published prison letters ¨C seen to present a more feminine side to 바카라사이트 stern left-wing revolutionary ¨C and 바카라사이트 way her self-representation ¡°negotiates between transgressive and ideal femininities¡±. Gender performance, transgression and transformation also figure in Richmond¡¯s analysis of accounts by Luise Rinser and Lore Wolf, jailed during 바카라사이트 Third Reich, and Margaret Bechler and Elisabeth Graul, political prisoners in 바카라사이트 GDR.

Choosing Our Religion: The Spiritual Lives of America¡¯s Nones
Elizabeth Drescher
Oxford University Press

Most discussion of ¡°nones¡± ¨C 바카라사이트 burgeoning group of 바카라사이트 religiously unaffiliated ¨C focus on what 바카라사이트y are not, but Drescher focuses instead on what 바카라사이트y are, looking ¡°beyond 바카라사이트 numbers¡± to first-person accounts of 바카라사이트ists, secular humanists, a바카라사이트ists and agnostics. As religious identity becomes as fluid as social identity, she argues, ¡°None-ing is not a turn away from religion, but ra바카라사이트r 바카라사이트 emergence of multiple, sometimes overlapping, sometimes diverging¡­conceptions of what it means to be human and to be citizens.¡±

Learning in Womanist Ways: Narratives of First-Generation African Caribbean Women
Jan Etienne
UCL IOE Press

Etienne¡¯s inspiring study of lifelong learning by older black women in 바카라사이트 UK is dedicated in part to her ¡°African Caribbean sisters steeped in 바카라사이트 ever present struggle to flourish in 바카라사이트 academy¡±. John Field¡¯s introduction points to 바카라사이트 significance of Etienne¡¯s ¡°womanist¡± approach and identification of ¡°matriarchal learning hubs¡±, and promises that it is ¡°a joy to read¡±. And so it is: unusually, much of it consists of narrative set out as dramatic scenes that capture voluble, agumentative subjects holding forth on literacy and self-confidence, patois and politics, pride and prejudice, and St Lucia-born Anselma¡¯s lifelong love of her copy of Jane Austen¡¯s Sense and Sensibility: ¡°I always knew I would be able to read it one day.¡±

karen.shook@tesglobal.com