Oberlin Alumni Magazine

Margaret Bourke-White: Her Pictures Were her Life

Susan Moldof Goldman Rubin '50

Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1999

Chosen as a "Best Book for Young Adults 2000" by the American Library Association, Rubin's biography focuses on the art and career of Margaret Bourke-White, one of the founding four photographers of LIFE magazine. Rubin chronicles her subject's early life and progress throughout her career and recounts her adventures in capturing some famous images and people such as Ghandi and Stalin. Rubin has written books for children and has illustrated three of her own picture books.

Intervention
By Richard N. Haass '73
Brookings Institution Press, 1999

When is military force an appropriate policy tool for the United States? The author examines 12 cases of military force used as a policy tool, taken largely from the post-Cold War era, such as the Persian Gulf War and the end of the former Yugoslavia. Haass offers guidelines that policy makers and citizens can use to decide when to favor the use of force, and how these rules might have been applied in the past, or be applied in the future. A former special assistant to President George Bush and senior director on the National Security Council staff, Haass is vice president and director of foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution. He is the author or editor of eight books on American foreign policy.

Transforming Teacher Unions: Fighting for Better Schools and Social Justice

Edited by Michael Charney '72 and Bob Peterson

Rethinking Schools, 1999

This anthology of 25 articles addresses issues of teacher unions, classroom reform, and the rights of all children to a free, equitable, and high-quality public education. Confronting issues ranging from racism to collective bargaining to vouchers, the authors trace exemplary practices of unions from the local to national level. Charney has been the middle-school representative for the executive board of the Cleveland Teacher Union for more than ten years. He was honored with the 1996 AFT Robert Porter Award for Community Involvement, Service to the Union, and Excellence in Classroom Teaching.

Stronger

By Timothy Kelly '73

Oberlin College Press, 2000

This slim book of poems, part of the Press' FIELD Poetry Series, is a celebration of life. Kelly's career as a physiotherapist informs his work, and his images of pelvises, spines, and extremities that refuse to move make oddly touching and graphic poetry. Too, there are stolen moments of lovemaking, of camping by a rushing river with his wife and two sons, and of Keats, the black cat, who demolishes an anguished yellow finch in the presence of dinner guests. The hope of resurrection of the damaged limbs, the awareness of the endless road back to a first step, and Kelly's reverence for the mysterious and awesome interconnections that form the body, leave the reader with new respect for the mystery of our bones. He lives in Olympia, Washington, with his family.

Iraq Under Siege: The Deadly Impact of Sanctions and War

Edited by Anthony Arnove '91

South End Press, 2000

The last nine years of bombing and sanctions imposed upon Iraq have claimed thousands of lives. Leading voices against these sanctions illustrate how they have prevented Iraq from importing basic necessities and how preventable diseases have taken a toll on the population, all while the country's leaders remain unaffected. The book closes with guidelines for activists. Arnove is an editor and publisher at South End Press and an activist based in Rhode Island.

You Can't Eat GNP: Economics as if Ecology Mattered

By Eric A. Davidson '78

Perseus Publishing, 2000

Most estimates of wealth today are based upon gross domestic product, and many economists see future wealth being created free of the constraints set by natural resources. In valuing land or forests, says Davidson, we tend to discount their future value for our own children; in analyzing costs and benefits, the price of these natural resources is usually wrong, and damages to these resources are seen as "externalities." Here, the author exposes these fallacies and offers a blueprint for a truly sustainable economy. Davidson is a scientist at the Woods Hole Research Center in Massachusetts.

Bee Season

By Myla Goldberg '93

Doubleday, 2000

This is a bittersweet coming-of-age first novel about the way a 9-year-old girl reconstructs her family's relationships through her appearance at the annual National Spelling Bee contest--a uniquely American intellectual sporting event. The tensions and joys of winning the Bee are fully explored, as are the way the links in the quirky family's household shift when Eliza becomes an infallible speller. The child's longing to be appreciated and noticed gives way to another level of understanding as she discovers that winning can sometimes be losing. Goldberg lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband.

Briefly Noted:

Advances in Genetic Programming, Volume 3
Edited by Lee Spector '84, William Langdon, Una-May O'Reilly, and Peter Angeline
The MIT Press, 1999

At Schoodic

Poems by Michael O'Brien,

Drawings by Joan Farber '58

Cairn Editions, 2000

A Cultural Guide to the Global Village

By Thomas E. Nehil '48

Pearson Custom Publishing, 1999

The Culturally Complex Individual: Franz Werfel's Reflections on Minority Identity and Historical Depiction in The Forty Days of Musa Dagh

By Rachel Kirby '87

Bucknell University Press, 1999

Foreign Trade of the United States

Edited by Courtenay M. Slater '55

Bernan Press, 1999

Talmudic Stories: Narrative Art, Composition, and Culture

By Jeffrey L. Rubenstein '85

The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999

Women in Antebellum Reform

By Lori D. Ginzberg '78

Harlan Davidson, 2000

Wednesday's Child is Full of Woe *

By William M. Brashear '68

OVG Publishing, 1999

What Might it Mean? An Uncommon Glossary of Musical Terms and Concepts for the Stuck, Bored, and Curious *

By Nancy Garniez '58

Tonal Reflections, 1999

* Title corrected from Spring 2000 issue