Monday, June 24, 2013

More New E-Books


Over the past few months, we have made some of our best-selling books newly available in digital formats. A few weeks ago we talked about six of them. Here are six more! As with the previous selection, all of these are great reads that would be perfect as travel companions.

Written by the president of the St. Louis Zoo, Sailing with Noah is an intensely personal, behind-the-scenes look at modern zoos. Jeffrey P. Bonner, who was trained as an anthropologist and came to the zoo world quite by accident, shares some of the most compelling stories ever told about contemporary zoos. From the day-to-day aspects of caring for some of the world’s most exotic creatures to the role of zoos as field conservation organizations, this book takes the reader on an incredible journey—one that begins within the zoo and continues around the globe. 



As Franklin D. Roosevelt's health deteriorated in the months leading up to the Democratic National Convention of 1944, party leaders confronted a dire situation. Given the inevitability of the president's death during a fourth term, the choice of a running mate was of profound importance. The Democrats needed a man they could trust: Harry Truman. In Choosing Truman Robert H. Ferrell tells an engrossing tale of ruthless ambition, secret meetings, and party politics.Startling in its conclusions, impeccable in its research, this is an engrossing, behind-the-scenes look at the making of the nation's thirty-third president.


Shooting Polaris offers a fascinating account of John Hales's adventures as a government surveyor in the southern Utah desert. Although the book is autobiographical, it is much more: a reflection on nature and work, American history and the movement into the West, the desire to impose order and the contrary impulse for unmediated experience, the idealistic legacy of the sixties, the influence of the Mormon Church, and the often-antagonistic relationship of American capitalism to sound ecological management. Along the way, Hales reveals the art, science, and history of surveying, an endeavor that turns out to be surprisingly profound. 
 

An introductory military history of the American Civil War, Shades of Blue and Gray places the 1861-1865 conflict within the context of evolving warfare. Emphasizing technology and its impact, Herman Hattaway includes valuable material on land and sea mines, minesweepers, hand grenades, automatic weapons, the Confederate submarine, and balloons. The evolution of professionalism in the American military serves as an important theme throughout. Informative and clearly written, enhanced by graceful prose and colorful anecdotes, Shades of Blue and Gray will appeal to all readers.

Sin in the City examines three urban revivals in turn-of-the-century Chicago to show how revivalists negotiated that era’s perceived racial, sexual, and class threats.  Rather than approaching these events merely as the achievements of persuasive men, Thekla Ellen Joiner views them as choreographed rituals reinforcing a moral order defined by ideals of femininity, masculinity, and racial purity. Sin in the City shows that the legacy of the Third Awakening lives on today in the religious right’s sociopolitical activism; crusade for family values; disparagement of feminism; and promotion of spirituality in middle-class, racial, and cultural terms. 



In A Second Home, Sue Thomas examines early education in Missouri, demonstrating how important schools were in taming the frontier. Drawing on oral histories, as well as private diaries and archival research, she offers firsthand accounts of what education was like—including descriptions of the furnishings, teaching methods, and school-day activities in one-room log schools. With its remembrances of simpler times, A Second Home tells of community gatherings and events such as taffy pulls and spelling bees, and offers tales of stern teachers, student pranks, and schoolyard games.

More new e-books are featured on the Press’s Special Offers page for the month of June, along with a selection of our best-selling e-books and a special coupon offer.

You can buy any of these e-books from Amazon, Baker & Taylor, Barnes & Noble, Chegg, Ebrary, EBSCO, Google, Kobo, OverDrive, Sony, and the Press’s own web page, where you will also find many more e-books available.

Monday, June 17, 2013

Author Spotlight: Jerrianne Hayslett

As the Los Angeles Superior Court’s media liaison, Jerrianne Hayslett had unprecedented access to the trial—and met with Judge Lance Ito daily—as she attempted, sometimes unsuccessfully, to mediate between the court and members of the media and to balance their interests. In Anatomy of a Trial, she takes readers behind the scenes to shed new light on people and proceedings and to show how the media and the trial participants changed the court-media landscape to the detriment of the public’s understanding of the judicial system.
Q: The Simpson trial remains a subject of national and international interest despite the fact that it occurred eighteen years ago.  What does Anatomy of a Trial contribute to the discussion we are still having about the Simpson trial?
With the case embodying murder, money, mystery, celebrity, sex, race, a sports legend, and grandstanding lawyers against a Hollywood backdrop, Simpson became the hallmark for using the court as an entertainment venue. Comparisons with and attempts to replicate the made-for-TV Simpson phenomenon in subsequent trials with similar elements was and continues to be inevitable.
Anatomy of a Trial, with its in-person, behind-the-scenes observations and analysis, shows how everyone associated with that case contributed to the soap opera that gripped the public for nearly a year. The book includes ways the judiciary and the media can get through high-profile situations without damage to their reputations or credibility.
Q: The public has not been particularly sympathetic to Lance Ito since the trial’s beginning. Do you think Ito’s public treatment was unwarranted?
The public persona of Judge Ito is based almost entirely on television images, interpretation of his actions and supposedly learned opinions.  Anatomy of a Trial examines Ito the man, the judge and the media analyst behind the black-robed TV portrait. My daily access to him and his understanding—and miscalculation— of the media provides a view that in many respects challenges the caricature captured in the box.
Q: How did Lance Ito’s personality and judicial style shape not only the events of the trial, but also the perception of those events?
Ito was selected as the Simpson-case judge specifically because of his quick grasp and knowledge of the law and his calm, deliberative courtroom demeanor. His judicial style is to give opposing sides wide latitude in presenting their cases, but within the dictates of the law and court rules. His style and manner is informed by his cultural heritage that stresses respect and courtesy and he expected the attorneys and media in the Simpson case to respond in kind. At the same time, he considered himself a public servant conducting the people’s business and believed they had a right to observe proceedings in his courtroom. When the Simpson case landed in his court he was an experienced high-profile-trial judge and veteran of intense media coverage. Although not oblivious to the gathering Simpson media storm, he believed it would subside once the initial phase of the trial was under way. He failed to recognize the tsunami it became until it inundated him and the court.
Q: The presence of the media in the Simpson trial affected the public’s perception of the proceedings in a profound way. What impact do you think this continues to have on high-profile trials?
The imprint of Simpson on the judiciary and, to a lesser extent, the media remains fresh and stinging. Many judges, to avoid being pilloried and second-guessed, saw the need to maintain control, not just of their courtrooms, but of how they are portrayed. They fear the unbridled and voracious media appetite they saw unleashed in the Simpson trial and keep their doors closed to camera coverage, if possible. That fear continues as court systems, state legislatures, and other countries cite the Simpson trial in banning cameras from their trial courts. As cases such as Terri Schiavo, Michael Jackson, Scott Peterson, Martha Stewart and Casey Anthony have shown, the media have done little to redeem or reform themselves.
Anatomy of a Trial argues that the public became the ultimate loser because of the Simpson-media excesses. The nonstop media punditry infused with industry and individual-career promotion has left most people with poor understanding between media access and media intrusion. The book also includes examples of some judges who defied the camera-ban trend, and discusses a medium that is making courtroom cameras more acceptable to some members of the judiciary.
Q: Do you have any upcoming projects or books readers can anticipate?
I keep current on key issues related to court-media and high-profile-case issues, which I blog about frequently on my “Anatomy of aTrial” blog. I contribute articles and essays to court and law-related publications and to general-interest media. I am also nearing completion of an historical fiction manuscript of a multiple lynching in the Midwest more than eighty years ago in which an African-American defendant has a far different court outcome than O.J. Simpson did in 1995.

Monday, June 10, 2013

Author Spotlight: Steven Watts


 
The Magic Kingdom sheds new light on the cultural icon of "Uncle Walt." Watts digs deeply into Disney's private life, investigating his roles as husband, father, and brother and providing fresh insight into his peculiar psyche-his genuine folksiness and warmth, his domineering treatment of colleagues and friends, his deepest prejudices and passions. Full of colorful sketches of daily life at the Disney Studio and tales about the creation of Disneyland and Disney World, The Magic Kingdom offers a definitive view of one of the most influential Americans of the twentieth century.

Q. How have Walt Disney’s contributions to American culture influenced you personally?
 
As a child in the 1950s and early 1960s, I grew up when Walt Disney was a pervasive influence in American life.  I watched his various television shows ranging from Disneyland and The Mickey Mouse Club and Davy Crockett to Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color.  I’m sure those images embedded themselves in my mind, and later on when I began to think about Disney’s significant impact on modern American values they rose to the surface.

Q. Did you choose to write about Disney simply because of his huge influence on American culture or was there more to the decision?

I wrote about Disney not only because of his enormous impact on American life from the 1930s to the 1960s, but because of the controversy surrounding him.  Most serious evaluations of Disney by scholars and writers had been rather negative—some extremely so—and I thought they shortchanged his influence.  So I attempted to write a more dispassionate, balanced assessment that tried to figure out why he was so popular, rather than simply denouncing him for being childish, syrupy, and reactionary.

Q. We tend to see you drawn towards a diverse subject range in your writings, from Walt Disney to Hugh Hefner. What is it about these people that makes you want to write about them?

In my biographies on Disney, Henry Ford, Hugh Hefner, and most recently Dale Carnegie, I have treated people who have shaped mainstream, popular values and attitudes among Americans in the twentieth century.  Their impact was enormous and all of them, in my view, had received rather shallow examinations from previous writers.  I attempted to rectify that.  Moreover, they were all fascinating, complex personalities and that attracted my by biographical interest as well.  Finally, they were all Midwesterners, and as a dyed-in-the-wool Midwesterner I have always suspected that figures from the middle of the country have been shortchanged in favor of those from the coasts.  So the books reflect my pride of place.

Q. Since you wrote this book several years ago, much has changed in the world of Disney. How do you think Walt Disney would feel about the changes the company has seen?

I think Walt would be largely pleased.  The company since his death, of course, has had a number of ups and downs over the years, but mostly it has presented a great many creative movie productions and developed the theme parks to reach an ever expanding audience.  By and large, the company has balanced genuine creativity with vast popular appeal, which was Walt’s formula from the beginning.

Q. Did you find any unexpected information about Disney (the man, the company, or both) during your research?

The unexpected information came with regard to his personality, which was something I had known little about before, having mainly a series of images of the kindly “Uncle Walt” from television and publicity.  I quickly discovered that he was a very complicated individual with an array of facets to his personality: not only a kindly, avuncular figure but a demanding taskmaster, a hard-driving creative figure, a cranky “wounded bear,” and a larger-than-life studio head who could be equal parts domineering and inspirational to the great many artists and staffers who worked for him.

Q. What would you like readers to take away from this book?

I would like readers to come away with, first, a greater appreciation of how and why Walt Disney became such a popular figure in modern American life; how and why he reflected mainstream American values so brilliantly; and how and why his unique personality contributed to his great success as a major cultural figure.

Q. Are you currently working on any projects?

I have just finished a biography of Dale Carnegie, which will be appearing in early fall 2013, and am just embarking on a cultural biography of John F. Kennedy.

Monday, June 3, 2013

New E-Books from the University of Missouri Press


Over the past few months, we have made some of our best-selling books newly available in digital formats. All of these are great reads that would be perfect as travel companions.


Before Laura Ingalls Wilder found fame with her Little House books, she made a name for herself with short nonfiction pieces in magazines and newspapers. Read today, these pieces offer insight into her development as a writer and into her life as a farm wife in the Ozarks—and also show us a different Laura Ingalls Wilder from the woman we have come to know. Laura Ingalls Wilder, Farm Journalist distills the essence of her pioneer heritage and will delight fans of her later work as it brings to life a vanished era.



Steven Watts’s The Magic Kingdom sheds new light on the cultural icon of "Uncle Walt." Watts digs deeply into Disney's private life, investigating his roles as husband, father, and brother and providing fresh insight into his peculiar psyche--his genuine folksiness and warmth, his domineering treatment of colleagues and friends, his deepest prejudices and passions. Full of colorful sketches of daily life at the Disney Studio and tales about the creation of Disneyland and Disney World, The Magic Kingdom offers a definitive view of one of the most influential Americans of the twentieth century.


As the Los Angeles Superior Court’s media liaison, Jerrianne Hayslett had unprecedented access to the O. J. Simpson trial—and met with Judge Lance Ito daily—as she attempted, sometimes unsuccessfully, to mediate between the court and members of the media and to balance their interests. In Anatomy of a Trial: Public Loss, Lessons Learned from "The People vs. O.J. Simpson," she takes readers behind the scenes to shed new light on people and proceedings and to show how the media and the trial participants changed the court-media landscape to the detriment of the public’s understanding of the judicial system.



In Women Escaping Violence, Elaine Lawless juxtaposes battered women's stories told in their own words with a feminist analysis of how these women use the power of narrative to transform their sense of self and regain a place within the larger society. Lawless shares the heart-wrenching experiences of women who have escaped violence by fleeing to shelters with little more than a few items hastily shoved into a plastic bag, and often with small children in tow. The book includes women's stories as they are told and retold within the shelter, in the presence of other battered women and of caregivers, analyzing the uses made of these narratives by those seeking to counsel battered women as well as by the women themselves.


A black man praised by white America, George Washington Carver (1864-1943) was an anomaly in his own time. George Washington Carver: In His Own Words, edited by Gary R. Kremer, offers a choice selection of Carver's writings that reveals the human side of the famous black scientist, as well as the forces that shaped his creative genius.






On January 2, 1932, near Springfield, Missouri, ten poorly armed law enforcement officers set out to arrest two local farm boys for auto theft. A few minutes later, six of the officers lay dead and three were wounded. The two killers, Jennings and Harry Young, were from a peaceful, tiny community named Brookline in central Greene County, Missouri. The "massacre" itself took place at the quiet orderly farm home of the Young family. In Young Brothers Massacre, Paul and Mary Barrett trace the personalities of those involved, describe the events of the fateful day, and examine the aftermath of the killings, detailing what was called "the greatest man hunt in the history of Texas," which culminated in the brothers' deaths in Houston


You can buy any of these e-books from Amazon, Baker & Taylor, Barnes & Noble, Chegg, Ebrary, EBSCO, Google, Kobo, OverDrive, Sony, and the Press’s own web page, where you will also find many more e-books available.

More new e-books are featured on the Press’s Special Offers page for the month of June, along with a selection of our best-selling ebooks and a special coupon offer.

Do you have a favorite University of Missouri Press book you'd like to have available as an e-book? If so, let us know in the comments.