Faculty books

The “Aeneid” of Vergil

The “Aeneid” of Vergil

Translated by Patricia A. Johnston
University of Oklahoma Press, $24.95

“Arma virumque cano,” Vergil begins, and with these words readers plunge headlong into an epic account of battles, upheaval and the suffering endured by upright Aeneas, who flees the ruins of Troy to become the progenitor of the long line of Romans who transformed Western civilization. In her evocative new translation of the “Aeneid,” Johnston, professor of classical studies, writes in dactylic hexameter, the meter Vergil himself used when he wrote his masterpiece in the first century B.C.

Alumni books

Off the Menu

Off the Menu

By Stacey Ballis ’92
Berkley Books, $15

As bubbly as prosecco and as tangy as tapenade, this is a chick-lit novel for smart, sophisticated chicks. An almost-40 culinary assistant to a demanding celebrity chef struggles to find the right ingredients for her love life and career, discovering that choices focused on “and” are much more satisfying than those that settle for “or.” Gossipy inside references to real-life celebrity chefs and more than two dozen recipes complete the feast Ballis offers her audience.

The Contagious City: The Politics of Public Health in Early Philadelphia

The Contagious City: The Politics of Public Health in Early Philadelphia

By Simon Finger, MA’00
Cornell University Press, $39.95

The connection was there long before the Affordable Care Act: Even in Colonial America, medicine and politics danced a close, intricate dance. Finger, a visiting assistant professor of history and humanities at Reed College, describes how the colonists who built Philadelphia protected their collective health, and how ideas about politics, people, space and partisanship guided the development of the city’s urban plan, immigration policy and public-safety institutions.

College at 13: Young, Gifted and Purposeful

College at 13: Young, Gifted and Purposeful

By Razel Solow ’76 and Celeste Rhodes
Great Potential Press, $24.95

A highly gifted child goes off to college in her early teens. Will she be damaged by the academic pressure and social isolation? Or energized by “leapfrogging” into her future? Solow, director of the Center for Gifted Studies and Education at Hunter College, and her co-author urge educators and policymakers to be open to letting gifted children move at an accelerated pace by telling the stories of 14 talented young women who started college early — and thrived.

The Manliest Man: Samuel G. Howe and the Contours of 19th-Century American Reform

The Manliest Man: Samuel G. Howe and the Contours of 19th-Century American Reform

By James W. Trent Jr., PhD’82
University of Massachusetts Press, $28.95

Trent, professor of sociology and social work at Gordon College, offers the first full-length biography of Samuel G. Howe in fifty years, limning a three-dimensional portrait of the Boston physician/abolitionist/Perkins School for the Blind founder. A friend dubbed Howe “the manliest man,” inspired by his knowledge of the reformer’s searching intelligence, moral rectitude, physical strength and abiding tenderness.

After the Affair

After the Affair

By Janis Abrahms Spring ’71 with Michael Spring
William Morrow, $14.99

This self-help volume’s long subtitle — “Healing the Pain and Rebuilding the Trust When a Partner Has Been Unfaithful” — gets to the heart of its goal: showing partners how to reclaim and mend their relationship after infidelity damages the bond. Originally published in 1996, with a half million copies already sold, Spring’s book is now out in a revised edition, including new material on cheating in cyberspace.

Modernizing Repression: Police Training and Nation-Building in the American Century

Modernizing Repression: Police Training and Nation-Building in the American Century

By Jeremy Kuzmarov, PhD’06
University of Massachusetts Press, $29.95

In Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, the U.S. has viewed the building up of local police and security forces as a cost-effective way to suppress radical and nationalist movements. The problem with this approach, says Kuzmarov, assistant professor of history at the University of Tulsa, is that it often doesn’t work, and can even exacerbate violence and instability. His book offers a detailed assessment of police training’s recent history and the thorny issues it can create.

Beyond Courage: The Untold Story of Jewish Resistance During the Holocaust

Beyond Courage: The Untold Story of Jewish Resistance During the Holocaust

By Doreen Rappaport ’61
Candlewick Press, $22.99

For young readers (and their older counterparts), Rappaport shines a light on European Jews’ acts of resistance during World War II. The heroes of her moving accounts — many of which are published here in book form for the first time — run the gamut from the 14-year-old who helped dig an escape tunnel out of a Polish labor camp to the teenager who formed an all-girl guerrilla unit in the mountains of Greece.

Where Do Diggers Sleep at Night?

Where Do Diggers Sleep at Night?

By Brianna Caplan Sayres ’93
Random House, $16.99

If you know a child who’s fascinated by fire engines, snowplows and other heavy-duty vehicles, Caplan Sayres’ sweet bedtime story will send your big-wheels fancier off to dreamland with a smile. Simple rhymes and colorful illustrations promise to captivate even the youngest reader.

The Jews of Beirut: The Rise of a Levantine Community, 1860s-1930s

The Jews of Beirut: The Rise of a Levantine Community, 1860s-1930s

By Tomer Levi, MA’05, PhD’10
Peter Lang, $82.95

The director of the Brandeis University/Middlebury Program in Israel, Levi relates the history of the organized, vibrant Jewish community that emerged in Lebanon beginning in the late 19th century. Levi’s research details how the community developed, what institutions it created and how it was affected by a variety of ideological currents. In particular, he examines the role of four factors: migration, commerce, cultural diversity and philanthropy.

The Enigmatic Academy: Class, Bureaucracy and Religion in American Education

The Enigmatic Academy: Class, Bureaucracy and Religion in American Education

By Christian J. Churchill, PhD’00, and Gerald E. Levy
Temple University Press, $30.95

How do American schools prepare young people for the realities they encounter as adults? How do class, bureaucracy and ideology affect both the education process and the results achieved? To answer these weighty questions, Churchill, sociology professor at St. Thomas Aquinas College, and Levy examine a small liberal arts college, a boarding school for boys and a Job Corps center to parse the complex, often paradoxical relationship between education and society in America.

Clint Eastwood: Master Filmmaker at Work

Clint Eastwood: Master Filmmaker at Work

By Michael Goldman ’81
Abrams, $40

Slightly less heavy than a Gran Torino, with more pages than there are bridges in Madison County, this handsome coffee-table book reviews the decades-long directorial career of Clint Eastwood. A veteran entertainment-industry journalist, Goldman offers film fans an intelligent, in-depth exploration, introduced by a foreword from Steven Spielberg and a preface by Morgan Freeman. Numerous behind-the-scenes anecdotes and photos reveal Eastwood’s approach to movie making, neatly summed up by the director himself: “It’s really not an auteur thing; it’s an ensemble.”

Brandeis University Press

Holocaust Literature: A History and Guide


Holocaust Literature: A History and Guide

By David G. Roskies ’69, MA’71, PhD’75, and Naomi Diamant
$35

In this comprehensive survey, Roskies and Diamant explain what “Holocaust literature” is, then take readers through a critical assessment of works produced during World War II and three post-war periods. The authors end with a discussion of 100 important books — such as Primo Levi’s “Survival in Auschwitz” and Art Spiegelman’s “Maus” — that exemplify each of the time periods they cover.

Polygamy in Primetime: Media, Gender and Politics in Mormon Fundamentalism

Polygamy in Primetime: Media, Gender and Politics in Mormon Fundamentalism

By Janet Bennion
$35

Hollywood is increasing intrigued by plural marriage (think “Big Love” and “Sister Wives”); so are news and talk shows. An anthropology and sociology professor at Lyndon State College, Bennion examines the media’s portrayals of polygamy through a feminist lens, and offers her take on the actual opportunities and risks plural marriage presents to fundamentalist Mormon women.


Religion and Jewish Identity in the Soviet Union, 1941-1964

Religion and Jewish Identity in the Soviet Union, 1941-1964

By Mordechai Altshuler
$35

Professor emeritus at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Altshuler explores the role of religious institutions in shaping the ethnic identity of Jews in the Soviet Union from 1941 to 1964. His findings, drawing on archival material available only after the collapse of the USSR, firmly refute the characterization of Soviet Jews as “Jews of silence.”