Book

Winter 2018

A Scientific Companion to Robert Frost

Virginia F. Smith ’97 PhD Biochem.

Clemson University Press: 2018

“Art,” said the Roman philosopher Cicero, “is born of the observation and investigation of nature.”

He said this two millennia before the arrival of Robert Frost, the New England poet who smuggled personal, subtle, and often dark themes into a vast, accessible, and popular body of work rooted largely in the natural world. As Virginia Smith notes in her fastidious A Scientific Companion to Robert Frost, … » More …

Winter 2018

Complexity in a Ditch: Bringing Water to the Idaho Desert

Hugh T. Lovin ’56 MA History

WSU Press: 2017

Growing up on a farm near Inkom, Idaho, the young Hugh Lovin would engineer ways to divert water to the crops he produced for his livestock. Later in life, after years of writing histories of labor, Lovin turned his attention again to irrigation. In a number of articles, collected for the first time in this volume, he traced the history of the “dreamers, schemers, and doers” who brought water … » More …

Winter 2018

Briefly noted

Freedom’s Racial Frontier: African Americans in the Twentieth-Century West

Edited by Herbert G. Ruffin II and Dwayne A. Mack ’02 PhD History

University of Oklahoma Press: 2018

Between 1940 and 2010, the black population of the American West grew from 710,400 to 7 million. With that explosive growth has come a burgeoning interest in the history of the African American West—an interest reflected in the range and depth of the works collected in Freedom’s Racial Frontier that link past, current, and future generations of African American West scholarship. The West is revealed as a place where black Americans have fought—and continue to fight—to make … » More …

Fall 2018

Briefly noted

Boulder, Colorado: A Photographic Portrait

Twin Lights: 2018

Kieffer, a 20-year resident of Colorado, captures the diverse culture and personality of the city of Boulder through his images of the city’s people, architecture, cultural events, and lovely green spaces.

Closure

Tasche Laine ’89 Comm.

Skye Blue Press: 2018

Laine’s first novel tells of childhood sweethearts Trey and Tara who fall in love through writing letters. Based on a true story, the Vancouver author’s plot follows the different paths of the young pair until they come back together after 20 years.

Fall 2018

Deer at Twilight—Poems from the North Cascades

By Paul J. Willis ’80 MA, ’85 PhD

Stephen F. Austin State University Press: 2018

Hiking solo through the mountains can be a lonely endeavor. Missing human companionship, some turn to the subtle moods and personalities inherent in the woodland world itself.

Those emotional complexities come alive in this lovely little volume written while author Paul Willis explored the North Cascades National Park during an artist-in-residence program and a subsequent residency with the North Cascades Institute.

His verse covers territory … » More …

Summer 2018

Briefly noted

A Day in the Life of a Country Vet

Fred Newschwander ’74 DVM

2018

Mostly true stories, anecdotes, and illustrations about the animals and people from the life and career of a retired mixed animal veterinarian.

Notes in the Category of C: Reflections on Laboratory Animal Care and Use

Steven Niemi ’82 DVM

Academic Press: 2017

Niemi’s professional analysis and experience informs ways to improve laboratory animal care and use. His book characterizes the current state of the industry and speculates on its long-term future. Niemi, director of the Office of Animal Resources at Harvard University, has spent a lot of time in … » More …

Spring 2018

Briefly noted

On the Arctic Frontier: Ernest Leffingwell’s Polar Explorations and Legacy

Janet R. Collins

WSU Press: 2017

Arctic explorer and geologist Ernest deKoven Leffingwell(1875–1971) helped determine the edge of the continental shelf—the first solid evidence that searching for land north of Alaska was likely futile. He also left detailed, accurate maps of Alaska’s northeast coast, groundbreaking permafrost studies, and charted the geology and wildlife of the region. Collins, a Western Washington University librarian intrigued by Leffingwell’s work, reveals a relatively unknown, meticulous, and detailed explorer devoted to the Arctic.

Re-Awakening Ancient Salish Sea Basketry: Fifty Years of Basketry Studies in Culture and Science

Ed … » More …

Spring 2018

Losing Eden: An Environmental History of the American West

Sara Dant ’91 MA, ’00 PhD

Wiley: 2017

The 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition welcomed millions of people to Chicago to celebrate the rise of industrial America, the 400th anniversary of Columbus’ arrival on the continent, and the romanticization of the “frontier” West. Historian Frederick Jackson Turner presented his thesis that the western advance into a wild and savage frontier defined the American spirit, and … » More …

Spring 2018

At Home with Ernie Pyle

Edited by Owen V. Johnson ’68

Indiana University Press: 2016

A glimpse into the life and times of American journalist and Indiana favorite son Ernie Pyle, as seen through an extensive collection of Pyle’s folksy newspaper columns stretching from his student days in 1921 until his death by sniper fire during the Battle of Okinawa in 1945.

The homespun Hoosier, as Pyle was known, grew up in small-town … » More …

Covers of Hip Hop Ain’t Dead: It’s Livin’ in the White House and Playing While White

Spring 2018

Hip Hop Ain’t Dead and Playing While White

Hip Hop Ain’t Dead: It’s Livin’ in the White House

Sanford Richmond ’11 PhD

Mill City Press: 2016

Playing While White: Privilege and Power On and Off the Field

David J. Leonard

University of Washington Press: 2017

During his undergraduate years at the University of Southern California, writes Sanford Richmond in Hip Hop Ain’t Dead, “I began to … » More …