BSOS Faculty Books 2003

Communities of Work: Rural Restructuring in Local and Global Contexts
Bill Falk, chair of the Department of Sociology; Michael D. Schulman, North Carolina
State University and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and Ann R. Tickamyer, Ohio University (eds.)
Published by Ohio University Press, 2003

The image of rural America portrayed in this illuminating study is one that is vibrant, regionally varied, and sometimes heroic. Communities of Work focuses on the ways in which rural people and places are affected by political, social, and economic forces far outside their control and how they sustain themselves and their communities in response.

Bringing together the two fundamental concepts of community-where the relationships and practices of daily life occur-and work, in which an elementary exchange occurs, Communities of Work bridges several fields of study. Presented here is the contextual and embedded nature of social relations and the complexity involved in understanding them. Through the use of multiple case studies, the authors apply diverse theories and methods in seeking an integrated outcome, one captured by Communities of Work.

Beginning with a description of the broad changes in work and economic activities across the United States, ranging from the Ohio River Valley to a western boomtown, the book shifts its focus to the interplay of work, family, and local networks in time and place. Activities range from fishing in the Mississippi Delta to farming and family life in the Midwest. The authors then highlight how rural people and places respond to extra-local, increasingly global forces in settings as diverse as rural South Carolina and Wisconsin.

Congressional Elections explores the two separate and distinct campaigns candidates run to win a Congressional election: the campaign for votes, which takes place at home in the candidate's district, and the campaign for money and other resources, which takes place in Washington, D.C. and other wealthy areas. Herrnson's work is based on original survey research and interviews with more than 8,800 candidates and campaign aides who participated in House and Senate elections from 1992 to 2002. Case studies paint vivid pictures of real people raising money, giving speeches, serving constituents, and tackling policy issues in the two campaigns they are running. This book gives students of politics a powerful tool to help them think about campaigns, elections, and their own political involvement.

"Whether research specialist or concerned citizen, anyone interested in the struggle for control of Congress should start with Herrnson's book."

- Morris Fiorina, Stanford University

The Financiers of Congressional Elections: Investors, Ideologues, and Intimates
Peter L. Francia, Paul S. Herrnson, John C. Green, Lynda W. Powell and Clyde Wilcox. Paul Herrnson is director of the Center for American Politics and Citizenship in the Department of Government and Politics
Published by Columbia University Press, 2003

" ... This is an important book, well researchd and crafted, about some very important people. It belongs on the shelf on every serious student of U.S. elections." - Michael J. Malbin, Campaign Finance Institute (Washington, D.C.) and University at Albany, SUNY

Individual donors play a critical role in financing congressional elections, accounting for more than half of all money raised in House campaigns. But significant donors (defined here as those contributing more than $200) are the least understood participants in the system. Defenders assert that contributing money to campaigns is part of a broader pattern of civic involvement and is free speech that gives a voice to various interests. Detractors argue that these contributions are undemocratic, enabling wealthy citizens to overwhelm the voices of the many and to promote narrow business and policy interests. These divergent assessments were raised in connection with the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act of 2002 and continue to characterize the debate over campaign finance reform.

So who really contributes and why? How much and to how many candidates? What are the strategies used by political campaigns to elicit contributions and how do the views of significant donors impact the campaign-finance system? What do donors think about campaign-finance reform? This book investigates these vital questions, describing the influence of congressional financiers in American politics.

Market-Augmenting Government: The Institutional Foundations for Prosperity
Omar Azfar & Charles Cadwell, Center for the Institutional Reform in the Informal Sector (IRIS), Department of Economics
Published by The University of Michigan Press, 2003

As recently as 1990 policymakers and academics believed widely that all that was needed for dramatic increases in prosperity in transitional economies was to roll back the state. The arguments in this book present an articulate antidote to that assertion: While the state must withdraw from many activities involving direct production and exchange, it must provide good laws and enforce them for economies to prosper. The contributors, renowned experts in their fields on complex institutional requirements for prosperity, offer arguments from economic theory, economic history, legal theory, and political science. Many of the ideas presented here are being used to design reform projects in developing countries.

"This volume well exemplifies the late Mancur Olson's favorite device of connecting many seemingly unrelated topics by a single unifying and insightful argument or concept. It contributes importantly to our knowledge of how good government arises, and of how good government contributes to prosperity."

-Stephan Knack, Senior Research Economist, Development Group, The World Bank

Memory in Black and White: Race, Commemoration, and the Post-Bellum Landscape
Paul Shackel, Department of Anthropology
Published by AltaMira Press, 2003

2003 Choice Magazine Outstanding Academic Book Award

As a nation we bring many perspectives to our commemorative places and our ideas may change over time, especially on difficult topics like slavery. Why a place is saved and how it is interpreted to visitors has much to do with our collective memory of the events that took place there. Using the skills of an archaeologist and a historian, Paul Shackel examines four well-known Civil War-era National Park sites and shows us how public memory shaped their creation and continues to shape their interpretation. Shackel shows us that 'public memory' is really 'public memories,' and interpretation may change dramatically from one generation to another as interpreters try to accommodate, or ignore, certain memories. Memory in Black and White is important reading for all who are interested in history and memory and will be especially useful to those involved in preserving and interpreting a controversial place.

Poverty In America
John Iceland, Department of Sociology
Published by University of California Press, 2003

John Iceland provides a comprehensive picture of poverty in America. Why does poverty remain so pervasive? Is it unavoidable? Are people from particular racial or ethnic backgrounds or family types more likely to be poor? What can we expect over the next few years? Addressing these and other questions, this book shows how poverty is measured and understood and how poverty has changed over time as well as how public policies have grappled with poverty as a political issue and an economic reality.

"This volume is an excellent overview of the dimensions and sources of American poverty. John Iceland combines statistical data, theoretical arguments, and historical information in a book that is highly readable and will very likely become a standard reference." William Julius Wilson, author of When Work Disappears.

Shared Beginnings, Divergent Lives: Delinquent Boys to age 70
John Laub, Department of Criminology and Robert Sampson, Harvard University
Published by Harvard University Press, 2003

Shared Beginnings, Divergent Lives analyzes newly collected data on crime and social development up to age 70 for 500 men who were remanded to reform school in the 1940s. Born in Boston in the late 1920s and early 1930s, these men were the subjects of the classic study 'Unraveling Juvenile Delinquency' by Sheldon and Eleanor Glueck (1950). Updating the men's lives at the close of the twentieth century, and connecting their adult experiences to childhood, this book is arguably the longest longitudinal study to date of age, crime, and the life course. By uniting life-history narratives with rigorous data analysis, the authors shed new light on long-term trajectories of crime and current policies of crime of crime control.

"The accounts of individuals are quite riveting, and the book can be recommended strongly purely for the stories provided about diverse lives. However, the book is much, much more than that in terms of the serious challenge that the authors' findings and ideas present to some of the leading contemporary theories of both crime and development. A highly original and scholarly contribution of the highest quality."

-Sir Michael Rutter, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London

"This book redraws the landscape of developmental criminology that Laub and Sampson have already done so much to define, setting new standards and benchmarks along the way. The authors provide new evidence for earlier conclusions and challenge prevailing assumptions and assertions, thereby reshaping the criminology research agenda for years to come."

-John Hagan, Northwestern University

Stalinism for all Seasons is the first comprehensive history of the Romanian Communist Party (RCP). It traces the origins of the once tiny, clandestine revolutionary organization in the 1920's through the years of national power from 1944 to 1089 to the post-1989 metamorphoses of its members. Vladimir Tismaneanu uses documents he discovered while working in the RCP archives in Bucharest in the mid-1990's and interviews with many of the party members from the Ceausescu and Gheorghiu-Dej eras to tell the absorbing story of how RCP members came to power as exponents of Moscow and succeeded in turning themselves into champions of autonomy. Tismaneanu analyzes both the main events in Romanian communism and the role of significant personalities in the party's history. Situating the rise and fall of Romanian communism within the world revolutionary movement, Stalinism for All Seasons shows that the history of communism in one country can illuminate the development of communism in the twentieth century.

War Stories from Capitol Hill
Paul S. Herrnson, director of the Center for American Politics and Citizenship, Department of Government and Politics, and Colton C. Campbell, Congressional Research Service (eds.)
Published in the Real Politics in American Series by Prentice Hall, 2003

War Stories from Capitol Hill presents insiders' accounts of how Congress works. It contains insightful first-person descriptions from former congressional fellows and staffers about the in's and out's and do's and don'ts of everyday life on Capitol Hill. The essays focus on former Speaker Tom Foley's campaign against term limits, the Republicans' race for Senate majority leader, the House Democrats' attempts to set a partisan political agenda, the battles over the juvenile justice bill and the universal tobacco settlement act, and the conflict surrounding the taking of the 2000 census and reapportionment of House seats. Each chapter explores the battle involving these issues in the historical and conceptual framework necessary for understanding how Congress and its members function.

Working in a 24/7 Economy: Challenges for American Families
Harriet B. Presser, Department of Sociology
Published by Russell Sage Foundation, New York, 2003

Working in a 24/7 Economy: Challenges for American Families focuses on the effects of nonstandard work schedules on family functioning and shows how these schedules disrupt marriages, alter parent-child interaction, and force families to cobble together complex child-care arrangements. The data come from two large-scale national surveys of the American population. Working in a 24/7 Economy shows that nonstandard work schedules are both highly prevalent among American families and generate a level of complexity in family functioning that demands greater public attention. Presser makes a convincing case for expanded research and meaningful policy initiatives to address this growing social phenomenon.

"An impressive analysis of the impact of working time on the American family. Working in a 24/7 Economy should be required reading for everyone engaged in work scheduling policy, practice, or research!"

- Donald I. Tepas, professor emeritus, University of Connecticut and secretary, Shiftwork Committee, International Commission on Occupational Health