Rutgers University Press Blog

Stanley Crouch reviews Backstory in Blue in Harper's Magazine

"What makes John Fass Morton's Backstory in Blue so impressive is the way he handles the tensions and releases of that blue containment tale while bringing human complexity to the fore. We feel the flesh-and-blood qualities of the characters who made the story intimate, secret, public, intricate, casual, and even slightly mysterious. Morton reveals many things that others have missed, and his book could inspire those in our firmly segregated literary world where almost all of our fiction fails to bring artistry and the sort of sweep expected in the best nineteenth-century European novels and short stories. Page by page this book makes its way to great importance by showing that one should not be spooked by the range and complications of humanity that appear across the classes, the races, the religions, the professions, and the causes that usually drive great public events in our nation. In all, Backstory in Blue gives us a startlingly pure rendition of the private, public, domestic, and international significance of the American community in what may be an era that will more perfectly realize the deeper meanings of why the new president of the United States proudly calls himself a mutt."
--Stanley Crouch, Harper's Magazine

The June 2009 issue of Harper's Magazine is on newsstands now.

The Newark Church That Withstood Change Warily Gets Ready for More

By Brad Tuttle
Author of How Newark Became Newark: The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of an American City

St. Lucy's Church, in Newark, is an obvious, direct link to the city's past. And now some of its parishioners worry that link may disappear. The blocks around the church in the North Ward have been razed, rebuilt, razed and rebuilt again, and yet the church remains much as it looked in the early 20th century. One chapter of my book revolves around the church and its neighborhood, which used to be overwhelmingly Italian and known as the First Ward.

Post-World War II urban renewal projects dramatically transformed the neighborhood, but even as public housing projects and racial tensions pushed the old families off to the suburbs, plenty of St. Lucy parishioners never gave up on their church, or its pastor, Monsignor Joseph Granato, who grew up nearby and has been at the parish since 1955. Today's parishioners are a mix of local residents and folks who now live in Belleville or Livingston or Bloomfield but who make the weekly pilgrimage for Sunday mass. Their children get married at the church, and their grandchildren are still baptized here. Why? Tradition, for one reason. Their parents or grandparents knew the monsignor when he was a young priest everyone simply called Father Joe.

 

Now, many parishioners worry that St. Lucy's traditions are in jeopardy. Under Monsignor Granato, the church has remained decidedly old school. Latin masses are still offered, and parishioners kneel at the altar railing to receive the Eucharist on their tongues. Now, after threatening to do so for years, the Archdiocese will be naming a new pastor. Who that will be, and what will become of the monsignor, are weighing heavily on parishioners' minds, as the Star-Ledger recently reported.

Drugs Displace Immigration as Top U.S. Concern in U.S.-Mexico Relations

Download the full Council on Foreign Relations podcast with author Joseph Contreras here.

Mexico's drug cartels are waging a battle against government forces that is increasingly crossing over the northern border into the United States. President Barack Obama visited Mexico on April 16 and signaled the U.S. intention to assume more responsibility for helping Mexico win its war against the cartels. But Joe Contreras, former Latin America editor for Newsweek and author of In the Shadow of the Giant: The Americanization of Modern Mexico, says initial U.S. commitments fall short. Contreras says although Obama told Mexican President Felipe Calderon that he would push for the Senate ratification of an inter-American regional arms treaty, Calderon had hoped Obama would renew an assault weapons ban in place under President Bill Clinton, which expired in 2004 after attempts to extend it by Congress failed. Obama promised the renewal of the ban during his campaign, and Mexican officials argue it is critical to stemming the southbound flow of guns across the border. "It's still too early to determine with any sense of reliability or certitude just what kind of new direction U.S. cooperation may take with regard to the drug problem," Contreras says.

While Obama was in Mexico, Calderon raised the issue of immigration reform. However, "there is no expectation that immigration is going to move to the top of [Obama's] agenda in relations with Mexico," Contreras says. Calderon "wants to move on two tracks with the United States," but "based on what President Obama said yesterday in Mexico City, that is going to have a low priority." On April 9, the New York Times reported that Obama would seek to place immigration reform on the legislative agenda as early as this fall, but in Mexico City, Obama only spoke of immigration in general terms (ChiTrib). While Mexico is an important partner for the United States in Latin America, Contreras notes that Brazil might rival Mexico for U.S. attention in the region.

For more information on the Council on Foreign Relations, visit http://www.cfr.org

Join us this Saturday for RUTGERS DAY!

Rutgers University Press invites you to meet a few of our regional authors on Rutgers Day, April 25th. Come see us on the Cook/Douglass Campus in the Loree Building where we will host two fascinating Ask an Author sessions.

10:00 a.m., 12:00 p.m., 2:00 p.m, The George Washington Bridge With Michael Aaron Rockland

Learn about the wonders of the GWB from a man who scaled its massive towers and lived to write a book about it. Michael Aaron Rockland, professor of American studies, gives a rollicking talk about “the George”the busiest bridge in the world will answer questions and sign copies of his book The George Washington Bridge: Poetry in Steel in Loree Building, Room 115

11 a.m., 1:00 p.m., 3:00 p.m., Baseball Reborn

Baseball was born in Hoboken. Today, minor-league and independent-league teams fill stadiums from Trenton to Montclair. Trace the resurgence of baseball in New Jersey with Bob Golon author of No Minor Accomplishment: The Revival of New Jersey Professional Baseball in Loree Building, Room 115. Bob will be on hand to answer questions and sign copies of his book.

While you here, see samples of our rich, expansive regional New Jersey list of titles. Enter our raffle to win autographed copies of some of our new titles or a $100 voucher good for any of our regional Rutgers University Press books. Have your kids make-and-take a free bookmark and pick up coupons to use on future book purchases.

Where else can you see us?

College Ave Gym, Outside area Meet, take photos and shake hands with several former Scarlet Knight football player standouts from years past including Marco Battaglia, Mike Fladell (NYG), Brian Leonard (St. Louis Rams), and Ray Lucas. Have your copy of Rutgers Football: A Gridiron Tradition in Scarlet or any of your other Scarlet Knight memorabilia including the Rutgers Vault signed by these players and author Michael J. Pellowski, defensive captain of the Scarlet Knights 1970 team. Pellowski still holds the record for the most sacks in a single game (4, at Lafayette, September 10, 1969).

Don’t have a copy to get signed? The Rutgers Bookstore tent is right near by with copies and other RU merchandise on hand.

We hope to see you on Saturday!

Professor Patterson sticks up for pesky mosquitos

They are notorious blood-suckers, but Florida Tech professor Gordon Patterson is on a mission to improve mosquitoes' image with humans. In a recent interview for Florida Today, Patterson, who is author of The Mosquito Crusades: A History of the American Anti-Mosquito Movement, says "They're marvelous animals that have managed to find a way to live in virtually every part of the planet."

Read the rest of the interview here.

For those of us who aren't fond of mosquitoes and are dreading their return this summer, here are some tips for keeping them away:

• Throw out tin cans, buckets, drums and any water-holding containers. Throw out old tires. They can collect water and become mosquito breeding grounds.
• Fill out or drain any low places in the yard that may cause puddles.
• Keep drains and ditches clean of weeds and trash so water will drain properly.
• Cover trash containers to keep out rainwater and drill holes in the bottom of trash containers so water can drain out.
• Repair leaky pipes and outdoor faucets.
• Empty plastic wading pools at least once a week or store in a position so water will drain out. Keep grass cut short and shrubbery well-trimmed around the house so adult mosquitoes will not hide there.
• Make sure your backyard pool is maintained properly. Abandoned swimming pools can become mosquito breeding grounds.
• Try to stay inside during peak biting times -- dawn and dusk.
• Wear long-sleeved shirts and long pants when you go out.
• Wear light-colored clothing.
• Apply insect repellent sparingly to exposed skin. An effective repellent will contain 29 percent DEET.

 

Look beyond Mexico's troubles

From Miami Herald's opinion page

By Joseph Contreras, author of
In the Shadow of the Giant: The Americanization of Modern Mexico
4/16/09

Four of the nation's last five presidents obtained graduate degrees at Harvard and Yale. The economy's largest private sector employer is WalMart, its biggest bank belongs to Citigroup and the United States accounts for about 90 per cent of all international trade.

The national congress enacted a Freedom of Information Act seven years ago modeled on the pioneering legislation passed on Capitol Hill in 1966, and recent judicial reforms have introduced U.S.-styled oral trials in a growing number of courtrooms. Its most famous beach resorts cater to sun-starved gringos, it is home to hundreds of thousands of American expatriates -- and the hamburger is overtaking the homegrown torta as the midday sandwich of choice among its legions of white-collar office workers.

The country under discussion is, of course, Mexico. Our southern neighbor has undergone a profound
degree of Americanization in the 15 years since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) took effect, and the economic, political, social and cultural ties linking the United States and Mexico have never been stronger. But mention the country's name to many Americans today, and a host of lurid images and comparisons will spring to mind. The world's next failed state. The Colombia of North America. A cesspool of corruption and lawlessness that threatens to wash onto our side of the border at any minute.

An Orchid Paradise

By Dr. Peter Bernhardt
Author of Gods and Goddesses in the Garden

Guangxi Zhuang is a forested and mountainous region in southern China.  As it lies within a subtropical zone it contains some of the largest populations of wild orchids in all of China.  It's government has decided to protect a large section of mountainous forest and they will call it the Yachang Orchid Nature Reserve.  The reserve will be inaugurated in May 2009 and the Forestry Bureau of Guangxi Zhuang has organized their first International Orchid Conservation Symposium from May 21 - May 24 to celebrate the opening of the reserve. 

I will attend the symposium to present a short talk on "Orchid Conservation and Pollination."  The scheduled, three-day tour of the reserve sounds really exciting as the mountains of Guangxi are reported to support huge populations of wild slipper orchids that bloom in May.  These tropical slipper orchids (Paphiopedilum) are "cousins" of our America's Lady's slipper orchids (Cypripedium).  In  my recent book, "Gods and Goddesses in the Garden: Greco-Roman Myths and the Scientific Names of Plants," I explain that both orchid groups were named after the sandals worn by Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love.  As her favorite city was Paphos on the island of Cyprus the scientific names, Paphiopedilum and Cypripedium, refer to the sandals of the goddess of Paphos  and Cryprus, respectively.

For more information on Dr. Peter Bernhardt, click here.

An American Passion

Camilo Jose Vergara has been photographing America's urban neighborhoods for more than 30 years. He's often compared to Jacob Riis, one of the first and most famous social documentarians of the last century. Riis published the groundbreaking work of photojournalism How The Other Half Lives in 1890. And just a few years ago, Vergara published his How The Other Half Worships.

Camilo Jose Vergara was recently interviewed on NPR's Morning Edition. To listen to the interview and to view the photo essay click here.

Everybody's Wrong But Us

By Morley Winograd and Mike Hais

Morley Winograd and Michael D. Hais are fellows of NDN and the New Policy Institute and co-authors of Millennial Makeover: MySpace, YouTube, and the Future of American Politics, named one of the 10 best books of 2008 by New York Times critic Michiko Kakutani. The paperback edition of the book, with a new, post-election afterword, is available now.

This post originally appeared on the NDN Blog.

In Wednesday’s Washington Post, conservative columnist Michael Gerson, citing a recent Pew Research Center poll, says that the "polarization" between Democrats and Republicans in their approval of President Barack Obama's performance is greater than for any other president in surveys stretching back to the early days of the Nixon Administration. In the Pew survey, a nearly unanimous 88 percent of Democratic identifiers, as opposed to a scant 27 percent of Republicans, approved of the president's performance, a gap of 61 percentage points. Independents (57% approve) fall precisely between the Democrats and Republicans. Overall, in that survey, 59 percent of all Americans approved of the job the president was doing, a number that rose slightly (to 61%) in the most recent Pew survey, conducted in the wake of Obama's European trip.

While Gerson's statement of the facts may be correct, his interpretation is dead wrong. The election of President Obama last year brought America into a new civic era, a turning point that has occurred roughly every eighty years throughout American history. Each time the country enters a civic era there is a rise in partisan identifications, a more coherent ideological divide between the two parties, and an increase in straight ticket voting. Even Gerson noted that polarization might be a good thing when it is a "decisive" and "ambitious" president like Franklin D. Roosevelt who is doing the polarizing to achieve overriding national goals. Despite Gerson's attempts to blame Obama for our current level of partisan divide, the truth is that such a division is inevitable in a civic era.

We can afford environmental protection

By Stanley A. Rice
Author of Green Planet: How Plants Keep the Earth Alive

They say we cannot afford environmental protection.  Not now, during the economic downturn.

But as I explain in the recently-released Green Planet: How Plants Keep the Earth Alive, we cannot afford to lose the benefits that the natural world—especially plants—provides to us.  Economist Robert Costanza estimated that natural ecosystems provide $33 trillion (that’s right, trillion) of free services to the world economy.  In my book, I explain what many of those services are.  Natural ecosystems such as forests and grasslands put oxygen in the air, remove carbon dioxide from the air, create cool shade, prevent floods and droughts, produce food, create soil, create habitats and heal them from disturbances.  The cost of doing all of these things for ourselves without the help of plants is not quite incalculable, but pretty close to it.

Forests and grasslands are more valuable to us just as they are than they would ever be if converted into commercial products or real estate.  The trees and grasses are even more valuable to us than the wild animals that we love so much.  For, it must be admitted, deer and bears are pretty much like us—they eat food, breathe in oxygen, and breathe out carbon dioxide.  But plants are the counterpoint of renewal to our animal activities: they make food from sunlight, produce oxygen, and absorb carbon dioxide.  They run on solar energy and reproduce themselves.  They do everything in complete silence and unutterable beauty.  We do not need to pay them or even to thank them, just give them a chance to live.  They are not doing this for us, but as their own way of making a living. But by pursuing their own lives, they create life for us.

Plants cannot save the world all by themselves.  We are producing too much carbon dioxide for them to absorb even under the best conditions.  And the conditions are not best: warmer and drier conditions will make it harder for plants to grow.  At the same time that we need them the most we are destroying them.  As I argue in the closing chapter of my book, we need to live frugally, creating as small of a carbon footprint as possible—perhaps one small enough that plants can, in fact, erase it.  A greenhouse disaster is now inevitable, because the carbon dioxide that is in the air already has yet to absorb all of the heat of which it is capable.  But perhaps there is still time to minimize the disaster.

Read more essays by Stanley Rice at his website: http://www.stanleyrice.com.