by Jean B. Eggemeyer
September 16, 2009

Race and its influence on politics and public policy is a recurring theme in the new lineups of books from the University of Michigan Press and Michigan State University Press. Both publishers recently issued their Fall/Winter catalogs of new and announced offerings.

This season’s focus on race ranges from an analysis of America’s changing racial makeup, to an exploration of the beginning of a new era marked by the election of President Obama, to a dive into the complex racial tensions that led up to the Detroit riots within a fictional framework.

Education public policy also gets its fair share of attention with a collection of essays exploring the role of affirmative action in higher education and a look at a 1920s Oregon law that changed the course of public education debate.

Read on for quick profiles of these books and several others you may want to add to your reading list for the cooler months ahead.

Americans, Congress, and Democratic Responsiveness: Public Evaluations of Congress and Electoral Consequences
By David R. Jones and Monika L. McDermott
Available from University of Michigan Press

Despite the common view that Congress is an insulated institution, the authors show that voters do have an impact on congressional policy shifts as well as its makeup. Through new empirical research, Jones and McDermott prove that both voters and the politicians themselves have a hand in reconfiguring Congress when the majority party is unpopular.

Barack Obama’s America: How New Conceptions of Race, Family, and Religion Ended the Reagan Era
By John Kenneth White
Available from University of Michigan Press

President Obama’s election delineates a new era in America, argues White, marked by greater racial diversity, a broadened definition of family and the decline of organized religion. These demographic shifts will mean a new political future for the country.

Cross Purposes: Pierce v. Society of Sisters and the Struggle over Compulsory Public Education
By Paula Abrams
Forthcoming from University of Michigan Press

Cross Purposes chronicles the 1920s Oregon legislation that required all children to attend public schools, the resulting legal challenges and the precedent-setting Supreme Court decision that is still referred to today. The overriding policy question explored is whether or not parents have the right to determine how their children should be educated.

Grand River and Joy
By Susan Messer
Available from University of Michigan Press

Through the eyes of its main character, a shoe wholesaler, this novel explores the complex racial, class and religious tensions that led up to the 1967 Detroit riots. The book is billed as “a powerful and moving exploration of one of the most difficult chapters of Michigan history.”

Newcomers, Outsiders, and Insiders: Immigrants and American Racial Politics in the Early Twenty-first Century
By Ronald Schmidt Sr., Yvette M. Alex-Assensoh, Andrew L. Aoki, and Rodney E. Hero
Forthcoming from University of Michigan Press

A team of political scientists examines how the influx of immigrants, particularly from the Asian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, South America, and other regions, is impacting the political power of long-standing U.S. minority groups. The authors contend that for some time to come, the U.S. will function as a complex multiracial hierarchy, rather than as a genuine democracy.

The Next Twenty-five Years: Affirmative Action in Higher Education in the United States and South Africa
Edited by David L. Featherman, Martin Hall, and Marvin Krislov
Forthcoming from University of Michigan Press

The editors, two of whom have ties to the University of Michigan, have gathered the diverse viewpoints of scholars, educators, university leaders and public officials regarding the role of affirmative action in 21st century higher education. The legal, political, social, economic and moral dimensions of affirmative action are discussed in a series of comparative essays. U-M President Mary Sue Coleman and Njabulo Ndebele, former vice-chancellor and principal of the University of Cape Town, provide a foreword.

The Poisoning of Michigan
By Joyce Egginton, with a new foreword by the author and afterward by environmental scientists Devra Lee Davis, Maryann Donovan and Arlene Blum
Available from Michigan State University Press

This reprint provides an account of the widespread contamination of Michigan dairy cattle and other food animals with the highly toxic fire retardant PBB that occurred in the 1970s. The book explains how it happened and, more importantly, why we should still be concerned about other equally toxic materials in our homes and environment. See the August Bookit for more on the volume, first published in 1980.

The President Electric: Ronald Reagan and the Politics of Performance
By Timothy Raphael
Forthcoming from University of Michigan Press

Raphael, assistant professor of visual and performing arts and director of the Center for Immigration at Rutgers University, explores how Ronald Reagan used mass media performance in his rise to the presidency and how his mastery of media defined his style of governance.

Public Address and Moral Judgment: Critical Studies in Ethical Tensions
Edited by Shawn J. Parry-Giles and Trevor Parry-Giles
Available November 2009 from Michigan State University Press

This volume explores how speeches and other forms of public address express the ethical tensions of the times and analyzes the role public address plays in developing a moral code for Americans. Included essays cover topics ranging from WWII propaganda to the controversial photographs from the Abu Ghraib prison.

Notables …

Dempsey Named 2009 Michigan Author
Dave Dempsey, author of several books on conservation and environmental issues critical to Michigan, was named the winner of the 2009 Michigan Author Award. The award honors a Michigan writer each year for his or her contributions to literature based on “an outstanding published body of work.” The award, sponsored jointly by the Library of Michigan’s Michigan Center for the Book, Sleeping Bear Press and the Michigan Library Association, was announced in August.

Dempsey will speak at the Michigan Library Association conference luncheon on November 6 in Lansing as part of the awards ceremony.

Among Dempsey’s books are Great Lakes for Sale: From Whitecaps to Bottlecaps, The Waters of Michigan, Ruin and Recovery: Michigan’s Rise as a Conservation Leader, William G. Milliken: Michigan’s Passionate Moderate and On the Brink: the Great Lakes in the 21st Century.

State Bar Honors Short Story Writers
“The Word of the Day is ‘Trust’” is the winning short story in the second Short Story Contest sponsored by the State Bar of Michigan. The tale takes place in a drug-court setting, a locale the author, attorney Michael Kitchen, is familiar with.

Second place honors went to Robert B. Nelson, of counsel with Fraser, Trebilcock, Davis and Dunlap, for his story titled “The Shadow from the Wall,” which describes hardships faced by an illegal immigrant couple and political maneuverings related to immigration law.

Jeffrey Caminsky earned third place honors for his story, “Crucible of Justice,” which involves arson and a suppressed confession, and is based on one of his past cases. Caminsky is a retired appellate prosecutor and part-time consultant.

Honorable mentions were awarded to Eli D. Greenbaum, Robert E. Helm, Scott A. Noto, Randall J. Petrides, Anthony A. Targan and Robert Tomak.

– Jean Eggemeyer

Bookworm Jean B. Eggemeyer owns the Williamston-based communications and marketing firm Carillon Communications LLC, serving the business and association communities.