New Titles Tuesday, January 28

Here is a selection of print and eBooks recently added to our collection.

Committed : on meaning and madwomen /Suzanne Scanlon. A raw and masterful memoir about becoming a woman and going mad–and doing both at once. When Suzanne Scanlon was a student at Barnard in the 90s, grieving the loss of her mother-feeling untethered and swimming through inarticulable pain-she made a suicide attempt that landed her in the New York State Psychiatric Institute. After nearly three years and countless experimental treatments, Suzanne left the ward on shaky legs. In the decades it took her to recover from the experience, Suzanne came to understand her suffering as part of something larger: a long tradition of women whose complicated and compromised stories of self-actualization are reduced to “crazy chick” and “madwoman” narratives. It was a thrilling discovery, and she searched for more books, more woman writers, as the journey of her life converged with her journey through the literature that shaped her.  Committed is a story of discovery and recovery, reclaiming the idea of the madwoman as a template for insight and transcendence through the works of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath, Janet Frame, Audre Lorde, Shulamith Firestone, and others.

Hamas : the quest for power /Beverley Milton-Edwards and Stephen Farrell. Declared a terrorist menace yet voted into government in a free election, Hamas then used its Gaza power base to launch cross-border attacks that scorched Israel and transformed the dynamics of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. How did a small Palestinian offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood grow to challenge long-established rivals such as the PLO? Who supports Hamas and what is its agenda? How powerful has it become and how strong will it remain? With decades of combined experience researching and reporting from the occupied West Bank and Gaza, Jerusalem, and around the Middle East, Beverley Milton-Edwards and Stephen Farrell gained unrivalled access to Hamas. Drawing on years of frontline reporting and interviews with members of the group’s founding generation and their successors who now lead it, they trace Hamas’ path to the shocking attacks of 07 October 2023 and their devastating aftermath. Its critics believe Hamas must be ousted to reach a solution to the Middle East conflict. Hamas’s supporters believe it is the solution. Nobody now believes it can be ignored. Based on their landmark 2010 study which has been thoroughly revised and updated, this book brings the story of Hamas up to the present.

 Indian in the cabinet : speaking truth to power /Jody Wilson-Raybould.  Indian in the Cabinet is a groundbreaking memoir that reflects -Raybould’s experiences and perspective as the first Indigenous woman in the simultaneous roles of Canada’s Minister of Justice and Attorney General. Within this context, she describes how, within the Canadian political system, power and truth are disassociated from one another. In order for real change to occur, fraudulent power must be dismantled and replaced with truth as a primary commitment in the democratic system of the Canadian government.

The cradle of Christianity: Judaism, Jesus and the New Testament : essays in honor of Craig A. Evans /edited by Thomas R. Hatina, Stanley E. Porter. This major collection of essays by senior colleagues and friends of Craig A. Evans recognizes his contribution to the field of biblical studies by concentrating upon his areas of research and writing interest. These include: the emergence and characteristics of early Judaism, Jesus and the apostolic tradition, and a variety of other supporting areas in New Testament studies. These essays include both focused studies and challenging theoretical explorations.

The road to wisdom /Francis S. Collins. In The Road to Wisdom, Collins reminds us of the four core sources of judgement and clear thinking: truth, science, faith, and trust. Drawing on his work from the Human Genome Project and heading the National Institutes of Health, as well as on ethics, philosophy, and Christian theology, Collins makes a robust, thoughtful case for each of these sources—their reliability, and their limits. Ultimately, he shows how they work together, not separately—and certainly not in conflict. It is only when we relink these four foundations of wisdom that we can begin to discern the best path forward in life.

 Understanding Charles Darwin /Erik L. Peterson.  What did Darwin’s work change about the world? Understanding Charles Darwin explodes five misconceptions about Darwin’s work and theories, including how ”Darwinism” has been made to stand for things Darwin never stood for. Concise and accessible, this is the myth-busting look at the Darwin you never knew.

Understanding human diversity /Jonathan Marks.  No two people are the same, and no two groups of people are the same. But what kinds of differences are there, and what do they mean? What does our DNA say about race, gender, equality, or ancestry? Drawing on the latest discoveries in anthropology and human genetics, Understanding Human Diversity looks at scientific realities and pseudoscientific myths about the patterns of diversity in our species, challenging common misconceptions about genetics, race, and evolution and their role in shaping human life today. By examining nine counterexamples drawn from popular scientific ideas, that is to say, examinations of what we are not, this book leads the reader to an appreciation of what we are. We are hybrids with often inseparable natural and cultural aspects, formed of natural and cultural histories, and evolved from remote ape and recent human ancestors. This book is a must for anyone curious about human genetics, human evolution, and human diversity.

Understanding natural selection /Michael Ruse. Naturalselection, as introduced by Charles Darwin in the Origin of Species (1859), has always been a topic of great conceptual and empirical interest. This book puts Darwin’s theory of evolution in historical context showing that, in important respects, his central mechanism of naturalselection gives the clue to understanding the nature of organisms. Naturalselection has important implications, not just for the understanding of life’s history – single-celled organism to man – but also for our understanding of contemporary social norms, as well as the nature of religious belief. The book is written in clear, non-technical language, appealing not just to philosophers, historians, and biologists, but also to general readers who find thinking about important issues both challenging and exciting.

 Understanding species /John S. Wilkins, University of Melbourne.  A concise introduction to the concept of species, discussing its complexity, use and importance in biology, philosophy, ethics, policymaking and conservation. The book provides a history of the concept and its’ problems and benefits for any interested reader, including those without previous knowledge of biology or philosophy.

Understanding the nature-nurture debate /Eric Turkheimer.  There are arguably few areas of science more fiercely contested than the question of what makes us who we are. Are we products of our environments or our genes? Is nature the governing force behind our behaviour or is it nurture? While it is now widely agreed that it is a mixture of both, discussions continue as to which is the dominant influence. This unique volume presents a clear explanation of heritability, the ongoing nature versus nurture debate and the evidence that is currently available. Starting at the beginning of the modern nature-nurture debate, with Darwin and Galton, this book describes how evolution posed a challenge to humanity by demonstrating that humans are animals, and how modern social science was necessitated when humans became an object of natural science. It clearly sets out the most common misconceptions such as the idea that heritability means that a trait is ‘genetic’ or that it is a justification for eugenics.

W.B. Yeats : a life /R.F. Foster.  In the first authorized biography of W. B. Yeats for over 50 years, Roy Foster brings new light to one of the most complex and fascinating lives of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Working from a great archive of personal and contemporary material, he dramatically alters traditional perceptions to illuminate the poet’s family history, relationships, politics, and art.  A bohemian life of uncertain finances, love-affairs, avant-garde friends and experiments with drugs and occultism prefaces his attempt to unite politics with high culture and his creation of an Irish national theatre. The Apprentice Mage charts the growth of a poet’s mind and of an astonishing personality, both of which were instrumental in the formation of a new and radicalised Irish nationalist identity.