Saving Gunung Palung: A Rainforest Marriage - Cheryl Knott

the economy andsocial life of onesmall community onthe island of Crete.The author is assistantprofessor ofanthropology at theUniversity of Wisconsinat Milwaukeeand has published inAnthropological Quarterly, Social Analysis,and other journals.Helen Hunt Jackson:A Literary LifeBy Kate Phillips, PhD ’97, history ofAmerican civilizationUniversity of California Press, 2003, 380 pp.Phillips, author ofthe acclaimed novelWhite Rabbit (HoughtonMifflin, 1996),turns to literaryscholarship in thisaccount of the lifeof Helen Hunt Jackson,the subject ofPhillips’s doctoraldissertation. Jackson—best known for hernovel Ramona, a plea for racial justice inthe American West, and for her work onbehalf of Native American rights—is presentedhere as emblematic of the trials andtriumphs of late-19th-century intellectualwomen.Hollywood’s White House:TheAmerican Presidency in Film andHistoryEdited by Peter C. Rollins, AB ’63, PhD’72, history of American civilizationUniversity Press of Kentucky, 2003, 464 pp.On-screen AmericanPresidents, writeseditor Rollins, haveserved as “ourrepresentative men,”reflecting society’sshifting views of themen in the OvalOffice, from DarrylZanuck’s worshipfulWilson (1944) to Oliver Stone’s psychodramaNixon (1995). Rollins, RegentsProfessor of English at Oklahoma StateUniversity, is co-editor of Hollywood asHistorian: American Film in a CulturalContext (Kentucky, 1983) and editor ofthe journal Film & History.Lyndon Johnson and Europe: In theShadow of VietnamBy Thomas Alan Schwartz, PhD ’85,historyHarvard University Press, 2003, 339 pp.To many, LyndonJohnson was the classic“ugly American,”a perception basedlargely on his diplomaticperformanceduring the VietnamWar. Schwartz, anassociate professor ofhistory at VanderbiltUniversity, sets out to correct that perceptionwith this “more dispassionate assessment”of Johnson’s foreign policy. He citesJohnson’s efforts toward nuclear non-proliferationand his early pursuit of détentewith the Soviets as just two examples ofLBJ’s previously unheralded diplomaticsuccesses. Schwartz is also the author ofAmerica’s Germany: John J. McCloy andthe Federal Republic of Germany(Harvard, 1991).Averting “The Final Failure”: JohnF. Kennedy and the Secret CubanMissile Crisis MeetingsBy Sheldon M. Stern, PhD ’70, historyStanford University Press, 2003, 449 pp.Since their declassificationin 1997, thetapes of PresidentKennedy’s ExecutiveCommittee meetingshave been poredover by numeroushistorians, includingHarvard’s Ernest R.May, co-author ofThe Kennedy Tapes: Inside the WhiteHouse During the Cuban Missile Crisis(Belknap, 1997), and considered the “official”transcription. The Ex Comm, as itwas known, comprised the President,Attorney General Robert Kennedy,Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, anda handful of others in the President’sinner circle, who navigated the 13 daysknown as the Cuban Missile Crisis.Where previous books have presentedmore or less straight transcriptions,Stern has created a narrative version thatbrings the human element to the ExComm meetings. Stern also presents anextensive appendix in which he outlinesmore than 100 differences with the officialtranscripts he found in listening tothe tapes. In some cases, Stern presentsnew versions of historic conversationsand moments in the crisis. Sheldon Sternwas the historian at the Kennedy PresidentialLibrary from 1977 to 1999.House by House, Block by Block:The Rebirth of America's InnerCitiesBy Alexander von Hoffman, PhD ’86,historyOxford University Press, 2003, 320 pp.Von Hoffman, a senior research fellowat Harvard’s Joint Center for HousingStudies, describes how grassroots groupsand small businesses—aided mightily byvarious tax incentives and governmentsubsidies—combined to revitalize theSouth Bronx, South Central Los Angeles,and other downtrodden neighborhoodsin Boston, Chicago, and Atlanta. VonHoffman is also the author of LocalAttachments: The Making of anAmerican Urban Neighborhood (JohnsHopkins, 1994) and has written for theBoston Globe, Atlantic Monthly, andother publications.Authors: GSAS alumni who havepublished a new book within thepast year and would like it to beconsidered for inclusion in AlumniBooks should send a copy to: Colloquy,Harvard Graduate School of Arts andSciences, Byerly Hall 300, 8 GardenStreet, Cambridge, MA 02138-3654.Colloquy 15 Fall 2003