ELECTING THE PRESIDENT, 2012: The Insiders’ View Edited by Kathleen Hall Jamieson, faculty (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013, $24.95.) In December 2012, key staff members from the presidential campaigns of Mitt Romney and Barack Obama gathered at the Annenberg Public Policy Center for an all-day debriefing of the recent election. Moderated by Jamieson, the Elizabeth Ware Packard Professor of Communication and the APPC’s director, they discussed each step of the electoral cycle in frank and granular detail—their assumptions, goals, strategies, mistakes, and responses to events. A DVD with select video of the proceedings is included. BUY THIS BOOK
PROTOCOLS OF LIBERTY: Communication Innovation & the American Revolution By William B. Warner C’68 (University of Chicago Press, 2013, $45.00.) By the time the American Revolution began, the real revolution had already taken place “in the minds and hearts of the people,” as John Adams later observed. Warner, professor of English at the University of California-Santa Barbara, analyzes the communication systems developed by the Whig party before the beginning of the conflict and discusses several critical prerevolutionary communication victories over the Tories, as well as the subsequent shift in political power and the creation of new forms of political expression. BUY THIS BOOK
SWORDFISH: A Biography of the Ocean Gladiator By Richard Ellis C’59 (University of Chicago Press, 2013, $26.) The hard-won trophy of serious sport-fishers and a favorite seafood of discriminating diners, the swordfish—whose scientific name means “gladiator”—moves at speeds up to 60 miles per hour despite weighing hundreds of pounds. Ellis, a painter of marine natural history and the author of more than 20 books on marine life, includes some of his own drawings and paintings as he gives a complete history of the fish from prehistoric times to its current endangered state—and spins yarns about his shark-fishing-turned-swordfishing expedition with Peter Benchley. BUY THIS BOOK
BLIND TO BETRAYAL: Why We Fool Ourselves We Aren’t Being Fooled By Jennifer Freyd C’79 and Pamela Birrell (Wiley, 2013, $17.95.) Most people don’t acknowledge the many forms of betrayal in their lives—infidelity, abuse, personal treachery, and discrimination, to name a few. We are, in fact, powerfully motivated in surprising ways to remain ignorant. Freyd—a professor of psychology at the University of Oregon who has written widely about childhood abuse and the psychology of trauma—and Birrell explain the many forms of betrayal and how its victims can endure mistreatment without seeming to know that it is happening. BUY THIS BOOK
REACHING THE FAIRWAY: The Way It Was & The Way It Is By Arnold Thiesfeldt W’54 (The American Golfer, 2012, $19.95.) In past decades, golf played a pivotal role in the world of business. Today, however, the sport is “being intersected by a perfect storm of high prices and costs, all mixed into a major shift in family cultures and traditions,” notes Thiesfeldt, whose resume includes stints as publisher of several golfing magazines. In examining contemporary perceptions of the game, he looks at the high cost of club membership and the effect of TV tournaments, while sharing stories about the game’s many characters. BUY THIS BOOK
A DECISIVE DECADE: An Insider’s View of the Chicago Civil Rights Movement During the 1960s By Robert B. McKersie EE’51 (Southern Illinois University Press, 2013, $29.99.) A first-hand account of the civil-rights movement as it unfolded in Chicago, from the point of view of a white activist for black rights. McKersie, the Society of Sloan Fellows Professor Emeritus at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, provides detailed and heartfelt descriptions of historical civil-rights battles and leaders, and examines the institutional tensions that arose in the academy and the church in response to activists’ demands. BUY THIS BOOK
FAST MINDS: How to Thrive if You Have ADHD (Or Think You Might) By Craig Surman, MD and Tim Bilkey, MD with Karen Weintraub C’88 (Berkley, 2013, $25.95.) Four percent of adults have ADHD, and millions more have enough of its traits to keep them from performing as well as they should. The key is to identify which ADHD traits one has and to use active lifestyle and behavioral strategies to cope with them. The authors lay out techniques to help with time management, thinking patterns, organizational habits, and other challenges. BUY THIS BOOK
PARIS, CAPITAL OF THE BLACK ATLANTIC: Literature, Modernity, and Diaspora Edited by Jeremy Braddock Gr’02 and Jonathan P. Eburne Gr’02 (John Hopkins University Press, 2013, $35.00.) Paris has always attracted and welcomed writers, and throughout the past century, that included writers of American, Caribbean, and African descent. Starting with W.E.B Du Bois’ visit in 1900 and ending with the contemporary state of diasporic letters from Paris, the essays collected by Braddock (associate professor of English at Cornell) and Eburne (associate professor of comparative literature and English at Penn State) focus on literary fiction and the examples it provides of Paris as an imaginary capital of diasporic consciousness. BUY THIS BOOK
MARKETING TO MILLENNIALS: Reach the Largest and Most Influential Generation of Consumers Ever By Jeff Fromm W’87 and Christie Garton (American Management Association, 2013, $24.95.) With a direct buying power of $200 billion, Generation Y is the largest generation in American history. Fromm (executive vice president of the Barklay advertising agency in Kansas City) and Garton identify specific behaviors and attitudes of Millennials and lay out marketing strategies that target them, complete with examples of companies that are successfully employing these tactics. BUY THIS BOOK
KAFKA AT THE BEACH: A Layman’s Handbook for Those Falsely Accused of Felonies By Steve Bevilacqua C’86 (Arden Venice Press, 2013, $14.99.) After getting knocked down by a deranged motorist in Venice Beach, California, Steve B- finds himself dodging the woman’s verbal and physical assaults, then facing a Kafkaesque nightmare of felony charges, mandatory prison sentences, therapy sessions, and expensive legal fees for crimes he did not commit, only to be vindicated in a televised courtroom by a certain Judge J-. BUY THIS BOOK
