We are pleased to announce that the Government of Japan honored UC Press author Merry White today with the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon decoration. The award recognizes Professor White’s significant contribution to the development of Japanese studies and the introduction of Japanese culture in the United States.
Her most recent book, Coffee Life in Japan, traces Japan’s vibrant café society over 130 years, from the early coffee craze from the turn of the twentieth century, when Japan helped to launch the Brazilian coffee industry, to the present day. A recent interview with Professor White on coffee culture in Japan can be heard on Public Radio International’s program The World. Congratulations Corky White!
David R. Montgomery, author of Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations and professor of Earth and Space Sciences at the University of Washington, was recently profiled as one of Sunset Magazine’s “10 Visionaries, Trendsetters, and Innovators” who are “redefining every aspect of gardening in the West—and changing the way we live, eat, and connect with one another.”
Montgomery was included for his work to highlight the importance of healthy soil in preserving civilizations. Dirt examines how soil has shaped us and we have shaped soil—as society after society has risen, prospered, and plowed through a natural endowment of fertile dirt.
Read on to learn about Montgomery and his wife’s project to restore their own back yard’s topsoil, and how it “has inspired him to think small-picture for his next book.”
For as long as I’ve been interested in the search for proofs about the existence of God, I’ve been interested in drawing them. Words and equations just didn’t seem like enough; to wrap my head around what these constructs were expressing, and to try to communicate them to others, I had to make pictures. As I wrote my new book, God in Proof: The Story of a Search from the Ancients to the Internet, I was drawing every step of the way — and my publisher, University of California Press, let me stick some of my pictures in the text.
In doing, I soon discovered, I was retracing the history of proof itself. Long before the mathematical symbols and notation we generally use today, ancient proofs were drawn in diagrams and images.
Now that the book is finished, I want to share the fun I’ve been having by making these drawings with you. The press has agreed to pony up some free books for a drawing contest, and here’s how to win one: Draw a proof of something, divine or otherwise, and tweet a scan or photo of it to #GodInProof, along with any explanation you’d like to add. (You can also email them to proofs@godinproof.com.) Selected proofs will appear here, where they’ll be entered for a chance to win a free book. Entries with the highest number of social media shares win. Multiple submissions are allowed, but only one book is allowed per winning author.
Download the PDF version of the contest postcard here.
In this special edition of the UC Press Podcast, our Music editor Mary Francis introduces author Guy Ramsey, whom she’s worked with for 10 years. Read Mary’s account of the backstory behind the project, then listen to the podcast below.
I’ve worked with Guy Ramsey on some truly fantastic projects, starting with his ground-breaking Race Music: Black Cultures from Bebop to Hip-Hop (2003), and continuing with his role as editor for our Music of the African Diaspora series.I have always loved Bud Powell’s music, and until now Powell’s legacy as an architect of the bebop idiom had not yet been given its due. I was excited about The Amazing Bud Powell: Black Genius, Jazz History, and the Challenge of Bebop right from the start because Iknew that Guy would be able to write something revelatory about Bud Powell, for a lot of reasons.
First, because Guy is a terrific pianist himself. If it takes one to know one, a versatile musician like Guy was bound to have plenty of insight into what makes Bud Powell’s musical language so inventive and compelling. Beyond his musical intelligence, Guy understands Powell’s seminal contribution to the history of jazz and cultural life in such a multifaceted way. Powell’s life, and the stories we tell about it, was shaped by tragedy: struggles against racial prejudice in its myriad forms, outright abuse at the hands of white authorities. But Powell’s life was also shaped by his own independence of mind about his goals as a composer and performer. Guy is able to work with the story of Powell’s life, use it as a lens through which we can look critically at the concepts of race and ‘genius.’ Guy’s portrait of Powell as an artist delves into the history of bebop and modernism in a way that should interest anyone who cares about modernism and the arts at midcentury.
One day Guy and I were discussing the project on the phone, and we got to talking about Jørgen Leth’s first film, Stopforbud (1963). Guy mentions the film in his podcast as a great introduction to Powell, and I share his enthusiasm. This gorgeous black and white short follows Powell, dapper and solitary, as he strolls the streets of Copenhagen, accompanied by the sound of his playing. Powell’s steps are sometimes on the path as he crosses a bridge or moves through a gate. But sometimes he strikes out across a field of stones, or a dock: he’s taking his own path, just as his music does. The visual and aural pairing is spare and expressive; like Powell’s phrasing, the camera angles are often unconventional, even challenging, but deliberate and convincing. I think both Guy and I appreciate the empathy Leth seems to have with Powell and his music, and I think Guy’s own approach to the amazing Bud Powell shows an equally rewarding empathy and insight.
“Every team—whether it is athletic, artistic, or academic—needs members who support the others, strengthening the glue that holds the team together and making the group more successful as a whole,” writes Friedman. “In some contexts individuals may excel, and in others they may fall short. Children need to learn how to adapt to both situations.” Read the full post at Psychology Today.
What do Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Jody Williams have in common? According to a recent article in Foreign Policy Journal, “two remarkable women have been in the news promoting their books. [Sandberg's ubiquitous Lean In and Williams' recent UC Press book, My Name Is Jody Williams] Both women are brilliant, hardworking, dedicated, focused and very accomplished. They have much in common [...]”
The similarities end there, however. FPJ argues that Sandberg and Williams “hold opposing philosophical belief systems.” Read the full article to learn about Sandberg and Williams’ divergent paths to success.
In the wake of Mayor Bloomberg’s decision last summer to remove formula samples from the diaper bags given to new mothers in New York City, the breast vs. bottle feeding debate is more contentious than ever.
The Spiked Review of Books recently took up this issue in a review of Suzanne’s Barston’s new book, Bottled Up: How the Way We Feed Babies Has Come to Define Motherhood, and Why It Shouldn’t. Discussing the politics of breastfeeding and several misguided public health strategies used to denigrate bottle-feeding, Nancy McDermott says Bottled Up “should be required reading for all new parents, regardless of how they feed their infant, just because it does such a great job of interrogating the scientism that has come to permeate every child-rearing decision.” Read the full review at Spiked.
Tiemeyer will be at the GLBT History Museum in San Francisco on Thursday, April 11 to talk about the book. Joining him will be Bill Wright, a Pan Am flight attendant from the 1950s through the 1980s. Together, they’ll reveal the neglected queer history of a gay-identified career that emerged with the dawn of commercial passenger flight in the late 1920s and that continues today. The program will highlight the ways that gay men at times thrived in this workplace, and at other times encountered sexism and homophobia that threatened their foothold in the profession.
Sabine Heinlein sent a finished copy of her book, Among Murderers, to Richie, an interviewee serving time at Attica prison. He then passed it around to friends and fellow cellblock-mates. Two of them were so moved by her research on the struggle to navigate life after a murder conviction, they felt compelled to write responses to Heinlein.
Below are excerpts from their letters, which are honest, heartfelt, and at times, conflicted. Read the full letters on Sabine Heinlein’s blog.
I started questioning the true essence of remorse, rehabilitation, and the whole process of corrections; what society deems fit when they’re looking in from the outside at a bunch of papers, data. If it’s anything remotely close to the little girl who got scared at the Halloween party or the arbitrariness of the parole board, then certainly we are the worst thing we’ve ever done. If they’re like you, having the ability to empathize, then there is still hope. In this regard I share, and am grateful for, your sentiments on page 18, “each man’s story—his needs, desires, risks, failures and moral responsibilities—calls for a highly individualized approach.”
I read until 1:30 AM, then finished your book this morning. It kept my interest. I was thrown off some by chapter 20, The New Home, which for me kind of broke the flow. But that was read at about 1 AM, I was tired and that may have contributed.
I found it very honest and real. Your handling of personality profiles was, as always, excellent. I think it will be an eye opener for those who have the misconception that parole is freedom. I’d like to see it as mandatory reading for all first offenders because they often think “parole is freedom” and are quickly, very negatively struck with profound disappointment when reality smacks or kicks them in the face.
The exhibition Summoning Ghosts: The Art of Hung Liu, on display at the Oakland Museum through June 30, is the first comprehensive survey of the artwork of pioneering Chinese-American artist Hung Liu. The exhibition explores the evolution of Liu’s artistic practice, and investigates the complex interactions between individual memory and history, and documentary evidence and artistic expression, among other themes. UC Press published the companion book to the exhibition, which includes 140 color illustrations, and essays that reflect on the ties between Hung Liu’s evocative art and her equally rich and complex life.
Bay Area residents will have a chance to see the artist in person later this month. Liu will visit the Oakland Museum for a Meet the Artist talk and book signing on April 20, and will be back to lead an in-Gallery talk and informal tour on April 26.
We are pleased to announce that the Government of Japan honored UC Press author Merry White today with the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon decoration. The award recognizes Professor White’s significant contribution to the development of Japanese studies and the introduction of Japanese culture in the United States.
