Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2014 -

The first edition of this encyclopedia was designated an Outstanding Academic Title and deemed "highly recommended for the collection of any library serving a liberal arts program" (CH, Feb'99, 36-3078).  This second edition is positively "essential."  When the first edition appeared 17 years ago, aesthetics was widely conceived of as an unwanted philosophical account of art and the encyclopedia as the pretense of a neutral and comprehensive form of knowledge.  The first edition refashioned aesthetics as a cross-disciplinary study of art, culture, and nature and the encyclopedia as a public discursive space for the exchange of ideas across those disciplines.  The second edition fully realizes the "open work" (in Ecos sense) that the first edition aspired to be: a whole that can be given determinate form in a number of different ways.  As such, the audience for this six-volume collection multiplies across students and practitioners in art history; art criticism; anthropology; sociology; cultural and legal studies; feminist, queer, literary, and postcolonial theory; and philosophy.  All these readerships will approach this work and give it form in ways that both fit and challenge their disciplinary prejudices.

In 1987, Hyperion Records commenced a mammoth task to record all of Schubert's approximately 600 songs.  The resultingHyperion Schubert Edition took 51 singers about 20 years to complete.  Senior Professor of Accompaniment Johnson (Guildhall School of Music and Drama, UK) masterminded the project, was sole accompanist for it, and wrote the superb song commentaries.  The present work is his greatly expanded revision of those commentaries, and it is by far the most comprehensive, authoritative Schubert song study ever undertaken.  The songs are listed alphabetically by title, with musical incipits, complete poetic texts in the original German and in English translation, biographies of poets, and details about primary and secondary sources for all of them.  Where relevant, information such as selected bibliography and discography has also been added.  Detailed discussions of all of the songs, enriched not only by Johnson's encyclopedic knowledge of the material but also by his deep love for it, add immeasurable value.  Appendixes include a list of the songs with Deutsch thematic catalog numbers, and a Schubert song calendar that lists and discusses dates of composition.  This monumental resource is a required acquisition for academic music research libraries and Schubert singers.Summing Up: Essential. All academic audiences; professionals/practitioners.

This work provides historical media freedom information for all independent countries since WW II.  Whitten-Woodring (Univ. of Massachusetts Lowell) and Van Belle (Victoria Univ. of Wellington, NZ) are both accomplished scholars.  Many researchers will be familiar with Freedom House's annual surveys of press freedom, e.g.,Freedom of the Press, 2004, ed. by K. Karlekar (CH, Apr'05, 42-4474); however, the current volume attempts to fill a historical gap because Freedom House information dates only to 2002.  This guide begins by defining media freedom.  This is no small task, but the authors use simple exemplar questions to categorize countries as either "not free," "imperfectly free," or "free."  They do this year-by-year for each country.

As director of an opera and musical theater program, Clark (Univ. of Louisiana at Monroe) is well versed in the musical theater repertoire and more than capable of providing advice to would-be singers.  The approximately 100 songs considered here come from well-known shows, such asEvita andBye Bye Birdie, and the lesser-known, such asThe Glorious Ones andA Catered Affair.  Each section is devoted to a vocal range with appropriate songs, each noting the plot, characterization, classification (e.g., "lyric song for tenor"), context, content (markings and phrasing), timing and length, and, most important, "voice," or how a singer should address the piece.  Each entry concludes with a brief "Behind the Scenes" interview with either a former performer of the work (e.g., Elaine Paige from the original production ofChess) or the composer (e.g., Andrew Lippa, Jerry Herman, Tom Kitt).  The interviews alone, with their advice from the experts, are worth the book's price.  An excellent companion piece to David P. DeVenney'sThe New Broadway Song Companion (CH, Jan'10, 47-2339), which includes guidelines for non-solo pieces.  Both guides are essential for all school and college musical theater collections.Summing Up: Essential. All academic and general audiences; professionals/practitioners.

In his preface, Robert Audi (Univ. of Notre Dame) describes philosophy as a "field in motion."  The third edition of this authoritative volume (CH, Mar'00, 37-3647) captures the dynamic nature of the field by substantially expanding coverage.  The scope now includes some 500 new entries in addition to increased coverage of some of the more rapidly growing fields.  Entries on ethics, cognitive science, and the philosophy of mind, for example, are substantially longer and reflect contemporary developments.  Of particular interest, this edition continues to expand coverage (initiated in the second edition) of philosophical thinkers who are still living and active.  Historians of philosophy are also covered for the first time in this volume.  New entries on Australasian and Austrian philosophy, along with a substantial expansion of coverage of African philosophy, evidence the care that Audi, assisted by Paul Audi (Univ. of Nebraska, Omaha), took to ensure that the dictionary remains comprehensive in its scope and inclusive of global perspectives.  For all of this edition's expanded coverage, it maintains its characteristic concise, readable prose, suitable for both senior scholars and beginning students of philosophy and related disciplines.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All academic readers.

This anthology of primary source documents compiled by Givens (Univ. of Richmond) and Neilson (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) is a trove for researchers, students, and readers interested in the history and role of the LDS Church in America.  Organized topically and chronologically, it presents documents from the church's founding in 1830 through 2002, covering not only central issues of history, doctrine, and practice but also issues of controversy and disunity that have shaped Mormon communities throughout history.  The editors are well known in the Mormon studies discipline for their essential but generally faith-promoting contributions, particularly Givens'sThe God Who Weeps (2012) andThe Crucible of Doubt(2014), both coauthored with Fiona Givens.  However, this collection stays true to the diversity of Mormon experience by including both mainstream and marginalized voices.  Chapters are titled "Theology and Doctrine," "Scattering of the Saints," "Gathering to Zion," "Government and Politics," "Race and Ethnicity," "Sexuality and Gender," "Education and Intellectualism," and "Contemporary Religious Life."  They are further organized into approximately a dozen primary source entries, each of which is contextualized briefly by the editors.  This collection will be necessary reading for anyone interested in American religious history, Mormon history, or the factors that have shaped modern Mormon identity.Summing Up: Essential. Lower-level undergraduates through researchers/faculty; general readers.

This book by professor of communications and photojournalist Eichenbaum (Woodbury Univ.) is a distinguished addition to the thriving genre of interview compilations, in which outstanding directors of stage and screen are queried as to their career trajectories, working methods, explanations for their success, and so on.  It complements such titles asOn Directing: Interviews with Directors, ed. by Gabriella Giannachi and Mary Luckhurst (1999);Conversations with Directors: An Anthology of Interviews from Literature/Film Quarterly, ed. by Elsie Walker and David Johnson (2008); andFilm World: Interviews with Cinema's Leading Directors, by Michel Ciment (2009).  To the usual mix this work adds television directors such as James Burrows, Jay Sandrich, Jonathan Frakes, Richard Donner, and Tim Van Patten.  Of the 35 directors interviewed, 6 are women and 29 are men.  A handsome black-and-white photograph of the interviewee accompanies each profile.  The "Recommended Viewing" appendix provides a selected list of films, stage shows, and television shows for nearly all interviewees, followed by a one-page bibliography.  The main strength of this book is the uniformly high quality of the interviews.  Much fascinating material emerges because of the sensitivity of interviewer Eichenbaum, who is so beguiling that her subjects are clearly put at ease.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.