Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2024 -

The Oxford Handbook of The Sociology of Disability from editors Brown (Univ. of Kentucky), Maroto (Univ. of Alberta, Canada), and Pettinicchio (Univ. of Toronto, Canada) ambitiously seeks to describe the sociological study of disability. With a few exceptions the editors succeed in this endeavor. The first and last subsections, "Understanding, Theorizing, and Studying Disability" and "Efforts toward Inclusion," respectively, are excellent to begin and end with because they tie together general theories. The rest of the book includes essays on topics such as gender, the Global South, and how disability affects people at different stages of life. The articles make use of fields like history and disability studies to discuss issues pertinent to people with disabilities and people studying disabilities. A few standout essays include "The Disability Rights Movement," by Richard Scotch and Kara Sutton; "Inequality and Day-to-Day Encounters with Media," by Kate Prendella and Meryl Alper; and "Indigenous Perspectives on Disabilty," by Minerva Rivas Velarde. Despite the fact that there is not a great deal of information about developmental disorders, nor more historical research on intersectional identities, this book is overall an excellent starting point for research.Summing Up: Essential. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals.

In his eighth book, The Cult of the Victim Veteran, Lembke (emer., Holy Cross College) asserts that in the era following the Vietnam War, "traumatized war veterans" in the US have become "the metamorphic stand-ins for the nation's loss of pride and superiority" (p. 96). He further contends that political figures like Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Donald Trump were quick to leverage this constructed image for personal and political gain, to the detriment of the country and to Americans' understanding of historical and contemporary events. Although the book offers valuable insights into the roots of the MAGA movement, this reviewer would have preferred a more precise title focusing on the political exploitation of victim veteran concept. Nevertheless, this is an important new contribution to the literature on the legacy of the Vietnam War.Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty.