October Acquisitions Highlights
The Alabama Guide: Our People, Resources, and Government 2009
by the Alabama Department of Archives and History (Author), Randall Williams (Editor), Bob Riley (Foreword)
"Sweet Home Alabama" is a user-friendly approach to the "blue book" directories published by many states. Alabama's new entry in the field originated with Governor Bob Riley (who contributes a foreword) and was compiled by the staff of the Alabama Department of Archives and History. The 600-page, full-color book is divided into three major sections. Part One: Portrait of Alabama, which includes 'The Land,' 'Historical Alabama,' and 'Alabama Today' will be welcomed by students and others interested in a readable, concise overview of state history and contemporary culture. Richly illustrated with historical and modern photographs, maps, and charts, the narrative takes the reader from prehistory to today's diverse Alabama.Part Two: Alabama Government Data includes descriptions with contact information for all state agencies, and profiles of all current state elected officers, legislators, and judges, as well as appointed cabinet members and heads of the major state departments. The state's U.S. senators and members of the U.S. House of Representatives are also profiled, and listings are included for U.S. judges and attorneys. Each county also has a listing with contact information, short history, and key elected officers. All state municipalities are listed by address, telephone, and website. Part Three: Facts and Reports and the appendix include listings and illustrations of state symbols, statistical reports, and a detailed index. In short, the book is a comprehensive reference to all Alabama governmental entities. 
If That Ever Happens to Me: Making Life and Death Decisions after Terri Schiavo (Studies in Social Medicine)
by Lois Shepherd
Every day, thousands of people quietly face decisions as agonizing as those made famous in the Terri Schiavo case. Throughout that controversy, all kinds of people—politicians, religious leaders, legal and medical experts—made emphatic statements about the facts and offered even more certain opinions about what should be done. To many, courts were either ordering Terri's death by starvation or vindicating her constitutional rights. Both sides called for simple answers. If That Ever Happens to Me details why these simple answers were not right for Terri Schiavo and why they are not right for end-of-life decisions today. Lois Shepherd looks behind labels like "starvation," "care," or "medical treatment" to consider what care and feeding really mean, when feeding tubes might be removed, and why disability groups, the faithful, and even the dying themselves often suggest end-of-life solutions that they might later regret. For example, Shepherd cautions against living wills as a pat answer. She provides evidence that demanding letter-perfect documents can actually weaken, rather than bolster, patient choice. The actions taken and decisions made during Terri Schiavo's final years will continue to have repercussions for thousands of others—those nearing death, their families, health-care professionals, attorneys, lawmakers, clergy, media, researchers, and ethicists. If That Ever Happens to Me is an excellent choice for anyone interested in end-of-life law, policy, and ethics—particularly readers seeking a deeper understanding of the issues raised by Terri Schiavo's case. 
The Trials of Academe: The New Era of Campus Litigation
by Amy Gajda
Once upon a time, virtually no one in the academy thought to sue over campus disputes, and, if they dared, judges bounced the case on grounds that it was no business of the courts. Tenure decisions, grading curves, course content, and committee assignments were the stuff of faculty meetings, not lawsuits. Not so today. As Amy Gajda shows in this witty yet troubling book, litigation is now common on campus, and perhaps even more commonly feared. Professors sue each other for defamation based on assertions in research articles or tenure review letters; students sue professors for breach of contract when an F prevents them from graduating; professors threaten to sue students for unfairly criticizing their teaching. Gajda’s lively account introduces the new duo driving the changes: the litigious academic who sees academic prerogative as a matter of legal entitlement and the skeptical judge who is increasingly willing to set aside decades of academic deference to pronounce campus rights and responsibilities. This turn to the courts is changing campus life, eroding traditional notions of academic autonomy and confidentiality, and encouraging courts to micromanage course content, admissions standards, exam policies, graduation requirements, and peer review. This book explores the origins and causes of the litigation trend, its implications for academic freedom, and what lawyers, judges, and academics themselves can do to limit the potential damage.
The Ugly Laws: Disability in Public (History of Disability)
by Susan Schweik
In the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, municipallaws targeting "unsightly beggars" sprang up in cities across America. Seeming to criminalize disability and thus offering a visceral example of discrimination, these "ugly laws" have become a sort of shorthand for oppression in disability studies, law, and the arts. In this watershed study of the ugly laws, Susan M. Schweik uncovers the murky history behind the laws, situating the varied legislation in its historical context and exploring in detail what the laws meant. Illustrating how the laws join the history of the disabled and the poor, Schweik not only gives the reader a deeper understanding of the ugly laws and the cities where they were generated, she locates the laws at a crucial intersection of evolving and unstable concepts of race, nation, sex, class, and gender. Moreover, she explores the history of resistance to the ordinances, using the often harrowing life stories of those most affected by their passage. Moving to the laws' more recent history, Schweik analyzes the shifting cultural memory of the ugly laws, examining how they have been used—and misused—by academics, activists, artists, lawyers, and legislators. Drawing from a huge range of cultural materials, from police reports and court dockets to popular fiction and reformist exposés, Schweik rewrites an urban legend about disability into a meticulously researched and powerfully reasoned argument about law, politics, and cultural aesthetics. Building a case in ever expanding circles until she is in a position to rethink large swaths of United States culture through the lens of the ugly laws, Schweikcasts a bright light on the conditions of disability at the turn of the century in order to better understand disability in the present. 
The GI Bill: The New Deal for Veterans
by Glenn Altschuler, Stuart M. Blumin
On rare occasions in American history, Congress enacts a measure so astute, so far-reaching, so revolutionary, it enters the language as a metaphor. The Marshall Plan comes to mind, as does the Civil Rights Act. But perhaps none resonates in the American imagination like the G.I. Bill. In a brilliant addition to Oxford's acclaimed Pivotal Moments in American History series, historians Glenn C. Altschuler and Stuart M. Blumin offer a compelling and often surprising account of the G.I. Bill and its sweeping and decisive impact on American life. Formally known as the Serviceman's Readjustment Act of 1944, it was far from an obvious, straightforward piece of legislation, but resulted from tense political maneuvering and complex negotiations. As Altschuler and Blumin show, an unlikely coalition emerged to shape and pass the bill, bringing together both New Deal Democrats and conservatives who had vehemently opposed Roosevelt's social-welfare agenda. For the first time in American history returning soldiers were not only supported, but enabled to pursue success—a revolution in America's policy towards its veterans. Once enacted, the G.I. Bill had far-reaching consequences. By providing job training, unemployment compensation, housing loans, and tuition assistance, it allowed millions of Americans to fulfill long-held dreams of social mobility, reshaping the national landscape. The huge influx of veterans and federal money transformed the modern university and the surge in single home ownership vastly expanded America's suburbs. Perhaps most important, as Peter Drucker noted, the G.I. Bill "signaled the shift to the knowledge society." The authors highlight unusual orunexpected features of the law—its color blindness, the frankly sexist thinking behind it, and its consequent influence on race and gender relations. Not least important, Altschuler and Blumin illuminate its role in individual lives whose stories they weave into this thoughtful account. Written with insight and narrative verve by two leading historians, The G.I. Bill makes a major contribution to the scholarship of postwar America.
Abused Men: The Hidden Side of Domestic Violence Second Edition
by Philip W. Cook
Say the words domestic violence, and images of battered women come to mind. Yet the more accurate picture is different, and it crosses genders. According to surveys and crime statistics, a man is battered every 37.8 seconds in domestic violence incidents across America. Surveys show women strike the first blow in about half of the domestic disputes nationwide, and a National Violence Against Women survey even unexpectedly found that nearly 40 percent of domestic violence victims annually are men. Police in states nationwide are receiving training in how to identify the primary aggressor in domestic violence, and police crackdowns on spouse/partner abuse are netting more and more arrests of women as the abusers. It is not a form of violence particular to America, as similar increases in female batterers and arrests are being reported in England, too, and across Europe. Add to that the newly recognized and increasing incidence of male abuse during domestic violence in gay couples, and it's clear why Philip W. Cook's book, Abused Men: The Hidden Side of Domestic Violence(Praeger, 1997) drew attention and praise nationwide from people and media varying from CNN and Fox network's The O'Reilly Factor to scholarly publications like The Journal of Marriage and Family and popular household advice sources including Dear Abby and Ask Amy columns. On the 10th anniversary of that groundbreaking book, Cook began revising and expanding his work, resulting in this 2nd edition of a disturbing look at a trend that has in the last 10 years only increased. Millions of men are victims of abuse, and those spotlighted in this new editioninclude gay men increasingly the target of violence by their partners. Cook provides a disturbing new look at an underreported type of domestic violence that has only increased across the last decade — the abuse of men. This new edition includes up-to-date surveys on the increasing domestic violence against men by both female and male partners, spouses and lovers, with personal interviews as well as cases drawn from headlines of recent media covering celebrities, politicians, and other public figures. This new edition also includes updates on law, legislation, court activity, social responses, police activity, support groups, batterer programs, and crisis intervention programs. 
Hollowing Out the Middle: The Rural Brain Drain and What It Means for America
by Patrick Carr, Maria J. Kefalas
Startling research shows that small towns—from Maine to Missouri—are in jeopardy from exporting their most precious resource: young people In 2001, the MacArthur Foundation dispatched sociologists Patrick J. Carr and Maria J. Kefalas to a small town in Iowa to chronicle the exodus of young people from America’s countryside and to understand the process of the rural brain drain. One in five Americans, nearly sixty million people, live in small towns, and the rate at which young people are permanently leaving has grave local and national repercussions. Carr and Kefalas follow the trajectories of college-bound “Achievers”; working-class “Stayers,” trapped in a region’s dying agro-industrial economy; “Seekers,” who join the military as a way out; and “Returners,” who eventually circle back to their hometowns. Surprisingly, the authors find that adults in a community play a pivotal part in their town’s decline by pushing away “the best and brightest” and underinvesting in those who choose to stay. The emptying out of small towns is a nationwide concern, but there are strategies for arresting the process and creating sustainable, thriving communities. Hollowing Out the Middle is a wake- up call we can’t afford to ignore. 
Filling the Ark: Animal Welfare in Disasters
by Leslie Irvine
When disasters strike, people are not the only victims. Hurricande Katrina raised public attention about how disasters affect dogs, cats, and other animals considered members of the human family. In this short but powerful book, noted sociologist Leslie Irvine goes beyond Katrina to examine how disasters like oil spills, fires, and other calamities affect various animal populations on factory farms, in reasearch facilities, and in the wild. Filling the Ark argues that humans cause most of the risks faced by animals and urges better decisions about the treatment of animals in disasters. Furthermore, it makes a broad appeal for the ethical necessity of better planning to keep animals out of jeopardy. Irving not only offers policy recommendations and practical advice for evacuating animals, she also makes a strong case for rethinking our use of animals, suggesting ways to create more secure conditions.