Scepanski, Philip. Tragedy Plus Time: National Trauma and Television Comedy. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2021. Philip Scepanski’s truly excellent new book examines the myriad of ways that television comedy addresses national tragedies through humor resulting in opportunities to define and redefine the boundaries of American identity by breaking taboos and identifying what is acceptable … Continue reading Book Review: Tragedy Plus Time: National Trauma and Television Comedy by Philip Scepanski
Book Reviews
Book Review: Enter Sandwich: Some Kind of Vegan Cooking with No Connection to Metallica by Automne Zingg and Joshua Ploeg
Zingg, Automne and Joshua Ploeg. Enter Sandwich: Some Kind of Vegan Cooking with No Connection to Metallica. Portland, OR: Microcosm Publishing, 2022. Enter Sandwich is not simply a cookbook. It’s a celebration of all of the fun, enjoyable and unexpected ways that seemingly unconnected currents of pop culture can intersect. After several difficult years rent … Continue reading Book Review: Enter Sandwich: Some Kind of Vegan Cooking with No Connection to Metallica by Automne Zingg and Joshua Ploeg
Book Review: Diverse Futures: Science Fiction and Authors of Color by Joy Sanchez-Taylor
Sanchez-Taylor, Joy. Diverse Futures: Science Fiction and Authors of Color. The Ohio State University Press, 2021 Book review by Christine Garcia, Associate Professor of English, Eastern Connecticut State University “‘How Long ‘Til Black Future Month?’ A Review of Diverse Futures: Science Fiction and Authors of Color” Joy Sanchez-Taylor’s Diverse Futures: Science Fiction and Authors of … Continue reading Book Review: Diverse Futures: Science Fiction and Authors of Color by Joy Sanchez-Taylor
Book Review: Camera Man (2022)
CAMERA MAN (2022)By Dana StevensAtria Books, 393 pages + notes Charlie Chaplin was early cinema’s king of comedy. After that, it’s a tossup between Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton. Dana Stevens, a film critic and podcast cohost for Slate, champions Keaton, of whom she is an unabashed fan. As Camera Man’s subtitle suggests–The Dawn of … Continue reading Book Review: Camera Man (2022)
Review: Intimacies of Conflict: Cultural Memory and the Korean War by Daniel Y. Kim
Daniel Y. Kim. Intimacies of Conflict: Cultural Memory and the Korean War. New York: NYU Press, 2020. Review by Katherine Allocco, Western Connecticut State University Daniel Kim’s thorough and thoughtful new book, Intimacies of Conflict, argues that the Korean War, the so-called “forgotten war”, exerted a widespread influence on the way that Americans understood, discussed … Continue reading Review: Intimacies of Conflict: Cultural Memory and the Korean War by Daniel Y. Kim
Book Review: Battle for the Big Top
Battle for the Big Top: P.T. Barnum, James Bailey, John Ringling, and the Death-Defying Saga of the American CircusBy Les StandifordHachette Book Group, 272 pages.Review by Rob Weir If you are under the age of 40 and have never lived in New York City, you may have never seen the “Greatest Show on Earth,” as … Continue reading Book Review: Battle for the Big Top
Book Review: Nightmare Factories by Troy Rondinone
Troy Rondinone, Nightmare Factories: The Asylum in the American Imagination. Johns Hopkins, 2019. Book review by Katherine Allocco (Western Connecticut State University) Troy Rondinone traces the evolution of the portrayal of mental health institutions in American popular culture from the nineteenth century until today. Beginning with Edgar Allen Poe’s 1845 short story “The System of … Continue reading Book Review: Nightmare Factories by Troy Rondinone
Book Review: Haunted Bauhaus by Elizabeth Otto
Elizabeth Otto. Haunted Bauhaus: Occult Spirituality, Gender Fluidity, Queer Identities, and Radical Politics. MIT Press, 2019. Book review by Katherine Allocco (Western Connecticut State University) In Haunted Bauhaus, art historian Elizabeth Otto, who has published numerous books on the Bauhaus, turns her expertise to examining some of the movements and ideas that appeared on the … Continue reading Book Review: Haunted Bauhaus by Elizabeth Otto
Book Review: Spying on the South by Tony Horwitz
Horwitz, Tony. Spying on the South: An Odyssey Across the American Divide Penguin, 2019. Book review by Katherine Allocco (Western Connecticut State University) Tony Horwitz’s last book, Spying on the South: An Odyssey Across the American Divide, tells two stories. First, he recounts details of Frederick Law Olmsted’s two journeys across the Southern States in … Continue reading Book Review: Spying on the South by Tony Horwitz
Book Review: Alex. Young Heroes of the Soviet Union: A Memoir and a Reckoning by Alex Halberstadt
Halberstadt, Alex. Young Heroes of the Soviet Union: A Memoir and a Reckoning. Random House, 2020. Book review by Katherine Allocco (Western Connecticut State University) Alex Halberstadt’s Young Heroes of the Soviet Union redefines the genre of memoir creating something complex and compelling. He begins his memoir with the central question: Can trauma be inherited? … Continue reading Book Review: Alex. Young Heroes of the Soviet Union: A Memoir and a Reckoning by Alex Halberstadt
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