Lawrence Today magazine, Spring 2006
“Words for the Hour”: A New Anthology of Civil War Poetry, edited
by Faith Barrett, assistant professor of English, and Cristanne Miller.
“Words for the Hour” presents a readable and illuminating
account of the Civil War, told through the words of poets North and South.
From bathos to
profound philosophical meditation and sorrow, the range of these poems illuminates
the complexity of their era while also revealing the continuing power of this
turning point in American history to speak to readers in the present day.
University of Massachusetts Press, December 2005: paperback, 432 pages.
Marbleworkers in the Athenian Agora, by Carol L. Lawton, professor of art
history and the Ottilia Buerger Professor of Classical Studies.
The fifth-century B.C. poet Pindar remarked on the rich sculptural decoration
of the Athenian Agora, and, indeed, over 3,500 pieces of various types of
sculpture have been uncovered during its excavation. This full-color guide
sheds new
light on the marble industry in and around the Agora, including rich evidence
of the sculptors’ workshops, tools, and techniques, and discusses
the works of both famous and anonymous artists.
American School of Classical Studies at Athens, March 2006: paperback, 32
pages.
The Archaeology of Ocmulgee Old Fields, Macon, Georgia, by Carol
I. Mason, adjunct professor of anthropology.
Ocmulgee Old Fields near Macon, Georgia, is the site of a Lower Creek village
and associated English trading house dating from the late 17th and early
18th centuries. Professor Mason’s classic study of the Ocmulgee Old
Fields site has been a model for contact-period Indian archaeology since
the 1960s.
Available for the first time in book form, it includes a new foreword by
the author and a new introduction from Southeastern archaeology expert
Marvin T. Smith.
University of Alabama Press, April 2005: paperback, 240 pages.
History, Fiction, and Germany: Writing the 19th-Century Nation, by Brent
O. Peterson, associate professor of German.
History, Fiction, and Germany chronicles how German nationalism developed
simultaneously with the historical novel and the field of history and
examines Germany’s
emerging national narrative, as 19th century writers adapted it to their own
visions and to changing circumstances. Professor Peterson suggests that it
was the production and consumption of national history — the writing
and reading of the nation — that filled Germany with Germans.
Wayne State University Press, August 2005: hardcover, 360 pages.
An English Translation of Fa-Tsang’s Commentary on the Awakening
of Faith, by Dirck Vorenkamp, associate professor of religious studies.
It would be difficult to overstate the importance of the Awakening of
Faith to the history of East Asian Buddhism. It has been a favorite
topic for
Buddhist exegetes and, to date, upwards of 200 commentaries have been
produced. Of all these works, however, Fa-Tsang’s text has always
been considered among the two or three definitive interpretations.
Edwin Mellen Press, July 2004: hardcover, 450 pages.