A Publication of Humanities Tennessee

The Art of Censorship

October 31, 2011 In Not Here, Not Now, Not That!, Vanderbilt sociology professor Steven J. Tepper challenges any bird’s-eye-view analysis of the so-called “culture war.” Rather than focus on national debates, like those preceding the opening of the controversial Sensation exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in 1999, Tepper concerns himself with hundreds of smaller, local conflagrations––over flags, nativity scenes, statues, banned books, etc.––that occurred across America during the 1990s. By analyzing data collected from these local skirmishes, Tepper discards contentious progressive or traditionalist labels, arguing that it’s more effective to understand––and debate––the nuanced issues that really matter to a community.

The Art of Censorship

Kisses from Katie: A Story of Relentless Love and Redemption

Kisses from Katie: A Story of Relentless Love and Redemption

Kisses from Katie: A Story of Relentless Love and Redemption

Katie J. Davis

Howard Books
288 pages
$24.00

“With reckless abandon, Katie Davis followed her heart to care for orphans living in extreme poverty in Uganda. Her stories captivate the reader to take action, join her work, and make the world a better place for children—one by one.”

— Senator William H. Frist, MD

The Amphibians of Tennessee

The Amphibians of Tennessee

The Amphibians of Tennessee

Matthew Niemiller and R. Graham Reynolds

University of Tennessee Press
$39.95

Brimming with color photographs and reflecting the latest scientific research, this book is the definitive guide to the rich diversity of frogs and salamanders found throughout Tennessee. Featuring detailed accounts of all eighty of the state’s species of amphibians, it will delight and inform the professional scientist and amateur naturalist alike.

— From the Publisher

Vanderbilt Football: Tales of Commodore Gridiron History

Vanderbilt Football: Tales of Commodore Gridiron History

Bill Traughber

The History Press
160 pages
$19.99

In 1890, Vanderbilt’s crosstown rivals, University of Nashville, challenged the Commodores to a football game. Fullback and founding head coach Elliott H. Jones promptly organized a team and delivered a crushing 40-0 victory, beginning Vandy’s pigskin tradition and helping football gain a foothold in the South. Seasoned Nashville sports history researcher and Vanderbilt athletics historian Bill Traughber brings to life the star players, outstanding teams, beloved coaches and remarkable games that shaped this treasured institution. . .this is a collection every Commodore fan will want to claim.

— From the Publisher

Legal Executions in Tennessee: A Comprehensive Registry, 1782-2009

Legal Executions in Tennessee: A Comprehensive Registry, 1782-2009

Lewis L. Laska

McFarland
490
$95.00

This work documents the lives, crimes and deaths of 487 people, including nine women, who were legally executed on Tennessee soil. These include horse stealers, slaves, wife killers, cop killers and rapists. The book includes fascinating cultural details such as gallows sermons preached at public hangings held before 1883. Issues of crowd control, race mixing, and denunciations of witnesses by the condemned caused Tennessee’s move to quasi-private, and finally private, ones at the Main Prison in 1909. Tennessee is unique because it witnessed both Union and Confederate legal executions during the Civil War, mostly of deserters. The book is the only compilation of those episodes. Built on the famous Espy list of United States executions, it includes 154 previously undocumented cases. A discussion of dramatic changes in Tennessee death penalty law during 1960-2000, a hiatus period, is included and covers the complicated appellate procedures used by the six men executed since 2000, some of whom had been on death row for more than twenty years.

— From the Publisher

Diversity Within Diversity

October 21, 2011 The word “Latino” is a catch-all term, “an imaginary space for filing diverse people in a singular slot.” In The Other Latin@: Writing Against a Singular Identity, a new essay collection edited by Blas Falconer and Lorraine M. López, twenty-one writers examine the multifaceted nature of Latino identity and the way it shapes their work. Falconer will read from his work on October 24 at 7 p.m. at the Hodges Library on the University of Tennessee campus in Knoxville.

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