Posted March 17, 1999

Small Wars: The Cultural Politics of Childhood
Nancy Scheper-Hughes, editor
Professor and Chair of Anthropology

The essays in "Small Wars" demonstrate how, at the close of the 20th century, the world's children are affected by global political-economic structures and by everyday practices of local cultures.

Perceived as avenging spirits of aborted fetuses in Japan; as obstacles to or desired commodities of narcissistic adult fulfillment in North America; as foot soldiers in the drug wars of Spanish Harlem; and as "street kids" and public enemies of the middle classes in Brazil, children are losing ground.

The authors raise vital questions about social and structural violence and its impact on children and families.

University of California Press
464 pages

Melville's Anatomies
By Samuel Otter
Associate Professor of English

In new contextual readings of four of Herman Melville's novels -- "Typee," "White-Jacket," "Moby-Dick" and "Pierre" -- Otter delves into Melville's prose to reveal the writer's deep concerns with issues of race, the body, gender, sentiment and national identity.

University of California Press
418 pages

March 17 - 30, 1999 (Volume 27, Number 27)
Copyright 1999, The Regents of the University of California.
Produced and maintained by the Office of Public Affairs at UC Berkeley.
Comments? E-mail berkeleyan@pa.urel.berkeley.edu.