Songs of the Martin, Kevin McCormick ’90 (Mirabilis Records). The Martin, in this case, is an original 1840s C.F. Martin guitar, and with it the instrumentalist and composer presents a snapshot of the history of guitar music in America. The 17-track CD includes such songs as “Freight Train,” “Georgia on My Mind,” “What a Wonderful World” and “Blackbird.” See kevin-mccormick.com/ for more information.
American Afrikan, E.G. Bailey ’92 (Tru Ruts/Speakeasy Records). This innovative CD traces the history and cultural experiences of Africans in America. “What is this journey historically, metaphorically, poetically?” asks Bailey, who crafts the narrative with music (jazz, hip hop and electronic) and spoken word pieces. “He makes language live,” poet and playwright Amiri Baraka says of the concept album. For more information, see egbailey.com.
The “R” Father: 14 Ways to Respond to the Lord’s Prayer, Mark Hart ’95 (The Word Among Us Press). Connecting the lines of the prayer to scriptural wisdom and to his own prayerful experiences, the author writes about the 14 “R” messages in the Our Father, from an invitation into a relationship to the need for repentance. The prayer, he says, “expresses the totality of what it means to love and the summation of what it means to be a true child of God.”
Out Cold: A Duffy Dombrowski Mystery, Tom Schreck ’83 (Echelon Press). Round three of the series that features a social worker who loves boxing, beer, Elvis and dogs. In this match, Duffy sustains a head injury and tries to make sense out of the clues one of his patients drops about a possible terrorist plot. As Dombrowski seeks to uncover the truth, he also gets caught up in a basset hound puppy mill rescue.
Sham Rock: A Mystery Set at the University of Notre Dame, Ralph McInerny (Minotaur Books). In this 13th (and, sadly, final) mystery featuring the Knight brothers — one a professor, the other a private investigator — a former ND student confesses to a decades-old murder and secret burial of one of his friends. When the Knights dig into the past to solve the case, they unearth a bigger mystery. The author, who died in January, was a Notre Dame professor emeritus who also wrote the popular Father Dowling mystery series and innumerable scholarly works.
The Irony of Manifest Destiny: The Tragedy of America’s Foreign Policy, William Pfaff ’49 (Walker & Company). How should the United States best adapt to Muslim extremism, nuclear competition and other challenges of our times? The former International Herald Tribune columnist writes that the American belief in its responsibility of exporting democracy throughout the world is a flawed ideology destined for failure. Instead, he suggests that a “noninterventionist foreign policy” may be what is needed.
Find a Way to Win: Management Insights from Terry Michler, America’s All-Time Winningest Soccer Coach, Dan Coughlin ’85 (World Class Coaching). Michler, who coaches at CBC High School in St. Louis, Missouri, has won more soccer games than any high school, college or professional coach in U.S. history. He shares his strategies for success here, with personal stories and practical methods. Playing off the coach’s ideas, the author then offers management insight tips on improving results with a business team.
Making Words Dance: Reflections on Red Smith, Journalism, and Writing, edited by Robert Schumhl ’70 (Andrews McMeel Publishing). The Notre Dame lecture series honoring award-winning columnist Red Smith, a 1927 ND graduate, started in 1983 and has featured lectures by such luminaries as Ted Koppel, Frank McCourt, Jim Lehrer, James Reston, Judy Woodruff and Tim Russert. The book offers 15 of those lectures, complemented with 16 articles and columns by Red Smith. His son, Terence Smith ’60, wrote the prologue.
Struck by Living: From Depression to Hope, Julie K. Hersh ’82 (Brown Books). Clinical depression so overshadowed the author’s life that she attempted suicide three times. With clarity, humor and brutal honesty, Hersh details her travels through various forms of treatment, from assorted medications to hospital psychiatric wards to electroconvulsive therapy, in a memoir she wrote in hopes of dispelling the stigma associated with mental illness.
Shelby’s Folly: Jack Dempsey, Doc Kearns, and the Shakedown of a Montana Boomtown, Jason Kelly ’95 (University of Nebraska Press). In 1923, what began as a publicity stunt in Shelby, Montana, to host a Jack Dempsey heavyweight fight turned into a tragicomedy of rogues and patsies, dreams and disasters, duplicity and nobility. One reviewer says the book’s “vivid piece of Americana breathes life into legends.”
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Laureates and Heretics: Six Careers in American Poetry, Robert Archambeau ’95M.A., ’96Ph.D. (Notre Dame Press). As graduate students at Stanford, Robert Hass, Robert Pinsky, James McMichael, John Matthias and John Peck studied with poet and critic Yvor Winters. The author examines the careers of the poets and their teacher as well as the cultural politics of poetry today. Matthias is a Notre Dame professor emeritus of English.
Haunted by Atrocity: Civil War Prisons in American Memory, Benjamin G. Cloyd ’98 (LSU Press). Civil war prisons, on both sides, were pits of brutal suffering and agonizing deaths. The author describes this book as “a cautionary tale about how the controversy over the Civil War, and its prisons in particular, have (and continue to) trouble generations of Americans since.”
President of the Other America: Robert Kennedy and the Politics of Poverty, Edward R. Schmitt ’92 (University of Massachusetts Press). A look how RFK’s anti-poverty views steadily evolved, and how his communitarian vision of government might have led to a new form of American federalism, with a partnership between the powerful and powerless.
Mass Graves and the Recovery of Historical Memory in Spain, edited by Carlos Jerez-Farrán and Samuel Amago(University of Notre Dame Press). While Franco was dictator of Spain, he and his supporters had thousands of protesters killed and buried in mass graves, but Spaniards only recently began to confront this atrocity. Scholars and journalists analyze how present-day Spain has dealt with the regime’s violence. The editors teach Spanish at Notre Dame.
We Were All Like Migrant Workers Here: Work, Community, and Memory on California’s Round Valley Reservation, 1850-1941, William J. Bauer Jr. ’98 (University of North Carolina Press). The Round Valley Indian Tribes of California have survived hardships such as relocation to reservations and unpaid labor, yet they have not lost their tribal identity. William Bauer Jr., an enrolled member of the tribes and a history professor at University of Nevada-Las Vegas, uses oral history interviews to portray the tribes’ development of their work and community.
George Lucas’s Blockbusting: A Decade-by-Decade Survey of Timeless Movies Including Untold Secrets of Their Financial and Cultural Success, edited by Alex Ben Block and Lucy Autrey Wilson (HarperCollins). Authors examine how 300 films from 1913 to 2005 achieved critical and commercial success. George Lucas selected the films, and the book includes an introduction by Francis Ford Coppola on what defines a “blockbuster.” Michael Kogge ’98 contributed several film entries.
Transforming Relations: Essays on Jews and Christians Throughout History in Honor of Michael A. Signer, edited by Franklin T. Harkins (University of Notre Dame Press). Essays on Jewish-Christian relations honor Michael A. Signer, the Adams Professor of Jewish Thought and Culture at Notre Dame from 1992 until his death in 2009. The authors emphasize two principles that were prevalent in Singer’s work: the shared sacred texts in Christianity and Judaism as a point of convergence and divergence, and the need for modern Jews and Christians to appreciate each other as part of a living tradition. Contributors include Cyril O’Regan, the Husking Professor of Theology at Notre Dame.
Good and Evil Actions: A Journey through Saint Thomas Aquinas, Steven J. Jensen, ’93Ph.D. (Catholic University of America Press). Can an action be innately good or evil? How do factors like the intention or physical nature of an action influence moral judgment? Thomas Aquinas scholars remain divided on questions such as these, but Jensen highlights important points from each interpretation. He also addresses the dignity of the human person and includes a new explanation of self-defense. The foreword was written by Ralph McInerny, ND professor of philosophy and Aquinas scholar, who recently died.
Cultural Narratives: Textuality and Performance in American Culture before 1900, edited by Sandra M. Gustafson and Caroline F. Sloat (University of Notre Dame Press). America has experienced a multimedia culture since the 18th century, as different forms and traditions of art convey elements of dynamic societies. Contributing authors based their studies on texts, maps, recovered speech and visual sources. Gustafson teaches English at Notre Dame.
New Directions in Development Ethics: Essays in Honor of Denis Goulet, edited by Charles K. Wilber and Amitava Krishna Dutt (University of Notre Dame Press). Philosophers, economists and development experts honor Denis Goulet, a founder the field of development ethics and a former professor in Notre Dame’s Department of Economics and Policy Studies. Essays explore the nature and practice of development ethics, as well as their application to issues such as globalization and violent conflict. Wilber, a ND professor emeritus of economics, and Dutt, a ND professor of economics and policy studies, are both Fellows of Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies.
Law’s Environment: How the Law Shapes the Places We Live, John Copeland Nagle (Yale University Press). Nagle examines five diverse American landscapes, illustrating how environmental law affects the natural environment. He concludes that environmental policy needs better coordination among laws and norms that affect our natural resources, and he illustrates some unexpected results of environmental and other laws. Nagle is the John N. Matthews Professor at Notre Dame’s Law School
The Circle Dance of Time, John S. Dunne (University of Notre Dame Press). Dunne illustrates one’s relationship with God by using the metaphor of a circle. The farthest point on the circle, away from God, represents our secular age, but Dunne argues that this point also signifies a return to God. The author drew inspiration from several parallels between circles and spirituality, including a quote told to Lawrence of Arabia: “The love is from God, and of God, and towards God.” Dunne is the John A. O’Brien Professor of Theology at Notre Dame
Flat-Bottom Odyssey, Gene Jaeger ’42, illustrated by Betsy Jaeger ’76 (Prairie Ocean Press). Gene Jaeger, who served on a tank-landing ship in World War II, recently worked with his niece, Betsy, to narrate his time at war. The memoirs describe his experiences in amphibious warfare as he saw battle in North Africa, Normandy, Italy and Sicily.
The Ultimate Middle School Counseling Handbook, Tim Handrich ’80, Deb Schroeder (Macro Publishing). Middle school counselors offer tried and true techniques for a successful counseling program, including all-school activities and group curriculums. The authors also instruct counselors on how to handle situations such as eating disorders and suspected child abuse. The handbook includes a CD of all reproducible pages.
Life in the Smart Lane, Jack Land ’58Ph.D. (Strategic Publishing Group) Whether you are suffering from depression, trying to help someone, or just looking for your place in the world, the author offers guidance on how to live a happy, productive life. The author concentrates on the areas of self, nature, others and God, and he offers 50 years of experience in the social service, mental health and criminal justice fields.
Everybody for Everybody, Samuel A. Nigro, M.D.’58 (Xlibris Corporation). The author shows readers how to infuse life with love, achieve a religious understanding of the physical world and avoid cultural distractions. The two volumes include quotes about morality from centuries of intellectuals.
Donegal, Irish Justice, James Lower ’71 (Little Miami Publishing) Like the famous rivalry between Notre Dame students and the Ku Klux Klan, Lower’s historical novel portrays a clash between an Irish Catholic family and the Klan in 1920s northern Indiana. The story draws from a family legend, and its themes include religious beliefs, family issues and struggles in business.
365 Powerful Ways to Influence, Donald W. Hendon (Pelican Publishing Company). Hendon provides several tactics for influencing people in tough situations, from business negotiations to family compromises, and explains how to overcome obstacles such as stress and manipulation. The author attended Notre Dame from 1958-1961.