Seeing Mexico Photographed (2008, Yale University Press) by Leonard Folgarait, professor of history of art. During the years 1910–35, Mexico underwent changes brought on by the Mexican Revolution and the forging of a new nation and government. Folgarait’s book looks at the photographs of four historically engaged artists—American Walter H. Horne, Italian Tina Modotti, and Mexicans Agustín Victor Casasola and Manuel Álvarez Bravo—to explain what they reveal about this dramatic revolutionary and post-revolutionary period.
Jane Austen Ruined My Life (2009, Guideposts) by Beth Pattillo, MDiv’90. A prolific writer of letters, Jane Austen purportedly wrote 3,000, but only 160 are known today. Austen’s sister Cassandra supposedly destroyed the remaining letters at the time of her death—but why? What secrets did Jane Austen have to hide? Pattillo’s main character, Emma, takes readers on a quest across England to uncover the missing letters. As she reads Austen’s innermost thoughts, she begins to understand how Austen’s struggles mirror her own.
Billy Graham and the Rise of the Republican South (2009, University of Pennsylvania Press) by Steven P. Miller, MA’02, PhD’06. Miller’s book considers the critical but underappreciated role of the noted evangelist in the creation of the modern American South. As the region experienced the end of both legalized Jim Crow and Democratic Party dominance, Graham served as a powerful symbol in this transition—an evangelist first and foremost, but also a profoundly political figure. Miller shows that Graham influenced many of the developments that drove celebrants and detractors alike to place the South at the vanguard of political, religious and cultural trends.
The Great Dog Wash (2009, Simon and Schuster) by Michelle (Shellie) Braeuner, MEd’90. Dogs of all kinds are invited to the zaniest dog wash in town—but did someone bring a cat? Braeuner’s playful rhymes and Robert Neubecker’s lively illustrations make this dog wash memorable. The book, which won a contest sponsored by Cheerios, was packaged with 1.5 million boxes of the cereal while also being published by Simon and Schuster.