From Superpower to Besieged Global Power
Edited by Roger E. Kanet and Edward A. Kolodziej
UGA Press, in collaboration with UGA's Center for International Trade and Security and Department of International Affairs, have created a new book series, "Studies in Security and International Affairs." The series grows out of the creation of the University of Georgia's new School of Public and International Affairs, the establishment of a new Department of International Affairs and the continued growth of the Center for International Trade and Security and related programs. Series editors, Gary Bertsch and Howard Wiarda are seeking scholarship on pressing challenges of the twenty-first century.
The first book in this new series is, "From Superpower to Beseiged Global Power: Restoring World Order after the Failure of the Bush Doctrine." Essays in this volume argue that the Bush Doctrine, as outlined in the September 2002 National Security Strategy of the United States, squandered enormous military and economic resources, diminished American power and undermined America's moral reputation as a defender of democratic values and human rights.
Leading scholars and policy analysts assess the impact of the Bush Doctrine on world order, explain how the United States reached its current low standing internationally and propose ways that the country can repair damage wrought by ill-conceived and incompetently executed security and foreign policies.
The contributors agree that future security and foreign policies must be informed by the limitations of U.S. economic, cultural, and military power to shape world order to reflect American interests and values. American power and influence will increase only when the United States binds itself to moral norms, legal strictures, and political accords in cooperation with other like-minded states and peoples.
Blood Ties & Brown Liquor
Poems by Sean Hill
Sean Hill graduated with a Masters degree in English from UGA in 1998. During his days at UGA he helped edit the student publication, “Mandala” and his major area of study was creative writing. He went on to earn his Master’s in Fine Arts degree in poetry and is currently at Stanford University under a Stegner Fellowship.
Hill's debut collection, “Blood Ties & Brown Liquor”, imaginative in the characters it invents and in the formal literary traditions it juxtaposes, is nevertheless firmly rooted in Hill's hometown of Milledgeville, Ga., which he transforms into a poetic landscape that can accommodate the scope of his vision of collective and personal history. The poems create a call and response across six generations of family of the fictional Silas Wright, a black man born in 1907. As Hill takes on the voices and experiences of diverse characters in or connected to the Wright family, these individual glimpses add up to an intimate portrait of Milledgeville's black community across two centuries as it responds to stirring events both public and private.
From a slave woman's scratchy hay-stuffed mattress to a black insurance agent's sinister patter, from sweet honey to the searing heat of brickyard kilns, the poems make vivid the sensuous details of quotidian lives punctuated by love and violence. From pantoum to haiku, from high-toned lyricism to low-down blues, Hill uses language in all its many incarnations to speak deeply about both southern identity and African American community.
Winners Have Yet to Be Announced
Poems by Ed Pavlic
UGA Press is pleased to be working with Ed Pavlic, newly appointed director of the MFA/PhD program in creative writing at UGA, on his new book. This moving collection of prose poems about seventies soul singer Donny Hathaway presents a complex view of a gifted artist through imagined conversations and interviews that convey the voices, surroundings, and clashing dimensions of Hathaway's life.
Among mainstream audiences Hathaway is perhaps best known either as the syrupy voice singing with Roberta Flack in "Where Is the Love" or for his shocking death--he was found dead beneath the open thirteenth-story window of his New York hotel room in 1979 at the age of thirty-three. Less well known are the depth of his classical and gospel training, his wide-ranging intellectual interests, and the respect his musical knowledge, talent, and versatility commanded from collaborators like Curtis Mayfield and Aretha Franklin. Meanwhile, among listeners with special affinity for soul music of the 1970s, even almost thirty years after his death, no voice burns with the intensity of Hathaway's own in the great solo ballads and freedom songs such as "A Song for You," "Giving Up," "Someday We'll All Be Free," and "To Be Young, Gifted, and Black."
"Winners Have Yet to Be Announced" pushes poetry toward the rich characterization and depth of a novel. Noted cultural critic Michael Eric Dyson has said of the book, "To capture the monumental paradoxes and prismatic genius of Donny Hathaway, one must have an epic imagination and a sense of language that flames in poetry toward transcendent truth. Ed Pavlic rises to the task admirably." Yet it is the capacity of poetic language that allows the book to examine Donny Hathaway's vivid and remarkable life without attempting to resolve the mysteries within which he lived and created and sang.
A Little Salvation: Poems Old and New
Judson Mitcham
This new collection from acclaimed novelist and poet Judson Mitcham features poems from the last 25 years, including 40 new works and poems from his previously published collections, "Somewhere in Ecclesiastes" (1991) and "This April Day" (2003). Wise, witty, and deceptively plainspoken, Mitcham's poems show how the moments that truly save us - that make us human - are necessarily the most fleeting. It is up to us, he reminds us, to create meaning from those moments, and in doing so to create our own salvation.
Mitcham received his A.B., M.S., and Ph.D. from UGA in psychology and went on to teach at Fort Valley State University for 30 years. The transitory nature of human experience is both the boon and the bane of the existence of the speakers in these poems, and every poem seems to recognize its own temporality, trying to find meaning rather than a definitive answer to the questions it raises. The tone of these poems combines a strong sense of humor with a pervasive feeling of loss, both celebrating and mourning that "a true note is still so hard to hit." These voices revel in the human condition even as they are often saddened by it.
While Mitcham's background and settings are distinctly southern, his interests extend far beyond the regional. He intimately understands the problems and the people of the South but recognizes that these are, above all, human problems and human beings. His poems evoke Flannery O'Connor, Otis Redding, the Bible, and the Baptist Church, but they also respond to Walt Whitman, Wallace Stevens, and the death of Jacques Derrida. Here is one of Georgia's best living poets of whom Fred Chappell has said, "Every line he writes is as truthful as brook water."
Peachtree Creek: A Natural and Unnatural History of Atlanta's Watershed
David R. Kaufman
In 1990 David Kaufman decided to explore Peachtree Creek from its headwaters to its confluence with the Chattahoochee River. For thirteen years he paddled the creek, photographed it, and researched its history as the Atlanta area's major watershed. The result is Peachtree Creek, a compelling mix of urban travelogue, local history, and call for conservation. Historical images and Kaufman's evocative color photographs help capture the creek's many faces, past and present.
Most Atlantans only glimpse Peachtree Creek briefly, as they pass over it on their daily commute, if at all. Looking down on the creek from Piedmont or Peachtree Roads, few contemplate how it courses through the city, where it originates and flows to. Fewer still - many fewer - would consider paddling down it, with its pollution and flash floods.
Through his expeditions down Peachtree Creek Kaufman takes readers through such places as Piedmont and Chastain Parks, which, aside from the polluted water, are beautiful, even bucolic. Other stretches of creek, like those draining Midtown and Atlantic Station, are channeled into massive culverts and choked with discarded waste from the city. One day, floating past the Bobby Jones Golf Course, he surprises a golfer searching for his stray ball along the creek bank; another he spends talking to a homeless man living under a bridge near Buckhead.
Kaufman reveals fascinating aspects of Atlanta by examining how Peachtree Creek shaped and was shaped by the history of the area. Street names like Moore's Mill Road and Howell Mill Road take on new meaning. He explains the dynamics of water run off that cause the creek to go from a trickle to a torrent in a matter of hours. Kaufman asks how a waterway that was once people's source of water, power, and livelihood became, at its worst, an open sewer and flooding hazard. Portraying some of our worst mishandling of the environment, Kaufman suggests ways to a more sustainable stewardship of Peachtree Creek.
Prophet from Plains: Jimmy Carter and His Legacy
Frye Gaillard
Foreword by David C. Carter
"Prophet from Plains" covers Nobel Peace Prize winner Jimmy Carter's major achievements and setbacks in light of what has been at once his greatest asset and his greatest flaw: his stubborn, faith-driven integrity. Carter's remarkable post-presidency is still in the making; however, he has already redefined the role for all who follow him. Frye Gaillard, who wrote extensively about Carter at the Charlotte Observer, was among the first to take the Carter post-presidency seriously and to challenge many accepted conclusions about Carter's term in office. "Carter was not an irresolute president," says Gaillard, "but rather one so certain of his own rectitude that he misjudged the importance of 'selling' himself to America." Ranging across the highs and lows of the Carter presidency, Gaillard covers the energy crisis, the Iran hostage situation, the Camp David Accords, the Panama Canal and other treaties, and the new diplomatic emphasis on human rights.
Creation Evolution Debate: Historical Perspectives
Edward J. Larson
Few issues besides evolution have so strained Americans' professed tradition of tolerance. Few historians besides Edward J. Larson have so perceptively chronicled evolution's divisive presence on the American scene. His many books include Summer for the Gods, winner of the 1998 Pulitzer Prize in History. This slim volume reviews the key aspects, current and historical, of the creation-evolution debate in the United States.
Larson, who has taught at UGA for twenty years, discusses such topics as the transatlantic response to Darwinism, the American controversy over teaching evolution in public schools, and the religious views of American scientists. He recalls the theological qualms about evolution held by some leading scientists of Darwin's time. He looks at the 2006 Dover, Pennsylvania, court decision on teaching Intelligent Design and other cases leading back to the landmark 1925 Scopes trial. Drawing on surveys that Larson conducted, he discusses attitudes of American scientists toward the existence of God and the afterlife.
A Field Guide to the Rare Plants of Georgia
by Linda G. Chafin
Featuring photographs by Hugh and Carol Nourse
Illustrations by Jean C. Putnam Hancock
As a botanist at The State Botanical Garden of Georgia, Linda Chafin conducted rare plant surveys throughout the Southeast for this book. Published by the Botanical Garden in association with The Georgia Plant Conservation Alliance, it is abundantly illustrated with more than 400 color photographs and 200 detailed drawings, offering a comprehensive guide to the state's rare and endangered plants. More than 200 species are covered, including two dozen that are federally listed and 170-plus that are listed as Threatened, Endangered, Rare, or of Special Concern by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.
The guide is designed for easy, nontechnical identification of species in the field. Color photographs show the plants in their natural surroundings, and drawings emphasize the most distinctive parts of the plants. Packed with information about the plants as well as their habitats and management, the guide facilitates the quick recognition of rare species, encourages awareness of their distribution and ecological significance, and provides guidelines for ensuring their survival. The guide also includes a chapter by Jennifer Ceska and University of Georgia horticulture professor James Affolter, founding members of the Georgia Plant Conservation Alliance, on horticultural requirements of rare species and the role of GPCA in their protection.
For more information and/or to purchase this book, click here.
Democracy Restored: A History of the
Georgia State Capitol
by Timothy J. Crimmins and
Anne H. Farrisee
This stunning, fully illustrated history of the Georgia Capitol not only pays tribute to a grand old edifice but also vividly recounts the history that was made - and that continues to be made - within and without its walls. The Georgia Capitol is a place where, for more than a century, legislators have debated, governors have proclaimed, and courts have ruled. It is also a place where countless ordinary citizens have gathered in lively tour groups, angry protest mobs, and at times solemn funeral processions.
As Timothy J. Crimmins and Anne H. Farrisee move through the major periods in the Capitol's history, they tell three interwoven stories. One is a tale of the building itself, its predecessors, its design and construction, its occasionally ill-considered renovations, and the magnificent, decade-long restoration begun in 1996. Also revealed is how the gradual accumulation of statues, flags, portraits, and civic rituals and pageants has added new layers of meaning to an already symbolic structure. The third story the authors tell is of the legislative and judicial battles that sought to limit or extend democratic freedoms. Some of these events were high drama: fisticuffs during a prohibition debate, Eugene Talmadge's strong-arm eviction of the state treasurer from the statehouse, the Three Governors Controversy, and an African American protest in the segregated cafeteria.
From the laying of the cornerstone in 1885 to the present, successive generations of Georgians have created a distinctive history in and around the Capitol as they have exercised, or sought to gain, their rights. Today the Georgia Capitol remains a working center of state government, and its history continues to unfold.
Advance Praise for the book:
"Our State Capitol has been the scene of some of the most significant developments in Georgia's past, and Crimmins and Farrisee have seamlessly woven into the building's history the many political and social dramas enacted in and around its hallowed halls. As rich historically as it is stunning visually, it is hard to imagine another state capitol history that succeeds as well on both fronts."
- John C. Inscoe, editor of the New Georgia Encyclopedia
About the Authors and Photographer
Timothy J. Crimmins is a professor of history and director of the Center for Neighborhood and Metropolitan Studies at Georgia State University. Among other preservation-related pursuits, he has served as chair of the Commission on the Preservation of the Georgia Capitol. Anne H. Farrisee is director of Easements Atlanta, Inc., and historian for the Georgia State Capitol. She is also a former executive director of the Atlanta Preservation Center. Diane Kirkland is the former senior photographer for the Georgia Department of Economic Development, where she worked for twenty-five years. Her work has appeared in national and international publications, including the New York Times, Forbes, Time, USA Today, American Heritage, and Southern Living.
The New Georgia Encyclopedia Companion to
Georgia Literature
Hugh Ruppersburg, Volume Editor
John C. Insoce, General Editor
Georgia has played a formative role in the writing of America. Few states have produced a more impressive array of literary figures, among them Conrad Aiken, Erskine Caldwell, James Dickey, Joel Chandler Harris, Carson McCullers, Flannery O'Connor, Jean Toomer, and Alice Walker.
"The New Georgia Encyclopedia Companion to Georgia Literature" contains biographical and critical discussions of Georgia writers from the nineteenth century to the present as well as other information pertinent to Georgia literature. Organized in alphabetical order by author, the entries discuss each author's life and work, contributions to Georgia history and culture, and relevance to wider currents in regional and national literature. Lists of recommended readings supplement most entries. Especially important books have their own entries, such as Lillian Smith's "Strange Fruit," Margaret Mitchell's "Gone With the Wind," and Jean Toomer's "Cane." This is an essential volume for readers who want both to celebrate and learn more about Georgia's literary heritage.
This is the first book to evolve out of the New Georgia Encyclopedia, the highly acclaimed online encyclopedia. The book is edited by Hugh Ruppersburg, Senior Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences at UGA, who was also the literature section editor for NGE. It is published in association with the Georgia Humanities Council and the University System of Georgia/GALILEO.
Georgia Quilts: Piecing Together A History
This abundantly illustrated book arises out of the painstaking work of the Georgia Quilt Project, the most authoritative survey of quilts ever undertaken in the state. Georgia Quilts: Piecing Together a History showcases the diversity of quilting materials, methods, and patterns used from the nineteenth century to the present and reveals how quilts serve as conduits of history and culture. From plain bed coverings of fabric scraps to exquisitely wrought pieces made for the "best bed," each of the 120 examples featured tells its own story of abundance or want, peace or war, tradition or novelty.
The Georgia Quilt Project, beginning in 1990, has documented more than 9,000 quilts. Volunteers conducted dozens of Quilt History Days around the state, interviewing quilt owners and examining and photographing their quilts. The 120 quilts included in this book have been chosen from the thousands seen by the Project. Some are notable for their beauty, rarity, or workmanship; others are simple, functional objects that have been cherished for their ties to family history. All have their own stories to tell about family, community, and the desire to leave something tangible behind.
"Better than fiction and more compelling than any history book, Georgia Quilts is a unique account of this state's rich heritage," said Merikay Waldvogel, noted author of numerous quilt books. "Georgia Quilts is spectacular, with revealing stories and fine research."
$34.95 paperback and $54.95 cloth editions are available, 200 color and 65 B&W photographs. A Wormsloe Foundation Publication. For more information on this book visit www.ugapress.org.
