Penn Press Log

'Progressive America' Bloggers Make Unconventional Observations

The blogging contributors to In Search of Progressive America, edited by Michael Kazin, took on the Democratic National Convention last week. This week it's the Republican Party's turn. Read what these contributors have to say about the political conventions and more on the following weblogs:

Todd Gitlin
tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/profile/tgitlin

Erza Klein
tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/profile/ezraklein

Matthew Yglesias
yglesias.thinkprogress.org

Meanwhile, In Search of Progressive America contributor Dean Baker continues to monitor economic reporting at his blog, Beat the Press.

Brides, Inc.--Now in Paperback

Brides, Inc.: American Weddings and the Business of Tradition
Vicki Howard
320 pages | 6 x 9 | 50 illus.
Cloth 2006 | ISBN 978-0-8122-3945-4 | $34.95 | £23.00
Paper 2008 | ISBN 978-0-8122-2045-2 | $19.95 | £13.00

"A fascinating read that has much to offer historians of business, labor, and culture--not to mention anthropologists and specialists in gender and cultural studies. 'Marrying' the symbolic concerns of new cultural history with the material concerns of business history is one of the book's considerable strengths."--American Historical Review

Read more . . .

Book reviewers: to request a press copy, contact Ellen Trachtenberg.
Educators: to request an exam copy for course use consideration, click here.

Reparations to Africa -- Now Available

Reparations to Africa
Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann. With Anthony P. Lombardo
264 pages | 6 x 9
Cloth 2008 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4101-3 | $49.95 | £32.50
A volume in the Pennsylvania Studies in Human Rights series

Given the long history of European and American mistreatment of Africa, what is the just measure of Western obligations to the peoples of this continent? The author analyzes the arguments for reparations from multiple disciplinary perspectives, and suggests alternative means to restorative justice. Read more . . .

Book reviewers: to request a press copy, contact ellenpt@upenn.edu.
Educators: to request an exam copy for course use consideration, click here

Chambers's Book is Choice Editors's Pick

Choice Reviews Online includes Madison Avenue and the Color Line: African Americans in the Advertising Industry by Jason Chambers among its Editors's Picks for July, calling the book  "a cogent analysis of an important aspect of race relations in the U. S."

Gordon's Book 'Does the best job,' says St. Louis Regional Planner

Les Sterman, Executive Director of the East-West Gateway Council of Governments, the regional planning organization for the Greater St. Louis area, had kind words for the work of historian Colin Gordon.

"We had this guy, Colin Gordon (author of Mapping Decline: St. Louis and the Fate of the American City) in. His book probably does the best job of explaining how we got where we are today. It's a history of racial discrimination and other factors. It runs pretty deep. It's the reason we look the way we do." said Sterman in an interview with St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Repps Hudson. Gordon had given a special presentation at the East-West Gateway Council of Governments earlier this month.

The complete Sterman interview, which appeared in the June 27 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, is online at STLtoday.com.

The Business of Sports Agents, 2e--Now Available

The Business of Sports Agents
Kenneth L. Shropshire and Timothy Davis
Second Edition
232 pages | 6 x 9
Cloth 2008 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4084-9 | $29.95 | £19.50

Kenneth L. Shropshire and Timothy Davis, experts in the fields of sports business and law, examine the history of the sports agent business and the rules and laws developed to regulate the profession and consider recommendations for reform.

Read more . . .

Book reviewers: to request a press copy, contact Ellen Trachtenberg.
Educators: to request an exam copy for course use consideration, click here.

Negro League Baseball--Now in Paperback

Negro League Baseball: The Rise and Ruin of a Black Institution
Neil Lanctot
512 pages | 6 1/8 x 9 1/4 | 31 illus.
Cloth 2004 | ISBN 978-0-8122-3807-5 | $37.95 | £25.00
Paper 2008 | ISBN 978-0-8122-2027-8 | $19.95 | £13.00

Winner of the 2005 Seymour Medal of the Society for American Baseball
Research

"Prodigiously researched and thoroughly unsentimental, Neil Lanctot's history of organized black baseball from 1933 through the early 1960s provides an enormously important historical corrective to feel-good versions of baseball integration."--New York Times

Read more . . .

Book reviewers: to request a press copy, contact Ellen Trachtenberg.
Educators: to request an exam copy for course use consideration, click here.

Blaszczyk Receives BHC Award

Regina Lee Blaszczyk, editor of Producing Fashion: Commerce, Culture, and Consumers, received the Harold F. Williamson Prize from the Business History Conference. The award, which honors mid-career scholars who have "made significant contributions to the teaching and writing of business history," was presented to Blaszczyk at this year's BHC meeting in Sacramento, California.

Ad Age Reviews Madison Avenue and the Color Line

A review of Jason Chambers's Madison Avenue and the Color Line appears in this week's The Big Tent section of Advertising Age. "The book offers perspective for those entering the industry as well as those that don't understand what all of the fuss is about," writes Big Tent columnist Carol Watson.

Fashion from the Runway to the Highway

A recent Wall Street Journal article connects New York's Fashion Week to Detroit and Bavarian automakers. Today, car companies are sponsoring  Fashion Week and the hit reality show Project Runway. Although General Motors and BMW may be reaching for hipness with these fashion connections, the ties between the fashion industry and the automobile industry are nothing new.

"Collaborations between the two industries date back to the 1920s when General Motors hired colorists to help them cater to female consumers, who early market research had determined were making purchasing decisions for products ranging from cars to Victrola record players, according to historian Regina Blaszczyk."

Regina Lee Blaszczyk offers a deeper understanding of the relationship between business and style in Producing Fashion: Commerce, Culture, and Consumers.