Social groups: religious groups and communities Books

Book SynopsisHistorian Robin Judd, whose grandmother survived the Holocaust and married an American soldier after liberation, introduces us to the Jewish women who lived through genocide and went on to wed American, Canadian, and British military personnel after the war.Trade ReviewA fresh perspective on the aftermath of trauma . . . . Drawing on rich archival sources, historian Judd makes her book debut with a sensitive, well-researched history of marriages between survivors of the Holocaust and American, British, and Canadian military personnel . . . . Judd's stories of "loss, recovery, power, and unbelonging" stand as testimony to the triumph of survival."—Kirkus Reviews

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Book SynopsisThe critically acclaimed author of A Blessing on the Moon, The English Disease, and A Curable Romantic explores stories from the Talmud, one of the most sacred Jewish texts, to discover the modern wisdom in these ancient tales.Trade Review"Skibell's work is lucid and erudite, and he does honor to his subject matter...A fresh look at an ancient source." * Kirkus *". . . highly readable, and deeply thought-provoking...he presents the Talmud’s treatment of its own authors as both role models and warnings, a remarkably self-reflective approach that is needed today perhaps more than ever." * Jewish Book Council *Table of Contents A Note on the Title Acknowledgments A Novelist Reads the Talmud: An Introduction Timeline of Relevant Events, According to Rabbinic Tradition Memo One. Rabbi Yohanan and Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish Chapter 1. Eros and Alchemy in the Waters of the Jordan Memo Two. Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai Chapter 2. Turning the Hearts of Fathers Memo Three A, B, and C. Rabbi Elazar ben Rabbi Shimon, Rabbi Pinhas ben Yair, and Rabbi Judah ben Gerim Chapter 3. Towards the Hearts of Sons Memo Four. Rabban Gamliel II of Yavneh, Rabbi Joshua ben Hananiah, and Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus Chapter 4. The Gate of a Broken Heart Memo Five. Rabbi Akiva, Shimon ben Azzai, Shimon ben Zoma, and Elisha ben Avuyah Chapter 5. Revelation, Retribution, Perdition, Ecstasy, and Bliss: An Epic Canvas Endnotes Glossary

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Book SynopsisThe first study of its kind, Directed by God analyzes several representations of Jewish religiosity in Israeli film and television that challenge secular Zionism in contemporary Israeli society.Table of Contents Preface and Acknowledgments A Note on Transliteration Introduction Chapter 1. Jewish and Human: Images of Orthodox Jews Chapter 2. Jewish and Israeli: Images of Mizrahi Jews Chapter 3. Jewish and Fanatic: Images of Religious Zionists Chapter 4. Jewish and Popular: Images of Religion on TV Afterword Notes Bibliography Filmography Index

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Book SynopsisThe first study of its kind, Directed by God analyzes several representations of Jewish religiosity in Israeli film and television that challenge secular Zionism in contemporary Israeli society.Table of Contents Preface and Acknowledgments A Note on Transliteration Introduction Chapter 1. Jewish and Human: Images of Orthodox Jews Chapter 2. Jewish and Israeli: Images of Mizrahi Jews Chapter 3. Jewish and Fanatic: Images of Religious Zionists Chapter 4. Jewish and Popular: Images of Religion on TV Afterword Notes Bibliography Filmography Index

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Book SynopsisExplicating one of the most potent and recurring mass-culture fantasies, this book explores Jewish-Christian couplings across a century of popular American literature, theater, film, and television.Trade ReviewEssential. This richly detailed book on interfaith relationships—specifically between Jews and Christians—fills a real gap in cinema studies. . . Though the title of the book is a play on the 1989 romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally, Moss examines a truly encyclopedic series of texts, both filmic and literary, and dives deep into the subject, offering dazzling insights on nearly every page. * Choice *Moss’s argument is a refreshing break from the jeremiads that often accompany analyses of the representation of Jews in popular culture. . . the [questions] addressed by Moss in this work are both interesting and of value to Jews, non-Jews, and students of American Judaism and American religion more broadly conceived. * Reading Religion *Moss has accomplished a tour de force, and his coupling theory is worth the extended consideration he hopes it will receive…His work will be of interest to media studies, Jewish studies and American studies, to name just a few relevant areas. * Journal for Religion, Film and Media *[An] extensive, multigenerational, multidisciplinary survey of Jewish-Christian couplings...Why Harry Met Sally makes an important contribution to film and television history and is a valuable resource insofar as it points to just about every significant American film, Broadway show, and television show engaging the themes of Christian-Jewish coupling and links them to a broader literary history of this theme. * Jewish Historical Studies *Rich and engrossing…Moss's prodigious and impressive scholarship contributes an extremely important addition to the canon of academic writing on romantic comedy. * Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television *Moss's infusion of 'coupling theory' into the way interfaith relationships are both presented in popular media and read by audiences is nothing short of brilliant, and should be a methodological tool that all scholars in these fields immediately take up...a must-read for many scholars. * Studies in American Jewish Literature *Table of Contents Acknowledgments Introduction. Sally’s Orgasm Part One. The First Wave: The Mouse-Mountains of Modernity (1905–1934) Chapter 1. Disraeli’s Page: Performative Jewishness in the Public Sphere Chapter 2. Kafka’s Ape: Literary Modernism, Jewish Animality, and the Crisis of the New Cosmopolitanism Chapter 3. Abie’s Irish Rose: Immigrant Couplings, Utopian Multiculturalism, and the Early American Film Industry Part Two. The Second Wave: Erotic Schlemiels of the Counterculture (1967–1980) Chapter 4. Benjamin’s Cross: Israel, New Hollywood, and the Jewish Transgressive (1947–1967) Chapter 5. Portnoy’s Monkey: Postwar Literature, Stand-Up Comedy, and the Emergence of the Carnal Jew (1955–1969) Chapter 6. Katie’s Typewriter: Hollywood Romance, Historical Rewrite, and the Subversive Sexuality of the Counterculture Part Three. The Third Wave: Global Fockers at the Millennium (1993–2007) Chapter 7. Spiegelman’s Frog: Coded Jewish Metamorph and Christian Witnessing (1978–1992) Chapter 8. Seinfeld’s Mailman: Global Television and the Wandering Sitcom (1993–2000) Chapter 9. Gaylord’s Tulip: Fluid and Fluidity at the Millennium (1993–2008) Conclusion. Plato’s Retweet Notes Selected Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisJews have always played an important role in the generation of culture in Latin America, despite their relatively small numbers in the overall population. In the early days of cinema, they served as directors, producers, screenwriters, composers, and broadcasters. As Latin American societies became more religiously open in the later twentieth century, Jewish characters and themes began appearing in Latin American films and eventually achieved full inclusion. Landmark films by Jewish directors in Argentina, Mexico, and Brazil, which are home to the largest and most influential Jewish communities in Latin America, have enjoyed critical and popular acclaim.Evolving Images is the first volume devoted to Jewish Latin American cinema, with fifteen critical essays by leading scholars from Latin America, the United States, Europe, and Israel. The contributors address transnational and transcultural issues of Jewish life in Latin America, such as assimilation, integration, idenTrade Review[A] superb collection of essays…All too often we find a statement such as 'this is a 'must book' for all those interested in…' In considering Evolving Images it is warranted, for it points to an equally evolving academic enterprise within Latin American-Jewish studies. * Review: Literature and Arts of the Americas *A welcome addition to the English-language literature on Jewish themes in Latin American cinema...highly readable...Glickman and Huberman should be congratulated for putting together a fine collection of essays on the inadequately studied topic of Jewish presence in Latin American cinema. * Jewish Film and New Media *The editors are to be commended for creating a structure that gives insight into specific aspects of Jewish lives and how these are visually depicted in Latin American countries...Evolving Images is essential reading for anyone seeking to gain insight into Jewish filmmaking in Latin American countries. Those studying or wishing to learn more about how Jewish motives and themes are treated in Latin American film and cinema will find this edited anthology highly informative and engaging. Everyone interested in the depiction of religion, heritage and/or cultural identities on film might also be interested in the collection. * Popular Culture Studies Journal *Table of Contents Introduction. Evolving Images: Jewish Latin American Cinema (Nora Glickman and Ariana Huberman) Part I. Alternative Identities 1. Out of the Shadows: María Victoria Menis’s Camera Obscura (Graciela Michelotti) 2. Intercultural Dilemmas: Performing Jewish Identities in Contemporary Mexican Cinema (Elissa J. Rashkin) 3. Incidental Jewishness in the Films of Fabián Bielinsky (Amy Kaminsky) Part II. Memory and Violence 4. My German Friend and the Jewish Argentine/German “Mnemo-Historic“ Context (Daniela Goldfine) 5. Dispersed Friendships: Jeanine Meerapfel’s La amiga (Patricia Nuriel) 6. Revisiting the AMIA Bombing in Marcos Carnevale’s Anita (Mirna Vohnsen) Part III. New Themes 7. The Year My Parents Went on Vacation: A Jewish Journey in the Land of Soccer (Alejandro Meter) 8. Coming of Age in Two Films from Argentina and Uruguay (Carolina Rocha) 9. Waiting for the Messiah: The Super 8mm Films of Alberto Salomón (Ernesto Livon-Grosman) Part IV. Diasporas and Displacements 10. Geographic Isolation and Jewish Religious Revival in Front (Ariana Huberman) 11. Negotiating Jewish and Palestinian Identities in Latin American Cinema (Tzvi Tal) 12. From a Dream to Reality: Representations of Israel in Contemporary Jewish Latin American Film (Amalia Ran) 13. On Becoming a Movie (Ilan Stavans) Part V. Comparative Perspectives: North and South American Cinema 14. Jewish Urban Space in the Films of Daniel Burman and Woody Allen (Jerry Carlson) 15. Interfaith Relations between Jews and Gentiles in Argentine and US Cinema (Nora Glickman) Afterword. Film Studies, Jewish Studies, Latin American Studies (Naomi Lindstrom) Jewish Latin American Filmography Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisWith critical essays by leading scholars from Latin America, the United States, Europe, and Israel, this is the first volume devoted to Jewish filmmaking and films with Jewish themes and characters in Latin America.Trade Review[A] superb collection of essays…All too often we find a statement such as 'this is a 'must book' for all those interested in…' In considering Evolving Images it is warranted, for it points to an equally evolving academic enterprise within Latin American-Jewish studies. * Review: Literature and Arts of the Americas *A welcome addition to the English-language literature on Jewish themes in Latin American cinema...highly readable...Glickman and Huberman should be congratulated for putting together a fine collection of essays on the inadequately studied topic of Jewish presence in Latin American cinema. * Jewish Film and New Media *The editors are to be commended for creating a structure that gives insight into specific aspects of Jewish lives and how these are visually depicted in Latin American countries...Evolving Images is essential reading for anyone seeking to gain insight into Jewish filmmaking in Latin American countries. Those studying or wishing to learn more about how Jewish motives and themes are treated in Latin American film and cinema will find this edited anthology highly informative and engaging. Everyone interested in the depiction of religion, heritage and/or cultural identities on film might also be interested in the collection. * Popular Culture Studies Journal *Table of Contents Introduction. Evolving Images: Jewish Latin American Cinema (Nora Glickman and Ariana Huberman) Part I. Alternative Identities 1. Out of the Shadows: María Victoria Menis’s Camera Obscura (Graciela Michelotti) 2. Intercultural Dilemmas: Performing Jewish Identities in Contemporary Mexican Cinema (Elissa J. Rashkin) 3. Incidental Jewishness in the Films of Fabián Bielinsky (Amy Kaminsky) Part II. Memory and Violence 4. My German Friend and the Jewish Argentine/German “Mnemo-Historic“ Context (Daniela Goldfine) 5. Dispersed Friendships: Jeanine Meerapfel’s La amiga (Patricia Nuriel) 6. Revisiting the AMIA Bombing in Marcos Carnevale’s Anita (Mirna Vohnsen) Part III. New Themes 7. The Year My Parents Went on Vacation: A Jewish Journey in the Land of Soccer (Alejandro Meter) 8. Coming of Age in Two Films from Argentina and Uruguay (Carolina Rocha) 9. Waiting for the Messiah: The Super 8mm Films of Alberto Salomón (Ernesto Livon-Grosman) Part IV. Diasporas and Displacements 10. Geographic Isolation and Jewish Religious Revival in Front (Ariana Huberman) 11. Negotiating Jewish and Palestinian Identities in Latin American Cinema (Tzvi Tal) 12. From a Dream to Reality: Representations of Israel in Contemporary Jewish Latin American Film (Amalia Ran) 13. On Becoming a Movie (Ilan Stavans) Part V. Comparative Perspectives: North and South American Cinema 14. Jewish Urban Space in the Films of Daniel Burman and Woody Allen (Jerry Carlson) 15. Interfaith Relations between Jews and Gentiles in Argentine and US Cinema (Nora Glickman) Afterword. Film Studies, Jewish Studies, Latin American Studies (Naomi Lindstrom) Jewish Latin American Filmography Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisEmbracing a new religion, or leaving one’s faith, usually constitutes a significant milestone in a person’s life. While a number of scholars have examined the reasons why people convert to Islam, few have investigated why people leave the faith and what the consequences are for doing so. Taking a holistic approach to conversion and deconversion, Moving In and Out of Islam explores the experiences of people who have come into the faith along with those who have chosen to leave it—including some individuals who have both moved into and out of Islam over the course of their lives.Sixteen empirical case studies trace the processes of moving in or out of Islam in Western and Central Europe, the United States, Canada, and the Middle East. Going beyond fixed notions of conversion or apostasy, the contributors focus on the ambiguity, doubts, and nonlinear trajectories of both moving in and out of Islam. They show how people shifting in either direction have tTrade ReviewHighlighting the 'powerful intertwinement of religion, politics, and morality' (to quote the editor) in Islam, this collection will help readers understand and appreciate the complex dimensions of the processes of moving in and out of Islam. * CHOICE *There is much room for reflection and learning within this engaging text. Van Nieuwkerk is to be commended for collating a comprehensive guide to the subject, and presenting this from so many previously under researched perspectives. This is a valuable contribution to existing literature on adopting and rejecting Islam. * The Muslim World Book Review *[A] fascinating collection…Moving In and Out of Islam represents a valuable contribution to the scholarly discourse on contemporary conversion to, and deconversion from, Islam…this volume as a whole invites imitation: what it does for the study of Muslim conversions and deconversion in Europe and the Middle East underscores the need for similar work focusing on moving in and out of Islam in the North American context. * Journal of Contemporary Religion *The contributors [to Moving In and Out of Islam] provide detailed examples and narratives of people converting from different backgrounds including from and within the Middle East, Europe, and the United States. Through the evidence they assemble, the contributors seek to identify the struggles and consequences the converts face in a time of increasing politicization and radicalization of Islam. * Middle East Journal *[A] timely volume…uniquely powerful in its field...This volume is a useful resource for students, lecturers and researchers interested in religious transformation, Islam and Muslims in Europe, non-religion, and Islamic studies in general. The breadth and depth of the assembled contributions make this a benchmark for studies of (de)conversion and Islam in Europe and beyond. * Journal of Muslims in Europe *van Nieuwkerk has selected an interesting range of contributors who speak to the varied nature of 'moving in' and 'moving out' processes, which illustrates that these concepts are not fixed in how they are defined, experienced, and discussed in scholarly research...Moreover, the book fills an important gap by including non-belief and moving out of Islam to the academic study of religious transformation processes amongst Muslims. This volume is of relevance to anyone interested in looking beyond the motivations for religious conversion to Islam and gaining a deeper insight into religious change over the course of people's lives. * Reading Religion *Table of Contents Introduction: Moving In and Out of Islam (Karin van Nieuwkerk) Section I. Conceptualizing Religious Change 1. People Do Not Convert but Change: Critical Analysis of Concepts of Spiritual Transitions (William Barylo) 2. Moving In or Moving Toward? Reconceptualizing Conversion to Islam as a Liminal Process (Juliette Galonnier) 3. Understanding Religious Apostasy, Disaffiliation, and Islam in Contemporary Sweden (Daniel Enstedt) Section II. (De)conversion, Race, Culture, and Ethnicity) 4. Giving Islam a German Face (Esra Özyürek) 5. Merging Culture with Religion: Trajectories of Slovak and Czech Muslim Converts since 1989 (Gabriel Pirický) 6. Moving into Shiʿa Islam: The “Process of Subjectification” among Shiʿa Women Converts in London (Yafa Shanneik) 7. Can a Tatar Move Out of Islam? (Katarzyna Górak-Sosnowska and Michał Łyszczarz) Section III. Transnational Movement and Moving between Traditions 8. Religious Authority and Conversions in Berlin’s Sufi Communities (Oleg Yarosh) 9. Deradicalization through Conversion to Traditional Islam: Hamza Yusuf’s Attempt to Revive Sacred Knowledge within a North Atlantic Context (Haifaa Jawad) 10. Escaping the Limelight: The Politics of Opacity and the Life of a Dutch Preacher in the UK (Martijn de Koning) Section IV. Narratives and Experiences of Moving Out of Islam 11. British Muslim Converts: Comparing Conversion and Deconversion Processes To and From Islam (Mona Alyedreessy) 12. In the Closet: The Concealment of Apostasy among Ex-Muslims in Britain and Canada (Simon Cottee) 13. Religious Skepticism and Nonbelieving in Egypt (Karin van Nieuwkerk) 14. “God never existed, and I was looking for him like crazy!” Muslim Stories of Deconversion (Teemu Pauha and Atefeh Aghaee) Section V. Debating Apostasy and Deconversion 15. Faith No More: The Views of Lithuanian Converts to Islam on Deconversion (Egdūnas Račius) 16. Let’s Talk about Apostasy! Swedish Imams, Apostasy Debates, and Police Reports on Hate Crimes and (De)conversion (Göran Larsson) Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisDocumentation, through photographs and interviews, of those who survived the unique Nazi ghetto/camp located at Terezín, Czech Republic. Dennis Carlyle Darling has photographed and interviewed hundreds of Holocaust survivors who spent time at the German transit camp and ghetto at Terezín, a former eighteenth-century military garrison located north of Prague. Many of the prisoners were kept there until they could be transported to Auschwitz or other camps, but unlike German captives elsewhere, they were allowed to participate in creative activities that the Nazis used for propaganda purposes to show the world how well they were treating Jews. Although it was not classified as a “death camp,” more than 33,000 prisoners died at Terezín from hunger, disease, and mistreatment. In Borrowed Time, Darling reveals Terezín as a place of painful contradictions, through striking and intimate portraits that retrace time an

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Book SynopsisSa’ed Atshan and Katharina Galor draw on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews to explore the asymmetric relationships between Germans and Israeli and Palestinian immigrants in the context of official German policies, public discourse, and the impact of coming to terms with the past.Trade Review“Sa’ed Atshan and Katharina Galor are engaged in rich and rare dialogues—with each other and their informants—that redefine the ‘moral triangle’ between Palestinians, Jews, and Germans as they act, react, interact, resist, and reconcile in Berlin. In a spirit of affective affiliation they draw on psychic compulsions and political circumstances that haunt the histories of cohabitation. Survival, trauma, grace, forgiveness, desperation, and hospitality are issues that stir the conscience and consciousness of this remarkable book. The Moral Triangle exceeds its geometry to provide a many-sided, plural perspective on living together in difference with dignity.” -- Homi K. Bhabha, Anne F Rothenberg Professor of the Humanities, Harvard University“The Moral Triangle takes up one of the most complex topics in the contemporary world: the ethically fraught relationships between Germans, Israelis, and Palestinians. But Sa’ed Atshan and Katharina Galor's book is also much more than an original and urgently needed study; it is itself an ethical document that exemplifies how scholarship can confront thorny moral and political problems with generosity, nuance, and a strong sense of restorative justice. This uniquely powerful book will make a significant and salutary intervention for both academic and general readerships.” -- Michael Rothberg, author of * The Implicated Subject: Beyond Victims and Perpetrators *“[The Moral Triangle] shines in its impressionistic and fast-paced reportage style. Galor and Atshan tap into narratives of perpetrators and victims, trauma and its afterlives, responsibility and reconciliation, morality, and memory.” -- Anna-E. Younes * Journal of Palestine Studies *“Guilt and a sense of culpability for their country’s past crimes against the Jewish people have led many Germans—particularly the country’s government—to adopt highly supportive positions vis-a-vis Israel. In The Moral Triangle, scholars Saed Atshan and Katharina Galor dare to explore the sensitive intricacies of this issue. . . . The results of their work are fascinating and groundbreaking.” -- Dale Sprusansky * Washington Report on Middle East Affairs *

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Book SynopsisIllustrates the hidden challenges embedded within the evangelical adoption movement. For over a decade, prominent leaders and organizations among American Evangelicals have spent a substantial amount of time and money in an effort to address what they believe to be the Orphan Crisis of the United States. Yet, despite an expansive commitment of resources, there is no reliable evidence that these efforts have been successful. Adoptions are declining across the board, and both foster parenting and foster-adoptions remain steady. Why have evangelical mobilization efforts been so ineffective? To answer this question, Samuel L. Perry draws on interviews with over 220 movement leaders and grassroots families, as well as national data on adoption and fostering, to show that the problem goes beyond orphan care. Perry argues that evangelical social engagement is fundamentally self-limiting and difficult to sustain because their subcultural commitments lock them into an approach that does not worTrade ReviewPerrys book is significant because it is one of the first to offer a clear window into evangelical activism from a rich sociological perspective. Perry is extraordinarily balanced in his analysis of both the strengths and weaknesses of evangelicals dominant approach to social engagement. * American Journal of Sociology *This books central tenet about the saliency of branding a church that is attractive to racially diverse professional millennials leads to interesting research questions about the effectiveness of such strategies in other Chicago churches and churches around the nation... this book serves as a useful guide for how churches may approach attracting new members in a period of increasing racial diversity and declining worship attendance. * The Review of Religious Research *Growing Gods Familyis about America as much as it is about evangelicals. Were do-gooders. We adopt orphans. We do other good things. And yet, our excessive individualism too often gets in the way. The result: we rush into rash ill-prepared activism. Growing Gods Family is marvelously well-researched and deeply disturbing. -- Robert Wuthnow,Princeton UniversityThis fascinating case study deftly captures the authentic spirit of so many American evangelical 'movements' for change, explaining with empathetic and fair but brutally honest criticism why and how religiously motivated people and activism can prove in the end to be ironically self-undermining and ineffective. A valuable contribution to our sociological understanding of American evangelicalism and religious movements and culture. -- Christian Smith,University of Notre DameGrowing Gods Familyis a strong, well-researched book, worthy of a wide academic and non-academic audience. * Sociology of Religion *

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Book SynopsisA revealing look at how death and burial practices influence the livingDust to Dust offers a three-hundred-year history of Jewish life in New York, literally from the ground up. Taking Jewish cemeteries as its subject matter, it follows the ways that Jewish New Yorkers have planned for death and burial from their earliest arrival in New Amsterdam to the twentieth century.Allan Amanik charts a remarkable reciprocity among Jewish funerary provisions and the workings of family and communal life, tracing how financial and family concerns in death came to equal earlier priorities rooted in tradition and communal cohesion. At the same time, he shows how shifting emphases in death gave average Jewish families the ability to advocate for greater protections and entitlements such as widows' benefits and funeral insurance. Amanik ultimately concludes that planning for life's end helps to shape social systems in ways that often go unrecognized.Trade ReviewAmanik has crafted a detailed, compelling study that uses the universal experience of death and dying to interrogate the transitions in New York’s Jewish community (16). His work invites scholars to see the deeply personal and human aspect of religious rituals behind and beyond more abstract theological arguments. In so doing, he shines a light on the struggles of generations of Jewish Americans to find a place they could call their own. * Early American Literature *Through meticulous research, Amanik has uncovered the intriguing story of how Jews in New York, over more than three centuries, have dealt with end of life concerns and dilemmas. Decidedly not a maudlin work on death and dying, this engaging book deepens our understanding of Jewish family life in Gotham and highlights tensions within the community over control of cemeteries the most basic Jewish institution. A notable contribution to the saga of the worlds largest Jewish community. -- Jeffrey S. Gurock,Author of Jews in Gotham: New York Jews and Their Changing CityDust to Dust does an excellent job showing how the desire for a Jewish burial continues to change as society changes… Anyone looking for a different take on Jewish American social history should enjoy this work. * The Reporter *Dust to Dust is a meticulously researched and solidly written study making the case for how powerfully end-of-life matters have continually molded the daily lives of American Jews. Throughout, New York City emerges as the cornerstone for related precedents and debates, setting the tone across Jewish communities in North America and beyond. * AJS Review *Amanik is a meticulous social historian adept at featuring individuals or events that illustrate overall trends or unique phenomena. * The Journal of Interdisciplinary History *Allan Amanik’s Dust to Dust will engage scholars of American Jewish history and institutions, as well as immigration and ethnic history more generally. * Journal of American Ethnic History *Will be of interest to historians of Americans death-practices, and to students of American Jewish history. Yet it also should appeal to those who are themselves New Yorkers wishing to learn more of their citys past, and especially to the descendants of those many persons buried in the cemeteries described in the book. -- Lucy Bregman,Temple UniversityThe chronological presentation flows smoothly and the book is well written. In order to gain a better appreciation of the development and issues involved in cemeteries, the book should be read by a wide audience and especially by those interested in Jewish history and identity. I encourage ethnic historians, sociologists, and anthropologists to read the book because of the parallels in the evolution of their cemeteries from tight control by early merchants to the fight over cemetery lands and who and how one should be buried, especially when religious groups, fraternal organizations, and professional funeral services compete for “members.” This book is a gem among the few works available on cemetery studies. * Journal of Jewish Identities *

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Book SynopsisIllustrates the hidden challenges embedded within the evangelical adoption movement. For over a decade, prominent leaders and organizations among American Evangelicals have spent a substantial amount of time and money in an effort to address what they believe to be the Orphan Crisis of the United States. Yet, despite an expansive commitment of resources, there is no reliable evidence that these efforts have been successful. Adoptions are declining across the board, and both foster parenting and foster-adoptions remain steady. Why have evangelical mobilization efforts been so ineffective? To answer this question, Samuel L. Perry draws on interviews with over 220 movement leaders and grassroots families, as well as national data on adoption and fostering, to show that the problem goes beyond orphan care. Perry argues that evangelical social engagement is fundamentally self-limiting and difficult to sustain because their subcultural commitments lock them into an approach that does not worTrade Review"Perrys book is significant because it is one of the first to offer a clear window into evangelical activism from a rich sociological perspective. Perry is extraordinarily balanced in his analysis of both the strengths and weaknesses of evangelicals dominant approach to social engagement." * American Journal of Sociology *"This books central tenet about the saliency of branding a church that is attractive to racially diverse professional millennials leads to interesting research questions about the effectiveness of such strategies in other Chicago churches and churches around the nation... this book serves as a useful guide for how churches may approach attracting new members in a period of increasing racial diversity and declining worship attendance." * The Review of Religious Research *"Growing Gods Familyis about America as much as it is about evangelicals. Were do-gooders. We adopt orphans. We do other good things. And yet, our excessive individualism too often gets in the way. The result: we rush into rash ill-prepared activism. Growing Gods Family is marvelously well-researched and deeply disturbing." -- Robert Wuthnow,Princeton University"This fascinating case study deftly captures the authentic spirit of so many American evangelical 'movements' for change, explaining with empathetic and fair but brutally honest criticism why and how religiously motivated people and activism can prove in the end to be ironically self-undermining and ineffective. A valuable contribution to our sociological understanding of American evangelicalism and religious movements and culture." -- Christian Smith,University of Notre Dame"Growing Gods Familyis a strong, well-researched book, worthy of a wide academic and non-academic audience." * Sociology of Religion *

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Book SynopsisCelebrated sex expert and bestselling author Dr. Ruth Westheimer bridges the gap between sex and religion in this provocative exploration of intimacy in the Jewish faithIn this light-hearted, lively tour of Jewish sexuality, Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer and Jonathan Mark team up to reveal how the Jewish tradition is much more progressive than popular wisdom might lead one to believe. Applying Dr. Ruth's acclaimed brand of couples therapy to such Biblical relationships as Abraham and Sarah, and Joseph and Potiphar's wife, the authors enlist Biblical lore to explore such topics as surrogacy, incest, and arranged marriages. They offer a clearer understanding of the intertwining relationships between sexuality and spirituality through incisive investigations of the Song of Songs, Ruth, Proverbs, Psalms, and some of the bawdier tales of the Prophets. One chapter provides a provocative new perspective on the Sabbath as a weekly revival, highlighting not only its spiritual nature, but also its maTrade Review"America's favorite sex therapist probably best known for making the word orgasm a TV talk show favorite, collaborates with Jewish Week editor Mark in a more significant accomplishment—a thoughtful study of the roles of sexuality in Judaica." * Booklist *

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Book SynopsisInvestigates how the Christian fundamentalist movement brings Creationism into the mainstream through a Kentucky museum In Creating the Creation Museum, Kathleen C. Oberlin shows us how the largest Creationist organization, Answers in Genesis (AiG), built a museumwhich has had over three million visitorsto make its movement mainstream. She takes us behind the scenes, vividly bringing the museum to life by detailing its infamous exhibits on human fossils, dinosaur remains, and more. Drawing on over three years of research at the Creation Museum, where she was granted rare access to AiG's leadership, Oberlin examines how the museum convincingly reframes scientific facts, such as modeling itself on traditional natural history museums. Through a unique historical dataset of over 1,000 internal documents from creationist organizations and an analysis of media coverage, Creating the Creation Museum shows how the museum works as a site of social movement activity and a place to contest theTrade ReviewMost studies of American creationism focus upon words – the words in legal cases and the writings of advocates and opponents. Oberlin takes a fresh new look at creationism by focusing on the built environment of a creationist museum. She argues that creationism is made plausible through emulating the authority of the museum form and the sensory experience in general. This book is an important addition to studies of museums as an argumentative form, and particularly to studies of American creationism. -- John Evans, author of What is Human? What the Answers Mean for Human RightsOberlin shows through cutting-edge, in-depth ethnography that the creation museum is part of a deliberate social movement to support creationist ideas. In looking at this unique case, she provides new insights for those of us who want to understand how counter movements influence science acceptance, how alternative political movements flourish, and for those who want to bring sociology to bear on the study of religion and science. Creating the Creation Museum is an incredibly important and deeply readable work. -- Elaine Howard Ecklund, co-author of Secularity and Science: What Scientists Around the World Really Think About ReligionOberlin examines the creationist group Answers in Genesis (AiG) and its Creation Museum in light of plausibility politics ... The book is enhanced with numerous pictures of the museum, its exhibits, and its office/research area. * Choice *Through its mix of history, ethnography, and social scientific theory, Creating the Creation Museum is an excellent introduction to an important site on the American religious landscape. * Nova Religio *Kathleen C. Oberlin presents an innovative exploration of the sociopolitical underpinnings for modern interpretations of creationism…In considering the widening gap between religious and secular life in the United States, this work also highlights that for some communities, like the biblical literalists who founded the museum, the sacred remains pervasive, blurring the lines of science and history. -- Emily J. Bailey * Reading Religion *

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Book SynopsisIn The New American Zionism, Theodore Sasson challenges the conventional view of waning American Jewish support for Israel. Instead, he shows that we are in the midst of a shift from a mobilization approach, which first emerged with the new state and focused on supporting Israel through big, centralized organizations, to an engagement approach marked by direct and personal relations with the Jewish state. Today, growing numbers of American Jews travel to Israel, consume Israeli news and culture, and focus their philanthropy and lobbying in line with their personal political viewpoints. As a result, American Jews find Israel more personally meaningful than ever before. Yet, at the same time, their ability to impact policy has diminished as they no longer speak with a unified voice.Trade Review"The New American Zionism offers an important challenge to the widely accepted belief that the relationship between American Jews and Israel has entered a time of crisis . . . . Sasson's corrective to recent scholarship on distancing from Israel helps to explain the enduring centrality that Israel holds in American Jewish life across generational cohorts . . . . Thanks to this study, the distancing hypothesis now has an alternate interpretation of American Jewish attitudes toward Israel." -- Noam Pianko * H-Net *"Theodore Sasson's new book - The New American Zionism - is a serious book. That is to say that in a field filled with the ignorant, the manipulative, and the charlatanic, Sasson offers a fact-based and measured analysis of the uneasy relationship between American Jews and Israel. That the release of this book did not make huge waves in the world of punditry is therefore just as unsurprising as it is unfortunate: Sasson doesn't hyperventilate a catchy theory of doom, and doesn't project a new era of flourishing relations. He paints an accurate, if complicated, picture of a changing relationship - changing for good and for bad and, at times, in ways yet to be decided." -- Shmuel Rosner * Jewish Journal *"Offers bad news for Israel's critics by providing good news about American Jews' relationship with Israel. Sasson's thoughtful, subtle, compelling analysis of American Jewish public opinions provides a rich and readable look at the multidimensional and ever-evolving ties Jews have with the Jewish State." -- Gil Troy,author of Why I am A Zionist: Israel, Jewish Identity and the Challenges of Today"Theodore Sasson challenges the often facile and sensational claims of the 'distancing' of American Jews from Israel in this well written, deeply researched and original book. He persuasively argues that a new and vital pluralism distinguishes the current relationship between American Jewry and the Jewish state, contesting the fashionable prophets of despair with a view of how passionately and directly American Jews actually engage with Israel . . . . An essential study of a highly contested and emotional issue and an important contribution to the field of Diaspora-homeland studies." -- Ilan Troen,Director, Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, Brandeis University"The New American Zionism emerges out of a decade-long debate among observers of American Jews, about whether Jewish attachments to Israel are waning. Sasson has quickly established himself as a skeptic of claims of distancing, and here he makes his strongest case yet, mounting an array of evidence that triangulates multiple methods and multiple data sources. Importantly, he treats thequestion of American Jewish engagement with Israel not simply as a matter of personal identities and feelings of attachment but of institutionalized collective behavior, shifting the terrain of the debate from social psychology to sociology." * Social Forces *"The New American Zionismis neither defense, nor lament, nor celebration, nor critique Readers can decide their own politics for themselves. This, along with the crisp prose, good opening primer on the history of the relationship, and rich focus-group data that bring in real peoples voices, make the book especially accessible to newcomers to the topic and well suited for undergraduate classes" * Social Forces *"How disconnected are American Jews from the State of Israel? Many have engaged with alarm the claims by commentators like Peter Beinart, who point to a waning enthusiasm young American Jews feel toward Israel. But is this an accurate picture? In his groundbreaking studyThe New American Zionism, Theodore Sasson analyzes several key but neglected indicators of American Jewish attitudes to add greater nuance to this question. Not only does he examine the fundamental problem raised by Beinart and others, he challenges the framework by which much scholarship has engaged with this loaded topic." * American Jewish History *"Sassons well-documented report may be a partial antidote to the recent Pew Report showing decreased religious affiliation among Jews. Despite the drop in centralized funding, overall giving to Israel has increased, and engagement by Americans with Israel is alive and well." * Publishers Weekly *"[] Theodore Sassons historical narrative,The New American Zionsimoffers a provocative multivocal rendition of the current discussions of the future of Israels longstanding, if sometimes vexed, relationship with United States Jewry" * Cultural Critique *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction 1. Mobilization 2. Advocacy and Activism 3. Fundraising and Philanthropy 4. Tourism and Immigration 5. Attitudes and Attachment 6. Direct Engagement Appendix: List of Organizations Glossary of Hebrew Terms Notes Bibliography Index About the Author

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Book SynopsisDemonstrates how race and power help to explain American religion in the twenty-first centuryWhen White people of faith act in a particular way, their motivations are almost always attributed to their religious orientation. Yet when religious people of color act in a particular way, their motivations are usually attributed to their racial positioning. Religion Is Raced makes the case that religion in America has generally been understood in ways that center White Christian experiences of religion, and argues that all religion must be acknowledged as a raced phenomenon. When we overlook the role race plays in religious belief and action, and how religion in turn spurs public and political action, we lose sight of a key way in which race influences religiously-based claims-making in the public sphere. With contributions exploring a variety of religious traditions, from Buddhism and Islam to Judaism and Protestantism, as well as pieces on atheists and humanists, Religion Is Raced bringsTrade ReviewChallenges the unspoken narrative of whiteness that has shaped studies of US religion. Writing from various disciplinary perspectives, the authors collectively chart a more productive way forward, one that begins with very different (and more empirically accurate) assumptions. A state-of-the-art work and a shot across the bow. -- Paul Harvey, author of Christianity and Race in the American South: A HistoryAn important collective endeavor that will leave its mark as an essential resource for understanding contemporary American religion. Yukich and Edgell bring together several of the best scholars in the sociology of religion in order to shed new light on neglected racial (but also religious, ethnic and gendered) aspects of religion as it is lived in the United States today. This is a crucial and overdue corrective and a significant achievement. -- Michèle Lamont, Harvard UniversityAn incredibly rich, important and timely book. Yukich and Edgell, along with their powerhouse group of contributing authors, highlight crucial racial underpinnings and underlying organizing principals of contemporary religion and the consequences for social divisions, politics and identities. This book is a cornerstone, one that will shape scholarly work and public conversations for generations. -- Vincent J. Roscigno, Ohio State University

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Book SynopsisDemonstrates how race and power help to explain American religion in the twenty-first centuryWhen White people of faith act in a particular way, their motivations are almost always attributed to their religious orientation. Yet when religious people of color act in a particular way, their motivations are usually attributed to their racial positioning. Religion Is Raced makes the case that religion in America has generally been understood in ways that center White Christian experiences of religion, and argues that all religion must be acknowledged as a raced phenomenon. When we overlook the role race plays in religious belief and action, and how religion in turn spurs public and political action, we lose sight of a key way in which race influences religiously-based claims-making in the public sphere. With contributions exploring a variety of religious traditions, from Buddhism and Islam to Judaism and Protestantism, as well as pieces on atheists and humanists, Religion Is Raced bringsTrade Review"Challenges the unspoken narrative of whiteness that has shaped studies of US religion. Writing from various disciplinary perspectives, the authors collectively chart a more productive way forward, one that begins with very different (and more empirically accurate) assumptions. A state-of-the-art work and a shot across the bow." -- Paul Harvey, author of Christianity and Race in the American South: A History"An important collective endeavor that will leave its mark as an essential resource for understanding contemporary American religion. Yukich and Edgell bring together several of the best scholars in the sociology of religion in order to shed new light on neglected racial (but also religious, ethnic and gendered) aspects of religion as it is lived in the United States today. This is a crucial and overdue corrective and a significant achievement." -- Michèle Lamont, Harvard University"An incredibly rich, important and timely book. Yukich and Edgell, along with their powerhouse group of contributing authors, highlight crucial racial underpinnings and underlying organizing principals of contemporary religion and the consequences for social divisions, politics and identities. This book is a cornerstone, one that will shape scholarly work and public conversations for generations." -- Vincent J. Roscigno, Ohio State University

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Book SynopsisChoice Outstanding Academic Title 2023A radically new way of understanding secularism which explains why being secular can seem so strangely religiousFor much of America's rapidly growing secular population, religion is an inescapable source of skepticism and discomfort. It shows up in politics and in holidays, but also in common events like weddings and funerals. In The Secular Paradox, Joseph Blankholm argues that, despite their desire to avoid religion, nonbelievers often seem religious because Christianity influences the culture around them so deeply. Relying on several years of ethnographic research among secular activists and organized nonbelievers in the United States, the volume explores how very secular people are ambivalent toward belief, community, ritual, conversion, and tradition. As they try to embrace what they share, secular people encounter, again and again, that they are becoming too religious. And as they reject religion, thTrade ReviewBy far the best work done on secular movements and secularism. Blankholm’s impressive scope of data and his attention to diversity based on ethnicity, gender, and apostates from non-Christian traditions make this a unique and exceptional contribution to the field. -- Darren Sherkat, Southern Illinois UniversityMasterfully illustrates how the organized secular movement in the US is constantly being negotiated. -- Ryan Cragun, The University of TampaSimultaneously, an incisive examination of American secularity’s paradoxical relationship to `religion,’ its constitutive other, and an expansive ethnography of how secular people live with and in that paradox. Blankholm brilliantly attends to secularity not simply as a space of absence—religion’s remainder—but as a set of ethical, epistemological, and affective commitments—a tradition. . . . A remarkable book and essential reading for those interested in debates about secularism and religion in the United States and beyond. -- Mayanthi Fernando, University of California, Santa CruzThis work enriches understanding of one of the fastest growing segments of the US population, those with no religious affiliation or identity… [T]his study merits the attention of students of American religious culture at all levels. -- C. H. Lippy (emeritus, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga) * CHOICE *...Interesting, thought-provoking, well-researched – and written in a readable, engaging, and captivating style. * Religious Studies Review *Pioneering. The Secular Paradox gives voice to a diverse cast of characters who can represent the increasing diversity of secular communities in the twenty-first-century United States and help to dispel views about secularism’s inherent whiteness and maleness. A must-read for scholars of American religions... sure to influence future scholarship in the field. * American Religion *Blankholm’s writing is praiseworthy… the author clearly articulates complicated paradoxical positions and clarifies murky terms. * Reading Religion *

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Book SynopsisChoice Outstanding Academic Title 2023A radically new way of understanding secularism which explains why being secular can seem so strangely religiousFor much of America's rapidly growing secular population, religion is an inescapable source of skepticism and discomfort. It shows up in politics and in holidays, but also in common events like weddings and funerals. In The Secular Paradox, Joseph Blankholm argues that, despite their desire to avoid religion, nonbelievers often seem religious because Christianity influences the culture around them so deeply. Relying on several years of ethnographic research among secular activists and organized nonbelievers in the United States, the volume explores how very secular people are ambivalent toward belief, community, ritual, conversion, and tradition. As they try to embrace what they share, secular people encounter, again and again, that they are becoming too religious. And as they reject religion, thTrade ReviewBy far the best work done on secular movements and secularism. Blankholm’s impressive scope of data and his attention to diversity based on ethnicity, gender, and apostates from non-Christian traditions make this a unique and exceptional contribution to the field. -- Darren Sherkat, Southern Illinois UniversityMasterfully illustrates how the organized secular movement in the US is constantly being negotiated. -- Ryan Cragun, The University of TampaSimultaneously, an incisive examination of American secularity’s paradoxical relationship to `religion,’ its constitutive other, and an expansive ethnography of how secular people live with and in that paradox. Blankholm brilliantly attends to secularity not simply as a space of absence—religion’s remainder—but as a set of ethical, epistemological, and affective commitments—a tradition. . . . A remarkable book and essential reading for those interested in debates about secularism and religion in the United States and beyond. -- Mayanthi Fernando, University of California, Santa CruzThis work enriches understanding of one of the fastest growing segments of the US population, those with no religious affiliation or identity… [T]his study merits the attention of students of American religious culture at all levels. -- C. H. Lippy (emeritus, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga) * CHOICE *...Interesting, thought-provoking, well-researched – and written in a readable, engaging, and captivating style. * Religious Studies Review *Pioneering. The Secular Paradox gives voice to a diverse cast of characters who can represent the increasing diversity of secular communities in the twenty-first-century United States and help to dispel views about secularism’s inherent whiteness and maleness. A must-read for scholars of American religions... sure to influence future scholarship in the field. * American Religion *Blankholm’s writing is praiseworthy… the author clearly articulates complicated paradoxical positions and clarifies murky terms. * Reading Religion *

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Book SynopsisAn exploration of the emergence of Rabbinic Judaism drawing on primary sources and new methodsOver the past generation, several major findings and methodological innovations have led scholars to reevaluate the foundation of Judaism. The Dead Sea Scrolls were the most famous, but other materials have further altered our understanding of Judaism's development after the Biblical era.This volume explores some of the latest clues into how early Judaism took shape, from the invention of rabbis to the parting of Judaism and Christianity, to whether ancient Jews considered themselves a nation. Rather than having simply evolved, normative Judaism is now understood to be the result of one approach having achieved prominence over many others, competing for acceptance in the wake of the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in the year 70 CE. This new understanding has implications for how we think about Judaism today, as the collapse of rabbinic authority is leading to tTrade ReviewA spectacular round-up of superb authors, all of them expert in fields relating to the transition centuries between the Hebrew Bible and the emergence of Judaism -- and Christianity too. One after another, the essays provide the state of the question: what scholars are saying now, and why. If there is such a thing as a scholarly page-turner, this is it, a rewarding synopsis of scholarship on pretty much every page -- Dr. Lawrence A. Hoffman,Barbara and Stephen Friedman Professor of Liturgy, Worship and Ritual, Hebrew Union CollegeOutstanding scholars of early Judaism share cutting edge research and new insights in this highly readable anthology. The succinct and accessible essays foreground the varieties of Judaisms and Jewish writings in late ancient times, the separation of Christianity from its Jewish origins, evolving constructions of gender, the development of the synagogue and its liturgy, and the consolidation of rabbinic Judaism in clear and compelling ways. This volume is sure to be welcomed by teachers of formative Judaism and Christianity, their students, and interested general readers. -- Judith R. Baskin,Philip H. Knight Professor of Humanities, University of Oregon

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Book SynopsisAn overview of the history of American Jewry using primary sources from Latin America, theCaribbean, Canada, and the United StatesJews Across the Americas is a groundbreaking sourcebook capturing the historical diversity and culturalbreadth of American Jews across Latin America, the Caribbean, Canada, and the United States. Featuringprimary documents as well as scholarly interpretations, Jews Across the Americas builds upon newdevelopments in Jewish Studies, engaging with transnationalism, race, sexuality, and gender, andhighlighting the lived experiences of those often left out of Jewish history.Jews Across the Americas features an impressively broad and far-reaching range of historical sources,including artifacts and objects that have not previously been featured as integral to Jewish history in theWestern hemisphere. Entries teach readers how to understand everything from wills andadvertisements to sermons, and hoTrade ReviewAdrianna Brodsky and Laura Leibman have assembled a valuable anthology of diverse sources that will surprise and reward all who are interested in the history of Jews in the Americas. The introductions contextualizing each original document are wonderful gems, mini history lessons of the era and specific situation coupled with thematic discussions of race, gender, sexuality, and Jewishness. Designed as a supplement to typical courses on American Jewish history, Jews Across the Americas provides a rich resource for scholars and students alike. -- Deborah Dash Moore, University of MichiganRich with visual materials, Jews Across the Americas contains primary sources from South America, North America, and the Caribbean. Collectively, they widen our vision of the diversity of Jewish life on this side of the Atlantic. With excellent introductions to each source and questions to spark discussion, this is a stellar contribution to the teaching of modern Jewish history. -- Pamela S. Nadell, author of America’s Jewish Women: A History from Colonial Times to Today

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Book SynopsisAn eye-opening look at youth in contemporary Egypt, from the role they play in advancing political change to their everyday strugglesIn Youth in Egypt, Nadine Sika explores the political world of young people in Egypt, focusing on their experiences under authoritarianism. From the reigns of Gamal Abdel Nasser and Anwar Sadat to that of Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, she offers an on-the-ground perspective through the eyes of multiple generations of young people who lived through consecutive periods of political upheaval and state militarization. Drawing on surveys, interviews, and focus groups, Sika shines a light on youth who have participated in protest movements, civil society organizations, and political parties. She shows us the different opportunities for economic and political participation that exist for them, explaining why young Egyptians may choose to either mobilize against orsurprisinglyin support of the regime. Sika underscores how youth in Egypt have been regarded as both the hTrade Review"Youth in Egypt explores how young people in Egypt see opportunities and impediments to living active, civically-engaged lives. Nadine Sika contributes to our understanding of how people and government shape each other’s opportunity structures in authoritarian contexts." -- Lisa Anderson, author of Pursuing Truth, Exercising Power: Social Science and Public Policy in the Twenty-first Century

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Book SynopsisA new world of religious satire illuminated through the layers of religion and humor that make up the The Simpsons, South Park and Family Guy. Drawing on the worldviews put forth by three wildly popular animated shows The Simpsons, South Park, and Family Guy David Feltmate demonstrates how ideas about religion's proper place in American society are communicated through comedy. The book includes discussion of a wide range of American religions, including Protestant and Catholic Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Native American Religions, New Religious Movements, Spirituality, Hinduism, and Atheism. Along the way, readers are shown that jokes about religion are influential tools for teaching viewers how to interpret and judge religious people and institutions. Feltmate, develops a picture of how each show understands and communicates what constitutes good religious practice as well as which traditions they seek to exclude on the basis of race and ethnicity, stupidity, or danger.Trade ReviewDrawn to the Gods is a thorough and comprehensive study that is grounded in solid research methodologies and linked to relevant theories and secondary literature. Feltmates arguments are compelling and insightful, and even quite lively--I love moving from Durkheim on the sacred to sacredness in Family Guy. Feltmate is quite adept at unpacking dense ideas about the sociology of religion and applying them to cultural studies in a rich, illuminating way. -- Gary Laderman,Goodrich C. White Professor of American Religious History and Cultures, Emory UniversityDavid Feltmates book on religion, satire, and popular culture must be regarded a significant, fascinating, and also thought-provoking scholarly introduction into the world of contemporary religious popular culture and its study[It] is a must read for all researchers of contemporary religious communication and popular culture. -- Johan Bastubacka,Associate Professor of Theology, University of HelsinkiWithout a doubt, I will use this delightful, well-researched, well-crafted monograph in my media, religion, and popular culture courses. David Feltmates book is fun, but it is serious fun. He maps out how humor and satire, as delivered through media platforms, teach audiences how to think about religion in an American cultural context. In so doing, he makes a compelling case for why we need to take humor seriously, and why the vital realm of popular culture is not simply important but indeed central to our research in the study of religion. -- Sarah McFarland Taylor,Professor of Religion, Media and Culture, Northwestern UniversityFeltmate wisely focuses on three popular television programs that not only overflow with religious references but also often humorously subvert accepted ideas about religious beliefs and practices. Engaging in close readings of over 200 episodes of these shows, Feltmate explores the ways that they satirically question sacred texts, cults, Jesus, sacred sites, and various world religions. * Publishers Weekly *

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Book SynopsisExamines classic and contemporary Jewish and African American children's literatureThrough close readings of selected titles published since 1945, Jodi Eichler-Levine analyzes what is at stake in portraying religious history for young people, particularly when the histories in question are traumatic ones. In the wake of the Holocaust and lynchings, of the Middle Passage and flight from Eastern Europe''s pogroms, children's literature provides diverse and complicated responses to the challenge of representing difficultcollective pasts.In reading the work of various prominent authors, including Maurice Sendak, Julius Lester, Jane Yolen, Sydney Taylor, and Virginia Hamilton, Eichler-Levine changes our understanding of North American religions. She illuminates how narratives of both suffering and nostalgia graft future citizens into ideals of American liberal democracy, and into religious communities that can be understood according to recognizable notions of reTrade ReviewExhibits an impressive command of multiple disciplines to offer a compelling of reading of Jewish and African American childrens literatures. . . . Eichler-Levine's close readings of youth literatures and reader responses are always clear and often delightful as she deftly works at the crossroads, providing new signposts for navigating vexing questions at the intersections of religion, citizenship, trauma, and redemption. -- Liora Gubkin,author of You Shall Tell Your Children: Holocaust Memory in American Passover RitualJodi Eichler-Levines insightful book illuminates the importance of fear and suffering in shaping African American and Jewish childrens literature. Her book gives a cogent understanding of how each community's difficult historical narratives coupled with their religious and social lives have helped to prepare children to engage an American civic life that has been hostile at times to their ethnic groups. -- Anthea Butler,University of PennsylvaniaThis rich and rewarding study invites fresh thought about the political religiosity of stories for children and the potential of contemporary children's literature to help forge a new politics of American childhood. -- Amy Fish * Children's Literature *Whats so exciting about Suffer the Little Children is that it brings a deeply grounded religious studies perspective to bear on contemporary American childrens literature in ways that enrich both the study of literature and our understanding of childhoods role in U.S. Judeo-Christian cultures. By focusing on American childrens books by and about Jews and African Americans and the core tropes that interweave through these textsfrom the idea of 'chosenness' to the haunting spectre of genocideEichler-Levine gives new meaning to the idea of the `sacralized child. Suffer the Little Children sheds new light on the relationships between race, religion, citizenship, and childhood. It also reminds us once more of why childrens literature provides such a revealing lens for analyzing American culture. -- Julia Mickenberg * Learning from the Left: Children’s Literature, the Cold War, and Radical Politics in the U.S. *In this startling analysis of children's literature written by African Americans, Jews, and African American Jews, Eichler-Levine (religion/Jewish studies, Univ. of Wisconsin, Oshkosh) claims that 'redemptive' stories about victimization are a necessary part of these works in order to gain acceptance. * Choice *Eichler-Levine exhibits mastery of this genre in a scholarly, comprehensive book that brings a literate, impassioned, interrogative analytical lens to familiar and lesser known children's books. * Catholic Library World *Jodi Eichler-Levine sets out to make the connections between African American and Jewish childrens literature, a potentially fruitful area of study because of the two groups shared inheritance of similar Biblical stories. * Children's Literature Association Quarterly *Eichler-Levine's appreciation for the art and transcendent possibility of children's books will inspire other scholars of religion, American history, and literature to pick up childhood favorites. In so doing,Suffer the Little Childrenpromises to spark a broader investigation of the wide-ranging contributions Jewish writers have made to this understudied literary tradition. * American Jewish History *Table of ContentsList of IllustrationsAcknowledgments Introduction: Wild Things and Chosen Children A Word about Language 1 Remembering the Way into Membership Part I: Crossing and Dwelling:After lives of Moses and Miriam 2 The Unbearable Lightness of Exodus 3 Dwelling in Chosen Nostalgia Part II: Binding and Unbinding:Hauntings of Isaac and Jephthah's Daughter4 Bound to Violence: Lynching, the Holocaust, and the Limits of Representation 5 Unbound in Fantasy: Reading Monstrosity and the Supernatural Conclusion: The Abrahamic Bargain Appendix: Children's Books Notes Bibliography Index About the Author

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Book Synopsis2018 Outstanding Academic Title, given by Choice MagazineAn exploration of twentieth and twenty-first century U.S. Muslim womanhood that centers the lived experience of women of color For Sylvia Chan-Malik, Muslim womanhood is constructed through everyday and embodied acts of resistance, what she calls affective insurgency. In negotiating the histories of anti-Blackness, U.S. imperialism, and women's rights of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, Being Muslim explores how U.S. Muslim women's identities are expressions of Islam as both Black protest religion and universal faith tradition. Through archival images, cultural texts, popular media, and interviews, the author maps how communities of American Islam became sites of safety, support, spirituality, and social activism, and how women of color were central to their formation. By accounting for American Islam's rich histories of mobilization and community, Being Muslim brings insight to the resistance that all Muslim women must Trade Review"This is a compelling, comprehensive, well-researched yet intimate exploration of intersectionality in the lives of African American Muslim women. Readers make an excursion through lives and contexts, from the beginning of the 20th century into the 21st. Chan-Malik demonstrates skills beyond the ordinary as she leaves little to the imagination regarding women's reasons for choosing Islam as a faith center and its relationship to homemaking, careers, and husbands … It is clear that Chan-Malik consulted every form of literature available on women engaging Islam … Chan-Malik has interrupted the stream of community biographies told through a male lens. An important book." -- CHOICE"This fascinating cultural history of Islam in the United States will surprise readers with its insights and subtleties of argument. By centering the lives, labor, and perspectives of US American Muslim women, and black Muslim women in particular, Chan-Malik makes a powerful case for conceptualizing Islam in the USin terms of its foundational blackness and the religious opposition to racism and sexism." -- Zareena Grewal,author of Islam is a Foreign Country"Rarely does a work of scholarship so seamless and skillfully interweave methods of theory, history, ethnography, and cultural interpretation to elucidate a topic of overarching importance. With rich insight and pristine originality, Sylvia Chan-Malik establishes a new, lasting standard that will redirect future scholarship on race, gender, and transnational Islam. Readers will learn immensely from the rich fruits of such careful and judicious intellectual labor." -- Sylvester Johnson,Virginia Tech"Being Muslim is a masterpiece that provides insightful analysis of the intersections among gender, race, and politics in the lives of American Muslim women." * Journal of Asian America Studies *

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Book SynopsisHow Judaism and food are intertwined Judaism is a religion that is enthusiastic about food. Jewish holidays are inevitably celebrated through eating particular foods, or around fasting and then eating particular foods. Through fasting, feasting, dining, and noshing, food infuses the rich traditions of Judaism into daily life. What do the complicated laws of kosher food mean to Jews? How does food in Jewish bellies shape the hearts and minds of Jews? What does the Jewish relationship with food teach us about Christianity, Islam, and religion itself? Can food shape the future of Judaism? Feasting and Fasting explores questions like these to offer an expansive look at how Judaism and food have been intertwined, both historically and today. It also grapples with the charged ethical debates about how food choices reflect competing Jewish values about community, animals, the natural world and the very meaning of being human. Encompassing historical, ethnographic, and theoretical viewpoints, Trade Review"An accessible, detailed look at all aspects of Jewish food ... This rich, revealing collection will appeal to scholars and foodies alike." * Publishers Weekly *"A fascinating look at food from a variety of different angles … the essays were all well written and absorbing. Anyone interested in food studies or Jewish history will want to read this book." * Jewish World *"Anyone interested in Jewish food who reads these seven essays will emerge with plenty of points for further discussion [...] As a broad-based collection touching on many of the subspecialties, it should provide genuine 'food for thought' leading to further readings on specific topics." * Tradition *"Feasting and Fasting is a fascinating look at food from a variety of different angles… Anyone interested in food studies or Jewish history will want to read this book." * The Reporter *"This wide-ranging discussion of the history, philosophy, religion, and origins of Jewish culinary traditions should be in any serious culinary and Jewish history collection." * Midwest Review of Books *"Runs the gamut from biblical to contemporary Jewish food ways and includes both historical and ethical aspects of what, how, and why Jews eat." * Leah Hochman, University of Southern California *"Gathers a dream team of Jewish studies scholars whothank you!raise their heads from texts to focus on the meanings, rituals, conflicts, power dynamics, and pleasures of the material of food in the Jewish diaspora. . . . The book that follows considers the diversity of complex and often fraught relationships among food, Jews, and Others, across time and place, from biblical to supermarket aisle. It serves to initiate scholars of Judaism in the world of food studies and, for food scholars, richly informs studies of Jewish foodways." * Jonathan Deutsch, Co-author of Jewish American Food Culture *"Drawing on a stellar cast of contributors, Feasting and Fasting combines an unparalleled overview of Jewish food practices from Antiquity to Agriprocessors with boundary-breaking essays on Jewish foods and foodways. This remarkable volume will excite scholars and be invaluable for adoption in Jewish history and food studies courses.”" * Roger Horowitz, author of Kosher USA: How Coke Became Kosher and Other Tales of Modern Food *"A fascinating account of the history of Jewish food, within and outside of dietary laws. . . . Crisco is for Jews? Peanut oil caused such debates? Who knew. This book is a great read." * Marion Nestle, Paulette Goddard Professor and Professor Emerita, New York University *"This is a spectacular set of essays on a wide and eclectic range of topics. They're accessible to a wide audience and further strengthen the evolving conversation about the nature of the interaction between Jewish life, food, and the wider world we live in." * Nigel Savage, CEO, Hazon: The Jewish Lab for Sustainability *"The three courses of this book — history, culture, and ethics — are a tremendous feast, to be savored for a long time to come!" * Rabbi Elliot N. Dorff, Rector and Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, American Jewish University *

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Book SynopsisFinalist, 2018 National Jewish Book Award for Modern Jewish Thought and Experience, presented by the Jewish Book CouncilWinner, 2019 Jordan Schnitzer Book Award, in the Jewish Literature and Linguistics Category, given by the Association for Jewish StudiesA fascinating glimpse into the world of the coffeehouse and its role in shaping modern Jewish cultureUnlike the synagogue, the house of study, the community center, or the Jewish deli, the café is rarely considered a Jewish space. Yet, coffeehouses profoundly influenced the creation of modern Jewish culture from the mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries. With roots stemming from the Ottoman Empire, the coffeehouse and its drinks gained increasing popularity in Europe. The otherness, and the mix of the national and transnational characteristics of the coffeehouse perhaps explains why many of these cafés were owned by Jews, why Jews became their most devoted habitués, and how cafés acquired associations with Jewishness. Examining thTrade Review"[H]ugely entertaining and intimidatingly well researched, with scarcely a café in which a Jewish writer raised a cup of coffee from Warsaw to New York left undocumented." -- Adam Gopnik * The New Yorker *"Shachar Pinsker masterfully documents the impact of café life on Jewish culture throughout the civilized world. . . . A Rich Brew is aptly named. Engagingly illustrated with many contemporary photos and cartoons, it offers a deep dive into the café world of six cities that gave birth to modern Jewish thought and culture." * Moment Magazine *"A Rich Brew evokes the sense of lingering in a timeless café, savoring the flavor and scent of good coffee and the conversation that goes along with it." * The Jewish Week *"Pinsker . . . believes that cafés in six cities created modern Jewish culture. Its the kind of claim that sounds as if it might be a game-changer, and there are enough grounds and gossip in A Rich Brew to keep this customer engrossed from cup to cup." * The Wall Street Journal *"Pinsker makes clear the vital role literary cafes played in 19th- and 20th-century Western Jewish culture in this smart volume." * Publishers Weekly *"Pinsker takes the reader on a journey across the important centers of modern Jewish culture: Odessa, Warsaw, Vienna, Berlin, New York and Tel Aviv, using a host of different sources and making for a captivating read." * The Forward *"This meticulously researched book pays tribute to an electrifying network of cafes that once incubated modern Jewish culture." -- Hadassah"Weaving stories of writers, artists, activists, and revolutionaries in the cafes of Odessa, Warsaw, Vienna, Berlin, New York City, and Tel Aviv, Pinsker takes us on a journey from Moses Mendelssohn’s philosophical writings in Berlin’s Gelehrtes Kaffehause in 1755 to the funeral of the last Yiddish-speaking café owner in 1979 Tel Aviv, 'attended by a crowd of thousands.'" -- Marginalia Review of Books"A captivating tale of Jewish intellectual life, fueled by caffeine and good company in cities across the world." -- Metropole"Shachar Pinskers absorbing new work of nonfiction, A Rich Brew, uses the café as a vehicle both to describe the development of modern Jewish culture and to delve into the topics that drove its progression." * Jewish Book Council *"Pinsker packs his history with titillating behind-the-scenes snapshots of a cast of fascinating and enigmatic Jewish figures in cafés throughout history . . . makes for engaging, as well as nostalgic, reading, and begs the question: what has replaced the café in contemporary Jewish life?" * In geveb *"Pinsker’s greatest strength is in assembling evocative descriptions, both of individual cafés, and of cafés as a species of urban space. He expertly weaves together real-life accounts of cafés, including many in the journalistic-literary genre of the feuilleton, and their fictional depiction in the work of some of the most important Jewish writers of the 19th and 20th centuries." -- Reading Religion"Shachar Pinsker concocts a rich and pleasing brew of material culture, history, sociology, and text analysis to explore the roots of modern Jewish culture as we know it today. Describing the café as a 'thirdspace,' a liminal zone between the intimate and the public spheres, Pinsker follows the emergence of Jewish culture from the synagogue and the traditional house-of-study and its recreation as a modern, urban, secular intellectual heritage. Masterfully constructed and beautifully written, A Rich Brew is an illuminating and pleasurable read." -- Ruby Namdar,author of The Ruined House"A Rich Brew is an innovative work of Jewish cultural and literary history that illuminates how the café served as a laboratory that nourished Jewish writers, artists, and intellectuals in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. From the European cafes of Odessa, Warsaw, Vienna, and Berlin, to New York and Tel Aviv Jaffa, Pinsker charts a new account of the public spaces of Jewish culture and the new literary and cultural forms that where imagined there." -- Allison Schachter, author of Diasporic Modernisms: Hebrew and Yiddish Literature in the Twentieth Century"Shachar Pinsker, in part building on research he did for his admirable first book, Literary Passports, has produced a scrupulously documented and finely instructive account of the role of cafes in modern Jewish culture. A Rich Brew, providing apt discussions of many long-forgotten or unknown texts and a generous sampling of photographs of the sundry cafes, should be of considerable interest both for historians and students of modern Jewish literature." -- Robert Alter, Emeritus Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature, University of California, Berkeley"The best part of this book is that it offers a new cultural history of Jewish modernity by utilizing literary studiesusing examples of poetry and prose written in and about cafés, it gives voice to artists who populated these cafés." -- Anna Shternshis, University of Toronto"A Rich Brew is an enjoyable, well-written book, accessible to a wide audience. Pinsker does a fine job introducing the reader to the larger historical contexts, especially of each individual city under examination; offers clear overviews of representative Jewish literary and artistic personalities; and, most importantly, brings to life the many (but now defunct) cafés that stand at the heart of his narrative." * AJS Review *"A great strength of A Rich Brew is the attention given to precisely what is absent from [Jürgen] Habermas’s text: the physical spaces of cafés and their relationship to the bourgeois public sphere. It is marvelous to see how much a literary historian learned about places (and people) from his close scrutiny of literature and art." * Sociological Forum *"The focus on examining individual cities is one of the book’s strongest points, as each chapter is a mini-historiography of class, religion, ethnicity, and gender. More than anything, however, A Rich Brew is an examination of the role of nostalgia for home in shaping everything from café discussions to creative output to historical reflection." * Digest: A Journal of Foodways & Culture *"[Pinsker] has uncovered a vibrant, far-flung network of neighborhood cafes that were patronized by Jewish writers with a taste for coffee, conversation, and difference." * Sociological Forum *"A Rich Brew takes us on a spectacular tour of urban Jewish cafés across several continents, invigorating our sense of Jewish modernity in the making." * The American Historical Review *"The power of this book is not merely in reminding the reader of the lost world of Jewish cafés but in showing how comparative analysis illuminates what is common and what is unique about Jews as a social group and the institutions they create." * American Jewish History *

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Book SynopsisHow the Wise Men Got to Chelm is the first in-depth study of Chelm literature and its relationship to its literary precursors. When God created the world, so it is said, he sent out an angel with a bag of foolish souls with instructions to distribute them equally all over the worldone fool per town. But the angel's bag broke and all the souls spilled out onto the same spot. They built a settlement where they landed: the town is known as Chelm. The collected tales of these fools, or wise men, of Chelm constitute the best-known folktale tradition of the Jews of eastern Europe. This tradition includes a sprawling repertoire of stories about the alleged intellectual limitations of the members of this old and important Jewish community. Chelm did not make its debut in the role of the foolish shtetl par excellence until late in the nineteenth century. Since then, however, the town has led a double lifeas a real city in eastern Poland and as an imaginary place onto which questions of Jewish iTrade Review"Bernuth...provides a detailed and comprehensive examination of the evolution of some of the best-known Yiddish folk stories--those revolving around the comically foolish men of the town of Chelm--that places those tales in historical and cultural context." * Publishers Weekly *"[Von Bernuth] provides a comprehensive survey of all the collections of Chelm stories and their predecessors published since 1700, shows how the tales explored Jewish identity, community and history, and delivers a few punch lines." * The Jerusalem Post *"von Bernuth succeeds admirably in showing how the mythic locale allowed for the expression of various Jewish fantasies and anxieties over the past century and a half, and indeed continues to do so today." * Times Higher Education *"A beautifully-written work of meticulous scholarship. How the Wise Men Got to Chelm is the first book in any language to fully explore the humor and the seriousness in one of the most enduring and beloved legends of popular Jewish culture. Von Bernuth not only traces the origins of the fools of Chelm, but goes further to illuminate what these stories reveal about the intersections of European and Jewish cultures and the shifts in Jewish cultural development over a three hundred year period." -- Anita Norich,Tikva Frymer-Kensky Collegiate Professor, University of Michigan"This book is deeply learned, immensely sympathetic, and refreshingly free of cultural anxiety or chauvinism, Ruth von Bernuth squarely sets this famous genre within a milieu that is at once thoroughly Germanic and distinctively Jewish, and she carefully traces the continuities and transitions from early modern to twentieth-century expressions. Very wise indeed, this is a model analysis of the creative workings of not only Jewish but other diasporas as well." -- Jonathan Boyarin,Diann G. and Thomas Mann Professor of Modern Jewish Studies, Cornell University"Using the example of 'foolish' culture, von Bernuth shows that Jews shared the assumptions, themes and expressions of the general German culture, while lending that culture a Jewish inflection. Yet, social barriers persisted. Von Bernuth illuminates this paradoxical combination of cultural partnership and social alienation, showcasing the relationship between minority and majority groups. Her book is a milestone in both literary history and cultural studies." -- Moshe Rosman,author of How Jewish Is Jewish History?"One can only wonder what the Wise Men of Chelm would have said about a book like this. It has all the scholarship one could ask for but also an ability to home in on basic questions. It offers a sense of perspectiveand a sense of humor. It breaks the canonsit is fun to read and is a mine of information. It transforms a collection of stories that are usually dismissed as light reading for children into a powerful tool for understanding how different cultures learn from each otherand also maintain their identities. The author shares her knowledge generouslybut never forgets the basic humanity of the figures about whom she writes. The Men of Chelm would probably say: Start reading and see if you can stop!" -- Shaul Stampfer,Sandrow Professor of Soviet and East European Jewish History, Hebrew University"How the Wise Men Got to Chelmshows how these stories have changed over time to include debates about the efficacy of Zionism or communism, or to discuss the apparent silliness of Hasidic traditions." * Times Literary Supplement *

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Book SynopsisFor a country smaller than Vermont, with roughly the same population as Honduras, modern Israel receives a remarkable amount of attention. For supporters, it is a unique bastion of democracy in the Middle East, while detractors view it as a racist outpost of Western colonialism. The romanticization of Israel became particularly prominent in 1967, when its military prowess shocked a Jewish world still reeling from the sense of powerlessness dramatized by the Holocaust. That imagery has grown ever more visible, with Israel's supporters idealizing its technological achievements and its opponents attributing almost every problem in the region, if not beyond, to its imperialistic aspirations.The contradictions and competing views of modern Israel are the subject of this book. There is much to consider about modern Israel besides the Middle East conflict. Over the past generation, a substantial body of scholarship has explored numerous aspects of the country, including its approacheTrade ReviewLike any complicated country, Israel is a land of myths and realities. In this volume, Frederick Greenspahn has assembled an outstanding collection of essays that will help readers to distinguish between the two. Israel has changed enormously over its sixty-some years of statehood. As the chapters demonstrate, many images inherited from the past, frozen into the memories of people who pay attention to the country, no longer conform to everyday reality. This volume is a good place to start in making sense of Israel as it is, not as an idealized or mythical entity but as a country coping with an astonishing array of social challenges. -- Kenneth D. Wald,Samuel R. "Bud" Shorstein Professor of American Jewish Culture & Society, University of FloridaOne of the best new anthologies in the burgeoning field of Israel Studies. For both those unfamiliar with the interdisciplinary study of modern Israel, and those more versed in this scholarship, the books authorsall leading researchers in the fieldoffer a wealth of information and insight on Israels diverse population, its contested national and sub-national identities, and its transforming public and private spaces. . . . A refreshing volume that steers clear of the stale partisan polemics that characterizes much of the current discourse on Israel, this work offers a rich, complex, and deep grasp of Israels multifaceted society and its relationship with both state institutions and the Jewish diaspora. -- Miriam Elman,Syracuse University

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Book SynopsisThe ninth and tenth centuries witnessed the establishment of a substantial network of maritime trade across the Indian Ocean, providing the real-life background to the Sinbad tales. An exceptional exemplar of Arabic travel writing, Accounts of China and India is a compilation of reports and anecdotes about the lands and peoples of this diverse territory, from the Somali headlands of Africa to the far eastern shores of China and Korea. Traveling eastward, we discover a vivid human landscapefrom Chinese society to Hindu religious practicesas well as a colorful range of natural wildernessfrom flying fish to Tibetan musk-deer and Sri Lankan gems. The juxtaposed accounts create a kaleidoscope of a world not unlike our own, a world on the road to globalization. In its ports, we find a priceless cargo of information. Here are the first foreign descriptions of tea and porcelain, a panorama of unusual social practices, cannibal islands, and Indian holy mena marvelouTrade ReviewThese accounts are full of fascination and wonder [and] continue the contribution this excellent series is making towards integrating classics of Arabic into the global canon. * Times Literary Supplement *

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Book SynopsisAn updated edition showcasing the social health of the least religious nations in the worldReligious conservatives around the world often claim that a society without a strong foundation of faith would necessarily be an immoral one, bereft of ethics, values, and meaning. Indeed, the Christian Right in the United States has argued that a society without God would be hell on earth. In Society without God, Second Edition sociologist Phil Zuckerman challenges these claims. Drawing on fieldwork and interviews with more than 150 citizens of Denmark and Sweden, among the least religious countries in the world, he shows that, far from being inhumane, crime-infested, and dysfunctional, highly secular societies are healthier, safer, greener, less violent, and more democratic and egalitarian than highly religious ones. Society without God provides a rich portrait of life in a secular society, exploring how a culture without faith copes with death, grapples with the meaning of life, and remainTrade ReviewZuckerman has been at the forefront of the growing field of Secular Studies for the best part of two decades. From Society Without God, it's easy to see why: beautifully written and engaging, drawing on both deep scholarship and an insightful mind. This is classic Zuckerman. -- Stephen Bullivant, Professor of Theology and the Sociology of Religion, St Mary's University, UK

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Book SynopsisOffers a look at contemporary Muslim American life in Texas. This book illuminates the dynamics of the Pakistani Muslim community in Houston, a city with one of the largest Muslim populations in the south and southwestern United States.Trade Review"Afzal deftly puts ethnography to work in describing the complexities facing Pakistanis in the Lone Star State. This significant book demonstrates how Muslims confront a wide range of issues such as racism, sexuality, and class and gender roles, while offering nuanced lessons from everyday life." -- Junaid Rana,University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"Ahmed Afzals Lone Star Muslims is an ambitious project that reaches across Asian American, Muslim American and South Asian American studies to question how Islam and diasporic South Asian histories are connected to everyday negotiations of transnational Pakistani Muslim identity and practice in Houston, Texas.As a project that details the diversity of a transnational community, Afzals book is a significant contribution to critical literature on South Asian Muslim identity in post 9/11 America." * Social Anthropology *"Lone Star Muslims is an important addition to the literature on Asian and Muslim Americans, the contemporary metropolitan South, and the South Asian diaspora. Among the many strengths of the book are poignant, perceptive glimpses into the lives of individuals who, all too often, remain invisible and voiceless to all but the most observant." * Journal of Asian American Studies *"This engaging work on Pakistani American and Pakistani immigrant experiences in Texas offers both in-depth ethnography and insightful theoretical discussions. Afzal makes major contributions to the wide array of interdisciplinary issues he covers: the case studies are innovative, the research sensitively conducted, and the conclusions compellinglypresented." -- Karen Leonard,University of California, Irvine"Through chapters on Houstons ethno-racial history, model-minority Ismaili Muslims in corporate America, Pakistani American small businesses and the underclass that sustains them, gay men of Pakistani descent, and the strategic importance of local cultural festivals and radio respectively, Afzals monograph intersects with such different academic fields as ethnic studies, Asian American studies, southern studies, and queer studies Lone Star Muslims is a valuable contribution to scholarship, breaking new ground across several academic disciplines." * Journal of American Studies *"Throughout this book, Afzal demonstrates the limits of homogenized images of & Muslims, powerfully capturing the pleasures and hopes, but also the suffering and uncertainties shaping a South Asian experience in the United States today This is an important study, not simply of Pakistani Muslims or immigration, but of religion, sexuality and place making the United States It is an exemplary ethnography, one that makes an important contribution well beyond the disciplinary boundaries of cultural anthropology. It is accessible to the general reader and deserves to figure in academic programs spanning urban studies, religious studies, as well as studies of contemporary sexuality." * Ethnic and Racial Studies *"An important addition to the ethnographic study of Muslim and Pakistani Americans aswell as the broader anthropological study of immigrant lives and transnational identities,Lone Star Muslimstrains a remarkably wide lens on Pakistanis and PakistaniAmericans in Houston.To his considerable credit and using multisited methods, AhmedAfzal ensures diverse coverage of various sectors of Houston Pakistani communities." * American Anthropologist *"Lone Star Muslimsportrays the 'heterogeneity of the Muslim American experience in the early twenty-first century,' which is sorely needed when Muslims are easily stereotyped and vilified; it also teaches us that there are 'space for building alliances and solidarity' within ethnic Muslim communities and between them and the wider society. Thebook is a valuable contribution to the anthropology of American Islam." * Anthropology Review Database *"Methodologically and theoretically,Lone Star Muslimsopens up new possibilities for research of transnational communities in the U.S. Afzals decision to conduct his fieldwork in Houston addresses the long ignored reality that the American South has become an increasingly popular destination for South Asian and Muslim immigrants. Afzals multi-sited approach recognizes the heterogeneity of the Pakistani American experience along lines of race, class, gender, religion, and sexuality." * Anthropological Quarterly *"In this thought-provoking dual treatment of the historical legacy of Texas and the diasporic experience of Ismaili Shia and homosexual Muslims living in Houston and its suburbs, Afzal argues against the works of scholars presenting the various facets of the South Asian community as a monolith of Islamic practices and heterosexuality This is new at the forefront of religion." * Choice *"Lone Star Muslimcontributes in significant ways to the study of Muslim communities there is much to recommend Afzals work." * Reading Religion *"The ethnography crosses important and revealing sectarian and class lines and also challenges the heteronormative bias of the subfield... Afzal juxtaposes the narratives of unemployed and underemployed Pakistani-Americans in revealing ways, from upwardly-mobile Ismaili Pakistani Americans whose “model minority” ambitions are dashed to working class Pakistani migrants on the edges of the neoliberal economy, his account upends the false problem of “Americanization” that preoccupied an earlier generation of scholars." -- Zareena Grewal, Essential Readings on Islam in the United States, Jadaliyya.comTable of ContentsContents Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 1 Houston: Race, Class, Oil, and the Making of "America's Most Diverse City" 30 2 "A Dream Come True": Shia Ismaili Experiences in Corporate America 64 3 "It's Allah's Will": The Transnational Muslim Heritage Economy 95 4 "I Have a Very Good Relationship with Allah": Pakistani Gay Men and Transnational Belonging 124 5 The Pakistan Independence Day Festival: The Making of a "Houston Tradition" 152 6 "Pakistanis Have Always Been Radio People": Transnational Media, Business Imperatives, and Homeland Politics 178 Conclusion 205 Notes 215 Bibliography 233 Index 257 About the Author 263

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Book SynopsisExamines trends and patterns relating to religion in the lives of immigrants. This book moves beyond specific studies of particular faiths in particular immigrant destinations to present the religious lives of immigrants in the United States, Canada, and Europe on a broad scale.Trade Review"With Immigrant Faith, Phillip Connor establishes himself as a leading scholar of immigrant religion, bringing together a vast amount of data, expertly analyzing it, and providing a succinct summary of the important patterns. I am especially impressed with the book's scope and clarity." -- Robert Wuthnow,Princeton University"Presents a unique portrait of the connections between religion and immigration in the Western world. Immigrant Faith is the first study of immigrant religion based on quantitative analyses, and it is also the first to examine religion and immigration across varied national contexts and diverse religious traditions. Connor examine how religion influences the transition to the destination country, and how migration affects religiosity. This is a must-read book for anyone trying to understand the importance of religion for immigrants in the U.S., Canada, and Europe." -- Darren Sherkat,Southern Illinois University"The book is an illuminating contribution to scholars embarking on studies of immigrant integration because it makes a strong case for why we should consider the role of religion when studying migration." * Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion *"Synthesizing the scholarship on migrant studies, Philip Connors timely and accessible book enables a deeper understanding of the intersections among religion, immigration, and the environment." * Catholic Library World *"A convincing attempt to identify general trends in the ways in which migration and religion influence each other." * Religion and Society *"The book gives students and scholars of religion and immigration an excellent bird's-eye view of the ways that the religions of immigrants have influenced their lives and communities in North America and Europe." * Religious Studies Review *Table of ContentsContents Acknowledgments ix Introduction: Introducing Immigrant Faith 1 1 Moving Faith 15 2 Changing Faith 43 3 Integrating Faith 68 4 Transferring Faith 93 Conclusion: Weaving Immigrant Faith Together 115 Methodological Appendix 129 Notes 145 Bibliography 155 Index 163 About the Author 165

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Book SynopsisOffers a look at contemporary Muslim American life in Texas. This volume explores everyday Muslim lives at the intersection of race, class, profession, gender, sexuality, and religious sectarian affiliation to demonstrate the complexity of the South Asian experience. It also incorporates narratives of gay Muslim American men of Pakistani descent.Trade Review"Afzal deftly puts ethnography to work in describing the complexities facing Pakistanis in the Lone Star State. This significant book demonstrates how Muslims confront a wide range of issues such as racism, sexuality, and class and gender roles, while offering nuanced lessons from everyday life." -- Junaid Rana,University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"Ahmed Afzals Lone Star Muslims is an ambitious project that reaches across Asian American, Muslim American and South Asian American studies to question how Islam and diasporic South Asian histories are connected to everyday negotiations of transnational Pakistani Muslim identity and practice in Houston, Texas.As a project that details the diversity of a transnational community, Afzals book is a significant contribution to critical literature on South Asian Muslim identity in post 9/11 America." * Social Anthropology *"Lone Star Muslims is an important addition to the literature on Asian and Muslim Americans, the contemporary metropolitan South, and the South Asian diaspora. Among the many strengths of the book are poignant, perceptive glimpses into the lives of individuals who, all too often, remain invisible and voiceless to all but the most observant." * Journal of Asian American Studies *"This engaging work on Pakistani American and Pakistani immigrant experiences in Texas offers both in-depth ethnography and insightful theoretical discussions. Afzal makes major contributions to the wide array of interdisciplinary issues he covers: the case studies are innovative, the research sensitively conducted, and the conclusions compellinglypresented." -- Karen Leonard,University of California, Irvine"Through chapters on Houstons ethno-racial history, model-minority Ismaili Muslims in corporate America, Pakistani American small businesses and the underclass that sustains them, gay men of Pakistani descent, and the strategic importance of local cultural festivals and radio respectively, Afzals monograph intersects with such different academic fields as ethnic studies, Asian American studies, southern studies, and queer studies Lone Star Muslims is a valuable contribution to scholarship, breaking new ground across several academic disciplines." * Journal of American Studies *"Throughout this book, Afzal demonstrates the limits of homogenized images of & Muslims, powerfully capturing the pleasures and hopes, but also the suffering and uncertainties shaping a South Asian experience in the United States today This is an important study, not simply of Pakistani Muslims or immigration, but of religion, sexuality and place making the United States It is an exemplary ethnography, one that makes an important contribution well beyond the disciplinary boundaries of cultural anthropology. It is accessible to the general reader and deserves to figure in academic programs spanning urban studies, religious studies, as well as studies of contemporary sexuality." * Ethnic and Racial Studies *"An important addition to the ethnographic study of Muslim and Pakistani Americans aswell as the broader anthropological study of immigrant lives and transnational identities,Lone Star Muslimstrains a remarkably wide lens on Pakistanis and PakistaniAmericans in Houston.To his considerable credit and using multisited methods, AhmedAfzal ensures diverse coverage of various sectors of Houston Pakistani communities." * American Anthropologist *"Lone Star Muslimsportrays the 'heterogeneity of the Muslim American experience in the early twenty-first century,' which is sorely needed when Muslims are easily stereotyped and vilified; it also teaches us that there are 'space for building alliances and solidarity' within ethnic Muslim communities and between them and the wider society. Thebook is a valuable contribution to the anthropology of American Islam." * Anthropology Review Database *"Methodologically and theoretically,Lone Star Muslimsopens up new possibilities for research of transnational communities in the U.S. Afzals decision to conduct his fieldwork in Houston addresses the long ignored reality that the American South has become an increasingly popular destination for South Asian and Muslim immigrants. Afzals multi-sited approach recognizes the heterogeneity of the Pakistani American experience along lines of race, class, gender, religion, and sexuality." * Anthropological Quarterly *"In this thought-provoking dual treatment of the historical legacy of Texas and the diasporic experience of Ismaili Shia and homosexual Muslims living in Houston and its suburbs, Afzal argues against the works of scholars presenting the various facets of the South Asian community as a monolith of Islamic practices and heterosexuality This is new at the forefront of religion." * Choice *"Lone Star Muslimcontributes in significant ways to the study of Muslim communities there is much to recommend Afzals work." * Reading Religion *"The ethnography crosses important and revealing sectarian and class lines and also challenges the heteronormative bias of the subfield... Afzal juxtaposes the narratives of unemployed and underemployed Pakistani-Americans in revealing ways, from upwardly-mobile Ismaili Pakistani Americans whose “model minority” ambitions are dashed to working class Pakistani migrants on the edges of the neoliberal economy, his account upends the false problem of “Americanization” that preoccupied an earlier generation of scholars." -- Zareena Grewal, Essential Readings on Islam in the United States, Jadaliyya.comTable of ContentsContents Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 1 Houston: Race, Class, Oil, and the Making of "America's Most Diverse City" 30 2 "A Dream Come True": Shia Ismaili Experiences in Corporate America 64 3 "It's Allah's Will": The Transnational Muslim Heritage Economy 95 4 "I Have a Very Good Relationship with Allah": Pakistani Gay Men and Transnational Belonging 124 5 The Pakistan Independence Day Festival: The Making of a "Houston Tradition" 152 6 "Pakistanis Have Always Been Radio People": Transnational Media, Business Imperatives, and Homeland Politics 178 Conclusion 205 Notes 215 Bibliography 233 Index 257 About the Author 263

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Book SynopsisAmericans love religious freedom. Few agree, however, about what they mean by either religion or freedom. Rather than resolve these debates, Finbarr Curtis argues that there is no such thing as religious freedom. Lacking any consistent content, religious freedom is a shifting and malleable rhetoric employed for a variety of purposes. While Americans often think of freedom as the right to be left alone, the free exercise of religion works to produce, challenge, distribute, and regulate different forms of social power.The book traces shifts in the notion of religious freedom in America from The Second Great Awakening, to the fiction of Louisa May Alcott and the films of D.W. Griffith, through William Jennings Bryan and the Scopes Trial, and up to debates over the Tea Party to illuminate how Protestants have imagined individual and national forms of identity. A chapter on Al Smith considers how the first Catholic presidential nominee of a major party challenged Protestant views aTrade ReviewA bold, surprising, and timely intervention into ongoing debates about the political and ethical dimensions of secularism. . . . Curtis offers a revisionist history that challenges easy readings of American identity and progress and those scholarly paradigms that have made such readings so convenient. Through a series of case studies that span the last two centuries of American life, Curtis demonstrates that religious freedom is a messy business, a tangled skein of sweat and blood as well as malleable concept with viral propensities. In his deft and richly told tale, religious freedom is both the hinge of affective discipline of the nation-state and the grounds for ethnic, racial, and gendered forms of collective identity within; religious freedom is both the modus operandi of whiteness as well as the source of its potential undoing. The Production of American Religious Freedom is an exceptional and elegantly conceived project. It will change the way in which scholars of American religion and politics approach the concept of religion, in general, and where and how they locate it within history. -- John Modern,Franklin & Marshall CollegeAt a moment when scholars of religion are rethinking their contribution to public debate, Finbarr CurtissThe Production of American Religious Freedom exemplifies the power of sustained academic engagement with the assumptions and histories that shape our fractious condition and toxic discourse...Learned, provocative, and interdisciplinary in the best sense, this book is an archaeology of conceptual confusion and a model for new conversations that might deepen our understandings of American religion and public life, historically and at present. -- Jason C. Bivins,North Carolina State UniversityOffers a nuanced understanding of religious freedom. * Choice *Ambitious, and laudably so. In fact, I found myself wondering if the book ought to have been titled The Religious Production of American Freedominstead ofThe Production of American Religious Freedom, since it seems that Curtis wants ultimately to make broader and farther-reaching claims about the views Americans have historically held about their own choices in the political, social, economic, and religious realms. * Politics and Religion *Each chapter, without exception, presents intriguing and provocative insights, raising questions of race (Griffith, Malcolm X), gender (Alcott,Hobby Lobby), science (Bryan, Intelligent Design), and religion more narrowly and institutionally understood (Finney, Smith). Scholars interested in the broad interconnections between the religious and the political particularly scholars with capacious definitions of those two terms will find food for thought throughout. * Politics and Religion *The Production of American Religious Freedomreadslike a collection of meditations on important themes in American religious history that serve as case studies for conceptual problems in the study of religion. * Reading Religion *Curtis work is valuable, spurring readers to interrogate the meaning and application of freedom and its relation to justice. It is also timely, helpfully framing many of the issues pertinent to our times regarding how Americans understand the tradition of religious freedom in daily life. This book benefits historians and laypersons alike as we grapple with what we mean when we claim we are religiously free. * The Journal of Church and State *For all its historical breadth, the book feels extraordinarily timely for our current political moment. The case studies are ripe for use in the undergraduate classroom individually and graduate students would be well served to engage Curtis’s sweeping genealogy of “religious freedom.” Specialists in American religion, religion and politics, or secular studies will find the book well worth their time. -- Religious Studies Review

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Book SynopsisUncovers what the sociology of religion would look like had it emerged in a Confucian, Muslim, or Native American culture rather than in a Christian oneSociology has long used Western Christianity as a model for all religious life. As a result, the field has tended to highlight aspects of religion that Christians find important, such as religious beliefs and formal organizations, while paying less attention to other elements. Rather than simply criticizing such limitations, James V. Spickard imagines what the sociology of religion would look like had it arisen in three non-Western societies. What aspects of religion would scholars see more clearly if they had been raised in Confucian China? What could they learn about religion from Ibn Khaldun, the famed 14th century Arab scholar? What would they better understand, had they been born Navajo, whose traditional religion certainly does not revolve around beliefs and organizations? Through these thought experiments, Spickard shows how non-Trade ReviewSpickards endeavor is a worthy one and his execution of it is well done. * Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion *This book demonstrates how sociological thinking can be colored by global contexts and helps to render the broad, global sociological realities visible. Such a revitalized sociological tool kit enables sociologists on both sides of the Atlantic to engage in intellectual engineering and build upon critical sociological theory relevant in their respective contexts and milieus. -- Afe Adogame,Maxwell M. Upson Professor of Christianity and Society, Princeton Theological Seminary"In the last decade there have been a number of highly visible critiques of the Christian and Protestant base of US sociology of religion. James V. Spickard, with his many ties to European sociology of religion, breaks out of the insularity of US research. His deep immersion in nonwestern thought also bears fruit in this text. It is a significant contribution to an ongoing conversation about how research on religion needs to change. -- Mary Jo Neitz,Professor of Women's and Gender Studies, University of MissouriAlternative Sociologies of Religion is beautifully writtenclear, articulate, and frequently passionate and engaging. Spickards arguments all command considerable merit and attention. His alternative program for teaching and research will help to refashion more conventional sociologies of religion. * Journal of the American Academy of Religion *Alternative Sociologiesis a refreshing contribution from one of the fields respected scholars. James Spickards long career and varied experiences as a field researcher and consummate teacher shine through on every page. His dissatisfaction with and hope for the future of sociology of religion energizes his quest to find concepts to move the discipline forward. * Nova Religio *James Spickard’s new book is a contribution to the round of reflection that has been happening in the sociology of religion over the past decade … His push to look at what intellectuals in other contexts have said about religion is a useful addition to our emphasis on expansion of the scope of empirical study. * Choice *Spickards carefully written, groundbreaking text effectively engages the reader in many thoughtful experiments that offer an intriguing alternative to the state of the discipline as we know it. This book is appropriate for large general collections serving undergraduates, graduates, and faculty. It is also appropriate for collections focusing on sociology, anthropology, and comparative religion. * Catholic Library World *In praise of this analysis, Spickard does a good job of demonstrating how thinking can be stretched so that religion can be examined in those dimensions that past habitual frameworks have undervalued, missed, ignored, or not been able to see. * American Journal of Sociology *Spickards book offers a challenge to traditional sociological epistemology. It will be of interest to anyone interested in contemporary sociological theory of the study of religion. * Reading Religion *I [University of Georgia Religion Professor David Smilde] strongly sympathize with [Spickards] efforts to use comparative research to enrich the sociology of religion. * Sociology of Religion *

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Book SynopsisInterviews with young Muslims in Chicago explore the complexity of identities formed at the crossroads of Islam and hip hopThis groundbreaking study of race, religion and popular culture in the 21st century United States focuses on a new concept, Muslim Cool. Muslim Cool is a way of being an American Muslimdisplayed in ideas, dress, social activism in the 'hood, and in complex relationships to state power. Constructed through hip hop and the performance of Blackness, Muslim Cool is a way of engaging with the Black American experience by both Black and non-Black young Muslims that challenges racist norms in the U.S. as well as dominant ethnic and religious structures within American Muslim communities. Drawing on over two years of ethnographic research, Su'ad Abdul Khabeer illuminates the ways in which young and multiethnic US Muslims draw on Blackness to construct their identities as Muslims. This is a form of critical Muslim self-making that builds on interconnections and intersectionTrade ReviewMuslim Coolcelebrates the spiritual grounding of hip hop and tries to tease apart its complex relationships with race and religion. * The Atlantic *A skilled ethnographer, [Su'ad Abdul Khabeer] combines her poet's ear and thorough research in prose that flips the script on the anti-Black, anti-Muslim sentiment. * Ebony *AbdulKhabeer explores the rich relationship of hip-hop to Islam in her fascinating new work,Muslim Cool. * Foreword Reviews *Where Chance injects spirituality into hip-hop, Muslim Cool injects hip-hop into spirituality. And in doing so, as Abdul-Khabeers Muslim Cool-hunting presents, its expanding the ways in which black history, culture, and politics get expressed, re-defined, and redeployed into new contexts. * Popmatters *A must read for any student of anthropology, religion, migration, or urban studies. * Choice *Khabeers study explores how young African American Muslim women and men who embrace Muslim cool use hip-hop styles of dress, music, dance, and spoken-word performance to assert their Muslim bona fides. In so doing, they are arguing against the anti-black biases of the dominant Middle Eastern and South Asian immigrant Muslim community in the United States. But theyre also arguing for their sense of belonging in the American national community that is normed as white even as it claims to be post-racial and multicultural. * Christian Century Review *Because the text stays so close to her teachers words and theorizations while working through complex questions regarding power and religious and racial identity, it is accessible to both everyday readers and scholarly circles alike. * Religious Studies Review *The book in sum is an admirable approach to the circulation of Blackness, which few have taken up in the context of Muslims in the United States. * Sociology of Religion *Muslim Cool discusses much-neglected topics in the field of Islam in America; Khabeer's discussion of Muslim masculinity in the United States, for instance, is a contribution to a shockingly small bibliography on the topic. * Mashriq Mahjar Journal *An intense and novel anthropological approach to the development of the relationship between African American Muslimsthe original American face of Islamand immigrant Muslims and their children. An absolute must-read. -- Aminah Beverly McCloud,DePaul UniversityMuslim Coolbrilliantly spotlights how Black Muslim youth construct and perform identities that embody indigenous forms of Black cultural production. Equally important, the text shows how these constructions are used to reimagine, reshape, and resist hegemonic and often anti-Black conceptions of Muslim identity. With masterful ethnographic detail, Abdul Khabeer offers a subtle and rich analysis of the complex relationships between race, religion, and state power. This book is a desperately needed intervention within Anthropology, Africana Studies, and Islamic Studies. -- Marc Lamont Hill,author of Beats, Rhymes, and Classroom Life: Hip-Hop Pedagogy and the Politics of IdentityIn times when both Islam and Hip Hop have been constructed as threats to American civilization by some, Muslim Cool presents a much-needed, rigorous analysis backed by rich, ethnographic detail to present a far more nuanced and intriguing storya story that is central to understanding current U.S. racial, religious, and political landscapes. Through Khabeers groundbreaking research and carefully crafted narrative and argumentation, we discover the journeys of young Muslims who find, through Hip Hop, a way of being Muslim that helps them challenge anti-Black racism in their everyday lives and interactions with systemic inequalities. Muslim Cool is, as dead prez once rapped, bigger than Hip Hopit is a must-read for anyone interested in race, religion and culture in contemporary America. -- H. Samy Alim,author of Roc the Mic Right: The Language of Hip Hop Culture

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Book SynopsisA fascinating exploration of the breadth of social, emotional, and spiritual experiences of atheists in America Self-identified atheists make up roughly 5 percent of the American religious landscape, comprising a larger population than Jehovah's Witnesses, Orthodox Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, and Hindus combined. In spite of their relatively significant presence in society, atheists are one of the most stigmatized groups in the United States, frequently portrayed as immoral, unhappy, or even outright angry. Yet we know very little about what their lives are actually like as they live among their largely religious, and sometimes hostile, fellow citizens. In this book, Jerome P. Baggett listens to what atheists have to say about their own lives and viewpoints. Drawing on questionnaires and interviews with more than five hundred American atheists scattered across the country, The Varieties of Nonreligious Experience uncovers what they think about morality,Trade ReviewRarely has this reviewer read a scholarly book as humane, moving, delightful, and respectfully written as Baggett’s thoughtful survey of contemporary atheism in the US… this masterful blend of qualitative sociological study and theologically informed thinking provides a valuable portrait of real-world atheism in the US. * Choice *A superb book. As noted, the number of interviews, the careful analysis, and the sincere effort to reflect the worldview of atheists result in this being perhaps the best scholarly work on atheists in the United States to date. ... Baggett’s incisive synthesis of the four roots that lie at the heart of the atheist worldview is particularly important and will be the standard citation on these ideas for years to come. This is an excellent volume on atheists in the United States that I highly recommend * Journal of the American Academy of Religion *Baggett presents an impressive and timely study of American atheists. With its strong foundation of extensive qualitative data that are systematically interpreted through a theoretical and historical lens, The Varieties of Nonreligious Experience should be of interest to an audience from multiple disciplines. I believe that it is a must-read for scholars interested in the study of secularity and nonreligion and of religion in the contemporary United States. Indeed, this book makes important and thought-provoking contributions to the scholarly conversation about what it means to be an atheist in a society that is normatively religious. * Sociology of Religion *Baggett strikes a balanced tone through the book. He strives for understanding, lets his research subjects speak for themselves, and directly dispels common stereotypes about American atheists. At the same time, he is critical of the foundational myths he detects in atheist self-understanding, including primarily the conflict between science and religion and the understanding of religious believers as irrational. The portrait that emerges is, I think, true to life in its ambivalence." * Theological Studies *The strengths of the book are the rich narratives it includes from the interviews. It becomes possible through the narratives to put faces and personalities and contexts and experiences together and in so doing to gain an understanding of atheists as individuals. The book’s strength also lies in the depth of its familiarity with the literature in religious studies and the sociology of religion. For anyone interested in the practices through which identities are constructed, this is a valuable contribution. * Contemporary Sociology *This book should find a wide audience among sociologists, anthropologists, historians, and religious studies scholars, among others. The organization and tone of the book are commendably clear, and the manner in which Baggett relays both ideas and evidence is quite engaging. The narrative of the book is particular rich and layered in two respects. One is the depth and persuasiveness of the historical context within which core arguments are located. Another is the sheer volume and quality of evidence out of which the arguments are constructed. This book will be useful both as a text in undergraduate seminars and in thematic graduate courses. Broadly, it adds intriguing insight into how we think about identity, identity change, and identity maintenance. More narrowly, the arguments presented provide a new and deeper understanding of what it means to become and to be atheist, and how this identity is understood and relayed to others. Methodologically, the book reminds us of the risks of overgeneralizing or underscrutinizing core concepts, like 'atheist' or 'religious None,' and underscores the importance of rethinking and revisiting questions that seem as if they are already relatively well understood. * Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion *This book should expand the study of American atheism beyond token outliers — the New Atheists and secular churches. It will also offer a point of contrast for more specific studies of non-white, less overtly masculine, and non-heteronormative atheist communities, allowing scholars to better grasp the secular landscape. * Numen *Baggett offers a rich and fascinating account of how these [contemporary American atheists] live and understand their lives. * Church History *Baggett’s expertise as a thinker and writer are on full display ... A compelling and complex portrait of rank-and-file nonbelievers living meaningful lives. * Nova Religio *

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Book SynopsisWinner of the 2014 Jordan Schnitzer Book Award presented by the Association for Jewish StudiesJews have played an integral role in the history of obscenity in America. For most of the 20th century, Jewish entrepreneurs and editors led the charge against obscenity laws. Jewish lawyers battled literary censorship even when their non-Jewish counterparts refused to do so, and they won court decisions in favor of texts including Ulysses, A Howl, Lady Chatterley's Lover, and Tropic of Cancer. Jewish literary critics have provided some of the most influential courtroom testimony on behalf of freedom of expression.The anti-Semitic stereotype of the lascivious Jew has made many historians hesitant to draw a direct link between Jewishness and obscenity. In Unclean Lips, Josh Lambert addresses the Jewishness of participants in obscenity controversies in the U.S. directly, exploring the transformative roles played by a host of neglecteTrade ReviewJosh Lambert'sUnclean Lipsis brilliant not only for its erudition and wit but also for the freshness and originality of its insights into the critical role that Jews have played in the history of American obscenity. Lambert takes the anti-Semitic canard that Jews are a people of unclean lips with a perverse obsession with obscenity and explores both the harm done to Jews charged with obscenity and the ways Jews in different eras have exploited their relationship with obscenity to gain cultural capital and to advance themselves individually and as a marginalized group. * The Journal of American History *[] Lambert has written a lively account of a little-known history that deserves a wide audience. * The Historian *This is a well-written, at times playful, book and is accessible for readers who are familiar with some but not all of the discussed texts. Lambert evidently enjoyed reading, thinking, and writing about his source materials...Thoroughly researched and thoughtful volume. * The American Jewish Archives Journal *[H]e presents what is engaging material, demonstrating how 'taboo words and explicit representations of sex were meaningful to American Jews during the 20th-century . . . in contingent and historically specific ways.' * Publishers Weekly *Lambert is to be congratulated on skillfully steering between the two rocks and producing a detailed and balanced picture that considers both legal and literary questions . . . . This book is an interesting and well-informed study of a fascinating subject. * Journal of Contemporary Religion *In his study, Lambert, a professor of English, provides new angles on the connection of Jews and obscenity, as well as that connection's surprising relationships to eternal questions about Jewish difference: does it exist? what is it? and wherefore? -- Rachel Gordan * Religion Dispatches *Josh Lambert breaks new ground in his complex, original, and important work on Jews and obscenity. His story weaves together Jewish publishers, writers, birth control crusaders, Orthodox advocates for modesty, and comedians as well as non Jews writing about Jews. He recenters debates about obscenity on Jewishness, as well as centering them within American Jewish culture. Unclean Lips is a timely and fascinating study of American culture itself. -- Riv-Ellen Prell,author of Fighting to Become Americans: Jews Gender and the Anxiety of AssimilationJosh Lambert undermines many cliches about Jews, obscenity, and even 'sexual anti-Semitism' in this engrossing book. He brilliantly navigates us through many episodes of sexual representation, some familiar, some quite unexpected, along with the social and legal conflicts that surrounded them. Lucidly written and arduously researched, this is an exceptional work of cultural history. -- Morris Dickstein,author of Dancing in the Dark: A Cultural History of the Great DepressionThe strength in his argument is not only in finding social meaning in smut but also in moving beyond the ready cliches of Jewish marginalization to an astute recognition of Jewish power. Lambert discovers in obscene speech, beyond its associations with subversion and marginality, the ability to arouse attention, confer status, and create capital. -- Naomi Seidman * The Chronicle of Higher Education *Who would have thought that some American Jews at the dawn of this century supported 'smutty' literature as a way of entering exclusive cultural circles, rather than getting thrown out? This is just one of the many surprising, strange and fascinating pieces of literary history found in Josh Lambert's detailed chronicle of Jews and obscenity in America, Unclean Lips. -- Sarah Seltzer * Lilith *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction 1 Sexual Anti-Semitism and Pornotopia: Theodore Dreiser, Ludwig Lewisohn, and The Harrad Experiment 2 The Prestige of Dirty Words and Pictures: Horace Liveright, Henry Roth, and the Graphic Novel 3 Otherfuckers and Motherfuckers: Reproduction and Allegory in Philip Roth and Adele Wiseman 4 Seductive Modesty: Censorship versus Yiddish and Orthodox Tsnies Conclusion: Dirty Jews and the Christian Right: Larry David and FCC v. FoxNotes Index About the Author

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Book SynopsisA history of Catholic social thought Many Americans assume that the Catholic Church is inherently conservative, based on its stances on abortion, contraception, and divorce. Yet there is a longstanding tradition of progressive Catholic movements in the United States that have addressed a variety of issues from labor, war, immigration, and environmental protection, to human rights, women's rights, exploitive development practices, and bellicose foreign policies. These Catholic social movements have helped to shift the Church from an institution that had historically supported incumbent governments and political elites to a Church that has increasingly sided with the vulnerable and oppressed. This book provides a concise history of progressively oriented Catholic Social Thought, which conveys the Catholic Church's position on a variety of social justice concerns. Sharon Erickson Nepstad introduces key papal encyclicals and other church documents, showing how lay Catholics in the United Trade Review"A thorough and complex history of recent Catholic activism in the United States . … The rigor and breadth of Nepstad’s research and analysis makes this an excellent book for academic courses. Yet the page-turning readability also makes it valuable for everyday Catholics who look to deepen their understanding of Catholic social teaching and how our church has enacted it." * America Magazine *"Nepstad provides an excellent introduction to influential people and movements of Catholic social action in the US." * Choice *"Catholic Social Activism is a great resource for teaching (both undergraduate and graduate) students broadly about CST since the book highlights the social conditions and people (at various levels) influencing it across different causes and historical periods ... [Nepstad's] book nonetheless raises interesting questions that are likely to spur future research in different social science fields." * Sociology of Religion *

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Book SynopsisInvestigates how the Christian fundamentalist movement brings Creationism into the mainstream through a Kentucky museum In Creating the Creation Museum, Kathleen C. Oberlin shows us how the largest Creationist organization, Answers in Genesis (AiG), built a museumwhich has had over three million visitorsto make its movement mainstream. She takes us behind the scenes, vividly bringing the museum to life by detailing its infamous exhibits on human fossils, dinosaur remains, and more. Drawing on over three years of research at the Creation Museum, where she was granted rare access to AiG's leadership, Oberlin examines how the museum convincingly reframes scientific facts, such as modeling itself on traditional natural history museums. Through a unique historical dataset of over 1,000 internal documents from creationist organizations and an analysis of media coverage, Creating the Creation Museum shows how the museum works as a site of social movement activity and a place to contest theTrade Review"Most studies of American creationism focus upon words – the words in legal cases and the writings of advocates and opponents. Oberlin takes a fresh new look at creationism by focusing on the built environment of a creationist museum. She argues that creationism is made plausible through emulating the authority of the museum form and the sensory experience in general. This book is an important addition to studies of museums as an argumentative form, and particularly to studies of American creationism." -- John Evans, author of What is Human? What the Answers Mean for Human Rights"Oberlin shows through cutting-edge, in-depth ethnography that the creation museum is part of a deliberate social movement to support creationist ideas. In looking at this unique case, she provides new insights for those of us who want to understand how counter movements influence science acceptance, how alternative political movements flourish, and for those who want to bring sociology to bear on the study of religion and science. Creating the Creation Museum is an incredibly important and deeply readable work." -- Elaine Howard Ecklund, co-author of Secularity and Science: What Scientists Around the World Really Think About Religion"Oberlin examines the creationist group Answers in Genesis (AiG) and its Creation Museum in light of plausibility politics ... The book is enhanced with numerous pictures of the museum, its exhibits, and its office/research area." * Choice *"Through its mix of history, ethnography, and social scientific theory, Creating the Creation Museum is an excellent introduction to an important site on the American religious landscape." * Nova Religio *"Kathleen C. Oberlin presents an innovative exploration of the sociopolitical underpinnings for modern interpretations of creationism…In considering the widening gap between religious and secular life in the United States, this work also highlights that for some communities, like the biblical literalists who founded the museum, the sacred remains pervasive, blurring the lines of science and history." -- Emily J. Bailey * Reading Religion *"Oberlin organizes her book to guide readers through her research and the museum. Throughout the book, she mixes ethnographic fieldwork, museum-site comparisons, and external media analysis. Her descriptive chapters expertly take readers through the museum, ‘prepar[ing] them to believe.' " * Religion *

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Book SynopsisThe Kurdish Movement in Turkey's growing alliance with Islam One of the fault lines of Turkish politics traditionally has been the divide between religious and secular movements. However, as Zeki Sarigil argues, the secular Kurdish movement in Turkey has increasingly become aligned with Islam. As a result, Islam has become part of the movement's political discourse, strategies and actions. Ethnic Boundaries in Turkish Politics traces the evolving relations between the leftist, secular Kurdish movement and Islam, from an apathetic and/or antagonistic attitude in the 1970s and 1980s to an increasingly Islam-friendly approach in the 1990s to an attitude of accommodation and the rise of Kurdish-Islamic synthesis in the early 2000s. Based on 104 interviews in several provinces in Turkey (primarily Ankara, Diyarbakir, Istanbul, and Tunceli) between 2011 and 2015 as well as ethnographic data, public opinion surveys and statements from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and Kurdish leaders, SaTrade ReviewThe Kurdish armed insurgency in Turkey is one of the longest and most complicated conflicts in the post-World War II era. The PKK-led insurgency, which was initiated by a small group of college students in the 1970s, has not only survived the harsh conditions of the Middle East but also thrived in the past 40 years, becoming a key non-state actor in the region. This book is about this strong secular insurgency and the groups it has inspired, addressing the question of religion. Zeki Sarigil very effectively frames the Kurdish ethno-nationalist movement in Turkey into the wider context of ethnic armed conflict, nationalism, and religion. It stands out from most of the existing studies that primarily utilize a historical approach to the Kurdish conflict by its multi-method approach to examine an important aspect of the Kurdish movement that has not yet been systematically studied. -- Mehmet Gürses,Associate Professor of Political Science, Florida Atlantic UniversityThis ambitious book poses a set of original and essential questions for students of Kurdish politics: Why, how, and with what consequences has the secularist Kurdish movement given up its anti-religious stance and policies? How has religion, once considered reactionary by the Turkish state and the Kurdish movement, become a boundary contested area for these two actors? How have the elite members of these groups utilized Islamic teachings to capture the support of ordinary Kurds? Sarigil deftly crafts an indispensable ethnic boundary-making analysis with extensive fieldwork and interviews conducted over five years . . . definitely a must-read for followers of Kurdish politics. -- Ekrem Karakoç,Associate Professor of Political Science, Binghamton University

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Book SynopsisExamines trends and patterns relating to religion in the lives of immigrants. This book moves beyond specific studies of particular faiths in particular immigrant destinations to present the religious lives of immigrants in the United States, Canada, and Europe on a broad scale.Trade Review"With Immigrant Faith, Phillip Connor establishes himself as a leading scholar of immigrant religion, bringing together a vast amount of data, expertly analyzing it, and providing a succinct summary of the important patterns. I am especially impressed with the book's scope and clarity." -- Robert Wuthnow,Princeton University"Presents a unique portrait of the connections between religion and immigration in the Western world. Immigrant Faith is the first study of immigrant religion based on quantitative analyses, and it is also the first to examine religion and immigration across varied national contexts and diverse religious traditions. Connor examine how religion influences the transition to the destination country, and how migration affects religiosity. This is a must-read book for anyone trying to understand the importance of religion for immigrants in the U.S., Canada, and Europe." -- Darren Sherkat,Southern Illinois University"The book is an illuminating contribution to scholars embarking on studies of immigrant integration because it makes a strong case for why we should consider the role of religion when studying migration." * Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion *"Synthesizing the scholarship on migrant studies, Philip Connors timely and accessible book enables a deeper understanding of the intersections among religion, immigration, and the environment." * Catholic Library World *"A convincing attempt to identify general trends in the ways in which migration and religion influence each other." * Religion and Society *"The book gives students and scholars of religion and immigration an excellent bird's-eye view of the ways that the religions of immigrants have influenced their lives and communities in North America and Europe." * Religious Studies Review *Table of ContentsContents Acknowledgments ix Introduction: Introducing Immigrant Faith 1 1 Moving Faith 15 2 Changing Faith 43 3 Integrating Faith 68 4 Transferring Faith 93 Conclusion: Weaving Immigrant Faith Together 115 Methodological Appendix 129 Notes 145 Bibliography 155 Index 163 About the Author 165

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Book SynopsisA fascinating exploration of the breadth of social, emotional, and spiritual experiences of atheists in America Self-identified atheists make up roughly 5 percent of the American religious landscape, comprising a larger population than Jehovah's Witnesses, Orthodox Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, and Hindus combined. In spite of their relatively significant presence in society, atheists are one of the most stigmatized groups in the United States, frequently portrayed as immoral, unhappy, or even outright angry. Yet we know very little about what their lives are actually like as they live among their largely religious, and sometimes hostile, fellow citizens. In this book, Jerome P. Baggett listens to what atheists have to say about their own lives and viewpoints. Drawing on questionnaires and interviews with more than five hundred American atheists scattered across the country, The Varieties of Nonreligious Experience uncovers what they think about morality,Trade ReviewRarely has this reviewer read a scholarly book as humane, moving, delightful, and respectfully written as Baggett’s thoughtful survey of contemporary atheism in the US… this masterful blend of qualitative sociological study and theologically informed thinking provides a valuable portrait of real-world atheism in the US. * Choice *A superb book. As noted, the number of interviews, the careful analysis, and the sincere effort to reflect the worldview of atheists result in this being perhaps the best scholarly work on atheists in the United States to date. ... Baggett’s incisive synthesis of the four roots that lie at the heart of the atheist worldview is particularly important and will be the standard citation on these ideas for years to come. This is an excellent volume on atheists in the United States that I highly recommend * Journal of the American Academy of Religion *Baggett presents an impressive and timely study of American atheists. With its strong foundation of extensive qualitative data that are systematically interpreted through a theoretical and historical lens, The Varieties of Nonreligious Experience should be of interest to an audience from multiple disciplines. I believe that it is a must-read for scholars interested in the study of secularity and nonreligion and of religion in the contemporary United States. Indeed, this book makes important and thought-provoking contributions to the scholarly conversation about what it means to be an atheist in a society that is normatively religious. * Sociology of Religion *Baggett strikes a balanced tone through the book. He strives for understanding, lets his research subjects speak for themselves, and directly dispels common stereotypes about American atheists. At the same time, he is critical of the foundational myths he detects in atheist self-understanding, including primarily the conflict between science and religion and the understanding of religious believers as irrational. The portrait that emerges is, I think, true to life in its ambivalence." * Theological Studies *The strengths of the book are the rich narratives it includes from the interviews. It becomes possible through the narratives to put faces and personalities and contexts and experiences together and in so doing to gain an understanding of atheists as individuals. The book’s strength also lies in the depth of its familiarity with the literature in religious studies and the sociology of religion. For anyone interested in the practices through which identities are constructed, this is a valuable contribution. * Contemporary Sociology *This book should find a wide audience among sociologists, anthropologists, historians, and religious studies scholars, among others. The organization and tone of the book are commendably clear, and the manner in which Baggett relays both ideas and evidence is quite engaging. The narrative of the book is particular rich and layered in two respects. One is the depth and persuasiveness of the historical context within which core arguments are located. Another is the sheer volume and quality of evidence out of which the arguments are constructed. This book will be useful both as a text in undergraduate seminars and in thematic graduate courses. Broadly, it adds intriguing insight into how we think about identity, identity change, and identity maintenance. More narrowly, the arguments presented provide a new and deeper understanding of what it means to become and to be atheist, and how this identity is understood and relayed to others. Methodologically, the book reminds us of the risks of overgeneralizing or underscrutinizing core concepts, like 'atheist' or 'religious None,' and underscores the importance of rethinking and revisiting questions that seem as if they are already relatively well understood. * Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion *This book should expand the study of American atheism beyond token outliers — the New Atheists and secular churches. It will also offer a point of contrast for more specific studies of non-white, less overtly masculine, and non-heteronormative atheist communities, allowing scholars to better grasp the secular landscape. * Numen *Baggett offers a rich and fascinating account of how these [contemporary American atheists] live and understand their lives. * Church History *Baggett’s expertise as a thinker and writer are on full display ... A compelling and complex portrait of rank-and-file nonbelievers living meaningful lives. * Nova Religio *

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