University Press and professional reading ….

I recently evaluated two new titles from Yale University Press and can see applications for both at school. First was Haunted by Leo Braudy which, per its subtitle, deals with “Ghosts, Witches, Vampires, Zombies, and Other Monsters of the Natural and Supernatural Worlds.” Braudy, a Professor at the University of Southern California, is already recognized for his work on war, masculinity, and the nature of fame. In his new book, Braudy discusses monsters from nature, man-made, created monsters, the monster from within, and monsters from the past. Haunted is a perfect fit for the Monster Symposium we hold each year wherein our students explore the monster as “other,” as “evil,” and so forth.  Class discussions of texts like Shelley’s Frankenstein or Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray will also be enriched with Braudy’s insights. Recently reviewed in The Wall Street Journal (“The Monsters that Torment Us”), Haunted provides an enlightening read ("Fear is the pervasive topic of our times") in this Halloween (and election!) season.

The second title was The Battle for Syria by Christopher Phillips. This, too, is an excellent piece of scholarship and could be referenced by our Geography and Social Studies classes. A potential concern is the timeliness of this text given the constantly shifting news from the Middle East and Syria in particular. Phillips, however, provides a unique perspective and cogent analysis of underlying involvement of international forces:  US, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and Iran. The goals, subsequent actions and outcomes fro each are described. We will likely pair The Battle for Syria with Richard Engel’s And Then All Hell Broke Loose.