Alpha Sigma Nu, the Honor Society of Jesuit colleges and universities, announces the winners of the twentieth annual National Jesuit Book Awards in the category of "The Humanities". The winners were chosen from among 109 entries representing 23 Jesuit institutions and 2 theologates. The awards are administered by the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities.

In the Discipline of Literature

The Wars We Took to Vietnam: Cultural Conflict and Storytelling (University of California Press, 1996) by Milton J. Bates, Professor of English, Marquette University.

Honorable Mention: Telling Time (University of Chicago Press, 1996) by Stuart Sherman, Professor of English, Fordham University.

In the Discipline of History

The Children's Civil War (The University of North Carolina Press, 1998) by James Marten, Associate Professor of History, Marquette University.

In the Disciplines of Philosophy/Theology

Imagining the Sacred: Soundings in World Religions (Orbis Books, 1998) by Vernon Ruland, S.J., Professor of Theology, University of San Francisco.

Honorable Mention: Public Deliberation (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1996) by James Bohman, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Saint Louis University.

 Notes from the reviewers

The Winners

Imagining the Sacred: Soundings in World Religions by Vernon Ruland, S.J. (Orbis Books, 1998). "Ruland's volume is at the same time an introduction to religious traditions and an invitation to, as he says, 'expand the imagination, to experience at close range what it means to live and wonder and pray from within a religious tradition other than one's own.' The work encompasses a wide knowledge of religious life and scholarship. His book is eminently suitable for undergraduate religious studies courses and appropriate for general readers and for church or community discussion groups."

"A fascinating book in the tradition of the famous Varieties of Religious Experience by William James. Ruland does a brilliant job of working from his own experience of the Sacred, the experiences of his students from several faiths, and the documented accounts of primal societies and the great world religions especially as they are expressed in art, ritual, literature and poetry."

"The method of the book is quite original. (Ruland) shows a fine ability for summary of the conceptual points which can be derived from the experience or used to explain the experience. Imagining the Sacred is both scholarly enough for the graduate student and clear enough for the general reader."

The Children's Civil War by James Marten (University of North Carolina Press, 1998). "Marten is the first scholar to address how the war and the absence of fathers for up to four years altered the lives of children north and south. One of the many strengths of the work is that it carefully examines children of both genders and races in all regions of the troubled republic."

"Marten's use of language is wonderfully creative. He utilizes the obvious suspects letters and diaries, some of them written years after the fact but then goes on to examine children's literature and schoolbooks. The bibliography indicates research conducted in twenty-four manuscript repositories from Boston to Austin."

"The book is well-written, and grabs the imagination. Each chapter raises important issues which are then skillfully analyzed in well-organized sections, such as the changing relationship between absent fathers and their families, and the implications of "freedom" for newly emancipated African-American children. Marten's work is surely of interest to scholars in many fields, and to a more general audience as well, who will be drawn into the text by an engaging writing style, and greatly enlightened by an erudition that inspires the reader to think about the War between the States, our nation's broader history, even childhood itself, in new exciting ways."

The Wars We Took to Vietnam: Cultural Conflict and Storytelling by Milton J. Bates (University of California Press, 1996). "covers an impressive range of materials, makes some striking arguments, and grapples with a wide range of topics the generation gap, the political climate of the 1960s and its expression in concepts of political authority, the meaning of the class war between students and workers, and other issues. It was a bracing read and left me wanting to hear more from the author and thinking how exciting it would be to take a class from this scholar."

"The best thing about this important work of scholarship is the subtle, often brilliant readings of the films that continue to tell the story of Vietnam and its veterans. After reading Bates on film, readers will never again view Platoon, Apocalypse Now, or The Deer Hunter in the same way."

The Honorable Mentions

Public Deliberation by James Bohman (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1996). "Bohman has written a very timely book on a very difficult problem "...the threat to public deliberation in any institutional way in a society that is composed like our own, which he sees as pluralistic, crippled with inequality, and challenged by complexity. His method is to examine carefully the claims of the Kantian demand for a universal kingdom of reasonable people seeking the common good. He also analyzes the emphasis on action seen in Habermas and Dewey."

"A very thought-provoking book which employs a "Deweyan" strategy of examining the de facto functioning of democratic societies to discover its important structural components rather than constructing a theoretical model and fitting practice to it. The claim that democracy depends on public deliberation, understood as a dialogical process in which citizens have a reasonable expectation of influencing one another and the outcome, is a very rich idea. I think Bohman develops this idea with skill, and defends its operation against the society forces that endanger the democratic process cultural pluralism, social inequalities, social complexity."

Telling Time by Stuart Sherman (The University of Chicago Press, 1996). "A real tour de force of close analysis. I found the concepts of time unfolded in the opening chapter startling and the discipline with which these concepts were tracked in diaries and other sources in subsequent chapters fascinating. Reading Sherman was like watching someone take apart the mechanism of a tiny, complex clock and then show how one gets from such minute mechanisms to the largest ideas about how the story of a life can be told. This book has an impressive historical dimension and has obvious importance for scholars in more than one discipline."

Other Notable Books

Analysis and Science in Aristotle by Patrick H. Byrne (State University of New York Press, 1997). "A fairly sophisticated and well-informed treatment of a significant issue in the history of ancient philosophy, namely, Aristotle's account of his two treatises which are grouped together as Analytics."

Babies and Beasts by Daniel A. Dombrowski (Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois, 1997). "An extraordinarily thorough account of one prominent argument often encountered in contemporary ethical and bioethical debates concerning the (dis)similarity between certain human beings and non-human animals, who in terms of their occurrent capacities for sentience and consciousness appear to be on a par or above these humans. This topic will be of interest to ethicists, those interested in animal rights and bioethicists. Dombrowski displays a mastery of the current debate, a clear authority in interpretation, and a robust objective consideration of opposing views. He also writes in an engaging and at times delightful style."

Becoming A Self: A Reading of Kierkegaard's Concluding Unscientific Postscript by Merold Westphal (Perdue University Press, 1996). "An extremely careful study of a very difficult text of Kierkegaard by a scholar with a very impressive command of Kierkegaard. This is a classic commentary on one of the great works of modern times. It is scholarly in every way and highly regarded."

Maps of Heaven, Maps of Hell: Religious Terror as Memory from the Puritans to Stephen King by Edward J. Ingebretsen (M.E. Sharpe, Inc. 1996). "The breadth of knowledge presented to readers is remarkable: the scholarship ranges from classic authors like Jonathan Edwards and Robert Frost through popular culture icons like Stephen King and H. P. Lovecraft to noted contemporary theorists like Fredric Jameson and Julia Kristeva. But perhaps the finest characteristic of the book is that all of this material is made a clear and inviting reading experience through a sure sense of style and a precise, cohesive presentation in each chapter. I found much to admire in this book, especially the author's systematic return to theological ideas (or what passes for them) in contemporary film."

Swingin' the Dream: Big Band Jazz and the Rebirth of American Culture by Lewis Erenberg (University of Chicago Press, 1998). "The body of the book is a fast-moving narrative of the history of jazz from the mid-1930s to the late 1940s. This narrative is based on extensive research (summarized in forty pages of notes). Erenberg masterfully fits jazz into the context of the Depression, the New Deal, World War II, and the early Cold War. In the process he demonstrates that swing served as an immensely popular vehicle for populist hopes for a truly American culture and as a mode for a fully democratic society that would eliminate racial divisions. He also shows how those hopes fell apart as artists began to outdistance their audience and as New Deal populism succumbed to the Cold War's Red Scare."

"In its ability to illuminate large social and culture forces through the detailed examination of a seemingly narrow aspect of American life, Swingin' the Dream is a model study. It demonstrates in exhilarating fashion that the art of writing clear, accessible, and significant history has not been entirely lost."

Red Rubber, Bleeding Trees: Violence, Slavery, and Empire in Northwest Amazonia, 1850-1933 by Michael Edward Stanfield (University of New Mexico, 1998). "An important contribution to writing the history of native Americans in South America. I particularly admired the way that it began with economic history, and proceeded to the political, international, and even anthropological implications of rubber. I thought the treatment of the Putumayo Scandal was excellent, and I admired the analysis of the relation between the sensation of the scandal and the actual circumstances in Amazonia."

Ritual: Perspectives and Dimensions by Catherine Bell (Oxford University Press, 1997). "I found Catherine Bell's book on myth and ritual to be very learned, very thorough and very relevant. She writes with great clarity and care. Her book is very scholarly indeed. While she never avoids the discussion of difficult concepts and distinctions, she somehow does this in a way that the general reader is able to grasp the complexity with some insight."

"Catherine Bell is in the forefront of those who are studying ritual. In this work, she examines the construction of the rubric of ritual, the relationship of ritual and myth, the range of ritual activities, the social and religious functions that ritual performs, the changes that occur in ritual activities, and the appropriation of meaning through ritual. The book is well-organized and will be of importance to scholars in fields such as anthropology, communication studies, and religious studies. Moreover, there is little doubt that it will be influential in shaping the new field of ritual studies."

Seven Doors to Islam and Windows on the House of Islam (University of California Press, Berkeley, 1996 and 1998, respectively) by John Renard. "Doors considers the basics of theology and doctrine in Islam; Windows gives an account of the spirituality and religious life of Muslims. Both books provide an excellent sensitive and scholarly account of one of the three great world religions rooted in Abraham. In a world in which Moslem and Christians are so often at war it is refreshing to see a scholar from a Catholic, Jesuit University write so well and so movingly of that very same Moslem tradition."

The Making of an Egyptian Arab Nationalist: the Early Years of Azzam Pasha, 1993-1936 by Ralph M. Coury (Ithaca Press, 1998). "The book deals with a complex topic yet succeeds in being clear and readable. The book is well-organized and shows how Arab and Egyptian politics relate to western culture."

The World of the Early Christians by Joseph F. Kelly (Liturgical Press, 1997). "This highly accessible introduction to the world of early Christians is an ideal text for advanced undergraduates and interested lay readers. It focuses attention on the sociohistorical world of the first Christians and avoids the all-too-common pitfall of becoming a study of their thought as well. Kelly is to be commended especially for his ability to present what can at times be arcane material in an accessible and even entertaining way.