UMass Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press

Ethan Carr’s Mission 66: Modernism and the National Park Dilemma has won the 2008 John Brinkerhoff Jackson Prize of the Foundation for Landscape Studies. This award “honors a distinguished book in the English language that was published between 2004 and 2007 . . . a book that has made a significant contribution to the study and understanding of garden history and landscape studies.” The book is published in association with the Library of American Landscape History.

Commenting on Carr's book, filmmaker Ken Burns wrote, "This is an intelligent and level-headed look at the great promise and the great problems associated with the Park Service's Mission 66 program. Embedded in it—and in this fascinating book as well—is the age-old dilemma that has plagued our National Parks since their inception, namely, how to make them accessible to everyone while at the same time saving them from those who too often end up 'loving them to death.'"

Having already been selected for the AAUP Book Show as one of the best-designed university press books of the year, E. John B. Allen’s The Culture and Sport of Skiing: From Antiquity to World War I was named winner of the 2008 Ullr Award from the International Skiing History Association. The award was presented to the author at the ISHA Awards Banquet in Aspen, Colorado. The mission of the Association is “to preserve and advance the knowledge of ski history and to increase public awareness of the sport’s heritage.” It also publishes Skiing Heritage Magazine.

A comprehensive history of skiing from its earliest origins to the outbreak of World War II, Allen's book traces the transformation of what for centuries remained an exclusively utilitarian practice into the exhilarating modern sport we know today.

Carole O'Malley Gaunt’s Hungry Hill received the inaugural Anne Bancroft Memorial Memoir Award from the Southampton Writers Conference and was widely reviewed. Booklist commented that Gaunt “breaks the silence of an alcoholic’s daughter in this remarkably moving memoir, which begins when her mother dies of cancer in 1959. . . . it is a family history deftly, candidly told.” The book was described by Publishers Weekly as “a poignant, heart-wrenching memoir.” Kirkus noted “not only does the author write movingly of her dysfunctional family life, she provides an achingly honest picture of a teenager hungrily seeking at school the approval she does not receive at home.” According to the Boston Globe, “what readers will take away from it, besides Gaunt’s skillful wielding of language and narrative structure, is a sense of this Irish-Catholic teenager as a survivor who pushes back against the terrible tide of loss to seek her footing in the wider world.”

Roger Reed’s Building Victorian Boston: The Architecture of J. F. Gridley Bryant was named to the list of Choice “Outstanding Academic Books for 2007.” The Choice reviewer described the book as “eloquently written, well researched and documented, and laced with historical black-and-white illustrations, all a refreshing change from the recent meatless coffee-table books on local architecture. . . . In the arena of architectural biographies, this book stands at the top. It is a pleasure to see superb research on previously unknown or local architects and their historic architecture. . . . Highly recommended.”

In January 2008 at the meeting of the American Historical Association, the Press co-hosted a well-attended reception in honor of the publication of The Problem of Evil: Slavery, Freedom, and the Ambiguities of American Reform, edited by Steven Mintz and John Stauffer. Described in the Chronicle of Higher Education as “a provocative collection of original essays,” this volume brought together leading scholars to discuss the moral issues raised by American history—in particular, the problem of slavery and its legacies of racism, racial exclusion, and racial inequality. H-Net Reviews described the essays as “uniformly thoughtful and well-written. They will be a useful starting point for students investigating the subjects with which they deal.”

Nona Caspers’s collection of short stories, Heavier Than Air, was selected as an “Editor’s Choice” by the New York Times Book Review. The reviewer wrote, “"Throughout this collection, which was plucked from a pile of 300 manuscripts and awarded the Grace Paley Prize in short fiction, Caspers details the many ways reality can interfere with our dreams. . . . Caspers’s people—it’s difficult to consider some of them mere characters—question the decisions they’ve made or the ones they refuse to make. There’s nothing flashy about Caspers’s prose; like the beauty of the prairie itself, its attraction lies in details seen up close.”

Carl Ostrowski's Books, Maps, and Politics: A Cultural History of the Library of Congress 1783-1861 has been named winner of the 2007 Eliza Atkins Gleason Book Award sponsored by The Library History Round Table of the American Library Association. This award is presented every third year to recognize the best book written in English in the field of library history, including the history of libraries, librarianship, and book culture. The award bears the name of Eliza Atkins Gleason, the first African American to receive a Ph.D. from the Graduate Library School of the University of Chicago.

Books, Maps, and Politics uses the early history of the Library of Congress as a lens through which to view changing American attitudes toward books, literature, and the relationship between the federal government and the world of arts and letters. Wayne A. Wiegand of Florida State University described it as "a highly readable book located comfortably at the intersection of print culture studies and American library history."

Marla Miller 's The Needle's Eye: Women and Work in the Age of Revolution has won the 2007 Millia Davenport Publication Award sponsored by the Costume Society of America for the best book in the field. This year the jury had "a particularly strong group of nine short-listed books representing many aspects of dress scholarship," according to Kristina Haugland of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, who served as chair of the award committee. One member noted that the book is "not only most impressive history, but an excellent model of research that deserves a place on bibliographies and student reading assignments." Another juror described it "a great contribution to women's history, economic history, community studies, and colonial studies." The committee commended Miller for her integrative approach, weaving "an engaging story that challenges much of what was previously believed about clothing production in eighteenth-century New England."

The award, which includes a $500 honorarium, was announced at the Annual Symposium of the Costume Society of America in San Diego on May 30, 2007. Miller has been invited to speak at the Annual Symposium next year in New Orleans.

Cathy Stanton's The Lowell Experiment: Public History in a Postindustrial City was selected as the winner of the 2007 Book Award of the National Council on Public History. The award goes to the best work published about or growing out of public history. The selection committee commended the author for making "an outstanding contribution in the subfield of public history and memory." The award was presented at the NCPH Presidential Luncheon in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on April 13.

Glendyne Wergland's One Shaker Life: Isaac Newton Youngs, 1793-1865 has been named winner of the 2006 Award for Outstanding Publication from the Communal Studies Association. The citation recognizes the book as "an outstanding contribution both to Shaker studies and to the broader field of communal studies."

Reviewing One Shaker Life, noted expert Stephen J. Paterwic describes it as, "one of the finest pieces of scholarship ever done on the Shakers. It stands in stark contrast to the many books published in the last few years which, although on the topic of the Shakers and quite colorful, have shown very little research, and even less thought. It is one thing to list resources, it is quite another to have actually used them, and used them in the proper context. Wergland's book reflects a thorough knowledge of Shaker brother Isaac Newton Youngs and his times. Youngs left over four thousand manuscript pages, and Wergland's understanding of life at the Church Family at New Lebanon when Youngs lived there shows that she has read them all to inform her critical analysis. The result is a work that has many insights for anyone truly wanting to understand life in this community. "

Paterwic concludes his review with these words: "I cannot state enough how important books like this are if we are ever to gain a correct and complete view of the Shakers as they have evolved."

Six books from the University of Massachusetts Press were selected as "Outstanding Titles for 2006" by the Public Library Association (PLA) and the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) -- http://www.aaupnet.org/librarybooks/ . Here is what the judges had to say about these books:

Priscilla Coit Murphy, What a Book Can Do: The Publication and Reception of Silent Spring

"This is an excellent book for students enrolled in communication media course. The history of Rachel Carson's learning experience in broadcasting and as author is described in a vivid and often painful manner. The author has made the life of this woman come alive. This is an outstanding book."—AASL

"Most people do not realize the impact that a book can have on society. Priscilla Murphy details the debate that the best selling book, Silent Spring had with the public and chemical industry on the issue of pesticides. It's a fast paced compelling story. This is an excellent book for a new generation of book lovers, journalist, investigators, and historians."—PLA

Faith Barrett and Cristanne Miller, Words for the Hour: A New Anthology of American Civil War Poetry

"This selection of poems generated during the American Civil War is expressed in a powerful display of man's quest for freedom. This is an excellent addition to a history curriculum."—AASL

"This anthology of American Civil War poetry is excellent for a public library poetry collection. The editors include a Civil War timeline, a detailed introduction on Civil War poetry, brief biography of the poets, and a glossary. The collection includes published and non-published poems."—PLA

Wendy Hamand Venet, A Strong-Minded Woman: The Life of Mary Livermore

"The story of this women's life is motivating. The author portrayed Mary A. Livermore as a woman who moved beyond the elements leading a normal day-by-day life. This is an excellent book to be used in history or an English course."—AASL

Bernard W. Bell, The Contemporary African American Novel: Its Folk Roots and Modern Literary Branches

"This book should be required reading in the study of African American novels. Bernard Bell writes an in-depth study of African American novels and authors from 1983 to 2001."—PLA

Ronald A. Bosco, ed., Nature's Panorama: Thoreau on the Seasons

"This book is written as a journal. Thoreau's first entry is March 23, 1856. The words are beautiful and poetic. This is an excellent book to use in a writing class and English class. The text is very warm and invites you to turn to the next page."—AASL

Steve Grant, ed., Daily Observations: Thoreau on the Days of the Year

"This is written from the prospective of Henry David Thoreau's Journal. This a wonderful book to learn about the life of Henry David Thoreau and his writings. This is an excellent book to use in a junior high school and high school English and writing class."—AASL

The American Library Association has selected 27 titles as "The Best of the Best from the University Presses: Books You Should Know About." Among the selected titles are Bernard Bell's The Contemporary African American Novel: Its Folk Roots and Modern Literary Branches and Priscilla Coit Murphy's What a Book Can Do: The Publication and Reception of Silent Spring. The selected titles were the subject of a two-hour program at the American Library Association Conference in New Orleans on June 25.

For her book, Huerfano: A Memoir of Life in the Counterculture, Roberta Price has received the 2006 Zia Award from the New Mexico Press Women, an affiliate of the National Federation of Press Women. The Zia Award celebrates an outstanding New Mexico woman author of fiction, nonfiction, or children's literature. Huerfano was selected as the best work of nonfiction published in 2003, 2004, or 2005. It was previously named one of ForeWord magazine's top ten university press books of the year.

Bernard Bell's The Contemporary African American Novel: Its Folk Roots and Modern Literary Branches has won the 2006 Distinguished Scholarship Award of the College Language Association. The author was presented with the award at the Association's 66th annual convention in Birmingham, Alabama. The book had already received an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation and had been named a Choice Outstanding Academic Book. The Contemporary African American Novel builds upon Bell's earlier work, The African-American Novel and Its Tradition, a comprehensive interpretive history of more than 150 novels written by African Americans from 1853 to 1983. That book, published in 1987, was reprinted five times.

Doreen Baingana's Tropical Fish: Stories out of Entebbe, won the Commonwealth Foundation's 2006 Best First Book Award in the Africa region. The award, which includes a cash prize of £1,000, was made by an international judging panel meeting in Kampala, Uganda. Baingana is a Ugandan writer who lives in the United States. Tropical Fish previously won the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) Award in Short Fiction. Baingana also has won the Washington Independent Writers Fiction Prize and was a two-time finalist for the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2004 and 2005.

The UMass Press recently announced three new volumes in The Spirit of Thoreau, a series published in cooperation with the Thoreau Society. Each book includes selections of Thoreau's writings on a particular theme, in an attractive paperback edition with original engravings by Barry Moser

Bradford W. Martin was recently awarded the New England American Studies Association (NEASA) 2005 Lois P. Rudnick Book Prize for The Theater Is in the Street. The award was presented at the NEASA annual conference in September. For all the attention that has been paid to the civil rights movement, the rise of the New Left, and the antiwar movement of the 1960s, surprisingly little has been written about the artist activists whose defiance of convention fueled the decade's underlying cultural revolution. This book addresses that oversight by examining five groups whose fusion of public performance and political protest not only challenged the established order but helped to define a new aesthetic: The SNCC Freedom Singers, the Living Theatre, the Diggers, the Art Workers Coalition, and the Guerilla Art Action Group.

Allen Guttmann’s Sports: The First Five Millennia won the annual Book Award of the North American Society for Sport History. The author was presented with the award, and a check for $500, at the Society’s thirty-third annual conference on May 30, 2005, in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Drawing on a vast body of research in various languages, and informed by the “modernization” theory for which the author is well known, the book offers a comprehensive narrative of the history of world sports from antiquity to the present. It is a History Book Club selection. Allen Guttmann is professor of English and American studies at Amherst College.

Jack Tager, author of Massachusetts at a Glance: A User’s Guide to the Bay State, received the Bay State Legacy Award in recognition of his contributions to the interpretation and presentation of Massachusetts history. Sponsored by the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities, the award was presented at a conference for Massachusetts history organizations on June 6, 2005, in Leominster, Massachusetts. Massachusetts at a Glance offers an A-to-Z guide to the rich heritage and current attractions of the state. Jack Tager is professor emeritus of history at UMass Amherst.

Eric Jay Dolin’s Political Waters: The Long, Dirty, Contentious, Incredibly Expensive but Eventually Triumphant History of Boston Harbor—A Unique Environmental Success Story was chosen by the American Library Association for its “Best of the Best from the University Presses: Books You Should Know About.” Twenty-seven of the 11,000 titles published annually by university presses were selected by a panel of librarians as the “Best of the Best.” They were displayed at the ALA summer conference from June 23 to 28, 2005, in Chicago. Eric Jay Dolin is an independent scholar and freelance writer.

John M. Sloop’s Disciplining Gender: Rhetorics of Sex Identity in Contemporary U.S. Culture won the National Communication Association’s Winans/Wichelns Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Rhetoric and Public Address. The award, which carries a $1,000 prize for the author, has been given annually since 1966. It was presented to Professor Sloop in November 2005 in Chicago at the annual meeting of the National Communication Association, the oldest and largest organization serving the academic discipline of communication. John M. Sloop is associate professor of communication studies at Vanderbilt University.

The University of Massachusetts Press is pleased to announce that Daniel Horowitz’s The Anxieties of Affluence: Critiques of American Consumer Culture, 1939–1979 received the 2005 Eugene M. Kayden Press Book Award for the best book in the humanities published by an American university press. Administered by the University of Colorado at Boulder, the Eugene M. Kayden Press Book Award is given annually and includes a $5,000 prize for the winning author. Each American university press may submit one entry for the competition.

This is the second year in a row that a book from the University of Massachusetts Press has won this award—in 2004 it went to Joel Dinerstein’s Swinging the Machine: Modernity, Technology, and African American Culture between the World Wars.

Commenting on the award, UMass Press director Bruce Wilcox said, “We are delighted. This is a fitting tribute to Dan Horowitz, a superb scholar who has written an extremely interesting and insightful work of intellectual history. It is also a testimony to the judgment and skills of our senior editor, Clark Dougan, who acquired both The Anxieties of Affluence and Swinging the Machine.”

The Anxieties of Affluence previously was named to the list of “Outstanding Academic Titles” selected annually by Choice, a publication of the American Library Association.

A study of the tension between morality and abundance in American culture, The Anxieties of Affluence charts the reactions of public intellectuals and social activists to the unprecedented prosperity of the decades following World War II. Horowitz examines not only prominent figures such as Lewis Mumford, Rachel Carson, and Martin Luther King Jr., but also less well known writers such as George Katona, David Potter, and Paul Erhlich. Combining biography, intellectual history, and cultural analysis, he documents a deep-seated ambivalence toward consumerism among Americans—a persistent but shifting tension between a commitment to self-restraint and a desire for material wealth.

Daniel Horowitz is Mary Huggins Gamble Professor of American Studies at Smith College. He is author of The Morality of Spending: Attitudes toward the Consumer Society in America, 1875–1940 and Betty Friedan and the Making of The Feminine Mystique: The American Left, the Cold War, and Modern Feminism.

The Anxieties of Affluence was released in a paperback edition in September 2005 (ISBN 1-55849-504-5, $24.95).

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