<p>Bailey, Jason. Fun City Cinema: New York City and the Movies that Made It. Abrams Books, 2022.&nbsp; In Fun City Cinema, Jason Bailey argues that the films made in New York City are invariably shaped by the character of the city itself and reflect the history, tensions and achievements of New York and New Yorkers &hellip; <a href="https://nepca.blog/2023/06/06/book-review-fun-city-cinema-new-york-city-and-the-movies-that-made-it-by-jason-bailey/" class="more-link">Continue

<p>Scepanski, Philip. Tragedy Plus Time: National Trauma and Television Comedy. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2021. Philip Scepanski’s truly excellent new book examines the myriad of ways that television comedy addresses national tragedies through humor resulting in opportunities to define and redefine the boundaries of American identity by breaking taboos and identifying what is acceptable &hellip; <a href="https://nepca.blog/2023/05/23/book-review-tragedy-plus-time-nat

<p>Zingg, Automne and Joshua Ploeg. Enter Sandwich: Some Kind of Vegan Cooking with No Connection to Metallica. Portland, OR: Microcosm Publishing, 2022.&nbsp; Enter Sandwich is not simply a cookbook. It’s&nbsp; a celebration of all of the fun, enjoyable and unexpected ways that seemingly unconnected currents of pop culture can intersect. After several difficult years rent &hellip; <a href="https://nepca.blog/2023/05/11/book-review-enter-sandwich-some-kind-of-vegan-cooking-wi

<p>Sanchez-Taylor, Joy. Diverse Futures: Science Fiction and Authors of Color. The Ohio State University Press, 2021 Book review by Christine Garcia, Associate Professor of English, Eastern Connecticut State University “‘How Long ‘Til Black Future Month?’ A Review of Diverse Futures: Science Fiction and Authors of Color” Joy Sanchez-Taylor’s Diverse Futures: Science Fiction and Authors of &hellip; <a href="https://nepca.blog/2023/03/16/book-review-diverse-futures-science-fict

<p>CAMERA MAN (2022)By Dana StevensAtria Books, 393 pages + notes Charlie Chaplin was early cinema’s king of comedy. After that, it’s a tossup between Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton. Dana Stevens, a film critic and podcast cohost for Slate, champions Keaton, of whom she is an unabashed fan. As Camera Man’s subtitle suggests–The Dawn of &hellip; <a href="https://nepca.blog/2022/07/06/book-review-camera-man-2022/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-te

<p>Daniel Y. Kim. Intimacies of Conflict: Cultural Memory and the Korean War. New York: NYU Press, 2020. Review by Katherine Allocco, Western Connecticut State University Daniel Kim’s thorough and thoughtful new book, Intimacies of Conflict, argues that the Korean War, the so-called “forgotten war”, exerted a widespread influence on the way that Americans understood, discussed &hellip; <a href="https://nepca.blog/2021/10/26/review-intimacies-of-conflict-cultural-memory-and-th

<p>Battle for the Big Top: P.T. Barnum, James Bailey, John Ringling, and the Death-Defying Saga of the American CircusBy Les StandifordHachette Book Group, 272 pages.Review by Rob Weir If you are under the age of 40 and have never lived in New York City, you may have never seen the “Greatest Show on Earth,” as &hellip; <a href="https://nepca.blog/2021/03/04/book-review-battle-for-the-big-top/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-text">Book Review: B

<p>Troy Rondinone, Nightmare Factories: The Asylum in the American Imagination. Johns Hopkins, 2019. Book review by Katherine Allocco (Western Connecticut State University) Troy Rondinone traces the evolution of the portrayal of mental health institutions in American popular culture from the nineteenth century until today. Beginning with Edgar Allen Poe’s 1845 short story “The System of &hellip; <a href="https://nepca.blog/2021/02/01/book-review-nightmare-factories-by-troy-ro

<p>Elizabeth Otto. Haunted Bauhaus: Occult Spirituality, Gender Fluidity, Queer Identities, and Radical Politics. MIT Press, 2019. Book review by Katherine Allocco (Western Connecticut State University) In Haunted Bauhaus, art historian Elizabeth Otto, who has published numerous books on the Bauhaus, turns her expertise to examining some of the movements and ideas that appeared on the &hellip; <a href="https://nepca.blog/2021/01/26/book-review-haunted-bauhaus-by-elizabeth-ott

<p>Horwitz, Tony. Spying on the South: An Odyssey Across the American Divide   Penguin, 2019. Book review by Katherine Allocco (Western Connecticut State University) Tony Horwitz’s last book, Spying on the South: An Odyssey Across the American Divide, tells two stories. First, he recounts details of Frederick Law Olmsted’s two journeys across the Southern States in &hellip; <a href="https://nepca.blog/2021/01/19/book-review-spying-on-the-south-by-tony-horwitz/" class="more-li

<p>Halberstadt, Alex. Young Heroes of the Soviet Union: A Memoir and a Reckoning. Random House, 2020. Book review by Katherine Allocco (Western Connecticut State University) Alex Halberstadt’s Young Heroes of the Soviet Union redefines the genre of memoir creating something complex and compelling. He begins his memoir with the central question: Can trauma be inherited? &hellip; <a href="https://nepca.blog/2021/01/12/book-review-alex-young-heroes-of-the-soviet-union-a-memoir-a

<p>Hosey, Sara. Home is Where the Hurt Is: Media Depictions of Wives and Mothers. McFarland, 2019. Book review by Katherine Allocco (Western Connecticut State University) Sara Hosey’s excellent book Home is Where the Hurt Is analyzes shifting media images of mothers and wives in recent film and television shows emphasizing the ways that stereotypes and &hellip; <a href="https://nepca.blog/2021/01/05/book-review-home-is-where-the-hurt-is-by-sara-hosey/" class="more-link">Conti

<p>Music is Power: Popular Songs, Social Justice, and the Will to Change. By Brad Schreiber. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2020. Viii + 218 pages + bibliography, index. Brad Schreiber opens Music is Power with a defense of protest music. It, like the much of this book, needs to be more precise. Schreiber is &hellip; <a href="https://nepca.blog/2020/05/18/book-review-music-is-power/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-text">Book Review

<p>American Community: Radical Experiments in Intentional Living. By Mark Ferrara. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2020. 183 pp + notes, index. Many scholars have jettisoned the baggage-laden term “utopia.” Dictionaries often imprecisely define it as an imaginary and perfect society. Blame Sir Thomas More (1478-1535), who–in 1516–coined the term “utopia” for an eponymous and &hellip; <a href="https://nepca.blog/2020/03/16/book-review-american-community-radical-ex

<p>Pick Up the Pieces: Excursions in Seventies Music by John Corbett. The University of Chicago Press, 2019. 475 Pages. Review by Randy Laist. What do you think of when you think about the 1970s?  Many people who are too young to have many first-hand memories from the 1970s, myself included, harbor a stereotyped characterization of the 1970s &hellip; <a href="https://nepca.blog/2020/01/08/book-review-pick-up-the-pieces-excursions-in-seventies-music/" class="more-link">Continu

<p>We are exuberant to announce this year&#8217;s winner of the Peter C. Rollins Book Prize: Amy Werbel&#8217;s Lust on Trial: Censorship and the Rise of American Obscenity in the Age of  Anthony Comstock. New York: Columbia University Press, 2018. pp. 391.  Here is a review by Katherine Allocco  (Western Connecticut State University)of this book which will be formally recognized at the &hellip; <a href="https://nepca.blog/2019/11/04/award-winning-book-lust-on-trial/" class="

<p>Communes in America, 1975-2000. By Timothy Miller. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2019. 148 pp. + appendices, notes, bibliography, index. If I asked you what decade of American history had the most active communes (1,378) and you guessed the 1970s, congratulations. But it might surprise you to learn that the first decade of the 21st &hellip; <a href="https://nepca.blog/2019/07/24/book-review-communes-in-america-1975-2000/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span

<p>On the Sunny Side: The Danbury Mad Hatter Chorus, 1966-2016. Wynn Gadkar-Wilcox. Mad Hatter Chorus, 2017. &nbsp; In celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Mad Hatter Chorus located in Danbury, Connecticut, Wynn Gadkar-Wilcox has written the definitive history of the group. The Mad Hatters became a chartered group and official chapter of the Society &hellip; <a href="https://nepca.blog/2018/11/02/barbershop-music-in-danbury/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span

<p>Repertory Movie Theaters of New York City: Havens for Revivals, Indies and the Avant-Garde, 1960-1994. Ben Davis. McFarland, 2017. Ben Davis’ excellent new book thoroughly explores the history, culture and importance of the repertory movie theaters that influenced the art film scene in New York City from the 1960s into the 1990s. In this well organized &hellip; <a href="https://nepca.blog/2018/10/29/the-fading-world-of-cinema-review/" class="more-link">Continue reading <sp

<p>The Ministers’ War: John W. Mears, the Oneida Community, and the Crusade for Public Morality. By Michael Doyle. Syracuse University Press. 2018.   Antebellum activism is often refracted through an abolitionist lens, though few Northern evangelicals compartmentalized reform. Protestant ministers spearheading change could be found among any of a number of reform groups. In this &hellip; <a href="https://nepca.blog/2018/04/12/oneida-versus-the-moralists-a-review-of-the-minist