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| New Books |  | | Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil
by Zimbardo, Philip G.
Library Journal
: Starred Review. Zimbardo (psychology, emeritus, Stanford Univ.) is best known for a 1971 study, since called the Stanford Prison Experiment, in which student volunteers were randomly assigned to be guards or prisoners in a simulated jail. Although everyone involved knew that the so-called prisoners weren't guilty of anything, the violence and humiliation inflicted by the guards became so severe that the study had to be terminated prematurely. Here, Zimbardo explains that this happened not because the guards were bad people but because of the social situation into which they were thrust. Recently, he studied a real-life situation of his experiment when he served as a defense consultant in the trial of an Abu Ghraib guard. Zimbardo describes his own work and that of others, such as psychologist Stanley Milgram and sociologist Erving Goffman, in order to build a set of prescriptions for governments and organizations that would minimize the possibility of such human rights abuses occurring again. A well-written and important work; recommended for all libraries.—Mary Ann Hughes, Neill P.L., Pullman, WA Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions Inc. Terms
Publishers Weekly
: Psychologist Zimbardo masterminded the famous Stanford Prison Experiment, in which college students randomly assigned to be guards or inmates found themselves enacting sadistic abuse or abject submissiveness. In this penetrating investigation, he revisits—at great length and with much hand-wringing—the SPE study and applies it to historical examples of injustice and atrocity, especially the Abu Ghraib outrages by the U.S. military. His troubling finding is that almost anyone, given the right "situational" influences, can be made to abandon moral scruples and cooperate in violence and oppression. (He tacks on a feel-good chapter about "the banality of heroism," with tips on how to resist malign situational pressures.) The author, who was an expert defense witness at the court-martial of an Abu Ghraib guard, argues against focusing on the dispositions of perpetrators of abuse; he insists that we blame the situation and the "system" that constructed it, and mounts an extended indictment of the architects of the Abu Ghraib system, including President Bush. Combining a dense but readable and often engrossing exposition of social psychology research with an impassioned moral seriousness, Zimbardo challenges readers to look beyond glib denunciations of evil-doers and ponder our collective responsibility for the world's ills. 23 photos. (Apr. 3) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions Inc. Terms
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| New Books |  | | This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War
by Faust, Drew Gilpin
Publishers Weekly
: Battle is the dramatic centerpiece of Civil War history; this penetrating study looks instead at the somber aftermath. Historian Faust ( Mothers of Invention) notes that the Civil War introduced America to death on an unprecedented scale and of an unnatural kind—grisly, random and often ending in an unmarked grave far from home. She surveys the many ways the Civil War generation coped with the trauma: the concept of the Good Death—conscious, composed and at peace with God; the rise of the embalming industry; the sad attempts of the bereaved to get confirmation of a soldier's death, sometimes years after war's end; the swelling national movement to recover soldiers' remains and give them decent burials; the intellectual quest to find meaning—or its absence—in the war's carnage. In the process, she contends, the nation invented the modern culture of reverence for military death and used the fallen to elaborate its new concern for individual rights. Faust exhumes a wealth of material—condolence letters, funeral sermons, ads for mourning dresses, poems and stories from Civil War–era writers—to flesh out her lucid account. The result is an insightful, often moving portrait of a people torn by grief. Photos. (Jan. 10) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions Inc. Terms
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| New Books |  | | What the Best College Teachers Do
by Bain, Ken
Library Journal: For more than 25 years, college faculty have questioned how to become more effective teachers. Much of the support for their efforts to improve has come from centers for teaching excellence such as those that Bain has directed at institutions including Vanderbilt University, Northwestern University, and New York University. Drawing on interviews with more than 60 exemplary college teachers from a number of disciplines and a variety of institutions, Bain identifies personal characteristics, pedagogical practices, assessment techniques, and other individual and institutional elements that can help anyone with a commitment to teaching and learning to become a more effective college teacher. In works such as Improving College Teaching and Learner-Centered Teaching, Maryellen Weimer has addressed the popular "myth" that good teachers are "born, not made." Like Weimer, Bain demonstrates that disciplined attention to relevant research and to effective practice can help scholars in any field become better teachers. Providing insight into how teachers can help students demonstrate significant gains in learning in a variety of ways, this volume will be of interest to any member of the college faculty. Recommended for all academic collections.-Scott Walter, Washington State Univ., Pullman Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions Inc. Terms
Publishers Weekly: Bain's sound and scholarly yet exuberant promotion of America's "best college teachers" abounds with jaunty anecdotes and inspiring opinions that make student-centered instruction look not only infectious, but downright imperative. Teachers may enjoy the book's plummy examples from their peers' interdisciplinary curricula-such as the Harvard chemistry professor whose "lesson on polymers becomes the story of how the development of nylons influenced the outcome of World War II" or the U Penn art professor whose computer game allows students to determine the authenticity of a questionable Rembrandt. Bain's most compelling arguments, however, concern the quirks and motivations of today's college students. Though he acknowledges nationwide trends toward grade inflation, he invokes a 1990 study that suggests students are most driven by "high demands" and prefer "plentiful opportunities to revise and improve their work before it receives a grade." Likewise, the book argues that, even in the cutthroat climate of today's competitive colleges, students thrive best in cooperative classrooms. The best teachers, Bain avers, understand and exceed such expectations, and use them to create "natural critical learning environments." Easy-to-follow headings-such as "Start with the Students Rather Than the Discipline"-help readers learn to create such environments, too. Inspiring though this slender book will be for college teachers at all levels, it may also delight the general reader with nostalgic reminders of their finest classroom experiences. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions Inc. Terms
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| Career Center Books |  | | The Internship Advantage
by Dario Bravo, Carol Whiteley
Library Journal: Internships can provide valuable experience for anyone exploring or switching careers. They have served as launching pads for Oprah Winfrey, Brooke Shields, Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, and Bill Gates, among others. Bravo (manager, internship & study abroad program, UCLA) and Whiteley ( Technology, Entrepreneurs and Silicon Valley) are well versed in this area; their book is based on a program Bravo manages at UCLA. The text gives practical guidelines for researching, applying for, and undertaking internships, describing the types of internships available, how to select the internship best suited to one's specific talents and skills, how to craft cover letters and résumés (with samples provided) and perform well in the interview, how to finance an internship if it is not paid, and how to evaluate the programs. Also provided are valuable resources for further information, including directories (with web site addresses) of the ten top career expos and ten top internship opportunities, as well as a bibliography of books and periodicals. Additionally, a CD-ROM offers updated information, including further web sites. This helpful book is recommended especially to public and academic libraries.—Lucy Heckman, St. John's Univ. Lib., Jamaica, NY Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions Inc. Terms
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| Career Center Books |  | | Careers for Good Samaritans & Other Humanitarian Types
by Marjorie Eberts, Margaret Gisler
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