Christine L. Ridarsky and Mary M. Huth, eds., Susan B. Anthony and the Struggle for Equal Rights. Reviewed by Franziska Schmid

CHRISTINE L. RIDARSKY and MARY M. HUTH, eds., Susan B. Anthony and the Struggle for Equal Rights (Rochester: U of Rochester P, 2012), 245 pp. Reviewed by Franziska Schmid  Amerikastudien / American Studies 59.4 (2014) The nineteenth-century American cultural landscape bears witness to a large variety of reform movements. Susan B. Anthony and the Struggle for…

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Brenda Gayle Plummer, In Search of Power: African Americans in the Era of Decolonization, 1956 – 1974. Reviewed by Elizabeth West

BRENDA GAYLE PLUMMER, In Search of Power: African Americans in the Era of Decolonization, 1956 – 1974 (New York, NY: Cambridge UP, 2013), 372pp. Reviewed by Elizabeth West  Amerikastudien / American Studies 59.4 (2014)   In this historical study of the overlapping but often presumed separate African American Civil Rights period and the Era of Decolonization,…

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Thomas King, The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America. Reviewed by Kristina Baudemann

THOMAS KING, The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America (Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 2013), 287 pp; (originally published in Canada by Doubleday, 2012) Reviewed by Kristina Baudemann  Amerikastudien / American Studies 59.4 (2014)   Thomas King’s The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America is not…

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Keith Clark, The Radical Fiction of Ann Petry. Reviewed by Julie Naviaux

KEITH CLARK, The Radical Fiction of Ann Petry (Baton Rouge: LSU Press, 2013), 264 pp. Reviewed by Julie Naviaux  Amerikastudien / American Studies 59.4 (2014) Clark begins his latest literary study, The Radical Fiction of Ann Petry, with a claim that calls for a complete reframing of Petry’s oeuvre: that Boston University’s Ann Petry archive demonstrates,…

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Babette Bärbel Tischleder, The Literary Life of Things: Case Studies in American Fiction. Reviewed by Martin Brückner

BABETTE BÄRBEL TISCHLEDER, The Literary Life of Things: Case Studies in American Fiction (Frankfurt: Campus, 2014), 292 pp. Reviewed by Martin Brückner Amerikastudien / American Studies 59.4 (2014)   Of the current scholarship driving the material turn in literary studies, Babette Tischleder’s The Literary Life of Things is a major contribution to critical efforts intent on…

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Dieter Schulz, Emerson and Thoreau, or Steps Beyond Ourselves: Studies in Transcendentalism. Reviewed by Johannes Voelz

DIETER SCHULZ, Emerson and Thoreau, or Steps Beyond Ourselves: Studies in Transcendentalism (Heidelberg: Mattes, 2012), 308 pp. Reviewed by Johannes Voelz Amerikastudien / American Studies 59.4 (2014) In 2013, the Ralph Waldo Emerson Society bestowed its highest honor—the “Lifetime Achievement Award”—on Dieter Schulz and thus recognized him as one of a very small group of scholars…

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Karen A. Weyler, Empowering Words: Outsiders and Authorship in Early America. Reviewed by Philipp Schweighauser

KAREN A. WEYLER, Empowering Words: Outsiders and Authorship in Early America (Athens: U of Georgia P, 2013), 311 pp. Reviewed by Philipp Schweighauser Amerikastudien / American Studies 59.3 (2014)   In Empowering Words: Outsiders and Authorship in Early America, Karen A. Weyler gives a fascinating account of non-elites’ strategies—primarily collaborative writing and sponsorship by patrons and…

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Annette Kolodny, In Search of First Contact: The Vikings of Vinland, the Peoples of Dawnland, and the Anglo-American Anxiety of Discovery. Reviewed by Johannes Fehrle

ANNETTE KOLODNY, In Search of First Contact: The Vikings of Vinland, the Peoples of Dawnland, and the Anglo-American Anxiety of Discovery (Durham: Duke UP, 2012), 448 pp. Reviewed by Johannes Fehrle Amerikastudien / American Studies 59.3 (2014)   Annette Kolodny is no stranger in U.S. Americanist circles. Her 1980 article “Dancing Through the Minefields” has been…

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Lawrence Buell, The Dream of the Great American Novel. Reviewed by Frank Gado

LAWRENCE BUELL, The Dream of the Great American Novel (Cambridge, MA; London: The Belknap Press of Harvard UP, 2014), 567 pages. Reviewed by Frank Gado Amerikastudien / American Studies 59.3 (2014) As treated in this ambitious study, the term Great American Novel recalls the overcooked noodle in the sink, elusive in direct proportion to the intensity…

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Nina Reid-Maroney, The Reverend Jennie Johnson and African Canadian History, 1868-1967. Reviewed by Nele Sawallisch

NINA REID-MARONEY, The Reverend Jennie Johnson and African Canadian History, 1868-1967 (Rochester: U of Rochester P, 2013), 186 pp. Reviewed by Nele Sawallisch Amerikastudien / American Studies 59.3 (2014)   In 1971, historian Robin Winks wrote the authoritative book on the African Canadian experience, covering three and a half centuries of the history of black people…

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Caroline Wagter, “Mouths on Fire with Songs:” Negotiating Multi-Ethnic Identities on the Contemporary North American Stage. Reviewed by Kurt Müller

CAROLINE DE WAGTER, “Mouths on Fire with Songs:” Negotiating Multi-Ethnic Identities on the Contemporary North American Stage, Cross/Cultures: Readings in Post/Colonial Literatures and Cultures in English, Vol. 163 (Amsterdam & New York: Rodopi, 2013), 356 pp. Reviewed by Kurt Müller Amerikastudien / American Studies 59.3 (2014)   The present study takes its starting point from the…

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Arnold Krupat, “That the People Might Live”: Loss and Renewal in Native American Elegy. Reviewed by Joanne van der Woude

ARNOLD KRUPAT, “That the People Might Live”: Loss and Renewal in Native American Elegy (Ithaca and London: Cornell UP, 2012), 242pp. Reviewed by Joanne van der Woude Amerikastudien / American Studies 59.3 (2014)   Arnold Krupat, an authority in Native American autobiography, applies his analytical acumen to several different genres in his most recent book, reading…

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Wilfried Raussert and Graciela Martínez-Zalce, eds., (Re)Discovering ‘America’: Road Movies and Other Travel Narratives in North America/(Re)Discubriendo ‘America’: Road movie y otras narrativas de viaje en América del Norte. Reviewed by Julia Roth

WILFRIED RAUSSERT and GRACIELA MARTÍNEZ-ZALCE, eds., (Re)Discovering ‘America’: Road Movies and Other Travel Narratives in North America/(Re)Discubriendo ‘America’: Road movie y otras narrativas de viaje en América del Norte, Inter-American Studies/Estudios Interamericanos, Vol. 6 (Trier: WVT; Tempe, AZ: Bilingual Press/Editorial Bilingüe, 2012), 242 pp. Reviewed by Julia Roth Amerikastudien / American Studies 59.3 (2014)   The…

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Irina Bauder-Begerow and Stefanie Schäfer, Learning 9/11: Teaching for Key Competences in Literary and Cultural Studies. Reviewed by Wolfgang Hochbruck

IRINA BAUDER-BEGEROW and STEFANIE SCHÄFER, Learning 9/11: Teaching for Key Competences in Literary and Cultural Studies (Heidelberg: Winter, 2011), 302 pp. Reviewed by Wolfgang Hochbruck Amerikastudien / American Studies 59.3 (2014) This is a fascinating collection of essays. Simultaneously, it is a puzzling conglomerate of didactic and educational contentions and hypotheses. The very title, Learning 9/11,…

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Daniel Horowitz, Consuming Pleasures: Intellectuals and Popular Culture in the Postwar World. Reviewed by Günter Leypoldt

DANIEL HOROWITZ, Consuming Pleasures: Intellectuals and Popular Culture in the Postwar World (Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 2012), xii + 491 pp. Reviewed by Günter Leypoldt Amerikastudien / American Studies 59.3 (2014)   Almost from its eighteenth-century beginnings, the rise of a commercialized literary market has polarized critics into despisers and defenders—those who associate ‘mass culture’…

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Anja Werner, The Transatlantic World of Higher Education: Americans at German Universities, 1776-1914. Reviewed by Annette G. Aubert

ANJA WERNER, The Transatlantic World of Higher Education: Americans at German Universities, 1776-1914 (New York: Berghahn Books, 2013), xiii + 329 pp. Reviewed by Annette G. Aubert Amerikastudien / American Studies 59.3 (2014) In the nineteenth century, a total of 9,000 to 10,000 American students attended Germany’s best universities. A growing number of German and American…

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Werner Sollors, The Temptation of Despair: Tales of the 1940s. Reviewed by Christa Buschendorf

WERNER SOLLORS, The Temptation of Despair: Tales of the 1940s (Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2014), 400pp. Reviewed by Christa Buschendorf Amerikastudien / American Studies 59.3 (2014) Distance may distort our view on history. In the case of the post-World War II era, the success story of German economic recovery and democratic reeducation has come to dominate…

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Carl H. Nightingale, Segregation: A Global History of Divided Cities. Reviewed by Maria Daxenbichler

CARL H. NIGHTINGALE, Segregation: A Global History of Divided Cities (Chicago and London: U of Chicago P, 2012), 536 pp. Reviewed by Maria Daxenbichler  Amerikastudien / American Studies 59.3 (2014)   In Segregation: A Global History of Divided Cities, Carl H. Nightingale traces the development of urban segregation from ancient cities to the twenty-firstcentury. He argues…

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Miles Orvell and Klaus Benesch, eds., Rethinking the American City: An International Dialogue. Reviewed by Gerd Hurm

MILES ORVELL and KLAUS BENESCH, eds., Rethinking the American City: An International Dialogue (Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 2014), 245 pp. Reviewed by Gerd Hurm Amerikastudien / American Studies 59.3 (2014) Paradoxes provide great tools for challenging well-trodden mental paths and for creating alertness in slumbering minds. Henry David Thoreau’s classic “The light which puts out…

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Reiner Smolinski and Jan Stievermann, eds., Cotton Mather and Biblia Americana – America’s First Bible Commentary: Essays in Reappraisal. Reviewed by Tibor Fabiny

REINER SMOLINSKI and JAN STIEVERMANN, eds., Cotton Mather and Biblia Americana – America’s First Bible Commentary: Essays in Reappraisal (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck and Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic 2010), 593 pp. Reviewed by Tibor Fabiny Amerikastudien / American Studies 59.2 (2014) Written between 1693 and 1728, Biblia Americana, the longest book of the most prolific American Puritan…

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Edward Watts and David J. Carlson, eds., John Neal and Nineteenth-Century American Literature and Culture. Reviewed by Klaus H. Schmidt

EDWARD WATTS and DAVID J. CARLSON, eds., John Neal and Nineteenth-Century American Literature and Culture (Lewisburg: Bucknell UP, 2012), xxxiv + 319 pp. Reviewed by Klaus H. Schmidt Amerikastudien / American Studies 59.2 (2014) In many a review, claiming the importance of the volume under discussion is little more than a rhetorical strategy. In the case of…

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Philip F. Gura, Truth’s Ragged Edge: The Rise of the American Novel. Reviewed by Philipp Schweighauser

PHILIP F. GURA, Truth’s Ragged Edge: The Rise of the American Novel (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013), 352 pp. Reviewed by Philipp Schweighauser Amerikastudien / American Studies 59.2 (2014) When Philip F. Gura, the author of Jonathan Edwards: America’s Evangelical (2005) and editor of Early American Literature, publishes a book subtitled “The Rise of the…

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François Specq, Laura Dassow Walls, and Michel Granger, eds., Thoreauvian Modernities: Transatlantic Conversations on an American Icon. Reviewed by Johannes Voelz

FRANÇOIS SPECQ, LAURA DASSOW WALLS, and MICHEL GRANGER, eds., Thoreauvian Modernities: Transatlantic Conversations on an American Icon (Athens: U of Georgia P, 2013), 310 pp. Reviewed by Johannes Voelz Amerikastudien / American Studies 59.2 (2014) In June 2009, Thoreau scholars from the United States and Europe (mostly France) convened in Lyon—“the first ever such meeting on European…

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Susanne Rohr and Miriam Strube, eds., Revisiting Pragmatism: William James in the New Millennium. Reviewed by Martin Klepper

SUSANNE ROHR and MIRIAM STRUBE, eds., Revisiting Pragmatism: William James in the New Millennium (Heidelberg: Winter, 2012), 233 pp. Reviewed by Martin Klepper Amerikastudien / American Studies 59.2 (2014) It is true, as Susanne Rohr and Miriam Strube suggest in the introduction to this volume, that American pragmatism in general and William James in particular still…

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Kathryn Hume, Aggressive Fiction: Reading the Contemporary American Novel. Reviewed by Birgit Däwes

KATHRYN HUME, Aggressive Fiction: Reading the Contemporary American Novel (Ithaca: Cornell UP, 2012), 200 + xiii pp. Reviewed by Birgit Däwes Amerikastudien / American Studies 59.1 (2014) When Bret Easton Ellis’s novel American Psycho was published in 1991, Washington Post critic Jonathan Yardley called it “a contemptible piece of pornography, the literary equivalent of a snuff flick.”…

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Miriam B. Mandel, ed., Hemingway and Africa. Reviewed by Nicole J. Camastra

MIRIAM B. MANDEL, ed., Hemingway and Africa (Rochester: Camden House, 2011), 426 pp. Reviewed by Nicole J. Camastra Amerikastudien / American Studies 59.2 (2014) Despite Ernest Hemingway’s discovery of Africa as an adult, he connected the continent to the importance of childhood in the writer’s imagination. For example, his protagonist of the posthumously published The Garden of…

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Sebastian M. Herrmann, Carolin Alice Hofmann, Katja Kanzler, and Frank Usbeck, eds., Participating Audiences, Imagined Public Spheres: The Cultural Work of Contemporary American(ized) Narratives. Reviewed by Michael Butter

SEBASTIAN M. HERRMANN, CAROLIN ALICE HOFMANN, KATJA KANZLER, and FRANK USBECK, eds., Participating Audiences, Imagined Public Spheres: The Cultural Work of Contemporary American(ized) Narratives (Leipzig: Leipziger Universitätsverlag, 2012), 172 pp. Reviewed by Michael Butter Amerikastudien / American Studies 59.2 (2014) The volume under review synthesizes two highly productive research paradigms that have informed much work in…

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Ulfried Reichardt, Globalisierung: Literaturen und Kulturen des Globalen. Reviewed by Sigrun Meinig

ULFRIED REICHARDT, Globalisierung: Literaturen und Kulturen des Globalen (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 2010), 252 pp. Reviewed by Sigrun Meinig Amerikastudien / American Studies 59.2 (2014) In dem Studienbuch Globalisierung: Literaturen und Kulturen des Globalen von Ulfried Reichardt bringt das im Zentrum stehende Phänomen eine spezifische Perspektive mit sich. Diese liegt in “ [der] entscheidende[n] Einsicht […], dass…

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Christof Mauch and Sylvia Mayer, eds., American Environments: Climate—Cultures—Catastrophes. Reviewed by Michael Basseler

CHRISTOF MAUCH and SYLVIA MAYER, eds., American Environments: Climate—Cultures—Catastrophes (Heidelberg: Winter 2012), 195pp. Reviewed by Michael Basseler Amerikastudien / American Studies 59.2 (2014)   This collection of essays, based on a 2010 conference at the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society in Munich, displays some of the most recent approaches in environmental humanities by…

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Ann-Stephane Schäfer, Auctoritas Patrum? The Reception of the Church Fathers in Puritanism. Reviewed by Tibor Fabiny

ANN-STEPHANE SCHÄFER, Auctoritas Patrum? The Reception of the Church Fathers in Puritanism, Mainzer Studien zur Amerikanistik 58 (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2012), 449 pp. Reviewed by Tibor Fabiny Amerikastudien / American Studies 59.1 (2014) At first sight, the project seems to be too ambitious, as it proposes to discuss the appropriation of patristic literature…

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Billy J. Stratton, Buried in Shades of Night: Contested Voices, Indian Captivity, and the Legacy of King Philip’s War. Reviewed by John McWilliams

BILLY J. STRATTON, Buried in Shades of Night: Contested Voices, Indian Captivity, and the Legacy of King Philip’s War (Tucson: U of Arizona P, 2013) 149 pp. Reviewed by John McWilliams Amerikastudien / American Studies 59.1 (2014) During the last forty years, the Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson (the much…

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Daniel Nagel, Von republikanischen Deutschen zu deutsch-amerikanischen Republikanern: Ein Beitrag zum Identitätswandel der deutschen Achtundvierziger in den Vereinigten Staaten 1850-1861. Reviewed by Charlotte A. Lerg

DANIEL NAGEL, Von republikanischen Deutschen zu deutsch-amerikanischen Republikanern: Ein Beitrag zum Identitätswandel der deutschen Achtundvierziger in den Vereinigten Staaten 1850-1861 (St. Ingbert: Röhrig Universitätsverlag, 2012), 619 pp. Reviewed by Charlotte A. Lerg Amerikastudien / American Studies 59.1 (2014) “Im Rückblick erscheint es zwangsläufig, dass sich die Achtundvierziger früher oder später einer amerikanischen Partei anschließen mussten.…

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Hannes Bergthaller and Carsten Schinko, eds., Addressing Modernity: Social Systems Theory and U.S. Cultures. Reviewed by Alexander Starre

HANNES BERGTHALLER and CARSTEN SCHINKO, eds., Addressing Modernity: Social Systems Theory and U.S. Cultures (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2011), 372 pp. Reviewed by Alexander Starre Amerikastudien / American Studies 59.1 (2014) Niklas Luhmann’s standing in American academic circles over the past decades in many ways suffered from bad timing. The heyday of American cybernetics, which lasted from…

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Mike Chasar, Everyday Reading: Poetry and Popular Culture in Modern America. Reviewed by Timo Müller

MIKE CHASAR, Everyday Reading: Poetry and Popular Culture in Modern America (New York: Columbia UP, 2012), 336 pp. Reviewed by Timo Müller Amerikastudien / American Studies 59.1 (2014) Mike Chasar’s rewarding study takes its cues from the observations that much more poetry was read and written during the modernist period than we assume today and…

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Philipp Dorestal, Style Politics: Mode, Geschlecht und Schwarzsein in den USA, 1943-1975. Reviewed by Steve Estes

PHILIPP DORESTAL, Style Politics: Mode, Geschlecht und Schwarzsein in den USA, 1943-1975 (Bielefeld: Transcript, 2012), 370 pp. Reviewed by Steve Estes Amerikastudien / American Studies 59.1 (2014) Years after the Black Power era, professor and activist Angela Davis met with a young man who at first did not recognize her. When she explained who she…

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Tomasz Basiuk, Exposures: American Gay Men’s Life Writing Since Stonewall. Reviewed by Dominika Ferens

TOMASZ BASIUK, Exposures: American Gay Men’s Life Writing Since Stonewall (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2013), 398 pp. Reviewed by Dominika Ferens Amerikastudien / American Studies 59.1 (2014) Tomasz Basiuk’s Exposures: American Gay Men’s Life Writing is an ambitious literary analysis of a representative body of autobiographies written in the last fifty years—the first monograph…

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René Dietrich, Revising and Remembering (after) the End: American Post-Apocalyptic Poetry Since 1945 from Ginsberg to Forche. Reviewed by James Berger

RENÉ DIETRICH, Revising and Remembering (after) the End: American Post-Apocalyptic Poetry Since 1945 from Ginsberg to Forche (Trier: WVT, 2012), 254 pp. Reviewed by James Berger Amerikastudien / American Studies 59.1 (2014) Literary studies of the apocalyptic imagination since 1945 are usually studies of narrative, for the representation of apocalyptic endings has most commonly taken…

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Sarika Chandra, Dislocalism: The Crisis of Globalization and the Remobilizing of Americanism. Reviewed by Johannes Voelz

Sarika Chandra, Dislocalism: The Crisis of Globalization and the Remobilizing of Americanism (Columbus: Ohio State UP, 2011), 312 pp. Reviewed by Johannes Voelz Amerikastudien / American Studies 59.1 (2014) Since the 1990s, scholars in American Studies have tried to come to terms with the challenges globalization poses for a field traditionally organized around the nation-state.…

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Susan M. Schweik, The Ugly Laws: Disability in Public. Reviewed by Andrea Zittlau

SUSAN M. SCHWEIK, The Ugly Laws: Disability in Public (New York: New York UP, 2009), 429 pp. Reviewed by Andrea Zittlau  Amerikastudien / American Studies 59.1 (2014) In this fundamental text, Susan Schweik connects discourses within the field of disability studies with an analytic approach to law and its ultimate consequences. The exhibition of disabled…

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Thomas G. Walker, Eligible for Execution: The Story of the Daryl Atkins Case. Reviewed by Anthony Santoro

THOMAS G. WALKER, Eligible for Execution: The Story of the Daryl Atkins Case (Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2008), 284 pp. Reviewed by Anthony Santoro Amerikastudien / American Studies 59.1 (2014) The recent history of the American death penalty has been characterized by a number of rapid shifts. The most notable shift occurred between 1972 and…

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