Social Studies | FrogenYozurt.Com - Online Literature Magazine

Jane Austen, Game Theorist – Study of Literature and Social Sciences by Michael Suk-Young Chwe

On April 23, 2013, in Book Reviews, History, Nonfiction, Social Studies, by Editor

Game theory–the study of how people make choices while interacting with others–is one of the most popular technical approaches in social science today. But as Michael Chwe reveals in his insightful new book, Jane Austen explored game theory’s core ideas in her six novels roughly two hundred years ago.

The Child Catchers: Rescue, Trafficking, and the New Gospel of Adoption by Kathryn Joyce

On April 17, 2013, in Book Reviews, Nonfiction, Political, Social Studies, by Editor

Adoption has long been enmeshed in the politics of reproductive rights, pitched as a “win-win” compromise in the never-ending abortion debate. But as Kathryn Joyce makes clear in The Child Catchers, adoption has lately become even more entangled in the conservative Christian agenda.

Bending Toward Justice: The Voting Rights Act and the Transformation of American Democracy by Gary May

On April 13, 2013, in Book Reviews, History, Law, Nonfiction, Social Studies, by Editor

A vivid, fast-paced history of this landmark piece of civil rights legislation, Bending Toward Justice offers a dramatic, timely account of the struggle that finally won African Americans the ballot—although, as May shows, the fight for voting rights is by no means over.

Paris Reborn: Napoléon III, Baron Haussmann, and the Quest to Build a Modern City by Stephane Kirkland

On April 13, 2013, in Book Reviews, History, Nonfiction, Social Studies, by Editor

Stephane Kirkland gives an engrossing account of Napoleon III, Baron Haussmann, and one of the greatest transformations of a major city in modern history. Paris Reborn is a must-read for anyone who ever wondered how Paris, the city universally admired as a standard of urban beauty, became what it is.

If It’s Not One Thing, It’s Your Mother – A Funny Look at Being an Adoptive Parent by Julia Sweeney

On April 6, 2013, in Biographies & Memoirs, Book Reviews, Nonfiction, Social Studies, by Editor

While Julia Sweeney is known as a talented comedienne and writer and performer of her one-woman shows, she is also a talented essayist. Happily for us, the past few years have provided her with some rich material. Poignant, provocative, and wise, this is a funny, and at times powerful, memoir by a woman living her life with originality and intelligence.

The New Mind of the South, An Attempt to Make Sense of Today’s American South by Tracy Thompson

On April 2, 2013, in Book Reviews, Nonfiction, Social Studies, by Editor

Drawing on mountains of data, interviews, and a whole new set of historic archives, Thompson upends stereotypes and fallacies to reveal the true heart of the South today—a region still misunderstood by outsiders and even by its own people. In that sense, she is honoring the tradition inaugurated by Wilbur Joseph Cash in 1941 in his classic, The Mind of the South.

Clean: Overcoming Addiction and Ending America’s Greatest Tragedy by David Sheff

On March 31, 2013, in Book Reviews, Health, Mind & Body, Nonfiction, Social Studies, by Editor

Addiction is a preventable, treatable disease, not a moral failing. As with other illnesses, the approaches most likely to work are based on science — not on faith, tradition, contrition, or wishful thinking. These facts are the foundation of Clean, a myth-shattering look at drug abuse by the author of Beautiful Boy.

Saturday Night Widows: The Adventures of Six Friends Remaking Their Lives by Becky Aikman

On March 30, 2013, in Biographies & Memoirs, Book Reviews, Nonfiction, Social Studies, by Editor

n her forties – a widow, too young, too modern to accept the role – Becky Aikman struggled to make sense of her place in an altered world. In this transcendent and infectiously wise memoir, she explores surprising new discoveries about how people experience grief and transcend loss and, following her own remarriage, forms a group with five other young widows to test these unconventional ideas.

Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now, A Dire Prognosis of Society’s Ills by Douglas Rushkoff

On March 14, 2013, in Book Reviews, Nonfiction, Science, Social Studies, Technology, by Editor

Absorbing and thought-provoking, Present Shock is a wide-ranging, deeply thought meditation on what it means to be human in real time. Rushkoff weaves together seemingly disparate events and trends into a rich, nuanced portrait of how life in the eternal present has affected our biology, behavior, politics, and culture.

Immigration Wars: Forging an American Solution by Jeb Bush

On March 6, 2013, in Book Reviews, Law, Nonfiction, Political, Social Studies, by Editor

With Immigration Wars as a beacon of hope, Americans can finally solidify a national identity that is based on a set of ideals enriched and reinvigorated by immigrants, most of whom fervently embrace our core values—family, faith, hard work, education, and patriotism.

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