New this month from the University of Nebraska Press is, Playing at Monarchy: Sport as Metaphor in Nineteenth Century France by Corry Cropper. Before the French Revolution sports were confined to the wealthy. One of the numerous changes that came along with the revolution was the ability, or accessibility, of these games to the wider public.  This week Linking in Lincoln will shed a bit more  light on the topics of social class, sports, games, and France. I promise it will be a revolutionary experience! 1.    What is monarchy? Well as always the fastest and most convenient place to look … Continue reading Linking in Lincoln: December 18, 2008

New this month from the University of Nebraska Press is The American Indian Occupation of Alcatraz Island: Red Power and Self-Determination by Troy R. Johnson. From November 20, 1969 to June 11, 1971 the world focused its attention on Alcatraz Island and the American Indians who were occupying it. In this detailed recounting of the occupation, those who participated in it and those who organized it, Johnson explains how it was pivotal in developing “pan-Indian activism" as Americans rallied in support of the Indians. This week Tuesday Trivia will give you a few facts about this infamous island and give … Continue reading Tuesday Trivia: December 16, 2008

Read from the introduction of Cinderella Ball: A Look Inside Small-College Basketball in West Virginia by Bob Kuska:

"If the French writer Alexis de Tocqueville had sailed to America in the early twentieth century to chronicle its love affair with the new sport of "Basket Ball," he would have spent months ensconced in Indiana, Kentucky, and West Virginia. Nowhere was the game more a part of the popular culture than in these three roughly contiguous states that stretch from the beaches of Lake Michigan into the hills and hollers of Appalachia. As many of this passing generation have recalled, basketball was the perfect pastime for their modest rural lifestyles. The game was inexpensive, required just five stout men on each team, and produced more thrills than the annual town turkey shoot, once the highlight of the sporting year.

Continue reading “Off the Shelf: Cinderella Ball: A Look Inside Small-College Basketball in West Virginia by Bob Kuska”

 New this month from the University of Nebraska Press is Northern Tales: Traditional Stories of Eskimo and Indian Peoples by Howard Norman. With tales from the tribal peoples of Greenland, Canada, Siberia, Alaska, Japan, and the polar region, told and retold during months-long winter nights, Northern Tales gathers together a rich diversity of traditions and cultures, spanning the Way-Back Time through the coming of the first white explorers. By turns tragic and comic, fantastic and earthy, frivolous and profound, this collection transports the reader to the haunting, little-known world of the far North, with all its fragile majesty and power. … Continue reading Linking in Lincoln: December 11, 2008

    New this month from the University of Nebraska Press is The Real Thing by Kurt Andersen. You may already know that Belgium is the most boring country on planet Earth, but do you know why? From cities to sitcoms, from scotch to soda, from English monarchs to French movies, The Real Thing is a compendium of the quintessential, providing definitive answers to some of the most compelling questions of our time. Author Kurt Andersen’s pithy pronouncements sparkle with wit, sophistication, and a healthy dose of skeptical good humor as he strips world culture of accumulated hype and accepted wisdom. … Continue reading Tuesday Trivia: December 8, 2008

Read from chapter 1, “Just a Country Boy from Olowalu, Maui” of Wally Yonamine: The Man Who Changed Japanese Baseball by Robert K. Fitts: "Today, Olowalu on Maui’s west coast is part of paradise. Tourists fly from around the world to relax on its pristine beaches, snorkel in its dazzling coral reefs, and be pampered in luxury resorts. But it wasn’t always paradise. In the 1920s and ’30s, when sugar cane plantations dominated the area, life was hard. Thousands of immigrants toiled from dawn to dusk in the cane fields for poverty-level wages. The work was dangerous, and many dreams … Continue reading Off the Shelf: Wally Yonamine: The Man Who Changed Japanese Baseball by Robert K. Fitts

Ok readers, Thanksgiving is finally over, and are you suitably stuffed? I hope not too much, because you wouldn’t want to infringe on the any of the food you may have to consume during the always busy December month. Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza… they may be different holidays but they definitely all end in food! So to help subdue your appetite, let’s get started on this week. We’ve got Iceland, Communism (as we can’t seem to get away from it), and the first heart transplant in history. Are you ready, reader? December 1, 1918: Iceland becomes a sovereign state, yet remains … Continue reading This week in History: December 1-5, 2008