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The clash between Communism and Islam in the Soviet Union pitted two socio-political systems against one another, each proclaiming ultimate truth. Shoshana Keller, associate professor of history, examines the first decades of the struggle in Central Asia (1917-1941), where an ancient religious tradition faced an aggressive form of secular modernity. The Soviets attempted to break down Muslim culture and remold it on Marxist-Leninist lines. Despite Stalin's totalitarian aims, the Soviet regime in Central Asia was often weak even into the 1930s, and by 1941 the opposing systems had reached a standoff.

Bruce Goldstone '84, has worked as an educational publisher for over 20 years. His first book, The Beastly Feast (illustrated by Blair Lent), won a Parent's Choice Silver Honor. In Ten Friends rollicking rhymes and cheerful pictures create a delightful introduction to simple addition concepts.

A native of Bronxville, NY, Bruce has written three books. His latest book, The Orlando Cepeda Story, was recently published by Arte Publico Press in July of 2001. The peaks and valleys in the life and career of a baseball Hall of Famer. A “compelling portrait of a player straining against his boundaries,” by the program presentations manager at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and biographer of another luminary of the game, Roberto Clemente.

Kiltmaking methods have remained essentially the same for over a century. Making a kilt will put you in touch not only with Scottish tradition but with a tailoring and hand sewing tradition that has been almost entirely lost as we begin the 21st century. Barbara Tewksbury, professor of geology and kiltmaker, has teamed up with legendary kiltmaker Elsie Stuehmeyer to create a book that teachers the traditional kiltmaking methods that Elsie learned 50 years ago as an apprentice and kiltmaker with the renowned firm Thomas Gordon's of Glasglow.

Chuck Miller '85 is the author of Warman's American Records, 2nd Edition. Just the thing for the record collector, either active or would-be: an identification and price guide, based on condition, to thousands of music records of all genres, released between 1950 and 2000. Well indexed and illustrated, with historical background, advice on collecting, and bits of trivia thrown in. The author, a longtime collector himself, has written extensively on the subject.

The definitive “how-to” book on the art of storyboarding, for anyone creatively engaged in film production. Lucidly presented in a step-by-step fashion and aided by an abundance of illustrations, it details how to translate stories into visual images. The author, a filmmaker and educator, is the founder and owner of Filmboards, which has leading film studios and television networks among its clients.

Transform today's surplus of investment information into a high-level investment strategy. In an investment climate characterized by rapidly increasing access to information, it has become a real problem to sort out the legitimate financial advice, grounded in traditional analysis, from the constant stream of useless information, or "noise." Such "noise", through technological advances such as the Internet, has become widespread. This overload of information is hurting investors, since it makes real analysis based on factual inference harder to come by. This book steers investors through the "noise" to show them where and how to find solid investment information. This step-by-step guide is based on a very popular presentation the author makes to new private clients at Merrill Lynch.

"You common cry of curs! whose breath I hate / As reek o'th'rotten fens, whose loves I prize / As the dead carcasses of unburied men / That do corrupt my air: I banish you!" (from Coriolanus) Kenneth Gross explores Shakespeare's deep fascination with dangerous and disorderly forms of speaking--especially rumor, slander, insult, vituperation, and curse--and through them offers a vision of the work of words in his plays. Coriolanus's taunts or Lear's curses force us to think not just about how Shakespeare's characters speak, but also about how they hear, overhear, and mishear what is spoken, how rumor becomes tragic knowledge for Hamlet, or opens Othello to fantastic jealousies. Gross also shows how Shakespeare's preoccupation with "noisy" speech echoed and transformed a broader cultural obsession with the perils of rumor, slander, and libel in Renaissance England.

The authors of Women Who Kept the Lights: An Illustrated History of Female Lighthouse Keepers, J. Candace Clifford '83 and Mary Louise Clifford, have drawn together a unique collection of 230 photos and drawings created during the 1800s. The 304-page book includes narratives about the featured lighthouses as well as the evolution of lighthouses during the nineteenth century.

Europe during the later Middle Ages was a scene of unparalleled chaos. At no other time in history did so much misery--in the form of war, famine, plague, and death--descend upon the earth. At times it must have seemed like the end of the world was truly at hand. And yet, as John Aberth reveals in this lively work, a firm belief in the ways of providence and the first stirrings of greater political freedom allowed communities to endure. Far from conventional notions of the "waning" of the Middle Ages, John Aberth reveals here a world with fears, hopes, and passions that we recognize as our own.