University of Michigan Press Blog

Q&A with Orville Gilbert Brim, author of Look at Me! The Fame Motive from Childhood to Death

Four million adults in the United States say that becoming famous is the most important goal in their lives. What motivates those who set fame as their priority, where did the desire come from, how does the pursuit of fame influence their lives, and how is it expressed?

Based on the research of Dr. Orville Gilbert Brim, award-winning scholar in the field of child and human development, Look at Me! answers those questions.

Dr. Brim has had a long and distinguished career. He is the former director of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Successful Midlife Development, former president of the Foundation for Child Development, former president of the Russell Sage Foundation, and author and coauthor of more than a dozen books about human development, intelligence, ambition, and personality.

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UPDATE: There are other books besides Palin's? Author of "Barack Obama's America" Addresses the Women's National Democratic Club

UMP author and noted political scientist John Kenneth White addresses The Women's National Democratic Club.        Watch here.

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Barack Obama's America
How New Conceptions of Race, Family, and Religion Ended the Reagan Era

by John Kenneth White  I   Author Commentary: Sarah Palin 

ABOUT THE BOOK: The election of Barack Obama to the presidency marks a conclusive end to the Reagan era, writes John Kenneth White in Barack Obama's America. Reagan symbolized a 1950s and 1960s America, largely white and suburban, with married couples and kids at home, who attended church more often than not.

Obama's election marks a new era, the author writes. Whites will be a minority by 2042. Marriage is at an all-time low. Cohabitation has increased from a half-million couples in 1960 to more than 5 million in 2000 to even more this year. Gay marriages and civil unions are redefining what it means to be a family. And organized religions are suffering, even as Americans continue to think of themselves as a religious people. Obama's inauguration was a defining moment in the political destiny of this country, based largely on demographic shifts, as described in Barack Obama's America. More info here.

Facebook event launches 'Angle of Vision'

Lorraine López, editor of An Angle of Vision, worked with a graduate student to create a Facebook "event" to launch the new book. The collection of essays by major women writers described various aspects of their experiences growing up poor.

The "event" was the publishing of the book, but it spread rapidly, allowing people to "RSVP" to show their support. (Find it here.) Lopez writes:

"Setting up an "event" through Facebook for a book release is a great way to get word out about the publication to one's many friends in a quick and efficient way.

"I received countless responses by friends who were thrilled to learn of its release and eager to obtain copies. Also, a few contributors to the collection forwarded this event to their friends, so the news reached an even greater number of people, whom I also heard from.

"Setting up the event was quite easy, but as a newcomer to FB, I felt more comfortable getting assistance from a more seasoned user of the networking service. I recommend clarifying in the event description that this is just information about book release, and not a celebration that will occur in a specific time and place."

Annie Lehmann, Author of "The Accidental Teacher," on the Rise in Autism Diagnoses

Catherine Lord, who wrote the foreword to Annie Lehmann's book The Accidental Teacher: Life Lessons from My Silent Son (University of Michigan Press, 2009), was quoted extensively in a recent New York Times story on autism and Asperger's Syndrome. Lehmann had this to say about the story:

"Asperger's Syndrome may have only become part of the medical lexicon in 1994, but has had a profound effect on the reported numbers of cases of individuals on the autism spectrum.

"The spectrum is broad — very broad — so that a fully functional person with a Ph.D. in math and a nonverbal adult who needs round the clock supervision can both be considered to have autism. As Dr. Swedo comments in the New York Times story, 'in autism, everybody is a snowflake.' 

"Clearly those with Asperger’s represent a significant proportion of the  'more than 1 in 100 American children' (mentioned in another New York Times story) that are now reported to have autism. When my son was diagnosed more than 23 years ago, that number was 15 in 10,000. 
       
"How do we explain the explosion in numbers?

Dr. Howard Markel, Author of "Formative Years," on Swine Flu Vaccination

 

|Read Transcript|
|Original NPR Article|

Howard Markel is the co-author with Alexandra Minna Stern of Formative Years, which sheds light on the development of the fields of pediatrics and child health during the last century (1880-2000). Markel is the George Edward Wantz Professor of the History of Medicine, Professor of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases, and Professor of History at the University of Michigan. MORE INFO

Author of "Guns, Democracy, and the Insurrectionist Idea" Interview with The Young Turks

Joshua Hortwiz is one of two authors of this book Guns, Democracy, and the Insurrectionist Idea. He received a law degree from George Washington University and is currently a visiting scholar at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

|Visit the authors' website at: Coalition to Stop Gun Violence|

|Also watch: "Guns and Liberty" on C-Span, Horwitz and Anderson at Hartford University|

Q&A with Annie Lehmann, author of The Accidental Teacher

Having severe autism does not stop Annie Lehmann's son Jonah from teaching her some of life's most valuable lessons. The Accidental Teacher, a heartfelt memoir about self-discovery rather than illness, uses insight and humor to weave a tale rich with kitchen-table wisdom. It explains the realities of life with a largely nonverbal son and explores the frustrations and triumphs of the Lehmann family as Jonah grew into a young adult.

Annie Lehmann, a freelance writer for more than twenty-five years, has published articles in many newspapers and magazines, including the New York Times and Detroit Free Press.

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Inside Higher Ed: Eszter Hargittai and "Research Confidential: Solutions to Problems Most Social Scientists Pretend They Never Have"

Originally published in INSIDE HIGHER ED, Oct. 30, 2009

For social scientists starting their careers, creating research models that work is crucial. A new book suggests that they may be unaware of problems they face in part because scholars don't share stories of what didn't work on their projects, and how to deal with particular challenges. Research Confidential: Solutions to Problems Most Social Scientists Pretend They Never Have has just been published by the University of Michigan Press. The essays in the collection are all by younger scholars, including the volume's editor, Eszter Hargittai, an associate professor of communication studies at Northwestern University, a fellow at the Berman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University and a career advice columnist for Inside Higher Ed. Hargittai responded to questions about the book.

Q: I was struck by the part of your subtitle where you say "pretend they never have." Why do you think social scientists don't recognize or hide from problems with their research methods?

A: This title refers less to what social scientists recognize and more to what shows up in the final write-up of their projects. When one reads journal articles, the methodological sections tend to make the projects sound rather straight-forward. In books, details about methods are usually relegated to an appendix, at best, and do not tell the reader the reality of data collection. Instead, they are pretty, cleaned-up versions of what happened. For example, they will include the number of final interviews the researcher conducted, but they won't include details about how many attempts it took to get a person to come to an interview.

Q&A with Mardi Link, author of Isadore's Secret

Isadore's Secret: Sin, Murder, and Confession in a Northern Michigan Town is a gripping account of the mysterious disappearance of a young nun in a northern Michigan town and the national controversy that followed when she turned up dead and buried in the basement of the church.

Mardi Link, a former crime reporter and author of When Evil Came to Good Hart discusses her latest true crime book.

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Q&A with John Kenneth White, author of Barack Obama's America

The election of Barack Obama to the presidency marks a conclusive end to the Reagan era, writes John Kenneth White in Barack Obama's America: How New Conceptions of Race, Family, and Religion Ended the Reagan Era. Reagan symbolized a 1950s and 1960s America, largely white and suburban, with married couples and kids at home, who attended church more often than not.  The demographics, however, have shifted: Marriage is at an all-time low. Cohabitation has increased from a half-million couples in 1960 to more than 5 million in 2000 to even more this year. Gay marriages and civil unions are redefining what it means to be a family. And organized religions are suffering, even as Americans continue to think of themselves as a religious people.

John Kenneth White is Professor of Politics at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

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