Off the Shelf

montage and Hungarian cinemas of the 1960s, International Film Festival.) The society America, he eventually wrote his honors Rainer Fassbinder and the New German also stages special festivals, with ethnic, thesis on Brazilian and Argentine cinema. cinema movement of the 1970s, “almost regional, or religious themes, for example, He taught film studies at Harvard and every important African filmmaker,” and that include outreach to schools; classes Berkeley and then directed the Art Insti- directors like Bernardo Bertolucci (Last often attend screenings. tute of Chicago’s Film Center from 1981 Tango in Paris, in 1972), Martin Scorsese, “I was always somebody who went to a until 1988, when he returned to New York (Mean Streets, in 1973), and Michael Moore lot more movies than anybody else,” Peña to chair the NYFF’s selection committee (Roger and Me, in 1989). There’ve been con- says. He grew up in East Harlem and then and become the Film Society’s program troversies, too: a papal comment triggered Queens, the son of a Puerto Rican father director. He also teaches film theory and round-the-clock pickets of Jean-Luc Go- and Spanish mother. At Harvard he spe- international cinema as a professor of film dard’s Hail Mary (1985), and the Chinese cialized in Latin American history and studies at Columbia University. government asked the festival, in vain, to literature. “There were very, very remove a 1995 documentary on Tianan- few Harvard courses then that men Square. (The society co-produces focused on film at all,” he recalls. events like the Human Rights Watch After a year of traveling in Latin Harvard to complete his A.B. in 1992, and is now lecturer in public policy and Off the Shelf lecturer on social studies.) Recent books with Harvard connections Pink Brain, Blue Brain, by The Future of Faith, by Harvey Cox, Lise Eliot ’84 (Houghton Mifflin, $24). Hollis professor of divinity (HarperOne, The author—neuroscientist (Chica- THE BOOK FROM $25.99). The retiring professor (see page go Medical School), mother, and counselor— From On the Loose in Boston: A Find- 64) reflects on the decline of dogma and begins by observing, “Boys and girls are differ- the-Animals Book, by Sage Stossel formal Christianity, and the rise of a new ent,” and then guides readers to understand (Harvard, $26.95). Analyzing the spectrum “Age of the Spirit.” “how small differences grow into trouble- of choice and motivation, the author, a re- some gaps—and what we can do about it” searcher at McLean Hospital, concludes “To Everything There Is a Season”: through play, schooling, and early life. that addiction is neither compulsion nor Pete Seeger and the Power of Song, disease, but rather a “disorder of choice,” by Allan M. Winkler ’66 (Oxford, $23.95; in- Empire of Illusion: The End of Liter- yielding “less than optimal outcomes.” cludes a CD). Another work about Seeger, acy and the Triumph of Spectacle, by class of ’40 (see Open Book, May-June, page Chris Hedges, M.Div. ’83, NF ’99 (Perseus, Justice: What’s the Right Thing to 18), in his ninetieth-birthday year. Winkler, $24.95). Are we the new Rome? The for- Do? by Michael Sandel, Bass professor of of Miami University, in Ohio, examines so- mer New York Times war correspondent government (Farrar, Straus and Giroux cial protests through folk songs. Fittingly, (see “What I Read at War,” July-August $25). You’ve taken the eponymous course, the book opens with Seeger by the Wid- 2000, page 58) describes a society delud- or perhaps seen it on video via Harvard ener steps in 1938, leafletting about the ed by distractions (professional wrestling, Alumni Association club showings world- Spanish Civil War—and missing class. pornographic films) and unable to grasp wide. Now, Sandel takes on the knotty its real, pressing problems. issues of morality and markets in a book The Founding Fathers Reconsidered, version of the course, cases and all, timed by Richard B. Bernstein, J.D. ’80 (Oxford, While We Were Sleeping: Success to accompany the PBS television series of $17.95). A constitutional historian aims Stories in Injury and Violence Pre- the same name. to “take the founding fathers down from vention, by David Hemenway, professor their pedestals without knocking them of health policy (University of California, On the Loose in Boston: A Find- down,” in that rarest of recent works in $60; $24.95 paper). Case studies in the the-Animals Book, by Sage Stossel ’93 Americana: a short (176 pages) book. use of public-health disciplines to reduce (Commonwealth Editions, $14.95). The risks at work and play, home or away, Where’s Waldo? generation, or their suc- Why David Sometimes Wins, by Mar- stemming from threats ranging from bro- cessors with intact eyesight, will enjoy the shall Ganz ’64, M.P.A. ’93, Ph.D. ’00 (Ox- ken glass to tsunamis, and the heroes who illustrator-writer’s (Atlantic, Boston Globe, ford, $35). An insider’s account of how made the difference. (See “Death by the these pages) colorful romp through the resourcefulness trumped resources (other Barrel,” September-October 2004, page North End, Faneuil Hall, the Public Gar- unions, agricultural employers) in the Cesar 52, for more on Hemenway’s work.) den, Fenway Park, etc., searching for the Chavez-era United Farm Workers; Ganz out-and-about animals who have absented worked for the union for 16 years, becom- Addiction: A Disorder of Choice, by themselves from Franklin Park Zoo. Not ing director of organizing. (He returned to Gene M. Heyman, lecturer on psychology suitable for Yankees fans. Harvard Magazine 19 Reprinted from Harvard Magazine. For more information, contact Harvard Magazine, Inc. at 617-495-5746.

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