NEW FACULTY BOOKS

NEW FACULTY BOOKS

JEREMY DESILVA ANTHROPOLOGY

First Steps HarperCollins, 352 PP., $27.99

Why do we walk? How do we walk? In his engaging account of why walking matters, DeSilva offers stories from his fieldwork and the fossil record. He also examines more contemporary issues such as how we judge gaits—the author says he became self-conscious about his own while writing the book—and delves into why walking helps us think. You can read an excerpt at the DAM website.

JOHN L. CAMPBELL SOCIOLOGY

What Capitalism Needs: Forgotten Lessons of Great Economists (with John A. Hall)

Cambridge University Press, 312 PP., $24.95

“By comparing capitalist societies across countries and historically,” Campbell says of his latest book, “we found that capitalism performs best when states possess the intellectual and institutional capacities to manage their economies effectively and when societies are blessed with basic social cohesion, so the interests of the many in widespread prosperity are not outweighed by those of the privileged few. It turns out that a variety of eminent but often forgotten economists, including Adam Smith, believed this too.”

KATIE CROUCH ENGLISH AND CREATIVE WRITING

Embassy Wife

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 368 PP., $27

The author of Girls in Trucks (2008) and Men and Dogs (2010) blends her personal experience in Namibia with meticulous research to deliver a novel in which a man moves his family to the African country for a new job. Soon his wife realizes he’s got a secret past—and unpredictable twists ensue. Wrote one reviewer: “A smart, sparkling novel.... Comical and cool.”

DESIREE J. GARCIA LATIN AMERICAN, LATINO, AND CARIBBEAN STUDIES

The Movie Musical

Rutgers University Press, 152 PP., $17.95

In this compact paperback, Garcia debunks the idea that movie musicals are simply mindless escapism. Her research highlights how these films represent not fluff but, as she writes, “a highly adaptable and resilient cinematic language.”