NEW FACULTY BOOKS

NEW FACULTY BOOKS

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CAMPUS

JEFF SHARLET

ENGLISH AND CREATIVE WRITING

The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War

W.W. Norton & Co., 337 PP., $28.95

“I see this as a global fascist movement,” says Sharlet of a U.S. citizenry awash in extremism, delusional claims, and a propensity for violence. Sharlet traverses the country to plumb how attitudes have only worsened since the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. He reports on his conversations and experiences at churches, gun shops, rallies, bars, and homes bedecked with flags—and filled with weapons. "I’d learned to ask the believers: ‘Do you think there’ll be a civil war?’ ” he writes. “They all said ‘Yes.’ Some said it was already here.”

TRICIA KEATON

AFRICAN AND AFRICAN AMERICAN

STUDIES

#You Know You’re Black in France When...: The Fact of Everyday Antiblackness

MIT Press, 304 PP, $34.95

Although the French government has pushed its message that the country is blind to race, the author argues that, paradoxically, by not recognizing race as a meaningful category, the country actually perpetuates racial discrimination. In her study of the everyday life of Black people in France, Keaton reveals no shortage of racist incidents, including police violence.

PETER ORNER

ENGLISH AND CREATIVE WRITING

Still No Word from You: Notes in the Margin

Catapult, 302 PP., $26

In 107 brief essays, Orner intertwines a family memoir with reflections on books and why we read and write. Inspired by a one-word note that his mother wrote six decades ago in the margin of her copy of Ferlinghetti’s A Coney Island of the Mind, Orner weaves an entrancing pastiche of musings about writers ranging from James Alan McPherson to Jean Rhys.

NANCY CANEPA FRENCH AND ITALIAN

The Enchanted Boot: Italian Fairy Tales 8c Their Tellers

Wayne State University Press, 482 PP, $39.99

Italy’s fairy tale tradition, which emerged during the Renaissance, predates the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, and Disney. Canepa edited and translated this comprehensive collection of fairy tales, a form of storytelling that highlights the dynamics between elites and the masses.

Nancy Schoeffler