How do women artists in Russia, Estonia, and Latvia view themselves in the post-Soviet era? What is their relationship to feminism and how has that relationship changed following the fall of the Soviet regime?

Having conducted over sixty interviews between 1995 and 1998, Renee Baigell and Matthew Baigell explore in this volume these women’s seemingly second-class status, the difficulties of pursuing an art career in a male-dominated society, and the attitudes—often hostile—of their male counterparts toward feminist concerns.

In this time of ever-shorter news stories telling us everything that’s wrong with the world, it’s a nice change of pace to read about someone like Felix Addeo, who takes time out of his busy schedule to teach middle school kids what it’s like to be an accountant. Or biomedical engineer Lois Ross, who twice a year leads a group of volunteers to clean up a local pond. These are just two of the ordinary, yet extraordinary, people profiled in this collection of feature articles by New Jersey reporter Al Sullivan. Through richly detailed stories—a kind of writing that has all but disappeared from our local newspapers—about small-town people in extraordinary situations, Sullivan depicts the characters that enliven life in the Garden State. While his stories always have a strongly local feel, each contains an element of the universal that draws in readers whose interest lies not in a specific location, but in the diverse experiences and stories of people who live in and shape a community.

For years environmentalists thought natural resources could be best protected by national legislation. But the poor outcomes of this top-down policy have led conservation professionals today to regard local communities as the agents of conservation efforts. According to a recent survey, more than fifty countries report that they pursue partnerships with local communities in an effort to protect their forests. Despite the recent popularity of a community-based approach, the concept of community rarely receives the attention it should get from those concerned with resource management. This balanced volume redresses the situation, demonstrating both the promise and the potential dangers of community action.

Organized around three central themes-family, youth, and community; democratization, citizenship, and political participation; and immigration and transnationalism-this book argues that, at the local level, religion helps people, especially women and youths, solidify their identities and confront the challenges of the modern world.