Bold Ideas, Essential Reading since 1936.
Rutgers University Press is dedicated to the advancement and dissemination of knowledge for a wide range of readers. The Press reflects and extends the University’s core mission of research, instruction, and service. They enhance the work of their authors through exceptional publications that shape critical issues, spark debate, and enrich teaching. Core subjects include: film and media studies, sociology, anthropology, education, history, health, history of medicine, human rights, urban studies, criminal justice, Jewish studies, American studies, women's, gender, and sexuality studies, LGBTQ, Latino/a, Asian and African studies, as well as books about New York, New Jersey, and the region.
Rutgers also distributes books published by Bucknell University Press.
Showing 1,141-1,170 of 2,552 items.
Techno-Orientalism
Imagining Asia in Speculative Fiction, History, and Media
Rutgers University Press
To judge from many speculative fiction films and books, the future will be full of cities that resemble Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Shanghai, and it will be populated mainly by cold, unfeeling citizens who act like robots. Techno-Orientalism investigates the phenomenon of imagining Asia and Asians in hypo- or hyper-technological terms in literary, cinematic, and new media representations, while critically examining the stereotype of Asians as both technologically advanced and intellectually primitive, in dire need of Western consciousness-raising.
The Cool and the Crazy
Pop Fifties Cinema
Rutgers University Press
In the 1950s, Hollywood made a variety of sensational movies meant to capitalize upon current events, moral panics, and popular fads. The Cool and the Crazy examines seven of the decade’s key film cycles, including short-lived trends like boxing and juvenile delinquency movies, as well as uniquely ‘50s takes on established genres like the Western. Delivering sharp critical insights in jazzy, accessible prose, Peter Stanfield offers an appreciation of cinema as a “pop” medium, unabashedly derivative, faddish, and ephemeral.
The Holocaust Averted
An Alternate History of American Jewry, 1938-1967
Rutgers University Press
In The Holocaust Averted: An Alternate History of American Jewry, 1938–1967, Jeffrey Gurock imagines what might have happened to the Jewish community in the United States if the Holocaust had never occurred and challenges readers to contemplate how the road to acceptance and empowerment for today’s American Jews would have been harder than it actually was. As Gurock tells his tale, he concludes every chapter with a short section that describes what actually happened and, thus, further educates the reader.
Indian Spectacle
College Mascots and the Anxiety of Modern America
Rutgers University Press
Indian Spectacle explores the ways in which white, middle-class Americans have consumed narratives of masculinity, race, and collegiate athletics through the lens of Indian-themed athletic identities, mascots, and music. Drawing on a cross-section of American institutions of higher education, Guiliano investigates the role of sports mascots in the big business of twentieth-century American college football in order to connect mascotry to expressions of community identity, individual belonging, stereotyped imagery, and cultural hegemony.
The American Revolution in New Jersey
Where the Battlefront Meets the Home Front
Edited by James J. Gigantino
Rutgers University Press
Battles were fought in many colonies during the American Revolution, but New Jersey was home to more sustained and intense fighting over a longer period of time. The nine essays in The American Revolution in New Jersey, examine the many challenges New Jersey residents faced at the intersection of the front lines and the home front. Using a wide historical lens, the contributors capture the decades before and after the conflict as they interpret the causes of the war and the consequences of New Jersey’s reaction to the Revolution.
Mexico on Main Street
Transnational Film Culture in Los Angeles before World War II
Rutgers University Press
Mexico on Main Street takes us inside a forgotten world: the film culture that thrived within Los Angeles’s Mexican immigrant community in the early decades of the twentieth-century. Drawing from rare archives, Colin Gunckel demonstrates how these immigrants not only consumed Hollywood and Mexican films, but also produced fan publications, fiction, criticism, music, and live theatrical events. This book demonstrates how a site-specific study of cultural and ethnic issues challenges our existing conceptions of U.S. film history, Mexican cinema, and the history of Los Angeles.
Rediscover the Hidden New Jersey
Rutgers University Press
This revised edition contains new sections on Lawnside, the Morris Canal, Albert Einstein in Princeton, The Bordentown Manual Training School, Rockefeller/Ocean County Park, the bicycle railroad, Morro Castle, Alice Paul, and more.
The Road to Citizenship
What Naturalization Means for Immigrants and the United States
Rutgers University Press
In The Road to Citizenship, Sofya Aptekar analyzes what the process of becoming a citizen means for newly minted Americans and what it means for the United States as a whole. Examining the evolution of the discursive role of immigrants in the American society, immigrants’ own understandings of naturalization, and the growing inequality in who gets citizenship, Aptekar’s in-depth research uncovers considerable contradictions in the way naturalization works today. Aptekar contends that debates about immigration must be broadened beyond the current focus on borders and documentation to include larger questions about the definition of citizenship.
Shades of White Flight
Evangelical Congregations and Urban Departure
Rutgers University Press
In Shades of White Flight, sociologist Mark T. Mulder investigates a case of “white flight” where seven church congregations from one denomination, the Christian Reformed Church, left Chicago en masse in the 1960s and 70s and relocated their churches in nearby suburbs. Using a wealth of both archival and interview data, Mulder examines the migration of these Chicago church members, revealing how their churches not only failed to inhibit white flight, but actually facilitated the congregations’ departure.
Making Asian American Film and Video
History, Institutions, Movements
By Jun Okada
Rutgers University Press
Making Asian American Film and Video gives readers a unique behind-the-scenes look at the various institutions that have bankrolled and distributed the genre over the course of its fifty year evolution. Jun Okada explores how state-run media outlets like PBS served as crucial support for Asian American films, but also imposed limitations. In addition, she considers a number of Asian American filmmakers who have opted out of producing state-funded films, from Wayne Wang to Gregg Araki to Justin Lin.
Art Direction and Production Design
Edited by Lucy Fischer
Rutgers University Press
It is impossible to imagine filmmaking without an understanding of the contributions of art direction and production design. In Art Direction and Production Design, six outstanding scholars survey the careers of notable art directors, the influence of specific design styles, the key roles played by particular studios and films in shaping the field, the effect of technological changes on production design, and the shifts in industrial modes of organization.
The Things That Fly in the Night
Female Vampires in Literature of the Circum-Caribbean and African Diaspora
Rutgers University Press
The Things That Fly in the Night explores images of vampirism in Caribbean and African diasporic folk traditions and in contemporary fiction. Giselle Anatol considers the explosion of soucouyant and other vampire narratives among writers of Caribbean and African heritage who in the past twenty years have rejected the demonic image of the character and used her instead to urge for female mobility, racial and cultural empowerment, and anti colonial resistance.
Jewish Mad Men
Advertising and the Design of the American Jewish Experience
Rutgers University Press
Attractively illustrated and insightfully written, Jewish Mad Men looks at how advertising helped shape the evolution of American Jewish life and culture over the past one hundred years. Drawing on case studies of famous ad campaigns—from Levy’s Rye Bread to Hebrew National hot dogs—Kerri P. Steinberg uses the lens of advertising to illuminate the Jewish trajectory from outsider to insider, and the related arc of immigration, acculturation, upward mobility, and suburbanization.
Hiking the Road to Ruins
Daytrips and Camping Adventures to Iron Mines, Old Military Sites, and Things Abandoned in the New York City Area...and Beyond
Rutgers University Press
In this easy to use, informative, and occasionally eccentric guidebook, David A. Steinberg blazes the trail to more than twenty-five unusual landmarks and hard-to-find destinations that are mostly within a two-hour drive of New York City. Suitable for the experienced hiker or camping adventurer—as well as anyone that has the desire to explore—Hiking the Road to Ruins has been updated to include detailed directions and GPS coordinates to specific sites as well as many new hikes.
The Autobiography of Citizenship
Assimilation and Resistance in U.S. Education
By Tova Cooper
Rutgers University Press
At the turn of the twentieth century, America was faced with a radically mixed population, one with a disturbing new mix of races and religions. In The Autobiography of Citizenship, Tova Cooper looks at how citizen education programs tried to impose unity on this divergent population, and how the new citizens in turn often resisted these efforts, embracing their own view of what it means to be an American.
Our Aging Bodies
Rutgers University Press
Our Aging Bodies provides a clear, scientifically based explanation of what happens to all the major organ systems and bodily processes as people age. Throughout the book, Gary F. Merrill weaves in personal anecdotes and stories that help clarify and reinforce the facts and principles of the underlying scientific processes and explanations. Accessible to a general reader interested in the aging process, this book will also educate anyone wishing to have a more informed discussion with their physician.
It's Not Your Fault!
Strategies for Solving Toilet Training and Bedwetting Problems
Rutgers University Press
It’s Not Your Fault! offers evidence-based solutions for toilet training and to help parents of children suffering from delayed toilet training, bed wetting, and daytime urinary wetting. Using sound advice based on testing and research in a real world setting, Dr. Joseph Barone, M.D., educates parents who have been misguided by bad advice from friends, TV talk shows, the Internet, or parenting books. Easing the frustration and blame parents feel, It’s Not Your Fault! provides hope and guidance to parents desperate to help their children overcome urinary control and toilet training problems by enabling them to take charge of the situation.
Shirley Temple and the Performance of Girlhood
Rutgers University Press
Shirley Temple was America’s sweetheart, the top box-office star of the 1930s. Yet her films are difficult for some modern viewers to enjoy, since several show her portraying vamps and harlots, while others depict a little girl being romanced by adult men. Shirley Temple and the Performance of Girlhood offers a provocative look at Temple’s star persona and what it reveals about changing attitudes toward childhood, sexuality, innocence, and fandom.
Smoking Privileges
Psychiatry, the Mentally Ill, and the Tobacco Industry in America
Rutgers University Press
The mentally ill may represent as much as half of the smokers in America. In a groundbreaking look at this little-known public health problem, Smoking Privileges offers an insightful historical account of the intersection of smoking and mental illness, placing this issue in the context of changes in psychiatry, in the tobacco and pharmaceutical industries, and in the experience of mental illness over the last century.
Black Female Sexualities
Rutgers University Press
The twelve original essays in Black Female Sexualities reveal the diverse ways black women perceive, experience, and represent sexuality. The contributors highlight the range of tactics that black women use to express their sexual desires and identities. Yet they do not shy away from exploring the complex ways in which black women negotiate the more traumatic aspects of sexuality and grapple with the legacy of negative stereotypes.
Caring on the Clock
The Complexities and Contradictions of Paid Care Work
Rutgers University Press
Caring on the Clock is the first book to bring together cutting-edge research on a wide range of paid care occupations, placing the various studies within a comprehensive and comparative framework. The book includes twenty-two original essays by leading researchers across a range of disciplines—including sociology, psychology, social work, and public health—and provides a wealth of insight into these workers, who take care of our most fundamental needs, often at risk to their own economic and physical well-being.
Cinema Civil Rights
Regulation, Repression, and Race in the Classical Hollywood Era
Rutgers University Press
Cinema Civil Rights presents the untold history of how black audiences, activists, and lobbyists influenced the depiction of race in American films of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. Drawing from extensive archival research, Ellen C. Scott takes us to the sites, both inside and outside of Hollywood, where these representations were shaped. She thus offers a nuanced examination of the film industry’s role in both articulating and censoring the national conversation on race.
Aging and Loss
Mourning and Maturity in Contemporary Japan
By Jason Danely
Rutgers University Press
Based on nearly a decade of research, Aging and Loss: Mourning and Maturity in Contemporary Japan examines how the landscape of aging is felt, understood, and embodied by older adults themselves. In detailed portraits, anthropologist Jason Danely delves into the everyday lives of older Japanese adults as they construct narratives through acts of reminiscence, social engagement, and ritual practice, and reveals the pervasive cultural aesthetic of loss and of being a burden.
The Raritan River
Our Landscape, Our Legacy
By Judy Auer Shaw; Foreword by Michael R. Greenberg
Rutgers University Press
The Raritan River shows New Jersey for what it is—home to some of the most beautiful scenery in the country. This lavishly illustrated book tells the story of an amazing region where protected environments coexist with land left in ruins by rampant industrialization and where the reckless pursuit of commerce scarred the lands along its banks. Shaw reminds us that people are the solution and aims to show what is possible when we rescue the land, restore the habitat, and create harmony with nature.
Don't Act, Just Dance
The Metapolitics of Cold War Culture
Rutgers University Press
Drawing on fresh archival material, Catherine Gunther Kodat questions several commonly-held beliefs about the purpose and meaning of modernist cultural productions during the Cold War. Rather than read the dance through a received understanding of Cold War culture, Don’t Act, Just Dance reads Cold War culture through the dance, and in doing so establishes a new understanding of the politics of modernism in the arts of the period.
Reproductive Justice
The Politics of Health Care for Native American Women
By Barbara Gurr
Rutgers University Press
In Reproductive Justice, sociologist Barbara Gurr provides the first book examining Native American women’s reproductive healthcare. Drawing on interviews and focus group data, archival research, and discussions with healthcare professionals, Gurr paints an insightful portrait of the Indian Health Service (IHS)—the federal agency tasked with providing healthcare to Native Americans—shedding much-needed light on Native American efforts to obtain prenatal care, childbirth care, access to contraception and abortion services.
Battleground New Jersey
Vanderbilt, Hague, and Their Fight for Justice
Rutgers University Press
In Battleground New Jersey, historian and Boardwalk Empire author Nelson Johnson chronicles reforms to the system through the stories of Arthur T. Vanderbilt—the first chief justice of the state’s modern-era Supreme Court—and Frank Hague—former mayor of Jersey City. Although Vanderbilt and Hague clashed on matters of public policy and over the need to reform New Jersey’s antiquated and corrupt court system, they were two of the most powerful politicians in twentieth-century America.
Puerto Ricans in the Empire
Tobacco Growers and U.S. Colonialism
Rutgers University Press
A major contribution to the debate over U.S. colonialism, Puerto Ricans in the Empire shows how Puerto Ricans won inclusion in the empire, in terms that were defined not only by the colonial power, but also by the colonized. Focusing on the tobacco growing industry, Teresita Levy reveals how farmers became an effective political force in the empire, successfully lobbying U.S. administrators in San Juan and Washington, to improve their lives and boost their share of the tobacco-leaf market.
Family Activism
Immigrant Struggles and the Politics of Noncitizenship
Rutgers University Press
Drawing upon the idea of the “impossible activism” of undocumented immigrants, Amalia Pallares argues that those without legal status defy this “impossible” context by relying on the politicization of the family to challenge justice within contemporary immigration law. The culmination of a seven-year-long ethnography of undocumented immigrants and their families in Chicago, as well as national immigrant politics, Family Activism examines the ways in which the family has become politically significant.
Family Activism
Immigrant Struggles and the Politics of Noncitizenship
Rutgers University Press
Drawing upon the idea of the “impossible activism” of undocumented immigrants, Amalia Pallares argues that those without legal status defy this “impossible” context by relying on the politicization of the family to challenge justice within contemporary immigration law. The culmination of a seven-year-long ethnography of undocumented immigrants and their families in Chicago, as well as national immigrant politics, Family Activism examines the ways in which the family has become politically significant.
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