Lucetta Scaraffia and Gabriella Zarri, eds. Women and Faith. [BX 4220 .I8 D6613x 1999]
Bernica Kerr. Religious Life for Women [BX 4413 .5 .K47x 1999]
Duncan Steel. Making Time [CE6 .S74x 2000]
David Robertson. Denmark Vesey [F279 .C49 N473x 1999]
Patricia Marchak. God's Assassins [HV 6433 .A7 M37x 1999]
Mark Ensalaco. Chile Under Pinochet [JC 599 .C5 E67x 2000]
Paul E. Schelle, ed. We Get What We Vote For [JK 1967 .W4x 1999]
John C. Greene, ed. Financing the 1996 Election [JK 1991 .F566x 1999]

Scaraffia, Lucetta and Gabriella Zarri, eds. Women and faith: Catholic religious life in Italy from late antiquity to the present. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press, 1999. Location: Olin, BX 4220 .I8 D6613x 1999 Feminist thought has wrestled with the question of whether religion has been responsible for the oppression of women or instead has provided them access to culture, public life and - sometimes - power. This conflict is reflected throughout this study of the institutions within which religious women lived. It is not a systematic history of these institutions but rather presents an in depth examination of specific topics, including mystical marriage, religious writings by women, women in sacred images, women in the 19th century Christian family, and Marian pilgrimages. (Yoram Szekely, ybs1@cornell.edu)

Kerr, Berenice. Religious life for women, c.1100-c.1350: Fontevraud in England. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1999. Location: Olin, BX 4413 .5 .K47x 1999 A detailed and scholarly study of the English branch , consisting of three cloisters, of the Fontevraud order of nuns. Examines the history, economics, domestic arrangements and religious observances of each house, including the somewhat unique role of men as chaplains, clerks and lay brothers for the nuns. although it is a detailed case study of a single order, it opens up a wide range of insights and information about monasticism and religious life for women in the medieval Europe. As such, important for anyone interested in women's history, religious history and medieval history generally. (Yoram Szekely, ybs1@cornell.edu)

Steel, Duncan. Marking Time: the Epic Quest to Invent the Prefect Calendar. New York: J. Wiley, 2000. Location: Olin, CE6 .S74x 2000 With the recent interest in, and controversy over, the Millennium, this book comes at an opportune time. Taking a long view, ranging from the Sumerians who first recorded the year and the day about 3,500BC to the present, Steel provides insight into the fascinating aspects of calendar creation in many cultures. Among the various interesting facts to be found in this work are: the Roman Empire originally observed an eight-day week; the anno Domini year counting system is incorrect, Jesus' birth actually occurred some years before December, 1BC; why there is no year zero between1BC and 1AD. (G. David Brumberg, gdb1@cornell.edu)

Robertson, David. Denmark Vesey: The Buried History of America's Largest Slave Rebellion and the Man Who Led It. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999. Location: Olin, F279 .C49 N473x 1999 The slave rebellion led by Nat Turner in 1831 is the one known by most Americans. Yet the largest and best organized slave conspiracy occurred nine years earlier and was led by Denmark Vesey. A free black man, Vesey gave up his freedom and gambled (and lost) everything to liberate his people. The plan was on a grand scale. Nine thousand armed slaves were to converge on Charleston, South Carolina, kill the entire white population, raze the city, and escape by ship to Haiti or Africa. The scheme failed because black informers notified the white authorities before it could be put into effect. This volume is a fascinating detective story which restores a powerful figure to the historical stage and, in the process, examines some "disturbing and timely questions" which still trouble our national conscience. (G. David Brumberg, gdb1@cornell.edu)

Marchak, Patricia. God's Assassins. State terrorism in Argentina in the 1970s. Montreal; Ithaca: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1999. Location: Olin HV 6433 .A7 M37x 1999 An estimated 30,000 people disappeared in Argentina between 1976 and 1983. There is credible evidence that the military orchestrated an organized campaign to rid their country of "subversives, their families and their supporters;" 30,000 was only the beginning. The enormity of the terror itself and the Falklands War debacle led to the military's return to their barracks, in disgrace. To reconstruct the corrosive effects of state terrorism, "El Proceso" in the argot of the times, Marchak conducted a series of interviews in 1996 and 1997 which she effectively weaves through a commentary on political history. (David Block, db10@cornell.edu)

Ensalaco, Mark. Chile Under Pinochet, recovering the Truth. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000. Location: Olin JC 599 .C5 E67x 2000 Written before Jack Straw and the Spaniards entered the picture, this book examines whether the "truth" of the Pinochet years (1973-1989) in Chile can ever be told. Ensalco does impressive detective work in piecing together the motives and modes of repression and the immediate and durable opposition made by Chilean human rights groups. The military, the Chilean courts, politicians of left, center and right all bear responsibility for the thousands of deaths and disappearances of the period and for the inability of democratic regimes, since 1990, to dispel the lies and uncover the graves. (David Block, db10@cornell.edu)

"We get what we vote for...or do we?" : the impact of elections on governing, edited by Paul E. Scheele. Westport, Connecticut : Praeger, 1999. Location: Olin, JK 1967 .W4x 1999 Financing the 1996 election, edited by John C. Green. Armonk, New York : M.E. Sharpe, c1999. Location: Olin, JK 1991 .F566x 1999 The first week in February offers a media frenzy over the New Hampshire Primary and a flurry over Punxsutawney Phil. The result of which event offers a better prediction: the response of a few hundred thousand voters in rural New England or that of a sleepy groundhog in central Pennsylvania? In order to help readers assess the primary, Olin Library supports a comprehensive collection on the American electoral experience, both contemporary and historic. Olin resources analyze the candidates, the campaigns, the turnout, the vote, and the results. Recently added to the collection are the proceedings of a conference which examined the relationship between election results and governing. Contributors to Paul Scheele's new book, "We Get What We Vote For...," consider either how elections work, how they affect policy, or how they might be rethought to improve the democratic process. Also added to Olin is a new compilation edited by John C. Green which deals with election finance. Contributors to his "Financing the 1996 Election," assess the impact of recent changes in federal campaign finance regulation and practices. They find a new era of soft money donations and issue advocacy spending, and in which the regulatory system is increasingly irrelevant. In this election year, these new titles and others in the Olin collection offer solid background for political analysis. Olin defers to other campus libraries for background on groundhogs. (Janie Harris, jlh9@cornell.edu)

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