Recent Publications

AFGHANISTAN

Children of Afghanistan: The Path to Peace, edited by Jennifer Heath and Ashraf Zahedi. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2014. 374 pages. $55. Jennifer Heath and Ashraf Zahedi present the first comprehensive volume examining youth in Afghanistan and their role in rebuilding a country torn apart by 30 years of warfare. The 21 contributors to this volume offer policy recommendations for addressing the most pressing issues confronting the next generation of Afghans, including illiteracy, sexual exploitation, domestic violence, child labor, and nutrition. (DR)

IRAN

The Lonely War: One Woman’s Account of the Struggle for Modern Iran, by Nazila Fathi. New York City: Basic Books, 2014. 336 Pages. $27. Iranian journalist Nazila Fathi was just nine years old when the Iranian revolution occurred. In this memoir, Fathi interweaves her personal story, from growing up in Iran to her exile in Canada, with two decades of Iranian history. Through these experiences she chronicles the tension between reformists and conservatives since the 1979 revolution. Drawing on interviews with ordinary Iranians, as well as public officials, she illustrates the modern evolution of Iran and how reformers are slowly taking back the country. (EO)

Amazingly Original: Contemporary Iranian Art at Crossroads, by Abbas Daneshvari. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers, 2014. 405 pages. $129. This illustrated work explores Iranian contemporary art and its transmutations as a response to the rapid social and political changes in the country’s recent history. These occurred in three stages: the birth of Iranian modernism took place in the 1940s, and when artists of the neo-traditionalist Saqqakhaneh movement of the 1960s, who sought inspiration from a pre-Islamic past. In the third phase, Daneshvari praises what he sees as a unique and remarkable moment in art history, where the honesty and authenticity of Iran’s contemporary productions that at first glance seem simple, but upon further scrutiny reveal great complexity. (DJ)

IRAQ

When All The Lands Were Sea: A Photographic Journey Into the Lives of the Marsh Arabs of Iraq, by Tor Eigeland. Northampton, MA: Interlink Books, 2015. 112 pages. $40. In 1967, Norwegian photojournalist Tor Eigeland entered the southern marshes of Iraq with just a canoe, 200 tins of sardines, and an odd assortment of fellow travelers. Almost 50 years later, his trip is finally documented in When All the Lands Were Sea, an ethnography of Marsh Arab society. Eigeland offers a unique narrative of the Marsh Arabs’ culture before its near-destruction by Saddam Husayn’s regime, complemented by stunning photographs of the vast marshes and villages built entirely from reeds. (DR)

ISRAEL

Mass Communication in Israel: Nationalism, Globalization, and Segmentation, by Oren Soffer. Translated by Judith Yalon. New York: Berghahn Books, 2015. 227 pages. $95. Mass Communication in Israel examines the relationship between media and nationalism in Israel and how mass communication acts as an important contributor to national identity and nation-building. Author Oren Soffer first takes a historical perspective, exploring the roots and evolution of newspapers, radio and television. He then explores the impact of the Internet on cultural and institutional levels and how technological change has contributed to segmentation in the current age of globalization. (DJ)

Toward an Anthropology of Nation Building and Unbuilding in Israel, edited and with an introduction by Frank Markowitz, Stephen Sharot, and Moshe Shokeid. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2015. 329 pages. $65. This volume was inspired by the work of pioneering Israeli anthropologist Alex Weingrod, who has also written the book’s afterword. In a study conducted in the 1950s, Weingrod focused on the paradoxes of state identity formation in Israel’s south. Nation Building and Unbuilding in Israel seeks to cast light on the modern Israeli nation-building project. Consisting of chapters by 22 scholars, the book is divided into four parts: Israel as a place of difference, the disruptions and integrations of the Diaspora, the place of Judaism and its many permutations, and the role of symbols and nation building in a comparative perspective. (DJ)

The Case Against Academic Boycotts of Israel, edited by Cary Nelson and Gabriel Noah Brahm. Detroit: Wayne State University...