University of California Press Blog

Reflections on Paris, Obama, and the Protests in Iran

By Ariel Rosen

My year abroad in the City of Lights and the violent aftermath of the election in Iran. At first glance, these two events may not seem to have much in common. But listening to the June 30th podcast from NPR: Talk of the Nation, Iranian Americans watch Tehran from Afar, you’ll see how they just might be related.

On the show, guests Tara Bahrampour (author of the memoir To See and See Again) and Trita Parsi discuss with host Neil Cohen the implications of the election for Iranian Americans. Iran’s evolving image has redirected conversations from the nuclear-centric to the personal. Instead of worrying about arms programs, people now talk about the bravery of anonymous protesters. This implies that Americans have gained a more sympathetic view of Iranians that permits them to relate to a people whose seemingly divergent values previously separated them.

The podcast also addresses how this change in perception mirrors Iranian Americans’ newly shaped self-image. Whereas before Iranians had many reasons to be proud of their heritage and to express this pride amongst themselves, they can now do the same in front of non-Iranians, thanks to the recent outpouring of support from the international community.

The link between my year studying in Paris and the protests in Iran? The way I see it, the events surrounding Iran’s election did for the Iranian American community what Obama’s candidacy and victory did for the American reputation in France: catalyzed empathy and support where before there wasn’t much of which to speak.  

Upon my arrival at the Porte Maillot bus station in Paris mid-September, the first sight to greet me (even before my impossibly blond host family came to collect “their American”) was Obama’s smilingly confident face decorating a bus stop. That image set the tone for the months leading up to the presidential election in the States – Barack was everywhere, on billboards and tongue tips. The first thing the French wanted to know was who I would be voting for and as soon as the magic syllables were out of my mouth, a rare smile would crack the Parisian façade and a sincere enthusiasm bubbled through.

During this past year, a pride in my American heritage installed itself in my identity, fed by French support of my new president that struck me by a novelty equal to that of my nascent patriotism.

Listen to the NPR Podcast Now

Elin Kelsey on Cultures of the Deep

Beneath the ocean surface is a diverse cetacean world. Elin Kelsey, author of Watching Giants, is fascinated by the hidden world of whales and dolphins, and her June 27 interview on CBC Radio's Quirks and Quarks offers a glimpse into the lives of these social yet enigmatic creatures.

What is it like to be a sperm whale or a bottlenose dolphin? Kelsey describes remarkably diverse matriarchal societies in which females live into their 70s and 80s and males into their 50s, and in which wisdom, memory, and creativity seem to play an important role. Whales and dolphins talk to each other, form long-term relationships, and cooperate. They are also innovators: humpback whales catch food in "bubble nets", and bottlenose dolphins use sea sponges as fishing tools and pass skills down through the generations, suggesting a deeper cultural system that we are just beginning to understand. Listen to Elin Kelsey's interview on CBC Radio's Quirks and Quarks website.

You'd Think Water Would be a Basic Right

Peter Asmus, President of Pathfinder Communications, is a journalist, consultant, and author of many of books, including Introduction to Energy in California, which was published by UC Press in June 2009. To learn more about the author and renewable energy, please visit his blog, Finding the Responsible Path.

On July 6, 2009, Asmus wrote an opinion-based article for the Sacramento Bee, entitled "You'd Think Water Would be a Basic Right." In the article, he talks about how people in some of the poorest regions of the world, whether it is Nairobi, Kenya or Central California or elsewhere, lack the fundamental right to clean and safe water. Whether these people have a voice or not, it is ultimately up to the politicians to decide their fate.

Asmus writes:

Interestingly enough, the prime opponent of guaranteeing a human right to water on the international stage at the United Nations has been the United States, which, by the way, is also opposed to a human right to housing and food. It is this political dynamic of our federal government opposing human rights to water that makes Assembly Bill 1242 by Assemblyman Ira Ruskin, D-Los Altos, so interesting. The bill is moving through the California Legislature and a key vote is scheduled Monday.

To read the article in its entirety, please visit "You'd Think Water Would be a Basic Right."

Try Serving up Mister Maestro's Peacock with All of its Feathers

    Lighting firecrackers and grilling burgers has become the classic way to celebrate the Continental Congress’ adoption of the Declaration of Independence, just 233 short years ago. Free at last from the tyranny of uncomfortable, dead-pan British humor, we clanged bells and marched down avenues in formations. The 4th of July has become the perfect excuse to start drinking a tad earlier than is usually acceptable, and to stir that dormant redneck cum patriot inside each and every one of us. Little matter that people first celebrated American independence on July 8, that the signing was actually finalized in August, or that the holiday didn’t become official until 1941.

    But while your friends are chowing down on charred dogs you could be eating something more out of the ordinary. If roast suckling pig doesn’t suit your fancy, you can always make your own “good sausage with pork or other meat”. These are some of the tamer ideas you’ll find in our historical cookbook The Art of Cooking, which features recipes by Maestro Martino of Como, the original celebrity chef who made a name for himself in central Italy during the Renaissance.

    Mister Maestro was one of the first to write a modern-style cookbook, meaning he was kind enough to include the quantities, ingredients and techniques for the culinary mortals. Contemporary food master Stefania Barzini reworked these creations for the modern kitchen by substituting an oven for the open fire or updating flavor combination to current tastes. Wouldn’t you rather serve “Gold of Pleasure sauce” with your asparagus, instead of the go-to drizzle of olive oil? 

    If you have a sweet tooth, take a stab at Martino of Como’s “Flying pie”, which calls for live birds to be trapped under the cover with the dessert and released when the dish is served to guests.

    This Saturday, if you’re intent on blowing your buzzed buds out of the water, try serving up Martino’s “peacock with all of its feathers, so that when cooked, it appears to be alive and spews flames from its beak.” Even the hardiest Iron Chef contestant might have trouble stabbing the hapless bird in the head with a knife or slitting its throat. It’s really quite simple, counsels the Maestro, just do as you would with a baby goat. 

The Living Legacy of West Virginia Coal Mining

Ever since companies began extracting coal from the West Virginia hills, coal mining has been a way of life in many parts of the state. Generation after generation of miners descended into the earth in the morning and emerged again at twilight, covered with coal dust. This work fueled the American economy for many decades, but it also inflicted deep wounds on the region. Protesters have campaigned against the environmental costs of mining methods like mountaintop removal, including a recent high-profile protest during which actress Daryl Hannah and others were arrested, putting West Virginia coal mining in the international spotlight.

There are human costs as well, and according to West Virginia University’s Dr. Michael Hendryx, these costs far outweigh the economic benefits to the region. On June 26, Steve Curwood, host of the Public Radio International program Living on Earth interviewed Hendryx, the author of a new study that assesses the economic toll of coal mining on a community. Hendryx's research in West Virginia shows that 10,000 excess deaths occur per year in mining areas than in non-mining areas. He estimates that the actual dollar value per year of those lost lives is between $42 and $80 billion, while the coal industry brings only about $8 billion yearly to the region. The study attributes these excess deaths to higher rates of poverty, environmental exposures, and pollution in mining communities. Listen to the interview and read a transcript at the Living on Earth website.

In a region long defined by the coal industry, mining work is increasingly hard to find, as new methods require fewer workers. In some areas, left economically crippled by the changing times, life is marked by chronic poverty, that passes through the generations like the mining jobs once did. Ken Light and Melanie Light, in the documentary tradition of James Agee and Walker Evans, visited West Virginia's forgotten towns and rambling hills, interviewing and photographing the people there. The Lights collected stories from retired miners, a city mayor and a coal industry employer, a snake handler, a grandmother who supported her family by restoring and reselling discarded items, and other remarkable residents of all perspectives and backgrounds. In their book Coal Hollow, the people of the West Virginia coal mining legacy tell their own stories, in their own voices, and together they paint a stark and moving living history. This video segment includes some of the striking images from the book, an interview with photographer Ken Light, and indigenous music and interview excerpts recorded by Melanie Light.

How Everyday Products Make People Sick

Paul D. Blanc is Professor of Medicine and holds the Endowed Chair in Occupational and Environmental Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. Blanc is also the author of How Everyday Products Make People Sick: Toxins at Home and in the Workplace, which was published by UC Press in January 2007. An updated and revised edition of the book will be published by UC Press in the fall of 2009.

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By: Paul D. Blanc

I recently completed the Preface to an updated edition of How Everyday Products Make People Sick: Toxins at Home and in the Workplace. I had several goals that I wanted to accomplish in doing so. First and foremost, I have been stunned (and a bit dismayed) to see how many emerging hazards originally alluded to in the pages of the initial edition of the book, only published early in  2007, have evolved into major news events over the ensuing months. Ranging from leaded toys to the toxic contamination of foodstuffs to worsening conditions in the workplace – these episodes are important to document each on their own merits.

But such an update alone might only serve as a litany of seemingly isolated events. Collectively, this recent history also serves to underline the sadly lax state of regulatory affairs at home in the United States and internationally as well. The poster child of ineffective regulation in the U.S., beyond question, has been the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Time and again, I found myself coming back to the CPSC in the Preface (it plays a prominent role in the body of How Everyday Products Make People Sick, as well). But, unfortunately, even if the CPSC stands out, it is not alone: the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) all have had their fair share of recent shortcomings when it comes to the protection of the environment and those trying to work and live in it. 

As I had the opportunity to speak about my work in follow-up to the original publication of How Everyday Products Make People Sick, one thing that I realized was that some things I had taken for granted and thus given relatively brief attention to in the book were, in fact, subjects about which many people were still unaware. This includes the rich histories of key longstanding work and environmental hazards such as lead and silica. Thus, I also used the new Preface as an opportunity to revisit some of these topics, as well as to address a few other questions that arose in relation to the book’s original contents.

One issue I do not resolve in this updated edition, however, is the unexpected ambivalence that the book’s title engendered in certain scientific-medical circles. How Everyday Products Make People Sick, I have been told more than once, “sounds like a ‘self-help’ book, when actually it is very well-documented and rigorous.” Most of these critiques give me the benefit of the doubt and assume that the title was hoisted upon me by some manipulative marketer deep in the recesses of the UC Press. I am taking this opportunity to publicly acknowledge that the title was my idea, and I stand by it - so I guess I will have to live with the critique. Anyway, I’m not sure I get the point: I always thought accurate knowledge was the cornerstone of effective self-help.

Tony Crouch Wins AAUP Constituency Award

Tony Crouch, UC Press Director of Design and Production, has won the 2009 Constituency Award from the American Association of University Presses (AAUP). The annual award recognizes university press employees who have made outstanding contributions to the AAUP and to scholarly publishing at large. Winners are selected by the association's Board of Directors, from nominations submitted by members of the university press community. "Crouch's nomination was supported by many...who have benefited from the wisdom and insight he has shared over the years," the AAUP press release said.

The prize is a fitting honor for Tony, who has directed design and production at UC Press for 21 years and will retire this summer. An early advocate of environmentally sound printing, he helped create UC Press’s corporate sustainability policy in 1995, and this year, thanks in part to his work, UC Press received Book Business Magazine’s Sustain Print Award for Longtime Leadership. “We strive to be green from cover to cover,” he has said. Tony also received the Distinguished Service Award from BookBuilders West in 2002, and in 2005, he became the first university press inductee to the PrintMedia Hall of Fame. 

Tony has played an active and integral role in the AAUP for many years. As noted in the press release, he has spoken at association meetings, worked with the association as a member of its Program Committee, its Eco Task Force and its Eco Subdivision of the Design and Production Committee, and as a Whiting Week-in-Residence host. It is for this service, and for his lasting achievements in university publishing, that the AAUP honored him with the Constituency Award.

Washington Outlines Global Climate Change Impacts

 By Gary Braasch,  ©  June 18, 2009. 

Global climate change impacts across the United States are spelled out with renewed authority in a report released June 16 by the federal government. It marks the strongest and clearest statement from Washington that global warming’s effects are being felt over broad regions of the nation.  (Available at http://globalchange.gov)

The details of the report will not be news to readers of my book, Earth Under Fire: How Global Warming Is Changing the World, which was published nearly two years ago with extensive details and photographs of how rising greenhouse gases are indeed making great changes across the world. The book’s paperback edition, issued this April, carries extensive updates from many of the same sources as the new federal report.  

When Earth Under Fire was first published, the Bush administration was in power. Many scientists, commentators and citizens were chafing under what was broadly seen as government obfuscation of science and its choice to neither report on nor take comprehensive action about global warming.  Indeed, the Bush government was sued over its failure to provide reports required by law. 

Now those reports have been issued, 21 in all, by the U.S. Global Change Research Program.  The June 16 overview, “Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States,” was published and sent to Congress by President Obama’s science appointees Dr. John Holdren in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Dr. Jane Lubchenco at NOAA.  Both scientists are sources for and are quoted in Earth Under Fire.

The federal report is remarkable for its clear voice on the changes seen now and the short term implications for major economic sectors and geographical regions of the nation.  It describes where we are headed with declarative candor:

• “U.S. average temperature has risen  more than 2°F over the past 50 years and is projected to rise more in the future.”
• “Climate change will interact with many social and environmental stresses.”
• “Thresholds will be crossed, leading to large changes in climate and ecosystems.”
• "Future climate change and its impacts depend on choices made today.”
• “Lower emissions of heat-trapping gases will delay the appearance of climate change impacts and lessen their magnitude. Unless the rate of emissions is substantially reduced, impacts are expected to become increasingly severe for more people and places.

It does not recommend any laws, policies or technologies to achieve those reductions – but of course the President’s cabinet, the Congress and businesses, states, cities and citizens everywhere are beginning to take action.  For information about these actions and technologies, and the broad impact of climate change over the entire world, you may turn to Earth Under Fire. It remains in step with this new U. S. report and ahead of the news about global warming’s strong implications --  from sea to sky, pole to pole, and from international policy to our daily lives.

Order the book today on www.ucpress.edu and save 20%.  Use code 09W6936 in the shopping cart at checkout.

Person Gary Braasch

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