adopted son. The book is an appalling mess that sounds all therncurrently fashionable alarms. There are many others like it inrncurrent university-press catalogs, diatribes masquerading asrnscholarship.rnFruge urges publishing smaller but better lists, suggestingrnthat, as a start, presses coldheartedly cane out the bottom tenrnpercent from their current programs—the books that don’t sell,rnthe books that no one is especially proud of He does not say,rnbut I will add as an aside, that as a rule the university pressesrngrounded in the sciences are financially fitter than thoserngrounded in the humanities or social sciences. Although it isrncertainly susceptible to fads of its own, science is at least basedrnon the empirical and is subject to testing beyond mere opinion;rnfor this reason, as Thomas Kuhn has noted, scientific revoludonsrnare longer in arriving than those in the humanities. Thisrnmeans, if nothing else, that books in the sciences have a longerrnshelf-life than those in the humanities.rnIf university presses become trade publishers, Fruge writes inrnhis memoir, A Skeptic Among Scholars, they “shall soon be second-rnrate and expendable. But at our own specialt)’ we can dornbetter than others can, and we need only get the best possiblernscholarly books”—by which he means, he later adds, “honestrnresearch (and teaching) as free as possible from political intent.”rnBut the university these days is the most heavily politicizedrnvenue in American life, and it seems unlikely that universityrnpresses will disavow the culture in which they exist.rnAlso unlikely, at least for the moment, is the establishment ofrna golden mean that, to my mind, would be a reasonable solutionrnto the present crisis in scholarly publishing. In this model,rnuniversity presses would communicate worthwhile and meaningfulrnscholarship to the larger public, connecting for once academicrnendeavor to the general culture. (Precedents for such arnprogram can be found, but not in the United States; I am think-‘^rning of the English Open University and the French Que sais-je?rnseries.) Outstanding books in “queer studies” and “whitenessrnstudies” and all the other special-interest studies would certainlyrnbe among the books published under this program, providedrnthat they were indeed outstanding. One such book, and one ofrnthe more interesting social-science books in recent years, isrnPhilippe Bourgois’ In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barriorn(Cambridge University Press), a study of lives brutalized byrndrug addiction, poverty, crime, and violence. Bourgois spentrnfive years in a Puerto Rican barrio in East Harlem studying thernculture of crack cocaine as another anthropologist would an exoticrntribe. His thoughts on the theory and practice of anthropologicalrninvestigation often run counter to the received wisdomrnof voters and policymakers: “Suffering,” he writes, “isrnusually hideous; it is a solvent of human integrity, and ethnographersrnnever want to make the people they study look ugly.rnThis imperative to sanitize the vulnerable is particularly strongrnin the United States, where survival-of-the-fittest, blame-the-victimrntheories of individual action constitute a popular ‘commonrnsense.”‘rnThis is controersial work, and sure to offend some sensibilities.rnIt is also meaningful and an example, I think, of the kindrnof books universit’ presses will want to pursue if they are to fulfillrntheir mission: to publish scholarship well, and to bring thatrnscholarship to the largest possible audience, without goingrnbroke in the process.rn?^{rCltl^^ yLnltHntsrnChimpanzeernPoliticsrnPower and Sex among Apesrnrevised editionrnFrans de WaalrnThis revised edition—witti arngallery of color photographsrnand a new introduction andrnepilogue—updates the storyrnof a chimpanzee colony andrnits political upheavals.rn”Even more enlighteningrnthan Machiaelli’s The Prince,rnthis book describes powerrntakeovers and socialrnorganizations in a chimpanzeerncolony . . . I’ll never look atrnacademic or corporate politicsrnthe same way.”—^Jim Collins,rnInc. Magazinern$29.95 hardcoverrn’Â¥.<•’rnmmrnThe Tree ofrnLibertyrnA Documentary History of Rebellionrnand Political Crime in Americarnrevised editionrnVolume 1:rnColonial Era to World War IIrnVolume 2:rnCold War to New World Orderrnedited byrnNicholas N. Kittrie andrnEldon D. Wedlock, Jr.rn”A totally unique work.rnThere is no other collection ofrnprimary material on politicalrncrimes and political violencernthroughout all, or even arnsubstantial part of, Americanrnhistory.”—Michael Belknaprneach volume $24.95 paperbackrn$75.00 combined hardcoverrneditionrnAndrew JacksonrnVolume!; The Course of AmericanrnEmpire, 1767-1821rnVolume 2: The Course of AmericanrnFreedom, 1822-1832rnVolume 3: The Course of AmericanrnDemocracy, 1833-1845rnRobert V. ReminirnWinner of the National RookrnAward and a main selection ofrnthe History Book Clubrn”Jackson’s significance inrnAmerican political and socialrnhistory is enormous . . .rn[Remini] has produced arnwonderful portrait, rich inrndetail, of a fascinating andrnimportant man and anrnauthoritative . . . account ofrnhis role in American history.”rn—^John A. Garraty, New YorkrnTimes Book Reviewrneach volume $17.95 paperbackrnAvailable at bookstores • The Johns Hopkins University Press • 1-800-537-5487 • www.press.jhu.edurnMAY 1998/29rnrnrn