The Second Wave:  
A Reader in Feminist Theory  

Linda J. Nicholson, editor  
414 pages, $22.99, Routledge 

     According to historians, the women’s movement in the United States occurred in two major “waves” — the first dating from shortly before the Civil War through suffrage. The Second Wave: A Reader in Feminist Theory takes its name from the period beginning in the early 1960s, when thewomen’s movement began to reorganize. 
     Editor Linda Nicholson of the Department of Educational Administration and Policy Studies has assembled an impressive array of essays and other works from such eminent feminist authors as Simone de Beauvoir, Judith Butler, Nancy Chodorow, the Combahee River Collective (a black feminist collective), and Catherine MacKinnon. Nicholson points out that The Second Wave focuses on the history of feminist theory in the U.S. “because feminist theory in different countries has taken different paths, and no one volume could adequately cover all of those paths.” 
     The Second Wave, Nicholson said, provides “a sense of how feminist theory has changed from the early 1960s to the present” while focusing on “the major debates and turning points” in the movement. 

Resisting the Bomb: A History of the World  Nuclear Disarmament  
Movement, 1954-1970  

By Lawrence S. Wittner  
732 pages, $65.00 cloth, $24.95 paper, 
Stanford University Press 

     In One World or None, the first volume of his trilogy The Struggle Against the Bomb, University at Albany history professor Lawrence S. Wittner explored the international nuclear disarmament movement. Now, in Resisting the Bomb: A History of the World Nuclear Disarmament Movement,1954-1970, he continues the story of humanity’s efforts to ward off nuclear annihilation. 
     In chronicling international efforts to avert nuclear devastation, Wittner, a former president of the Peace History Society, drew upon a variety of resources. Many of the documents cited, including those culled from the files of Great Britain’s Atomic Energy Authority, the U.S. State Department, and the Community Party Central Committee of the former Soviet Union, were categorized as “top secret” until recently. Those declassified materials, together with excerpts from 118 manuscript collections, 28 personal or oral history interviews, and 48 peace movement periodicals from nations around the world, present a complete picture of peace activists’ successful efforts to curb nuclear proliferation, and to circumvent government officials’ attempts to subdue their protests. 

After Disaster: Agenda Setting,  
Public Policy, and Focusing Events  

By Thomas A. Birkland  
256 pages, $53.00 cloth, $20.95 paper, 
Georgetown University Press 

Each year, natural and man-made disasters kill and injure thousands of people, decimate various forms of wildlife, and destroy billions of dollars of property in the United States alone. But as Thomas A. Birkland points out in After Disaster: Agenda Setting, Public Policy, and Focusing Events, ultimately catastrophic events can also have a positive impact. 
Birkland, an associate professor of public administration and policy in the University’s Graduate School of Public Affairs, cites the 1971 San Fernando, California, earthquake; Hurricane Camille, which devastated the Gulf Coast in 1969, and Hurricane Hugo, which hit South Carolina 20 years later; and the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska’s Prince William Sound nearly a decade ago as “examples of danger, damage, and destruction.” However, he notes that, in each instance, disaster was a catalyst for change, with strengthened building codes, heightened awareness of land use, and enactment of anti-pollution controls as the results. 

Anthoine Vérard, Parisian Publisher, 1485-1512: Prologues, Poems, and Presentations  

By Mary Beth Winn 
555 pages, approx. $90, Librairie Droz 

     A man who dominated French publishing for more than a quarter of a century is the subject of anew work by Mary Beth Winn of the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures. 
     Anthoine Vérard, Parisian Publisher, 1485-1512: Prologues, Poems, and Presentations tells the story of a Renaissance man distinguished by the quality of his books. Vérard, who produced more than 280 editions of books, had a clientele that ranged from kings and queens to clergy and students. He was also a successful businessman, adept at reading his customers’ literary tastes and attracting patrons. 
     But the scope and beauty of his books, according to Winn, remain the most distinctive characteristics of Vérard’s enterprise. He published paper copies popular with the general public, as well as deluxe works crafted of parchment and given to royalty. In addition, Vérard commissioned artists who illustrated his paper publications with woodcuts and the deluxe editions with elaborate paintings. Religious and devotional books, including Bibles, lives of the saints, and Books of Hours, which contained prayers intended for recitation at certain hours of the day, comprised about half of Vérard’s production. The other half consisted of volumes of poetry, romances, and such legendary literary works as Decameron. 
     Winn, who received a 1996-97 National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship, researched Vérard’s life and work for 15 years.