Books
A select list of books by CMS/W faculty, lecturers, and alumni.
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The 7 Laws of Magical Thinking: How Irrational Beliefs Keep Us Happy, Healthy, and Sane (2012)
“A provocative and entertaining look at the psychology of superstition and religion, how they make us human—and how we can use them to our advantage.”
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Raising the Stakes (2012)
T.L. Taylor’s book on professional computer gaming and the accompanying efforts to make a sport out of this form of play.
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Mr g: A Novel About the Creation (2012)
“’As I remember, I had just woken up from a nap when I decided to create the universe.’ So begins Alan Lightman’s playful and profound new novel, Mr g.”
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The Panic Virus: The True Story Behind the Vaccine-Autism Controversy (2012)
In The Panic Virus, Mnookin interviews parents, public-health advocates, scientists, and anti-vaccine activists to task: How do we decide what the truth is?
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What’s Fair on the Air?: Cold War Right-Wing Broadcasting and the Public Interest (2011)
“Before the rise of Limbaugh and Beck, these broadcasters bucked the public interest mandate and created an alternate universe of right-wing coverage.”
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Riddle and Bind (2010)
Riddle & Bind is a book of poems to solve.
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Brand New China: Advertising, Media, and Commercial Culture (2010)
Jing Wang’s “detailed, penetrating, and up-to-date portrayal of branding and advertising in contemporary China.”
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Newton and the Counterfeiter: The Unknown Detective Career of the World’s Greatest Scientist (2009)
In the courts and streets of London, Newton and Chaloner played out an epic game of cat and mouse.
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The Day We Found the Universe (2009)
Marcia Bartusiak’s “riveting and mesmerizing story behind the discovery of the startling size and true nature of our universe.”
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We Europeans?: Media, Representations, Identities (2009)
William Uricchio explores media and identity in the shifting ethnicities, religions, tastes, generations, and languages of contemporary Europe.
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Racing the Beam: The Atari Video Computer System (2009)
Montfort and Bogost show that the Atari VCS—often considered merely a retro fetish object—is an essential part of the history of video games.
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Gay Bombay: Globalization, Love and (Be)longing in Contemporary India (2008)
Using a combination of multi-sited ethnography, textual analysis, historical documentation analysis, and memoir writing, Parmesh Shahani provides macro and micro perspectives on what it means to be a gay man located in Gay Bombay.
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Bosston (2008)
Bosston completes Ed Barrett’s trilogy of Boston-based prose poem novels that includes Rub Out and Kevin White.
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Beyond Representational Correctness: Rethinking Criticism of Popular Media (2008)
“In this provocative book, Edward Schiappa argues that representational correctness is unproductive, antagonistic to audience research.”
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The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007)
“The most dynamic, entertaining, and achingly heartfelt novel I’ve read in a long time.”
