Colby Magazine, Summer 2001

	His Country Home Kurt Wolff '84 traces the evolution of country music in a new Rough Guide

	Joining the Club Richard "Pete" Moss (history) enters history of American country clubs

	From our shelf to yours

The Nation's Tortured Body: Violence, Representation, and the Formation of a Sikh "Diaspora"
Brian K. Axel '89
Duke University Press (2001)
Axel uses ethnographic and archival research conducted in India, England and the United States to explore the formation of a Sikh diaspora. The text focuses on violence in the transnational fight for Khalistan (an independent Sikh state), colonialism and postcolonial conditions, and images of Sikhs around the world. It is the history of displacement, Axel argues, that has created the concept of homelands.

Empire Falls
Richard Russo P'04
Alfred A. Knopf (2001)
In his fifth novel, Russo, former professor of creative writing at Colby, explores life in a down-at-the-heels Maine mill town. As is the case with his earlier novels, notably Nobody's Fool, this book lives because of Russo's sympathy toward and respect for people for whom things never go quite right. In Empire Falls, characters live with failed marriages, diminished expectations, dreams for friends and family that seem less and less likely to come true. In Russo's deft prose they are always left with their dignity intact.

Child Abuse: A Global View
Beth M. Schwartz-Kenney '86, co-editor
Greenwood Press (2000)
This book tackles how child abuse and neglect are defined, prevented and treated across cultures, regions and political systems. Each of the 16 expert-written chapters profiles the history, prevention, prevalence and social and legal issues of child abuse and neglect in a different country. Schwartz-Kenney co-wrote the article on the United States; others include Kenya, Norway and Russia. The bad news: child maltreatment exists everywhere it is looked for. The good news: advocacy on behalf of children continues to expand.

Night Crossing
Don J. Snyder '72
Alfred A. Knopf (2001)
In his newest novel Snyder takes on Northern Ireland's political turmoil by telling the story of the 1998 IRA bombing of the small city of Omagh. The suspenseful story integrates real victims--a slain mother pregnant with twins and holding her 3-year-old daughter's hand--with the main characters, including a British Intelligence captain who sees only one way to end the violence and struggles with his decision. When an American woman literally walks into the center of the events of the bombing, she cannot leave the city until she is changed. Ultimately, the reader, like Night Crossing's characters, must question whether the ends always justify the means.

The Notorious Astrological Physician of London: Works and Days of Simon Forman
Barbara Howard Traister '65
University of Chicago Press (2001)
Quack, conjurer, sex fiend, murderer--16th-century unlicensed physician, astrologer and magician Simon Forman has been called all of these things and worse. Traister examines Forman, who was implicated after death in the poisoning scandal of Sir Thomas Overbury, through his medical records and manuscripts, which were never intended for publication. Forman discloses eccentric and exotic personal details amid mundane details of London life. Ranging from the stench of a privy to the paralyzed limbs of a child, the works cover astrology, alchemy, gardening, giants, theater, creation and more.

FEATURES:
Diversity Call Renewed: Students, President Bro Adams, faculty and others join in effort to appreciate and accentuate differences.
Making Waves: An inside look at the news you love to hear--from Colbians.
A Simple Feast: Wylie Dufresne '92 is one of the hottest chefs in New York City.
President's Page: President Bro Adams on the court and affirmative action.
Commencement 2001
Alumni Reunion 2001