Shamanism and Modern Medicine, Jeanne Achterberg (New...

Shamanism and Modern Medicine, Jeanne Achterberg (New Science Library/Shambhala). “If the ‘80s find us somewhere between nightmarishly rising medical costs and rising ‘holistic’ consciousness, healing through imagery is certainly an idea whose time has come” (Lisa Mitchell).

Emergence of a Free Press, Leonard W. Levy (Oxford). Explores the conflict between “the unconditional libertarianism of the First Amendment” and U.S. prosecutions for seditious libel. “Our legal legacy serves as a record of the ideals to which we aspire, even though it might not reflect more imperfect political realities” (Alex Raksin).

No Magic Bullet: A Social History of Venereal Disease in the United States Since 1890, Allan M. Brandt (Oxford). While Americans have directly confronted such diseases as measles or polio, their reaction to VD has put moral opprobrium ahead of efforts to find medical cures. Brandt finds current examples of the problem in the handling of AIDS and herpes (Daniel J. Kevles).

Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life, Robert N. Bellah, Richard Madsen, William Sullivan, Ann Swidler and Stephen M. Tipton (University of California). Concerned that “individualism may have grown cancerous” in the American character, destroying collective social efforts, the authors study how private persuasions can inhibit collective action. The book “arrives with perfect timing, in an age of increasing Angst” (Charles Champlin).

Funny Money, Mark Singer (Knopf). How Bill “Beep” Jennings, the chairman of a tiny shopping-center bank in Oklahoma City, and his partner, Bill “Monkeybrains” Patterson, delivered $2 billion in bad oil and gas loans, nearly destroying two of the largest banks in America (S. C. Gwynne).