The American Press and the Coming of...

The American Press and the Coming of the Holocaust 1933-1945, Deborah Lipstadt (The Free Press). The author “has written a tempered, judicious account of the role of the press in a difficult period and has done it in lucid prose” (Henry L. Feingold).

Calculated Kindness: Refugees and America’s Half-Open Door, 1945 to the Present, Gil Loescher and John A. Scanlan (The Free Press). In this “factual, jargon-free presentation,” the authors “are critical of the failure of the federal government to be moved by humanitarian concerns when they conflict with political goals” (Ellen L. Lutz).

Microcosmos: Four Billion Years of Evolution From Our Microbial Ancestors, Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan (Summit). A distinguished biologist and a first-rate science writer argue that evolution took off not when multicelled organisms crawled out of the oceans onto the land, but when bacteria invaded cells and began living inside them (Lee Dembart).

The Technopolis Strategy: Japan, High Technology, and the Control of the Twenty-First Century, Sheridan Tatsuno (Brady/Prentice-Hall). “From his position as a California-based consultant to high-tech industry, Sheridan Tatsuno gives us a fascinating description of how, in four short decades, Japan has become our leading foreign supplier and fiercest competitor in technology businesses” (John Rollwagen).

The End of Life: Euthanasia and Morality, James Rachels (Oxford). “A sustained philosophical argument for a broad agenda of mercy killing.” Despite surprising omissions, “Rachels’ book is intriguing, and clever. Those of us who do not like it will probably find ourselves contending with it for a long time” (Gerald R. Winslow).