Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2023 -

Berinsky (MIT) takes readers on a thought-provoking journey through the intricate world of political rumors, a phenomenon crucial to understanding today's political landscape, especially with the rise of social media and in the wake of the 2016 election. After defining political rumors and exploring their consequences, Berinsky dissects rumor transmission by analyzing various audiences, spanning disengaged citizens to skeptics of official information, and the information ecosystem involving different media types and important players in it. From the source of the rumor to the tone of corrections, Berinsky delves into the mechanics of misinformation to find solutions, and argues that elite rhetoric is essential to impacting mass opinion. Overall, this title offers comprehensive perspectives on the supply and reception of political information, providing evidence-based, practical suggestions for any common reader and information professional. In particular, research-backed discussions unraveling the interplay of partisan differences, personality, and predispositions and several experiments Berinsky conducted to verify prior significant findings in the field are invaluable for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of both misinformation and the complex scholarly conversation surrounding this topic.Summing Up: Essential. All readership levels.

The level of secrecy in the Soviet regime has amazed even scholars studying the Soviet Union. National security, as it is commonly called, was not a recent phenomenon in Soviet Russia, as Harrison (economics, Univ. of Warwick, England) details in this volume. Harrison demonstrates that the system evolved from concealing all information in the earliest days after the Revolution to encompassing all facets of Soviet economic activity. Party leadership thoroughly controlled the flow of knowledge about the extent of private and public ownership, especially during the 1920s, and became more authoritarian and guarded during Stalin's rule. This was especially evident during forced industrialization and the collectivization of Soviet agriculture, which created peasant resistance and a manmade famine. Information, if it was to be made public, had to be cleared by the organs of state security. Only after Stalin's death was it possible to see the beginnings of a thaw, but even under Gorbachev this policy of secrecy contributed to the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl and the devastation that followed. Secret Leviathan is a must for all academic libraries.Summing Up: Essential. Undergraduates through faculty; general readers.

Zunz (history, emer., Univ. of Virginia) offers an outstanding new biography of Alexis de Tocqueville that is sure to be the standard for years to come. Zunz capably recounts the major events of Tocqueville's life, focusing on Tocqueville's near obsession with a new kind of democracy emerging in the modern world. The United States, of course, was Tocqueville's laboratory for this new kind of democracy, and Zunz shows his readers how America stayed with Tocqueville and shaped his thinking throughout his life. This book is a treasure trove of Tocqueville's writings, including letters to politicians, friends, intellectuals, and many others. Toward the end of the book, Zunz recounts how Tocqueville became discouraged with the democratic revolution and worried that it might be aborted. Yet, Tocqueville never lost his faith in democracy and continued to champion its cause while trying to educate his readers on the avenues through which democracy could lose its way. Indeed, Zunz's book brings to light the idea of Tocqueville as a friendly critic of democracy, one who sought to make democracy better by exposing its flaws and defects.Summing Up: Essential. All readership levels.