Chico State Faculty Books

Mexico's Unscripted Revolutions: Political and Social Change since 1958(opens in new window)

Stephen E. Lewis (History)

In Mexico’s Unscripted Revolutions: Political and Social Change Since 1958, distinguished historian Stephen Lewis offers a well-argued—and provocative—presentation of Mexico’s recent “unofficial” grassroots revolutions. The book explores generational change and youthful rebellion in the 1960s and the emergence of second-wave feminism in the 1970s. It also discusses Mexico’s uniquely protracted democratic transition, initiated by the hegemonic Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) but pushed forward at critical moments by ordinary citizens, opposition parties, and even armed insurgencies.

Firescaping Your Home: A Manual for Readiness in Wildfire Country(opens in new window)

Adrienne Edwards and Rachel Schleiger (Biological Sciences)

Wildfires are burning over longer seasons and more intensely than ever before, and everyone living in a wildland-urban interface or wildland-adjacent area should take precautionary steps to mitigate the risk of property damage. In Firescaping Your Home, Adrienne Edwards and Rachel Schleiger provide expert guidance and specific recommendations on how to harden your home against fire and create defensible space that is lush and attractive. They also provide in-depth native plant lists of hundreds of species that have evolved to coexist with fire in the West, and show how and why including these on your property sustains wildlife and can actually be your most powerful defense.

Toward a Stranger & More Posthuman Social Studies(opens in new window)

Bretton A. Varga (School of Education), Timothy Monreal, and Rebecca C. Christ, editors

Posthumanism has seen a surge across the humanities and offers a unique perspective, seeking to illuminate the role that more-than-human actors (e.g., affect, artifacts, objects, flora, fauna, other materials) play in the human experience. This book challenges the field of social studies education to think differently about the precarious status of the world (i.e., climate crisis, ongoing fights for racial equity, and Indigenous sovereignty). By cultivating a greater sense of attunement to the more-than-human, educators and scholars can foster more ethical ways of teaching, learning, researching, being, and becoming. In an effort to push the boundaries of what constitutes social studies, chapter authors engage with a wide range of disciplines and offer unique perspectives from various locations across the globe.

Please click here to visit this book’s listing in the Meriam Library!

 The Legal and Ethical Environment of Business(opens in new window)

Terance Lau (Provost's Office) and Lisa Johnson

The Legal and Ethical Environment of Business is a concise presentation of the key business-law topics that ensures every page is relevant, engaging, and interesting to today’s learners. Summaries of cases and case excerpts improve student understanding. Plentiful embedded video links expand on topics to shed light on how law and ethics impact real-world business situations. This book encourages students to retain what they learn by understanding the reasons behind the law, rather than simply memorizing facts and cases.

Science and Religion in America: A New Look(opens in new window)

Greg Cootsona (Comparative Religion and Humanities)

What is religion? What is science? How do they interact with each other? Science and Religions in America: A New Look offers a cutting-edge overview of the diverse range of religious traditions and their complex and fascinating interaction with science. Pluralistic in scope, the book is different from traditional Christian and/or monotheistic approaches to studying the rich interplay of religion and science in multi-religious American culture.

Please click here to view this book's listing in the Meriam Library!

 Rhetoric in the Time of Torture(opens in new window)

Laura A. Sparks (English)

In Rhetoric in the Time of Torture, Laura A. Sparks investigates how rhetoric and interrogational torture are imbricated with one another, troubling clear distinctions between persuasion and violence. In light of the U.S. government’s post-9/11 reliance on heavy interrogation techniques, Sparks offers a renewed attention to the rhetorical and temporal dimensions of torture, including the ways in which techniques utilized by military interrogators are intertwined with violent action. The author introduces compelling temporal logics related to imminence, surveillance, and prisoners’ world-times, among others, illuminating how temporal concerns figure in both justifications for and practices of torture. Ultimately, Sparks invites readers to consider where rhetoric fits in a world where people torture others to make them speak. Scholars of communication, rhetoric, and political science will find this book of particular interest.