President's Mother to Become Published Author

Paul Wall (you're not a dentist in Georgia, by any chance, are you?), I would point out that while Duke University Press is an academic publisher, it is one of the largest such publishers and also publishes trade publications marketed for a more general educated audience, similar to UChicago and Harvard U presses. It is a top-25 academic press and publishes hundreds of titles per year. It likes to think of itself as groovy and cutting-edge-- lots of GLBT and post-colonial titles, facebook and twitter accounts, the whole nine yards.

According to folks who know this particular press better than I, Duke University Press is not aiming this publication at the academic anthropology market. It is indeed a book they want to make money with, and one that would not have been published if the author, now deceased, did not have such a famous son. They also are interested in the publicity that will be generated.

jb | May 5, 2009 11:38:14 AM
Duke University Press publishes academic works not top-ten best-sellers. this book will be of interest to anthropologists, people interested in the humanities and people with an interest in Indonesian society. Duke University Press doesn't do Oprah books so don't worry. but at any rate you don't have to buy it, check it out from the library or even read it. your only interest is political grandstanding and parroting like the rest or the Limbaughian right.

silky...gomer??? LOL...AW I see your liberal side showing through...LOL

mad | May 5, 2009 3:27:41 PM
Mad, i was only pointing out that making cheap political points out of a dead person's book is cynical as it is no one's business where the money goes. unless you have claim to monies earned off the sale of the book why do you care. and if you truly do care, hire a lawyer to protect the author's rights.

Poppie, there are no "Hidden dissertations" from President Obama. He does not hold a PhD.

And this basically amounts to a vanity press-sort of publication of his mother's dissertation, since she herself never revised it for publication. Some of us hold PhDs and have written dissertations, so we know how academic writing and publishing works. Dissertations in their raw state are rarely publishable-- even marvelous examples undergo major revisions to make them appropriate for publication by an academic press. A dissertation includes, for example, an extensive literature survey to demonstrate the writer's knowledge of the field and to situate the research in question into the field. Much of this historiographic material is of interest to no one outside the dissertation committee members.

Clearly, the two anthropologists editing the book will do some extensive revisions to make it work. Then again, I don't think that they will market this as a scholarly monograph so much as a general interest publication that will sell on its curiosity factor.

I bet Sasha is working on "My years in the White House" book.

“It is a great privilege for Duke University Press to be publishing this remarkable work by Ann Dunham,”

Yeah, it's so remarkable that no one could be bothered with it all these years. What an amazing coincidence that they realized how important her work was at just the same time that one of her kids became president.

So much for integrity.

She actually looks like Caroline Kennedy. Put that conspiracy in your pipe and smoke it!

"Why is that? Because it all about him!"

Ah. Well-articulated.

the radical right is like a swine virus that invades blogs and starts parroting talking points from O'Reilly and Limbaugh that have nothing to do with the topic. resurrection of dead topics is unrelentlessly boring.

Paul Wall, it's not cynical to ask who will profit from the sale of a book when the author is dead. There are several possibilities that quickly come to mind.

1. The president and his sister
2. Mrs. Dunham's grandchildren
3. The Ford Foundation
4. Some other foundation as designated by Mrs. Dunham before her death or by her family more recently

Why is that? Because it all about him!

mad | May 5, 2009 11:19:38 AM wrote "Whi [sic] will profit from the book sales?" obviously anthropologists, students, economists, people interested in Indonesia. i know you were being cynical, but often people who read profit the most when a book is published.

When will grandma's book come out?

"It wasn't good enough 14 some years ago. Obama is the most self-serving president we have ever had."

Why is that?

"Silky, let's forget the cost. The question still remains. Why do a photo op then refuse to release the pictures?"

That's not a question I am even remotely concerned with.

It wasn't good enough 14 some years ago. Obama is the most self-serving president we have ever had.

Hehe...some of you guys are funny! Obviously she had something to say, as I will buy the book. I would buy it based on the "leaves that came from the tree". A real American family that came through "true" odds while understanding the world around them. AMAZING in deed.

Silky, let's forget the cost. The question still remains. Why do a photo op then refuse to release the pictures?

"Gee, sounds like a good excuse for scaring the hell out of New Yorkers with a fly-by 747 with a F-16 chase DUH."

This is what right wingers hold tight to as Obama's approval ratings go up and their heroes like Palin are made fun of by Republicans.