The concept of ethnic, racial, and gender humor is as sensitive a subject today as it has ever been; yet at no time in the past have we had such a quantity of this humor circulating throughout society. We can see the power of such content manifested continually in our culture's films and stand-up comedy routines, as well as on popular TV sitcoms, where Jewish, black, Asian, Hispanic, and gay characters and topics have seemingly become essential to comic scenarios. Though such humor is often cruel, it can be a source of pride and play among minorities, women, and gays. Leon Rappoport's incisive account takes an in-depth look at ethnic, racial and gender humor. Despite the polarization that is often apparent in the debates such humor evokes, the most important melting pot in this country may be the one that we enter when we share a laugh at ourselves.

Punchlines: The Case for Racial, Ethnic, and Gender Humor

Humor & Entertainment

Rappoport, Leon

Humor

Praeger

This book offers a provocative interpretation of the major historical and psychological factors contributing to the Holocaust and its long range implications. The authors provide insights into the behaviour of perpetrators, victims, bystanders and active resisters, exploring the unique German context of the Holocaust and the myths of victim passivity and SS psychopathology. But their enquiry probes beyond actions and behaviour to confront the meaning of the event and the limited ability of prior forms of knowledge, values, and conceptual theories to interpret it.

The Holocaust and the Crisis of Human Behavior

History

Kren, George M.

World

Holmes & Meier Pub

Rappoport treats the dinner table like a Freudian couch, asking us to lie back and spill our guts. Tracing our culinary customs from the Stone Age to the stovetop range, he illuminates our complex and often contradictory eating habits, and suggests that perhaps we are what we eat.

How We Eat: Appetite, Culture, and the Psychology of Food

Cookbooks, Food & Wine

Cooking Education & Reference

ECW Press

This inquiry into matters of heart, conducted under the shadows of pending surgery, awakens themes of boyhood, education, and marriage and prompt questions about loyalty to a deceased father, connections with immigrant grandparents, loss and rediscovery of faith, and solitude versus community. A medical narrative, the book also chronicles a span of contemporary American life. Throughout Amato's account, the consistent reminder of his upcoming bypass invites readers to reflect on their own lives and selves. This is an intelligent and witty guide to an immensely common operation that nevertheless for each patient constitutes a unique experience-a veritable rite of passage.

Bypass: A Memoir

Biographies & Memoirs

Amato, Joseph A.

Joyce, Lyle

Arts & Literature

Purdue University Press

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Books by Rappoport, Leon