THEATRE
Childhood and NineteenthCentury American Theatre The Work of the Marsh Troupe of Juvenile Actors Shauna Vey Exploring the careers and backstage lives of child performers and their place in antebellum America From 1855 until 1863, the Marsh Troupe of
Both a microhistory of a professional
Juvenile Comedians, a professional acting
theatre company and its juvenile play-
company of approximately thirty children,
ers in the decade before the Civil War
entertained audiences with their nuanced
and a larger narrative of cultural change
performances of adult roles on stages
in the United States, Childhood and
around the globe. In Childhood and Nine-
Nineteenth-Century American Theatre
teenth-Century AmericanTheatre:The Work
sheds light on how childhood was ideal-
of the Marsh Troupe of Juvenile Actors,
ized both on and off the stage, how the
author Shauna Vey provides an insightful
role of the child in society shifted in the
account not only of this unique antebel-
nineteenth century, and the ways eco-
lum stage troupe but also of contemporary
nomic value and sentiment contributed
theatre practices and the larger American
to how children were viewed.
culture, including shifts in the definition of childhood itself. October $40.00s Paper 978-0-8093-3438-4 224 pages, 6 x 9, 15 illustrations Theater in the Americas
Shauna Vey is an associate professor at New York City College of Technology, City University of New York, where she teaches theater and communication courses. Her work has been published in Theatre History Studies and Theatre Survey.
ARCHAEOLOGY
Beyond Collapse Archaeological Perspectives on Resilience, Revitalization, and Transformation in Complex Societies Edited by Ronald K. Faulseit New approaches to collapsed complex societies The Maya. The Romans. The great dy-
stresses, including environmental change,
nasties of ancient China. It is generally
warfare, and the fragmentation of politi-
believed that these once mighty empires
cal institutions. Contributors discuss not
eventually crumbled and disappeared.
only what leads societies to collapse but
A recent trend in archaeology, however,
also why some societies are resilient and
focusing on what happened during and
others are not, as well as how societies
after the decline of once powerful soci
reorganize after collapse. Putting in con-
eties has found social resilience and trans-
text issues we face today, such as climate
formation instead of collapse. In Beyond
change, lack of social diversity, and the fail-
Collapse: Archaeological Perspectives on
ure of modern states, Beyond Collapse is
Resilience, Revitalization, andTransforma-
an essential volume for readers interested
tion in Complex Societies, editor Ronald
in human-environment interaction and in
K. Faulseit gathers scholars with diverse
the collapse—and subsequent reorganiza-
theoretical perspectives to interpret how
tion—of human societies.
ancient civilizations responded to various
December $70.00s Paper 978-0-8093-3399-8 624 pages, 7 x 10, 117 illustrations
12
Ronald K. Faulseit is a postdoctoral fellow in the Integrative Research Center at the Field Museum in Chicago. He served as the 2012–13 visiting scholar at the Center for Archaeological Investigations, Southern Illinois University Carbondale. His work has been published in the Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association and the journals Latin American Antiquity and Mexicon.
Southern Illinois University Press
www.siupress.com