The Humanities and Public Life. By Peter Brooks (ed.) with Hilary Jewett. New York: Fordham Univ. Press, 2014. 172 pp. $18.00 paper.

• Date: 01 December 2014
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/lasr.12116
• Published date: 01 December 2014

the “tree” of the small number of cases that make to the court. For

readers who are primarily interested in China’s environmental

pollution problems rather than its legal remedies, the book can be

a good starting point, but it is by no means a comprehensive

picture. Shifting the sites of research from courts to rural villages

and urban neighborhoods would generate richer empirical find-

ings and perhaps different theoretical insights regarding China’s

daunting tasks of environment protection.

For students of China’s legal system, however, this book pres-

ents a great example of using a concrete legal issue to tell a much

larger story of how judges, lawyers, litigants, and other actors in the

legal system work in practice. This rich and compelling story begins

with the micro social construction of environmental cases, proceeds

to macrostructural analyses of different actors in the political-legal

field, and ends with visions for the future of rights activism and

political change in China. The concept of political ambivalence

nicely ties the whole book together and reminds the readers that

the author is a political scientist above all.

In addition to the author’s extensive data collection through

interviews, observation, and archival research, the book draws on a

large number of social science studies on Chinese law and politics.

It strikes a good balance between primary and secondary data,

as well as between empirical findings and theoretical innovations.

Focusing on litigation, this pioneering study opens up many ques-

tions regarding the prospects of China’s environmental protection

and the rule of law. For instance, a comparison between the legal

and administrative channels of environmental dispute resolution

would lead to a better understanding of how law and politics

interact in the Chinese context. A more systematic comparison

between environmental law and other areas of law, such as criminal

law or commercial law, would also enable the author to further

develop the theory of political ambivalence in China and beyond.

∗∗∗

The Humanities and Public Life. By Peter Brooks (ed.) with Hilary

Jewett. New York: Fordham Univ. Press, 2014. 172 pp. $18.00

paper.

Reviewed by Anna Offit, Department of Anthropology, Princeton

University

The Humanities and Public Life is the ambitious beginning of a much-

needed conversation on the practice of ethical reading, and the

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