"American Identities" is a dazzling array of primary documents and critical essays culled from American history, literature, memoir, and popular culture that explore major currents and trends in American history from 1945 to the present.

Although long known as a parasite of medical and veterinary importance, interest in Toxoplasma gondii has increased with its emergence as a major cause of death in immunosuppressed individuals, and with recognition of its suitability as a model system for molecular and cellular investigations of apicomplexan parasites. The NATO workshop brought together 32 scientists working in different areas of toxoplasmosis research to gain an overview of progress in the field. Molecular studies have been carried out on genomic and extrachromosomal DNA. They reveal that Toxoplasma is very highly conserved, genetic mapping is underway and preliminary linkage analysis suggests recombination is rare; moreover all virulent strains share the same isoenzyme markers and are seen to be essentially clonal by RFLP analysis [Boothroyd, Darde, Wilson]. Despite considerable structural homology between Toxoplasma and related apicomplexan parasites there is little direct overlap in gene sequence data. Good progress has been made in cloning functional genes and in elucidation of PI anchors [Cesbron-Delauw, Johnson, Mercereau-Puijalon, Striepen]. The structure of molecules on the surface and within dense granules, rhoptries and micronemes has in some cases been determined and provides clues as to the targetting and function of these proteins.

A son of poor Jamaican immigrants who grew up in Depression-era Harlem, Harry Belafonte became the first black performer to gain artistic control over the representation of African Americans in commercial television and film. Forging connections with an astonishing array of consequential players on the American scene in the decades following World War II-from Paul Robeson to Ed Sullivan, John Kennedy to Stokely Carmichael-Belafonte established his place in American culture as a hugely popular singer, matinee idol, internationalist, and champion of civil rights, black pride, and black power. In Becoming Belafonte, Judith E. Smith presents the first full-length interpretive study of this multitalented artist. She sets Belafonte's compelling story within a history of American race relations, black theater and film history, McCarthy-era hysteria, and the challenges of introducing multifaceted black culture in a moment of expanding media possibilities and constrained political expression. Smith traces Belafonte's roots in the radical politics of the 1940s, his careful negotiation of the complex challenges of the Cold War 1950s, and his full flowering as a civil rights advocate and internationally acclaimed performer in the 1960s. In Smith's account, Belafonte emerges as a relentless activist, a questing intellectual, and a tireless organizer. From his first national successes as a singer of Calypso-inflected songs to the dedication he brought to producing challenging material on television and film regardless of its commercial potential, Belafonte stands as a singular figure in American cultural history-a performer who never shied away from the dangerous crossroads where art and politics meet.