ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

New Publications

George M. Eberhart

The American Road: Atlas & Travel Planner(256 pages, July 1998) serves as a library version of the popular National Geographic road atlas of the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Its textured plastic cover will keep it intact longer. In addition to the standard state maps, this edition features 24 regional guides with highlights of outdoor activities, special events, and cultural landmarks; profiles of 28 national parks; route descriptions of 36 scenic drives from the George Parks Highway in Alaska to the Ruta Panorámica in Puerto Rico; and an expanded place-name index. The city-map inserts are plentiful with a minimum of crowding of the state maps. $39.95. Geosystems, 1350 Pine Street, Suite 3, Boulder, CO 80302. ISBN 1-57262-328-4.

The Bronze Age and Early Iron Age Peoples of Eastern Central Asia,edited by Victor H. Mair (899 pages, 2 vols., May 1998), presents the full spectrum of archeological and anthropological research on the peoples of the Tarim Basin in northwestern China. Recent discoveries of desiccated human remains in the area, as well as new evidence of Indo-European trade contact, has sparked debate on the origins of civilization in East Asia. Selected chapters—most of them papers presented at the 1996 International Conference on Bronze Age and Iron Age Peoples in Philadelphia—cover the opening of the Eurasian steppe in 2000 B.c.E., mummies from the Zaghunluq site, the identity of the Tocharians, the identity of the mixed mongoloid-caucasoid Uyghurs, China in early Eurasian history, and evidence for Sino- Bactrian contact. This is cutting-edge research into a distant, little-known world. $165.00. Institute for the Study of Man, 1133 13th St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20005. ISBN 0-941694- 63-1.

Censorship in Romania,by Lidia Vianu (233 pages, April 1998), presents the testimony of Romanian writers to show how each reacted to totalitarianism from 1947 to 1990. Since the fall of communism, frustrated authors have been speaking out in interviews, essays, and poems about life under state censorship. As Vianu writes, “Romanian writers had lived in a concentration camp of the mind, and they have been rushing out of it, amazingly self- assured, as if they had been free forever.” Their stories shed light on a dark and troubling time in central Europe. $14.95. Central European University Press, Oktober 6. utka 12, H-1051 Budapest, Hungary. ISBN 963-9116-09-2.

The Columbia Gazetteer of the World,edited by Saul B. Cohen (3 volumes, June 1998), is one of those reference books that, despite the price, no academic library should be without. Continuing in the comprehensive tradition of its 1952 and earlier editions, this gazetteer offers a wealth of geographic, economic, and historical information on 165,000 place names. Some of these—such as air force bases, shopping malls, nuclear plants, archeological sites, and mythical places (Lake Wobegon)— are not standard gazetteer fare. Pronunciations are given for difficult words, abundant see references are provided, and latitude-longitude values are specified for remote locations. $675.00 until September 30, $750.00 thereafter. Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231- 11040-5.

Drugs: Should We Legalize, Decriminalize, or Deregulate?,edited by Jeffrey A. Schaler (357 pages, April 1998), offers a sampling of those three perspectives, from drug warrior William Bennett to libertarians Thomas Szasz and Lee N. Robins. The topics covered are contemporary—medical marijuana, drugs as property, addiction, and crime—and most of the selections were originally published within the past ten years. An interesting choice of authors and treatments that will serve as an introduction to policy debate. $16.95. Prometheus. ISBN 1-57392-163-3.

English Prepositions Explained,by Seth Lindstromberg (309 pages, May 1998), is a comprehensive analysis of preposition meaning and usage directed specifically at teachers of English as a second language. Meanings are depicted by graphic icons that are easily in- terpreted, such as a stick figure standing on a circle to demonstrate “on top of.” The chap- ters compare the nuances of similar preposi- tions by providing numerous examples, though some of the section titles seem abstruse: “Additional metaphorical extensions of the sense ‘non-specific proximity.’” Final sec- tions on the use of phrasal or compound verbs (look at, bring up) and the key relationships defined by various propositions (allotment, manner) are enlightening. $29.95. John Benjamins North America, P.O. Box 27519, Philadelphia, PA 19118. ISBN 1-55619-526-5.

George M. Eberhart is associate editor of American Libraries; e-mail: geberhart@ala.org

Fools and Jesters in Lit- erature, Art, and His- tory: A Bio-Bibliographi- cal Sourcebook,edited by Vicki K. Janik (552 pages, June 1998), clev- erly brings together more than 60 essays on such diverse topics as Hopi clowns, fops, American circus clowns, the Tarot fool, as well as jesters in Shakespeare, Jonson, Rabelais, Plautus, and Beckett. Some famous comedians (Lucille Ball, Jack Benny, Laurel and Hardy) are also profiled. Janik identifies four cat- egories of fools, each of which conesponds to a character in a Marx Brothers film: the wise fool (Groucho), the trickster (Chico), the in- nocent (Harpo), and the dupe or victim (Mar- garet Dumont). The contributors discuss the fool’s gender role, ethical role, social function, and relationship to nature and time. $95.00. Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-29785-1.

Readers smitten by the jester bug may also wish to consult Greenwood’s Humor in Eighteenth-and Nineteenth-Century Literature, by Don L. F. Nilsen (294 pages, June 1998), which analyzes the humor in authors from Daniel Defoe to Oscar Wilde. $75.00. ISBN 0-313- 29705-3.

Foundations of Library and Information Science,by Richard E. Rubin (495 pages, 1998), is a wide-ranging treatise on librarianship in the 1990s. Yes, it is intended to be a text- book for use in library school; but its clear, well-organized presentation makes it a good summary of the information issues that have emerged in the past ten years. Specifically, Rubin addresses information policy, redefin- ing the library, intellectual freedom, the library’s mission and values, and ethics and standards. The tenth chapter is an insightful history of library education and the evolution of the pro- fession. $45.00. Neal-Schuman. ISBN 1-55570- 309-7.

A History of the American Suffragist Move- ment,by Doris Weatherford (280 pages, June 1998), chronicles the women’s voting-rights movement from its roots in colonial Quaker cul- ture to the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920. Essentially an un- dergraduate overview, Weatherford’s history weaves together many quotes, facts, and illus- trations into a convinc- ing narrative. A brief chronology and selected documents relating to women’s suffrage ap- pear as appendices. $50.00. ABC-Clio. ISBN 1-57607-065-4.

Slave in a Box: The Strange Career of Aunt Jemima,by M. M. Manring (210 pages, February 1998), is the story of a symbol—the mammy—as well as a product history. “Aunt Jemima,” he writes, “is a guide to how the image of African Americans changed in popular culture over this century, and how her own image remains politically charged today, makeovers and all.” Manring examines the mammy from several angles: as an icon that justifies the correctness of slavery, as a marketing tool to portray a southern ideal of racial order and leisure, as an advertisement that hearkened back to minstrelsy, and as a symbol of black transformation when her bandanna was discarded in 1968. A neglected but significant chapter in African-American history. $14.95. University Press of Virginia. ISBN 0- 8139-1811-1.