ACRL College & Research Libraries News

Association of College & Research Libraries

New Publications

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

Queen of the South: New Orleans, 1853-1862,edited by Samuel Wilson Jr., Patricia Brady, and Lynn D. Adams (292 pages, November 1999), consists of the diary of the British-born architect Thomas K. Wharton (1814-62 ), who was responsible for building the huge New Orleans Custom House on Canal Street. Though he had spent his youth in the North, Wharton was a committed Southern loyalist, defending states’ rights and railing against the “demonic” actions of the North. His narrative is accompanied by splendid images of antebellum New Orleans—photos, drawings, engravings—up to the Union occupation of 1862. Any New Orleans enthusiast will find abundant detail and local color in Wharton’s entries, which are preceded by the “meteorology of each day, and thermometrical observations taken at 9 a.m., 12 m., and 4 p.m. Fahrenheit’s grade—and the instrument placed in a selected, shady place at the office of the New Custom House N. Orleans.” $39-95. Historic New Orleans Collection, 533 Royal Street, New Orleans, LA 70130-2179. ISBN 0-917860-43-8.

The increased popularity of diaries and reminiscences that lend a personal touch to world events are similarly represented in Margaretta Barton Colt’s Defend the Valley: A Shenandoah Family in the Civil War (442 pages, June 1999), which records the letters, memoirs, and personal struggles of a Virginia family from the Union occupation of Harper’s Ferry (1861) to Appomattox (1865). A trade paperback reprint of a 1994 Crown publication, but well worth acquiring. $17.95. Oxford University. ISBN 0-19-513237-8.

Another amazing memoir is Boy Soldier: A German Teenager at the Nazi Twilight, by Gerhardt B. Thamm (179 pages, February 2000), who recreated a narrative from the wartime diary he kept. Conscripted as a teenager by the German Army to fight the advancing Russians in the last months of the war, Thamm “saw the horrors that no fifteenyear-old boy should ever see” and offers a youthful perspective on the politics and propaganda of Nazi Germany. $29-95. McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-0660-7.

Staging Tourism: Bodies on Display from Waikiki to Sea World,by Jane C. Desmond (336 pages, December 1999), argues that cultural and natural voyeurism is a major impulse for certain types of tourism. Examining the histories of Hawaiian hula dancing and animal tourism in zoos, aquariums, and animal theme parks, Desmond writes that viewing hula dancers and killer whales reinforces perceptions of cultural differences between the observers and the observed—an unusual take on why people travel. $30.00. University of Chicago. ISBN 0-226-14375-9.

Traditional African Names,by Jonathan Musere (401 pages, December 1999), provides definitions for some 6,000 personal names used in nine countries in East and Central Africa. The explanations offer insight into African culture: Some names are derived from proverbs (Garikayi = “Be settled and prosperous”), while others relate to physical characteristics (Kiromba = “big navel”) or conditions at or shortly after birth (Siabaswi = “fish,” given to a child born while the mother was on a fishing trip). Names can also associate a person with a particular locality, profession, or religion. Musere gives a pronunciation for each name and identifies the ethnic groups that use it. $65.00. Scarecrow. ISBN 0-8108-3643-2.

Also of interest for Africana collections is the Encyclopedia of African Peoples, produced by Diagram Visual Information (400 pages, February 2000), which is an informative and well-illustrated ethnological survey in four parts. The first section gives an overview of the history, language, lifestyle, social structure, religion, and culture for all the major ethnic groups, with shorter summaries for lesser-known ones. The second section looks at cultural and historical topics that cut across ethnic and national boundaries; many maps, timelines, and artifacts accompany the text. Part three is an almanac-style description of each African country, while part four features short biographies of about 300 famous Africans. This is an excellent reference source for quickly finding a short history of East Africa, locating the Luba people, or seeing what Tonga stilt houses look like. $55.00. Facts on File. ISBN 0-8160-4099-0.

When the Sleeper Wakes,by H. G. Wells and edited by Leon Stover (465 pages, March 2000), is the fifth in a series of texts of Wells’s first editions, extensively annotated and analyzed by Stover, who argues persuasively that the future portrayed in the 1899 novel is in keeping with the author’s vision of state socialism.

Rather than a dystopian nightmare, the world that the sleeper wakes to in 2100 is a social inevitability, in which the leisure and working classes have united in one progressive world state where nationalism, religion, and private property have been subsumed by a corporate, global monolith. Although a worker’s uprising becomes the focal point of the plot, the outcome is ambiguous enough to question which side of the conflict Wells himself would have favored. Stover argues that Wells would have been on the side of a neoplatonic guardian state that is too evolved and dynamic to put up with individuals who can’t see the big picture for all their petty personal urges. The annotations are filled with insights into Wells’s writings and philosophy as well as parallels with modern corporate multinationalism and advances in technology. $55.00. McFarland & Company. ISBN 0-7864-0666-6.

Wildlife of Gondwana: Dinosaurs and Other Vertebrates from the Ancient Supercontinent,by Patricia Vickers-Rich and Thomas Hewitt Rich (304 pages, 2d ed., January 2000), is a beautiful celebration of fossil diversity in the southern supercontinent—made up from Australia, southern Africa, Antarctica, India, and South America—since the Paleozoic Era. The authors survey the natural history of vertebrates (fish, amphibians, dinosaurs, marsupials) that lived in Gondwana, with a particular emphasis on Australian fossils. First published in Australia in 1993, this edition has been updated to include recent discoveries. The photographs are of exceptional quality, and the text offers a fascinating overview of the unique geology and fauna of Australia. $59-95. Indiana University. ISBN 0-253-33643-0.

Science libraries will also want to acquire the Encyclopedia of Paleontology, edited by Ronald Singer (1,435 pages, 2 vols., January 2000), which describes all major groups of fossil organisms, from aardvarks to xenarthrans (armadillos, antj eaters, and ground sloths) and from algae to dinosaurs.

Besides entries for the varij ous fossil taxa, the set also contains essays on biology and behavior, evolutionary concepts, environment, morphology, field and laboratory techniques, regional overviews, and biographies of noted paleontologists. Helpful charts, drawings, photographs, and diagrams are plentiful, and substantial bibliographies follow each entry. $285.00. Fitzroy Dearborn. ISBN 1-884964-96-6.

As recently as the 1970s, few paleontologists were willing to accept that the mass extinctions (70% of all species) of the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) boundary could have been caused by extraterrestrial impact. But when evidence of an anomalous amount of iridium was discovered in K-T clays, along with shocked quartz and microscopic diamonds, opinion shifted to the likelihood that the extinctions were caused by a comet or asteroid.

The End of the Dinosaurs: Chicxuluh Crater and Mass Extinctions,by Charles Frankel (223 pages, October 1999), tells the story of the search for and discovery of the impact crater in Yucatan, and offers a plausible scenario of what must have happened to the earth and its inhabitants 65 million years ago. $24.95. Cambridge University. ISBN 0-521-47447-7. ■