ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


674 / C&RL News ■  O cto ber 2002

N e w  P u b l i c a t i o n s George M. Eberhart

Chronology o f the American W e s t by Scott 
C. Zeman (381 pages January 2002), provides a cap­
sule history o f the trans-Mississippi West from mi­
grations across the Bering Land Bridge to the co n ­
tested election  o f T exas Gov. G eo ig e W. Bu sh  as 
President in 2000. Numerous sidebars o n  famous 
individuals and events alternate with plentiful black- 
and-white illustrations to m ake this volume an inter­
esting browse. Zeman provides much Native Ameri­
can, Hispanic, cultural, environmental, and business 
history in addition to m ore traditional fare. $85.00. 
A BC-CLIO. ISBN  1-576 07-207-X .

The Colum bia History o f Chinese Litera­
ture, edited by Victor H. Mair (1,342 pages, April 
2 0 0 2 ), o ffers a n  in-dep th  lo o k  at all g e n res and 
p erio d s o f  C h in e se p o etry , p ro s e, fictio n , and 
drama. T h e  55 chapters w ritten by m ore than 40  
scholars cover such topics as Chinese language and 
script, the Thirteen Classics, the supernatural, wit 
and humor, poetry o f the T ’ang Dynasty, travel lit­
erature, 20th-century fiction, balladry, and ethnic mi­
nority literature. The emphasis is o n  context, trends, 
and themes; few  extracts are provided, since these 
are readily available in The Colum bia Anthology o f Tra- 
ditional Chinese Literature(1994) and other English 
translations. O n e oddity is the choice o f the Wade- 
Giles system o f romanization, though Mair contends 
that it has b e e n  the “standard o f English-language 
sinology for over a century.” T h e Chinese charac­
ters for titles, terms, and authors used in the text are 
provided in three glossaries, along with a conversion 
chart from Wade-Giles to pinyin. $75.00. Columbia 
University. ISBN 0-231-10984-9.

Gaining Ground: The Origin and Evolution 
o f Tetrapods, b y  Je n n ifer A. Clack (3 6 9  pages, 
Ju n e 2002), exam ines w hen, where, and h ow  ver­
tebrates evolved from lobe-fin fishes and crawled 
o ut o f  th e w ater o n to  solid ground. C lack takes 
into consideration anatomical changes, plant ecol­
ogy, and g eological events to  sh o w  that the c o n ­
quest o f  dry land w as a slow process that required 
increased ambient oxygen levels, as well as the de­
velopm ent o f elongated limbs, larger eyes, an am- 
niotic egg for environmental shielding, and grind­
ing teeth for a vegetable diet. An excellent survey

G e o rg e  M . E b e rh a rt is s e n io r e d it o r  o f  Am erican 
Libraries; e-m a il: g e b e rh a rt@ a la .o rg

o f D evonian and Carboniferous land animals and 
their origins. $49.95. Indiana University. ISBN  0- 
253-34054-3.

Horse Behavior, b y  G e o rg e  H. W aring (4 1 4  
pages, 2d ed., Sep tem ber 2 002), provides a thor­
ough  overview o f the sensory capabilities, m otor 
patterns, reproductive strategies, and social behav­
iors o f both wild and domesticated horses. A thor­
ough exp ansio n  o f the 1983 edition, this volum e 
includes new  sections o n  environmental influences 
o n  horse activity patterns and other behaviors. An 
updated appendix that lists behavioral symptoms 
and probable causes should prove valuable to vet­
erinary students, while the entire bo o k is indispens­
a b le  fo r h o rse o w n ers and anim al behaviorists. 
$79.00. William Andrew Publishing, 13 Eaton Ave., 
N orw ich, N Y  13815. ISBN  0-81 5 5 -1 4 8 4 -0 .

In Another Country: Colonialism, Culture, 
and the English Novel in India, by Priya jo sh i 
(3 6 3  pages, May 2 002), is an enlightening history 
o f  read in g p re feren ce s in India in th e 19th an d  
20th centuries. Jo s h i sh ow s that instead o f  effec­
tively aiding in the acculturation o f  colonial sub­
jects, British novels paradoxically served to inspire 
an  anticolonial and nationalist esprit, s o  m uch  so 
that Indian writers from  Krupa Satthianadhan to 
Salman Rushdie appropriated anglophone fiction 
to  e x p lo re their o w n  liberating insights. O f par­
ticular interest is h er chap ter o n  the circulation o f 
fiction in Indian libraries from 1835 to 1901. $52.50. 
Colum bia University. ISBN  0-231-12584-4.

Intellectuals in Action: The Origins o f the 
N e w  Left and Radical Liberalism, 1 9 45 - 
1970, b y Kevin Mattson (3 0 5  pages, Ju n e  2002), 
argues that th e cen tral tenets o f  1 960s N ew  Left 
political p hilosop hy— participatory d em ocracy, 
social justice, public deliberation, and the concep t 
o f the engaged intellectual— are rooted in Ameri­
can  political thought and based m ore o n  Thom as 
Jefferson and Jo h n  D ew ey than o n  Karl M aix and 
counterculture. Mattson, a G en eratio n -X  history 
p ro fesso r at O h io  U niversity w h o  adm its it’s all 
too easy for peop le his age to “roll their eyes w hen 
listening to baby boomers recount their glory days,” 
focuses o n  the philosophy o f C. Wright Mills, Paul 
Goodman, William Appleton Williams, and Arnold

mailto:geberhart@ala.org


C&RL News ■  October 2002 /  675

Kaufman and concludes that much of what they 
had to say is worth reexamining in the context of 
America’s political future. $55.00. Penn State Uni­
versity. ISBN 0-271-02148-9-

The Lock, by Benita Kane Jaro (281 pages, June 
2002), is the third in a trilogy o f vivid historical 
novels set near the end o f the Roman Republic. 
The Key (1988) focused on the poet Catullus, while 
The D oor in the Wall (1994) revolved around the 
intrigues and relationships o f Julius Caesar. The 
Lock centers more on the Roman senator Cicero 
and his attempts to prevent the collapse o f de­
mocracy and thwart the machinations o f Pompey 
in his bid for sole control o f Rome. Written en ­
gagingly and with a clear grasp of the complexi­
ties o f Roman politics, The Lock shows how the 
ancients cam e to grips with som e o f the same 
choices and challenges that we face today. $19.95. 
Bolchazy-Carducci, 1000 Brown St., Unit 101, 
Wauconda, IL 60084. ISBN 0-86516-535-1.

The Thames Torso Murders of Victorian 
London, by R. Michael Gordon (247 pages, July 
2002), examines five gruesome murders, four in 
1887-1889 and a final one in 1902, that Gordon 
suspects may have been committed by Ja ck  the 
Ripper or an associate. In the process, Gordon 
looks at how social conditions in London’s East 
End in the 19th century might have engendered 
and hidden o ne or more serial killers. $35.00. 
McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-1348-4.

Time and Place in New Orleans: Past Ge­
ographies in the Present Day, by Richard 
Campanella (204 pages, April 2002), is a unique 
examination o f how the Crescent City’s geogra­
phy has influenced its urban planning and archi­
tecture since its founding in 1717. A major factor 
in the city’s development has been water— the 
swamps, river levees, drainage system, hurricanes, 
and canals— and the author describes the web of 
circumstances and patterns that water, culture, and 
commerce have formed in making what New Or­
leans is today. Profusely illustrated with modern 
and historic photos, its only drawback is the 
volume’s unnecessary 13-3/8-by-10-l/2-inch size. 
$45.00. Pelican. ISBN 1-56554-991-0.

The University of Chicago Spanish Dictio­
nary, edited by David Pharies (624 pages, 5th ed., 
August 2002), has been completely updated to re­
flect current North American Spanish usage and 
new words in the fields of medicine, electronics,

computers, science, and technology. Another im­
provement is in the consistent use o f parentheti­
cal phrases to guide word selection; for example, 
under the English word “sheet” are given (bed­
ding) sábana, (of ice) capa, (of paper) hoja, (of glass) 
lámina, and (of rain) cortina. With 80,000 entries, 
this concise bilingual edition can’t compare with 
the better unabridged dictionaries (such as 
HarperCollins’s 6th edition, 2000, w hich has 
800,000), but it is easy to read, eminently portable, 
and contains brief summaries of Spanish and En­
glish grammar, suffixes, and irregular verbs. Pho­
netic pronunciation is provided for English words, 
but not for Spanish, which consistently matches 
the way a word is spelled. $27.50. University of 
Chicago. ISBN 0-226-66688-3.

Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statisti­
cal Reference to Casualty and Other Fig­
ures, by Micheal Clodfelter (840 pages, 2d ed., 
April 2002), presents a record o f the casualties of 
warfare from the Italian War o f Charles VIII in 
1494-1498 to Chechnya and Eritrea in 2000. More 
than just a list o f statistics, this book summarizes 
the short-term and long-term effects o f each con­
flict and attempts to cut through the exaggeration 
and propaganda endemic to this topic. In addition 
to organized warfare, civil disturbances, revolutions, 
prison riots, and pogroms are covered. A master­
ful attempt to analyze the human costs o f warfare 
in the past 500 years. $195.00. McFarland. ISBN 
0-7864-1204-6.

What It Means to Be 98% Chimpanzee,
by Jonathan Marks (312 pages, April 2002), explores 
the significance of the genetic similarities between 
apes and humans, covering topics as diverse as the 
differences between racial types, the meaning of 
human nature, whether apes should have human 
rights, cloning, and the Human Genome Diversity 
Project. Marks writes entertainingly, often with die 
intent o f challenging the reader’s preconceptions 
about human beings as a species. $27.50. University 
o f California. ISBN 0-520-22615-1.

For interesting comparison leading, try The Dream 
o f Eternal Life, by Mark Benecke (196 pages, April 
2002), which examines the biological meaning of 
life and death, and the likelihood or desirability of 
extending the human life span to 120 or 150 years. 
Benecke reviews cryogenics, melatonin, organ trans­
plants, long-life secrets o f the aged, live-cell therapy, 
and the myths o f human cloning. Both books put 
recent genetic discoveries into plain context. $27.95. 
Columbia University. ISBN 0-231-11672-1. ■