nov06c.indd George M. Eberhart N e w P u b l i c a t i o n s Ancient Stone Sites of New England and the Debate over Early European Exploration, by David Goudsward (240 pages, July 2006), re counts the history of alleged preColumbian discoveries in the Northeast and the various theories that try to account for them. Goud sward remains admirably (almost frustrating ly) objective on the topic, refusing to weigh in on whether any of the stone structures are preColumbian European, colonial, native, or hoaxes. Chapters cover supposed sacrifi cial stones, the Fall River skeleton in armor, Digh ton Rock, the Newport Tower, Mystery Hill in North Salem, megalithic stone chambers, the Westford knight, runic inscriptions, and the Gungywamp stone complex. An appendix lists sites that are open to the public. $32.00. McFarland. ISBN 0786424621. Cataloging Cultural Objects, by Murtha Baca, et al. (296 pages, September 2006), sets out data content standards that enable descriptive cataloging of paintings, sculpture, photographs, prints, architecture, archaeological sites, arti facts, and other cultural objects that might re side in a museum, archive, or visual resources collection. Developed by the Visual Resources Association, these new standards build on the concepts embedded in AACR2 and the DACS standard for archivists. The volume begins with general guidelines on defining works and im ages, establishing core elements, displaying relationships between works, designing data bases, and creating and maintaining controlled vocabularies, then provides detailed descrip tions of and rules for various data elements, as well as name and subject authorities. An essen tial reference for curators and digital resource catalogers. $67.50 for ALA members. American Library Association. ISBN 0838935648. The Columbia Guide to American Indian Literatures of the United States since 1945, George M. Eberhart is senior editor of American Libraries, e-mail: geberhart@ala.org edited by Eric Cheyfitz (438 pages, May 2006), examines Native American fiction, poetry, dra ma, nonfiction, and autobiography as a litera ture of resistance and liberation. Most students will be unfamiliar with the bulk of this material, and this guide offers a useful analysis of the cultural perspectives that produced it. $55.00. Columbia University. ISBN 0231511027. An Encyclopedia of Swearing, by Geoffrey Hughes (572 pages, May 2006), presents the history and usage patterns for various forms of Englishlanguage profanity, obscenity, blasphemy, malediction, and racial slur. Though not a dictionary, it does offer en tries for some of the commonest cusswords but prefers essays on categories (anatomi cal insults, euphemisms, formal oaths, graf fiti), themes (copulation, promiscuity, sca tology), ethnic groups (blacks, the French, Jews), broad topics (censorship, cinema, dictionaries, innovation, phonetic patterns, semantic changes), and people (Thomas Bowdler, Geoffrey Chaucer, David Mamet, Mark Twain). Hughes offers a scholarly yet lively and cosmopolitan analysis throughout. $110.00. M. E. Sharpe. ISBN 0765612313. First Aid for Art: Essential Salvage Tech niques, edited by Jane K. Hutchins and Barbara O. Roberts (108 pages, September 2006), is a practical guide for the preven tion and treatment of damage to books and paper, art objects, and scientifi c specimens. Each chapter lists the properties of particular types of materials, common types of dam age, supplies you might need, and what to do to salvage them. The instructions are simple enough to allow nonspecialists to read, comprehend, and react quickly during an emergency. $19.95. Hard Press Editions. ISBN 1889097691. The Forgotten Expedition, 1804–1805: The Louisiana Purchase Journals of Dunbar and Hunter, edited by Trey Perry, Pam Beasley, C&RL News November 2006 646 mailto:geberhart@ala.org and Jeanne Cle ments (248 pages, June 2006), presents for the first time an interpolated edition of the notes and journals of William Dunbar and George Hunter, who were commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson to explore the Ouachita River in northern Louisiana and southern Arkansas. The two scientific explorers became the fi rst visitors to the region to supply accurate car tographic information, observe the extent of the interactions between white traders and indigenous peoples, describe the fl ora and fauna, and conduct tests of the proper ties of the boiling waters in what is now Hot Springs National Park. Although their expedi tion did not cover as much territory as Lewis and Clark’s, Dunbar and Hunter’s were the first reports describing the landscapes and peoples of the Louisiana Purchase to reach Jefferson. $29.95. Louisiana State University. ISBN 0807131652. Jay Cooke’s Gamble: The Northern Pacifi c Railroad, the Sioux, and the Panic of 1873, by M. John Lubetkin (380 pages, May 2006), tells the story of Philadelphia banker Jay Cooke’s efforts to build a railroad line from Duluth, Minnesota, to Seattle, a process that set off a chain of events that included a spurt of survey ing expeditions, re newed war with the Sioux, and the cre ation of Yellowstone National Park. But poor management and other diffi cul ties led to Cooke’s fi nancial collapse and one of the worst national economic cri ses before the Great Depression. Lubetkin ties the threads of the story together tightly using many primary documents relating to the 1871–1873 Yellowstone Surveying Ex peditions. $29.95. University of Oklahoma. ISBN 0806137401. Literature from the “Axis of Evil,” edited by Alane Mason, Dedi Felman, and Samantha Schnee (293 pages, September 2006), offers translations of short stories and excerpts of writings by authors from Iran, Iraq, North Ko rea, Syria, Libya, Sudan, and Cuba. Compiled by the editors of the Words without Borders online magazine for international literature, the selections could only be made available after the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control in 2005 relaxed its prohibition on the publication of literature from nations under embargo. Included are “The Vice Princi pal,” a short story by the prominent Iranian au thor Houshang MoradiKermani; “Baghdad My Beloved,” a poem by the exiled Iraqi poet and playwright Salah AlHamdani written shortly after the U.S. invasion in 2003; a selection from the 2005 historical novel Hwangjini by North Korean writer Hong Seokjung; and the story “Women of the Federation,” by Havana writer Francisco García González. $24.95. New Press. ISBN 1595580700. Ned Kelly’s Last Days: Setting the Record Straight on the Death of an Outlaw, by Alex C. Castles and Jennifer Castles (268 pages, August 2006), focuses on the 137 days be tween the capture of notorious Australian outlaw and copkiller Ned Kelly and his ex ecution in November 1880. Law professor Alex Castles takes a close look at the legal process leading to Kelly’s trial and fi nds tampered evidence, confl icting accounts, a corrupt police force, and the littlepubli cized fact that the law under which Kelly was prosecuted had expired a few months earlier. The armorsuited Kelly has attained such a legendary status that it’s unlikely this will be the last word on the case, but Castles does clarify some of the murky politics and propaganda of the times. $16.95. Allen & Unwin; distributed by Independent Publish ers Group. ISBN 1741145384. November 2006 647 C&RL News