College and Research Libraries


272 College & Research Libraries 

potential sources is daunting, as are the 
limitations inherent in each category of 
document that records reading and im-
plies reader response. Recognizing the 
weaknesses of individual sources, the 
author relies on a massive assemblage of 
diverse material that in the aggregate is 
more illustrative than its individual 
parts. At the same time, there is heavy 
reliance on single texts or artistic images 
as representative of various categories. 
Nine of the ten chapters begin, for ex-
ample, with either a textual example or 
a historical moment that is used to sug-
gest a broad theme. Among the sources 
considered are artistic depictions-the 
subject of an entire chapter-and records 
of reading experience as noted in novels, 
diaries, memoirs, correspondence, and 
critical reviews. Probably the most sig-
nificant source is one that has never been 
thoroughly examined: the large collec-
tions of fan letters sent to members of the 
Academie frmu;aise and to other authors 
who saved a large amount of their mail. 
Although a problematic source, partly 
due to the selective nature of these col-
lections and patterns of flattery, the let-
ters are especially amenable to Allen's 
line of investigation. He selects 1,450 let-
ters sent to ten major authors: Mme. de 
Stael, Stendhal, Balzac, Baudelaire, Sue, 
Flaubert, Michelet, the Goncourts, Zola, 
and Anatole France. Sue, Michelet, and 
France receive the most attention, 
mainly because of the wide response 
aroused by the controversial works they 
published. 

The range of sources, although enor-
mous, is definitely weighted toward 
higher culture. There is some attention to 
more mundane publications, such as 
newspapers and schoolbooks, but only 
peripheral consideration of the printed 
word in the life .of less active readers, 
those whose reading included almanacs, 
accounting guides, manuals, prayer books, 
or popular literature. Because selection of 
sources is so crucial to further research on 
this topic, it is a pity that Allen's book 
could not contain a full bibliography to 
bring together the entire range of mate-
rial used. Even with the voluminous 
footnotes, generally well-explained ta-

May1992 

bles, and a selected bibliography of ar-
chival sources, it would have been help-
ful for scholars to have the same type of 
topical bibliography as Allen was able to 
include in his first book, Popular French 
Romanticism: Authors, Readers, and Books in 
the 19th Century. 

The book is strongest in its distillation 
of dispa~ate historical sources on print-
ing and reading and in the way it offers 
an impetus for further investigation of 
all areas of reading. It opens the possi-
bility of mining additional sources for 
studies on modern France that could be 
patterned after the work Roger Chartier 
and Robert Darnton have done on the 
early modern period, and it gives direc-
tion to future scholarship in the area of 
reading culture, including cafe society, 
discussion clubs, bookstore develop-
ment, and other aspects of the literary 
scene. If, by the nature of its sources, this 
work often has to be more impressionis-
tic than empirical, the conclusion seems 
reasonable throughout. Clearly, this 
study contributes significantly to the his-
tory of reading.-Mary Jane Parrine, 
Sta1Zford University, Stanford, California. 

Reich, Robert B. The Work of Nations: 
Preparing Ourselves for 21st-Century 
Capitalism. New York: Knopf, 1991. 
331 p . $24 (ISBN 0-394-58352-3). 
In his latest book, The Work of Nations: 

Prepari1lg Ourselves for 21st-Century Capi-
talism, Robert B. Reich, political economist 
at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of 
Government takes issue with the state-
ment made by President Bush in his 1989 
inaugural address: "We have more will 
than wallet, but will is what we need." 
Reich believes "We have the wallet, but 
do we have the will?" is the real question 
that Bush should pose to the American 
public. Deliberately, persuasively, harshly, 
Reich informs the reader how old defini-
tions of economic nationalism no longer 
pertain, how new work patterns in 
"global webs" remove us from daily 
national social problems, and why we 
need to recognize that "our mutual ob-
ligations as citizens extend beyond our 
economic usefulness to one another, and 
act accordingly." 



In the first two sections of his book, 
Reich describes the demise of America's 
core corporations and how the global 
web of enterprise has transformed the 
way in which businesses operate. In-
creasingly these businesses link special-
ized needs with customized solutions, 
emphasizing services over goods by 
means of international partnerships that 
exploit the problem-solving abilities of 
skilled people, while contracting with 
unskilled laborers in low-wage coun-
tries for "whatever must be standard-
ized and produced in high volume." The 
concept of centralized ownership and con-
trol, says Reich, where corporations 
operate as hierarchical entities, is mislead-
ing. Instead, ownership and control are 
frequently diffused, and the main value 
of the enterprise derives from the "prob-
lem-solving, -identifying, and -brokering 
skills of key people." The "nationality" 
of a corporation is often irrelevant. Of 
more importance to our economy is the 
extent to which an enterprise-irrespec-
tive of its national origin-values the skills 
of American workers and contributes to 
their material and social well-being. 

In the last two sections of the book-
and here lies some worthwhile reading 
for members of our profession-Reich 
identifies three main job categories of the 
future and redefines the meaning and 
"work" of a nation. Traditional classifi-
cations of America's "major occu-
pational groups," such as managerial 
and professional specialty; technical, 
sales, and administrative support; and 
operator, fabricator, and laborer, are by 
this time outmoded. Reich proposes 
three new categories to represent "the 
three different competitive positions in 
which Americans find themselves"-
routine production services, in-person ser-
vices, and symbolic-analytic services. The 
first category encompasses people who 
perform repetitive tasks, including 
many routine supervisory jobs that re-
quire "repetitive checks on subordi-
nates' work and the enforcement of 
standard operating procedures." Reich 
calculates that in 1990 routine produc-
tion services accounted for about 25% of 
American jobs and that their numbers 

Book Reviews 273 

are declining. The second category, in-
person services, comprises about 30% of 
the jobs in America, and its numbers are 
growing. In-person servers, as opposed 
to routine producers, are "in direct con-
tact with the ultimate beneficiaries of 
their work." Finally, symbolic-analytic 
services encompass the intangible pro-
cesses of problem identification, prob-
lem solving, and information brokering. 
This work sector is transforming the way 
business is conducted; it is also the most 
competitive category and least vulnera-
ble to usurpation in the global economy. 
According to Reich, these three catego-
ries make up 75% of American jobs. 

The economic plight of routine pro-
ducers in the United States is worsening 
because their skills can be replicated less 
expensively abroad. Meanwhile, the 
standard of living of in-person servers is 
tied to the desires and prosperity of the 
symbolic analysts on whom their liveli-
hood depends. The increasing disparity 
in the standard of living between the 
symbolic analysts and the other two 
major work categories has segregated 
Americans by income residentially, so-
cially, and educationally. Reich repeatedly 
reminds the reader that one-fifth of our 
citizens enjoy nearly 50% of the national 
income. 

And now we return to the "will-ver-
sus-wallet" question: Reich contends 
that we can afford to invest more money 
in infrastructure, education, and train-
ing if we can find the political will to 
implement solutions that would re-
quire-among other efforts-the top 
one-fifth of the earners to bear a greater 
share of the cost. Taking a somewhat 
cynical and admittedly "less charitable" 
view, however, Reich explains why it is 
likely that we will continue to travel in 
the hazardous direction of economic dis-
parity. Hanging in the balance is not 
merely our economic viability, but our 
social cohesion as a nation. Reich's book 
is intended for a large, national public 
and has been widely reviewed. Al-
though one might criticize the absence of 
a deeper historical perspective, quarrel 
with his nomenclature, or lament the 
paucity of solutions, Reich is persuasive, 



274 College & Research Libraries 

nonetheless, in arguing that the prevail-
ing economic and social philosophy of 
"laissez cosmopolitanism" is dangerous. 
His fundamental questions, "Are we still 
a society, even if we are no longer an 
economy? Are we bound together by 
something more than the gross national 
product?" are difficult to ignore. 

What is of significance here to librari-
ans? First of all, through his descriptions 
of work classifications, Reich offers a 
framework by which to analyze our pro-
fession. We will readily find examples of 
routine producers--copy catalogers, 
data entry clerks, middle managers who 
review the accuracy of our daily pro-
cedures. We know, too, that this category 
of workers has diminished and that their 
duties have changed with increased au-
tomation. Many among us will perceive 
ourselves as in-person servers, meeting 
our patrons' daily requests through ref-
erence work, collection development, 
and bibliographic instruction. Finally, 
more and more of us may perceive our 
work as symbolic-analytic service--
where we identify and solve information 
problems or broker our services in a 
global market. And even if we ourselves 
do not operate in the entrepreneurial 
global web, increasingly we may expect 
that the clientele we serve either aspires 
to or does. We can anticipate greater 
demands to customize, package, and 
tailor our services to match the particu-
lar needs of individuals in this group. We 
might also anticipate their willingness to 
pay for this service or to gain access to 
information sources without our inter-
vention. These trends, which are by no 
means new, will continue to present 
strategic dilemmas for a profession 
based on democratic traditions of free 
and undifferentiated access. It may also 
contribute to splintering librarians further, 
as we segregate ourselves and our pro-
fessional principles according to the 
clientele we serve. Academic, research, 
and special librarians may expect well-
funded symbolic analysts to figure 
prominently among their patrons, but 
most public and school librarians (cer-
tainly urban) will continue to serve the 
less fortunate 80%. How we resolve and 

May1992 

balance these demands within the pro-
fession is a microcosm of challenges pre-
sented to society as a whole. Reading 
Reich's book gives us reason to pause 
and re-boot, as we log on to the next 
century.-Martha L. Brogan, Yale Univer-
sity, New Haven, Connecticut. 

Reference and Information Services: An 
Introduction. Ed. by Richard E. Bopp 
and Linda C. Smith. Englewood, 
Colo.: Libraries Unlimited, 1991. 483p. 
$47.50 (ISBN 0-87287-875-9); paper, $30 
(ISBN 0-87287-788-4). LC 91-14086. 
Richard Bopp and Linda Smith have 

created this volume in response to the 
perceived need for an integrated text to 
be used primarily by library and infor-
mation science educators teaching basic 
reference courses. It is designed to pro-
vide an "overview both of the concepts 
and processes behind today's reference 
services and of the most important 
sources consulted in general reference 
work." On the whole they have 
succeeded, and this text is likely to re-
place William A. Katz's Introduction to 
Reference Work as the most popular text 
for beginning reference courses. 

The work is arranged in twenty chap-
ters written by twenty-one authors, most 
of them affiliated in some way with the 
University of Illinois at Urbana-Cham-
paign. The twenty chapters are divided 
into two parts. Part 1, "Concepts and 
Processes," covers topics such as reference 
service philosophy, the reference inter-
view, bibliographic control, electronic ref-
erence services, instruction, and evaluation. 
Part 2, ''Information Sources and Their 
Use," includes an introductory chapter on 
the selection and evaluation of sources, 
and discussions of reference sources by 
type (such as directories, indexes and 
abstracts, and dictionaries). 

The format for each chapter includes a 
list of sources and additional readings. 
The chapters dealing with sources also 
include a section called "search strate-
gies." The chapters are current, and 
many 1990 and 1991 sources are cited. 
The suggestions for additional readings 
are helpful for the student who may wish 
to pursue a particular topic. Sample pages