College and Research Libraries Moon, president of Scarecrow) are certain- ly to be commended for their effort in at- tempting to winnow out some grain from the tremendous amount of chaff. Further- more, they propose to do this every year. In case we need to be reminded of the sorry state of library literature, we are re- minded by Eric Moon's superb "The Li- brary Press," reprinted from LJ as "Pro- logue." In all, there are thirty articles from twenty-one journals (four from LJ and WLB, three from American Libraries, and one each from the others, ranging from Horn Book and LRTS to such less frequent- ly seen things as South Today and Sound- ings. Mter the introduction and prologue, the articles are grouped into four major head- ings: Libraries and Librarians, Technical Services/ Technical Processes, Communica- tion and Education, and The Social Prerog- ative. Generally speaking, the articles are excellent, although, as the editors note, no one will be happy with all the selections, on grounds of inclusion or exclusion. At any rate, certainly pieces like Joseph L. Wheel- er's "What Good Are Library Standards?" in the first group; and "Shared Cataloging" by Herman Liebaers, "MEDLARS: A Sum- mary, Review and Evaluation of Three Re- ports" by Norman D. Stevens, "CATCALL" by Ralph R. Shaw, and "Automation Stops Here" by Roscoe Rouse in the second group, deserve as wide circulation as they can get. Equally deserving are Curtis G. Benjamin's "Book Publishing's Hidden Bo- nanza" in the third group, and Robert P. Haro's "How Mexican-Americans View Li- braries," Jesse Sher.a's "Plus c;a Change," Anita R. Schiller's "The Disadvantaged Ma- jority," and 0. James Warner's "Law Li- brary Service to Prisoners" in the fourth. The immediate question is, "Why reprint all of this?" Certainly most of us see L], WLB, CRL, AL, and a handful of other journals, but how many of us read (or even see) all of the journals? We read in our own fields of interests, with little time for more. Perhaps an anthology of this type will broaden horizons in a relatively easy way. My one quibble is in reprinting without any editorial notes articles from British journals which employ terminology unfa- miliar to most American readers. No doubt Recent Publications I 63 it is pure ignorance on my part (widely shared, I suspect) when I fail to under- stand terms like "G.C.E. pass" and "Part II papers" in Peter D. Pocklington's excel- lent "Letter to a Library School Lecturer." Couldn't there be a brief editorial note? In short, this volume is recommended for library schools and professional collections, institutional and personaL-Walter C. Al- len, University of Illinois, Urbana. Books That Changed America. Robert B. Downs. New York: The Macmillan Com- pany, 1970. 280p. $6.95. The compilation of lists of influential books is a fairly common phenomenon in the literary world. A frequently used gam- bit in the preparation of such lists is a poll of authorities in a given field which yields a list of books most frequently mentioned by the authorities polled. That few people would agree on any such list is a foregone conclusion. In a 1935· Publishers' Weekly article Edward Weeks, John Dewey, and Charles A. Beard each chose what they considered to be the twenty-five most influ- ential books of the previous fifty years ; Bellamy's Looking Backward was the only unanimous choice. The wide variation of choices for lists of influential books is due to the large number of works which have exerted some measure of influence on the public as well as to the differences in taste and background of the compilers. Armed with this warning that no one list of books will satisfy everyone (or perhaps anyone except the compiler) let us examine Robert Downs' new work, Books That Changed America. Downs has given us a list of twenty-five works in the general area of the social sciences which have exerted a telling influence on America; the list was limited to the social sciences because the author felt that the influence of works in this area is more easily demonstrated than that of works in other fields. Over eighty books were considered for inclusion at the onset of this project; as Downs notes in the introduction, "the task of reducing the list to twenty-five was by no means easy." One could compile a very creditable list of in- fluential books from those works which he considered and then omitted; among such works noted in the introduction are Horatio Alger's Ragged Dick, Dana's Two Years 64 I College & Research Libraries • january 1972 Bef01·e the Mast, Benjamin Franklin's Auto- biography, Henry George's Progress and Poverty, and the Kinsey reports. One can- not fault Downs for his inclusions or omis- sions; the book is admittedly a subjective list, but one which reflects a wide acquaint- ance with works in the social sciences by a man quite close to the world of books. What does Downs consider an "influen- tial book"? Differing types of influence be- come apparent as the reader is led through the author's selections. Common Sense and Uncle Tom's Cabin are examples of books which were read by and exerted a direct influence on large numbers of people. An- other type of influence is found in the book which is read by a small number of impor- tant people who can apply its lessons and thus affect the public: Abraham Flexner's Medical Education in the United States and Canada is of this sort. America has been in- fluenced by individuals from without com- menting on the manners and mores of the country: Downs includes a work of this type in Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America. At times, the writing of Ameri- cans has influenced foreign powers and the results have been brought home to the American public in sundry ways: such is the case with Alfred T. Mahan's The Influ- ence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660- 1783, to which most authorities attribute the establishment of modern navies. An influential book, then, is one which has the power to affect the lives of people, either directly or indirectly. Downs has compiled a most interesting list of books of this genre, replete with very readable com- mentaries on each. Downs has written that one of his goals in this work was to demon- strate that books have power; he has suc- ceeded admirably. Books That Changed America has the ability to send the inquisi- tive reader off in search of the original works. Downs has written a book which is worthwhile reading for all librarians.-Da- vid H. Eyman, Central Michigan Univer- sity. Research Guide to Argentine Literature. David William Foster and Virginia Ra- mos Foster. Metuchen, N.J.: The Scare- crow Press, 1970. $5.00. This book is an attempt at organizing a guide to the criticism of Argentine litera- ture and literary figures. It is primarily in- tended as a tool for the student of the field in response to the need for some kind of re- trieval of the literary criticism "of an im- portant segment of a vital Latin American literary tradition." While this type of work can be valuable, this particular book contains certain inade- quacies which must be mentioned. Al- though the authors state in the preface that their work is to be the "first comprehensive guide" to Argentine literary criticism, their exclusion of Alberdi, Ricardo Rojas, and, most particularly, Sarmiento, is incongruent with their presumed comprehensiveness. While some of the extant research does deal with literary issues, it is negligible when com- pared with the enormous bulk of opinion on the role of these three individuals, not in the development of Argentine literature, but in the formation of a national cultural and intel- lectual heritage. ( Pref., IV) Sarmiento is perhaps one of the most significant Argentine literary figures, and if the authors are capable of separating the importance of the "formation of a national cultural and intellectual heritage" from "lit- erary issues," they should have at least in- cluded that "negligible" portion of research which is available. The work is divided into four parts. Part I lists general bibliographic sources; Part II, journals publishing research on Ar- gentine literature; Part III, general works on Argentine literature; and Part IV, arti- cles and books about Argentine litera1y fig- ures. Each part has various subsections. From the standpoint of completeness, Parts I and III have serious omissions. For example, works such as Palau y Dulcet's bibliography, J. R. Fernandez's Historia del Periodismo Argentino, the index of Enrique Peiia's periodical and newspaper collection, Sabor and Revello's Bibliografia Argentina de Artes y Letras and Armaria del T eatro Argentino are each valuable in their own field. Part II is a well-organized and extensive listing of journals publishing research on Argentine literature. Each entry is accom- panied by a conventional abbreviation which is used in other sections of the book when referring to that particular journal. The imprint date is also included. The most valuable part of the book is un- I ...