College and Research Libraries also a book that demands to be argued with, doubted, and wrestled with: for indeed, that kind of greeting is the highest form of respect that a university can, or at least should, condition us to offer our most learned colleagues.- James J. O'Donnell, University of Pennsyl- vania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. SHORT NOTICES Educating Black Librarians: Papers from the 50th Anniversary Celebra- tion of the School of Library and In- formation Sciences, North Carolina Central University. Ed. by Benjamin F. Speller, Jr., Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1991. 158 p. alk. paper, $28.50 (ISBN 0- 89950-574-0). LC 90-53526. The title of this collection of sixteen papers conveys the significance of the occasion that brought it forth. The title does not, however, convey the scope of this work, which is the ongoing struggle of African Americans for equal opportu- nity and status in the professions gener- ally, and in librarianship in particular. Especially informative are E. J. Jossey (''The Role of the Black Library and In- formation Professional in the Informa- tion Society: Myths and Realities"), Joyce C. Wright and Margaret Myers in two papers on issues relating to minority employment in libraries, and Kathryn C. Stevenson on the remarkable career of Annette Lewis Phinazee, the first woman and the first African American to get a Ph.D. in Library Science at Colum- bia. This volume is a timely reminder of the ways in which libraries share the legacy of American racism, and it con- veys a sense of the will and energy of those who have committed themselves to overcoming it. (Stephen Lehmann) University and Society: Essays on the Social Role of Research and Higher Education. Ed. by Martin Trow and Thorsten Nybom. London: Jessica Kingsley, 1991. 251 p. $60 (ISBN 1- 85302-525-9). The volume is, in effect, a Festschrift for Eskil Bjorklund, retiring director of the Re- search on Higher Education Program at the Swedish National Board of Universities Book Reviews 577 ... And even more readers. just like the CQ Weekly Report mentioned a couple of pages back, The CQ Researcher has its own loyal followers to ensure it never gathers dust on the shelf. Each week, The CQ Researcher takes a topic of controversial or current interest and gives its readers a thorough and objective immersion- the background, chronologies, facts, pros and cons, and outlook. Topics like 'Sexual Harassment,' 'Youth Gangs,' 'Nuclear Proliferation,' 'Garbage Crisis,' 'Gene Therapy,'- current issues that normally defy easy, one-stop research. The CQ Researcher guides the reader with crystal-clear explanations, easy-to- apply graphics, and bibliographies that invite rather than inhibit further research for even the most reluctant student. Find out how you can subscribe to The CQ Researcher and leave others in the dust. Call Gigi Perkinson toll-free at l (800) 432-2250 ext. 279. In Washington, D.C. call 887-6279. ~ ~ ,¢\ct:~ \~'\~ -:>~ ~~;::;:~::=:~~;. ,, ~ II II ~- -/~- --~. c \ < .............. ..,.·.,... ....... ~, ~ ...... ·~ Q ~~-"t ~ 578 College & Research Libraries and Colleges. It contains eighteen essays by an international set of scholars focus- ing on the creation of "expert knowl- edge" through university research and on the social and economic role of that knowledge in the United States and European countries. The essays are of two kinds: (1) case studies of particular issues in specific countries (e.g., the Historiker- streit among West German scholars con- cerning the Nazi era; the impact of nineteenth-century student activism on the formation of Swedish research univer- sities; the role of the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Develop- ment in setting research agendas); and (2) concise general surveys of larger themes (e.g., the exceptionalism of American higher education; the growing fragmen- tation of research, teaching and study; the dominance of scientific discourse in . modem higher education). The strength of the collection is in its international (and historical) view of higher educa- tion; its weakness is .the random nature of its topics so typical of a Festschrift. (Robert Walther) The Politics of Liberal Education. Ed. by Darryl J. Gless and Barbara Herrnstein Smith. Durham, N.C.: Duke Univ. Pr., 1992. 305 p. alk. paper, $34.95 (ISBN 0-8223-1183-6); paper, $14.95 (0-8223- 1199-2). LC 91-29303. The theme of this stimulating and thoroughly readable collection of fifteen papers is the democratization of higher education. All but two were originally published in the Winter 1990 issue of the South Atlantic Quarterly. The conference, described by one of the participants as "a rally of [the] cultural left," covered top- ics as varied as technology, pedagogy, homophobia and television, framed in discussions of "the canon" and the rela- tionship between politics and learning. The contributors include scholars such as Stanley Fish, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Richard Rorty, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, and Barbara Hermstein Smith. They share the premise that the educational cur- riculum-any educational curriculum-is historically contingent, and they therefore embrace, with varying degrees of enthusi- November 1992 asm, the demand to open the curriculum to African Americans, gays, women and others who have been kept outside, a project that Gates describes as "the nec- essary work of canon deformation and reformation." (Stephen Lehmann) Theodore Besterman, Bibliographer and Editor: A Selection of Representative Texts. Ed. by Francesco Cordasco. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow, 1992. 479p. (ISBN 1-8108-2497-3). LC 91-45136. Theodore Besterman, as every student in library school learns, was one of the preeminent systematic bibliographers of the twentieth century. Both his World Bibliography of Bibliographies and his 107- volume edition of Voltaire's letters are massive works of modem scholarship. This volume reprints four biographical essays on Besterman and a selection of his own scholarly writings, mostly on various aspects of bibliography and on Voltaire. The book ends, inevitably, with a bibliography of the "Great Cham of Bibliography's" own works (revealing his strong interest in theosophy and the paranormal) and a bibliography on him. (Robert Walther) Rubin, Joan Shelley. The Making of Middlebrow Culture. Chapel Hill, N.C.: Univ. of North Carolina Pr., 1992. 416p. alk. paper. (ISBN 0- 8078-2010- 5). LC 91-22241. Examining the popularization and commercialization of culture in the years between the two world wars, Rubin an- alyzes "middlebrow" institutions such as the Herald Tribune's weekly supple- ment Books, the Book of the Month Club, "great books" teaching and publishing programs, Will Durant's 110utlines,11 and radio book-chat programs. The book fo- cuses largely on the women and men who shaped these institutions-a strategy that is itself characteristically "middlebrow'' -and on the tensions be- tween elitist and democratic values they reflected and worked through. Although for the most part not an explicit theme of the book, relationships between the academy and the popularizing media are evident on virtually every page. Rubin's