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NEW PUBLICATIONS

C&RL News, December 2004
Vol. 65, No. 11

by George Eberhart

Civil War Pharmacy, by Michael A. Flannery (358 pages, May 2004), fills a gap in the medical literature of the mid-19th century by focusing on the laboratories, medicines, purveyors, and prescriptions in both the Union and Confederate armies. Among the valuable resources in this book are a list from the Union’s Standard Supply Table of substances and their uses, a glossary of Latin phrases and approximate measures, an appendix on how to read and fulfill a Civil War prescription, and some common prescriptions from the era. Extremely well-referenced, accompanied by a nine-page bibliographical essay. $34.95. Haworth. ISBN 0-7890-1502-1.

Another title from Haworth’s Pharmaceutical Products Press is Pharmacy in World War II, by Dennis B. Worthen (279 pages, May 2004), which tells the similarly neglected story of pharmacists during the war years. In addition to many printed resources, the author was able to contact 335 pharmacists and pharmacy students who served in the armed forces during the 1940s. $29.95. ISBN 0-7890-1626-5.

Cuba and Its Music: From the First Drums to the Mambo, by Ned Sublette (672 pages, May 2004), is a richly detailed history of the rhythms and harmonies of Cuba by the former coproducer of National Public Radio’s Afropop Worldwide. The author begins with the African slave influence and progresses through rumba, tango, son, jazz, and mambo to tell the story of how Cuban music appeared and how it transformed both the music of America and the rest of the world. As much a traditional history of Cuba as a musical one, the narrative stops with Batista’s coup in 1952; however, Sublette plans a second volume to bring it up to date. $36.00. Chicago Review. ISBN 1-55652-516-8.

Encyclopedia of Military Technology and Innovation, by Stephen Bull (331 pages, June 2004), offers some 700 capsule descriptions of ancient, medieval, and modern weapons, ships, aircraft, and vehicles used in warfare. The treatment is definitely for the nonspecialist who might encounter a military term in a film, novel, or documentary; for those who want to dig deeper on particular topics, Bull provides recommendations for additional reading from a substantial bibliography. $75.00. Greenwood. ISBN 1-57356-557-1.

The Firefly Encyclopedia of Astronomy, edited by Paul Murdin and Margaret Penston (472 pages, October 2004), provides a handy first look at astronomical topics. Compared to the Oxford Astronomy Encyclopedia (2002), the Firefly seems a bit more progressive (it has entries for “dark energy” and “dark matter,” while the Oxford does not). The only drawback is the lack of an index. $59.95. Firefly Books. ISBN 1-55297-797-8.

Forensic Linguistics: An Introduction to Language, Crime and the Law, by John Olsson (269 pages, June 2004), examines the analytical and statistical techniques currently in use to determine the authorship, provenance, veracity, language characteristics, and phonetics of written or recorded texts. Although his major focus is on such criminal-justice texts as ransom demands, suicide notes, confessions, hate mail, and terrorist mail, Olsson also offers some advice on detecting plagiarism and authorial style changes. Written as both a textbook and a practical guide, the book analyzes some famous writing samples—the John Hinckley stalker text, the JonBénet Ramsey note, and the anthrax envelopes. $29.95. Continuum. ISBN 0-8264-6109-3.

The Great Pictorial History of World Crime, by Jay Robert Nash (1755 pages, 2 vols., May 2004), is the author’s effort to compile and illustrate the most important crimes in history, arranged by type of felony from assassinations to terrorism. Although Nash tends to favor official verdicts (the FBI’s version of the Waco siege, for example), he offers a convincing case that the man shot in an alley next to Chicago’s Biograph Theater was not the real John Dillinger, who managed to survive at least through the 1970s. An excellent photographic guide to criminal history from the author of Bloodletters and Badmen (1973) and the Encyclopedia of World Crime (1999). $249.00. Scarecrow. ISBN 1-928831-20-6.

Historical Dictionary of the Hittites, by Charles Burney (364 pages, May 2004), describes the kings, places, and culture of the Hittite kingdom that existed in Bronze Age Turkey from roughly 1680 to 1200 B.C. One of the great powers of the Middle East, the Hittites are nonetheless of somewhat mysterious origin. This dictionary summarizes what we do know about their civilization. $80.00. Scarecrow. ISBN 0-8108-4936-4.

Horror and Mystery Photoplay Editions and Magazine Fictionizations, by Thomas Mann (178 pages, May 2004), is an annotated checklist of more than 500 horror and mystery novels and magazine articles based on film scripts from the beginning of the movie industry through 1970. Mann, a reference librarian at the Library of Congress, provides a substantial introduction to the genre and explains why it is collectible. A reprint of the adaptation of the lost 1927 film The Gorilla, from a contemporary issue of Moving Picture Stories, appears as an appendix. $35.00. McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-1722-6.

Human: The Definitive Visual Guide, by Robert Winston and Don E. Wilson (512 pages, October 2004) is the third DK book to encompass an entire field, this time anthropology. Like the previous volumes, Earth (2003) and Animal (2001), Human is a wide-ranging reference that covers human origins, anatomy and physiology, psychology, growth, sociology, culture, and diversity. Each section offers a concise topical summary, amply and appropriately illustrated. The section on “Peoples” showcases the major political and ethnic groups, including Canadians, Guaraní, and Uighurs, while the section on the “Body” features detailed illustrations of each of the human anatomical systems, from the musculoskeletal to the reproductive. $50.00. DK. ISBN 0-7566-0520-2.

World War II, by H. P. Wilmott, Charles Messenger, and Robin Cross (319 pages, September 2004), examines the objectives of all the combatants, giving a complete picture of the war across its many theaters. Offers unusual photographic perspectives of the war. $40.00. DK. ISBN 0-7566-0521-0.

The Meaning of Sports, by Michael Mandelbaum (332 pages, June 2004), explains the reasons why Americans are interested in baseball, football, and basketball in a way that appeals both to sports fans and those who find sports inexplicable. Mandelbaum discusses how each of these distinctively American games reflect different aspects of our history and social life, providing a scholar’s overview of evolution of the rules, the teams, and the players. $26.00. PublicAffairs. ISBN 1-58648-252-1.

Microterrors, by Tony Hart (192 pages, October 2004), is a concise guide to 186 disease-causing viruses, bacteria, fungi, and protozoans. Each microbe is shown as it looks through an electron microscope, enhanced by false color to make the images vivid and three-dimensional. A brief description of each disease’s clinical features, treatment, prevention, origin, transmission method, and incubation period is provided, along with the date it was first identified. $29.95. Firefly. ISBN 1-55297-971-1.

Reference Collection Development: A Manual, edited by Alice J. Perez (80 pages, 2d ed., June 2004), provides a model development statement accompanied by illustrative examples from academic and public library policies online. The manual has been updated from the first edition in 1992 and adds a new section on electronic reference sources. $27.00. ALA Reference and User Services Association. ISBN 0-8389-8277-8.