NEW PUBLICATIONS

C&RL News, May 2008
Vol. 69, No. 5

by George Eberhart

Abraham Lincoln: An Illustrated Biography in Postcards, by James D. Ristine (144 pages, April 2008), demonstrates how effectively postcards can supplement a historical narrative by supplying images rarely offered in standard texts. The sampling of some 250 full-color postcards that accompany this basic Lincoln bio offer seldom-seen pictorial details, including the “Boundary Oak” tree that stood near the Lincoln birthplace cabin in Kentucky; the courthouse in Beardstown, Indiana, where Lincoln successfully defended an accused murderer using an almanac; the Lincoln Room in Gettysburg’s David Wills house, where he completed his address; a photo of Lincoln lying in state in the Cleveland public square, April 28, 1865; an artist’s drawing of Tad Lincoln on his pony; the words of the Gettysburg Address in the shape of Lincoln’s profile; a Lincoln statue in Grandview Park, Sioux City, Iowa; and an 1893 statue of Lincoln in Edinburgh that honors all the Scots who fought in the Civil War. $24.95. Schiffer Books. 978-0-7643-2857-2.

Schiffer Books also puts out a number of postcard histories of specific cities, with full-color illustrations that contrast favorably with many of the formulaic, black-and-white books offered by Arcadia Publishing. Greetings from Columbus, Ohio (April 2008), by Robert M. Reed, is a good example that is not afraid to use postcards more recent than 1960. $24.95. 978-0-7643-2885-5.

An Alien Who’s Who, edited by Martin S. Kottmeyer (263 pages, March 2008), is a comprehensive list of names for extraterrestrials in UFO literature (not science fiction). A lengthy expansion of a list that started out as a chapter in Paul Dickson’s excellent Names (Delacorte, 1986), this compilation adds details about each alien’s origin, background, appearance, behavior, and beliefs. Kottmeyer notes in a concluding essay that the majority of 1950s aliens seemed to hail from Venus, which at the time was a planet of mystery, not yet recognized as a toxic, inhospitable furnace. Useful for linguists, semanticists, students of social history, and people who are having trouble thinking up avatar names for Second Life. $15.95. Anomalist Books. 978-1-933665-24-5.

Atlas of the World’s Religions, edited by Ninian Smart and Frederick Denny (272 pages, 2d ed., November 2007), provides some 300 detailed maps and images showing the growth and expansion of world religions. Statistics throughout have been updated since the first 1999 edition, and this volume benefits from the addition of 20 pages of maps and commentary showing the rise of Christian Renewalism (Pentacostals and Charismatics), the recent growth of Mormonism, indigenous religions, religious place names and sacred sites, the geography of the languages and scripts of religion, religion and ecology, and contemporary diasporic communities, as well as an expanded glossary. $110.00. Oxford University. 978-0-19-533401-2.

China on Paper, edited by Marcia Reed and Paola Demattè (235 pages, October 2007), accompanied an exhibition at the Getty Research Institute this past winter that documented the story of cultural exchanges between China and Europe from the late 16th to the early 19th century. This volume features images from missionary texts and Jesuit scientific treatises written for a Chinese audience as well as travel narratives and translations of Chinese classics intended for Europeans. Although the West had been in contact with China since the 1st century A.D., the two regions were drawn increasingly together economically as Europeans expanded their colonial empire during this era. $45.00. Getty. 978-0-89236-869-3.

India, by Michael Wood (255 pages, November 2007), offers a colorful, broad-brush study of Indian history, accompanied by photos from the six-part BBC-TV series The Story of India. Historian Wood visits historic sites around the subcontinent to document Indian prehistory, the age of the Buddha, the ancient spice and silk roads, the medieval Gupta age, the Mughals, the British Raj, and the road to democracy. A vivid introduction to a complex, multicultural region. $35.00. Basic Books. 978-0-465-00359-4.

Making Library Web Sites Usable: A LITA Guide, by Tom Lehmann and Terry Nikkel (184 pages, January 2008), presents practical tips on conducting Web site usability studies and assessing the results. Three academic case studies from Purdue, University of Virginia, and Wright State University provide some practical examples. $60.00. Neal-Schuman. 978-1-55570-620-7.

Medici Women: Portraits of Power, Love, and Betrayal, by Gabrielle Langdon (372 pages, September 2007), offers an in-depth examination of court portraiture in 16th-century Florence, focusing primarily on paintings of women in the Medici family. Langdon points out the currents of hidden meaning in these images—which were often used to promote throughout Europe the political validation of Medici rule—and contrasts the biographies of the women with the idealized masks invented for them in their portraits. A provocative analysis for Renaissance art and history collections. $35.00. University of Toronto. 978-0-8020-9526-8.

A People’s History of American Empire, by Howard Zinn, Mike Konopacki, and Paul Buhle (273 pages, April 2008), provides a graphic-novel approach to Zinn’s acclaimed People’s History of the United States, first published in 1980. Zinn himself appears as a character-narrator to comment on American imperialistic ventures in the Spanish-American War, the Philippines, and Central America, as well as the suppression of Indians, labor organizers, war protesters, and the civil rights movement that tells a different story of American history than the one that appears in many high-school textbooks. As James W. Loewen wrote in Lies My Teacher Told Me (New Press, 1995), many college history teachers have to disabuse freshmen of what they were taught in secondary school. This volume will aid the process. $30.00. Henry Holt. 978-0-8050-7779-7.

Porcupine, Picayune, and Post: How Newspapers Got Their Names, by Jim Bernhard (216 pages, September 2007), explores the mostly forgotten circumstances surrounding the naming of the Bloomington Pantagraph, the Federal Orrery, the Gawler Bunyip, and the Jefferson Jimplecute, as well as more conventional newspaper titles such as the Times, Courier, Journal, and Gazette. Bernhard also mentions fictional papers like the Daily Planet, humorous titles, and litigation resulting from similar names. $34.95. University of Missouri. 978-0-8262-1748-6.

Structures of Image Collections from Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc to Flickr, by Howard F. Greisdorf and Brian C. O’Connor (180 pages, December 2007), poses some philosophical questions about the nature and purpose of image collections. A number of handbooks have been written to help libraries expand their digital resources, but until now none have focused on the semantic, semiotic, and syntactical underpinnings that define, describe, and contextualize collected images. Those who work predominantly with digital images will find a few provocative ideas and exercises in this book, well-illustrated with photos taken by the authors and their families. $45.00. Libraries Unlimited. 978-1-59158-375-2.

George M. Eberhart is senior editor of American Libraries, e-mail: geberhart@ala.org