NEW PUBLICATIONS
C&RL News, June 2009
Vol. 70, No. 6
by George Eberhart
A.D. 381: Heretics, Pagans, and the Dawn of the Monotheistic State, by Charles Freeman (252 pages, February 2009), explores the crucial year of 381, when the Council of Constantinople ratified the edict of Roman Emperor Theodosius I, who decreed in 380 that the Nicene version of the Christian Trinity (where the Father and Son, but not quite the Holy Spirit, are equal and of one substance) would become the state religion in the east. In addition, he criminalized all other faiths, both Christian and Pagan, calling them “demented and insane [and] shall carry the infamy of heretical dogmas.” Freeman points out that the Council’s acquiescence was far from a democratic decision (since many would-be dissenters were not invited or in hiding) and in fact was a politically expedient move by the Nicene bishops to extend their power as Theodosius attempted to patch the cracks in the empire. This seemingly obscure decision had the effect of stifling free discussion of spiritual matters and scientific knowledge (a luxury that was taken for granted throughout the Hellenistic world) for centuries to come and ushered in an orthodox partnership of church and state that lasted until the Renaissance. $27.95. Overlook Press. 978-1-59020-171-8.
The Elvis Encyclopedia, by Adam Victor (598 pages, October 2008), should fulfill the information quest of even the most ardent fan. In addition to entries for each Elvis Presley song and album, live performance, movie, friend, and associate, Victor provides subject essays on every aspect of the King’s life and music—his favorite books, charitable works, humor, character traits, memorabilia, clothes, guns, cars, karate skills, sex life, drugs, vocal mannerisms, stage act, bands, fans, money, mysticism, and death. Typos mar the flow of many of the entries, but Victor has tried to be as factually accurate as possible. Abundant illustrations make this the best one-stop source for everything Elvis, although it should be supplemented with Joseph A. Tunzi’s Elvis Sessions III (JAT Productions, 2004) for discographical details, and Peter Guralnick and Ernst Jorgensen’s Elvis Day by Day (Ballantine, 1999) for the ultimate timeline. $65.00. Overlook Duckworth. 978-1-58567-598-2.
“Knowledge Is of Two Kinds…”: A Short History of the Gale Research Company and Its Advancement of the Second Kind, 1954–1985, by John Tebbel and amended by James M. Ethridge (116 pages, January 2009), alludes to the knowledge of where to find information, rather than knowing a subject first-hand. Tebbel was commissioned to write a history of Gale Research and delivered this manuscript in 1984, shortly before the company was sold to International Thomson. The draft was rediscovered only after Tebbel’s death in 2004, and now Omnigraphics has published this warm tribute and retrospective on Frederick G. Ruffner, who founded Gale in his Detroit bedroom in 1954 and built it into a librarian-friendly reference publisher that has provided free shuttle bus service at ALA conferences since 1965 (and still does, as Gale Cengage). Ruffner’s first successful title was the Encyclopedia of Associations, released in 1956, and followed in quick succession by the Acronyms and Initialisms Dictionary and the Research Centers Directory in 1960. Fred is still chairman of Omnigraphics, which he founded with his son Peter in 1985. As Tebbel writes, Fred’s idea of a good time is to “get in the car and go to the library.” $30.00. Omnigraphics. 978-0-9798648-2-7.
Library World Records, by Godfrey Oswald (327 pages, 2d ed., January 2009), expands the 2004 first edition by some 90 pages, all filled with fascinating facts about book and library superlatives. The book is divided into nine major sections: national libraries (listing the oldest and largest); public and subscription libraries (such as the busiest public library in Asia); university and academic libraries (ten oldest in Eastern Europe); specialty libraries and archives (largest prison libraries); miscellaneous world records (notable people who have worked in libraries); books, periodicals, and bookstores (first book to use page numbers, first book blessed by the Pope, oldest bookstores); library buildings (tallest, oldest, most fascinating); library catalogs, databases, and technology (largest biology database); and LIS organizations (first library school in the Middle East, the 345 largest libraries). Documentation for these records is sparse; one hopes that Oswald will improve on this in a third edition. $39.95. McFarland. 978-0-7864-3852-5.
Lynching and Spectacle: Witnessing Racial Violence in America, 1890–1940, by Amy Louise Wood (349 pages, March 2009), attempts to explain the complex cultural forces that enabled southern whites to accept lynching as a dramatization and reinforcement of their perceived racial supremacy. Wood notes that photos of lynching incidents were widely circulated in the South as postcards and served to both normalize the brutality of the event and extend the spectacle to a wider, sympathetic audience. However, by the 1930s the same images were used by the NAACP and other antilynching groups as evidence of the casual atrocity of southern racism. Wood also examines the shift in cinematic depictions of lynchings from Birth of a Nation (1915) to Fury (1936). $39.95. University of North Carolina. 978-0-8078-3254-7.
Taming the Land: The Lost Postcard Photographs of the Texas High Plains, by John Miller Morris (220 pages, April 2009), is the first in a projected series of volumes on real-photo postcards that uniquely characterize life and society in West Texas from 1906 to 1937. Morris pieces together biographies of the traveling professionals and town photographers who captured and marketed these images during the great land boom in the Texas Panhandle, when huge cattle ranches were being replaced by small towns and wheat farms. The photos are reproduced larger than their original size, allowing Morris to comment on subtle details in each photo. $45.00. Texas A&M University. 978-1-60344-037-2.
Tippecanoe and Tyler Too, by Jan R. Van Meter (334 pages, November 2008), details the origins of 57 famous catchphrases in American history, such as James Otis’s “No taxation without representation” and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a dream.” Although reference librarians can easily locate the sources for most of these in a quotation dictionary, Van Meter provides extensive background on their origin and significance. Each is emblematic of the prevailing values and viewpoints held during a particular phase or turning point in American history. $22.50. University of Chicago. 978-0-226-84968-3.
George M. Eberhart is senior editor of American Libraries, e-mail: geberhart@ala.org