ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries C&RL News ■ S e p te m b e r 1998 / 613 N e w P u b l i c a t i o n s George M. Eberhart The American Road: Atlas & Travel Planner (256 pages, July 1998) serves as a library ver­ sion o f the popular National Geographic road atlas o f the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Its textured plastic cover will keep it intact longer. In addition to the standard state maps, this edition features 24 regional guides with highlights o f outdoor activities, special events, and cultural landmarks; profiles o f 28 national parks; route descriptions o f 36 scenic drives from the George Parks Highway in Alaska to the Ruta Panorámica in Puerto Rico; and an expanded place-nam e index. The city-map in­ serts are plentiful with a minimum o f crowd­ ing o f the state maps. $39.95. Geosystems, 1350 Pine Street, Suite 3, Boulder, CO 80302. ISBN 1-57262-328-4. The Bronze Age and Early Iron Age Peoples o f Eastern Central Asia, edited by Victor H. Mair (899 pages, 2 vols., May 1998), presents the full spectrum o f archeological and anthro­ pological research on the peoples o f the Tarim Basin in northwestern China. Recent discov­ eries o f desiccated human remains in the area, as well as new evidence o f Indo-European trade contact, has sparked debate on the ori­ gins o f civilization in East Asia. Selected chap­ ters— most o f them papers presented at the 1996 International Conference on Bronze Age and Iron Age Peoples in Philadelphia— cover the opening o f the Eurasian steppe in 2000 B .c.E ., mummies from the Zaghunluq site, the identity o f the Tocharians, the identity o f the mixed mongoloid-caucasoid Uyghurs, China in early Eurasian history, and evidence for Sino- Bactrian contact. This is cutting-edge research into a distant, little-known world. $165.00. In­ stitute for the Study o f Man, 1133 13th St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20005. ISBN 0-941694- 63-1. Censorship in Romania, by Lidia Vianu (233 pages, April 1998), presents the testimony o f Romanian writers to show how each reacted to totalitarianism from 1947 to 1990. Since the G eorge M . E b e rh a rt is associate e d ito r o f American Libraries; e -m ail: g e b e rh art@ ala .o rg fall o f communism, frustrated authors have been speaking out in interviews, essays, and poem s about life under state censorship. As Vianu writes, “Romanian writers had lived in a concentration camp o f the mind, and they have b een rushing out o f it, amazingly self- assured, as if they had b een free forever.” Their stories shed light on a dark and troubling time in central Europe. $14.95. Central European University Press, O ktober 6. utka 12, H-1051 Budapest, Hungary. ISBN 963-9116-09-2. The Columbia Gazetteer o f the World, ed­ ited by Saul B. Cohen (3 volumes, Ju n e 1998), is on e o f those reference books that, despite the price, no academic library should b e with­ out. Continuing in the com prehensive tradi­ tion o f its 1952 and earlier editions, this gazet­ teer offers a wealth o f geographic, econom ic, and historical information on 165,000 place names. Some o f these— such as air force bases, shopping malls, nuclear plants, archeological sites, and mythical places (Lake W obegon)— are not standard gazetteer fare. Pronunciations are given for difficult words, abundant see ref­ erences are provided, and latitude-longitude values are sp ecified for rem ote locations. $675.00 until Septem ber 30, $750.00 thereaf­ ter. Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231- 11040-5. Drugs: Should We Legalize, Decriminalize, o r Deregulate?, edited by Jeffrey A. Schaler (357 pages, April 1998), offers a sampling o f those three perspectives, from drug warrior William Bennett to libertarians Thom as Szasz and Lee N. Robins. The topics covered are contemporary— medical marijuana, drugs as property, addiction, and crime— and most o f the selections w ere originally published within the past ten years. An interesting choice o f authors and treatments that will serve as an i n tr o d u c tio n to p o lic y d e b a t e . $ 1 6 .9 5 . Prometheus. ISBN 1-57392-163-3. English Prepositions Explained, by Seth Lindstromberg (309 pages, May 1998), is a com­ prehensive analysis o f preposition meaning and usage directed specifically at teachers o f mailto:geberhart@ala.org 614 / C&RL News ■ Septem ber 1998 English as a second language. Meanings are depicted by graphic icons that are easily in­ terpreted, such as a stick figure standing on a circle to demonstrate “on top of.” The chap­ ters compare the nuances o f similar preposi­ tion s by providing n u m erou s exam p les, though some o f the section titles seem ab struse: “Additional metaphorical extensions of the sense ‘non-specific proximity.’” Final sec­ tions on the use o f phrasal or compound verbs (look at, bring up) and the key relationships defined by various propositions (allotment, m a n n e r) are e n lig h te n in g . $ 2 9 .9 5 . Jo h n Benjamins North America, P.O. B o x 27519, Philadelphia, PA 19118. ISBN 1-55619-526-5. Fools and Jesters in Lit­ e rature, A rt, and His­ tory: A Bio-Bibliographi­ cal Sourcebook, edited by Vicki K. Ja n ik (552 pages, Ju n e 1998), clev­ erly brings together more than 60 essays on such diverse topics as Hopi clowns, fops, American circus clowns, the Tarot fool, as well as jesters in S h a k e s p e a r e , J o n s o n , R abelais, Plautus, and B eck ett. Som e fam ous comedians (Lucille Ball, Jack Benny, Laurel and Hardy) are also profiled. Janik identifies four cat­ egories o f fools, each o f which conesponds to a character in a Marx Brothers film: the wise fool (Groucho), the trickster (Chico), the in­ nocent (Harp o ), and the dupe or victim (Mar­ garet Dumont). The contributors discuss the fool’s gender role, ethical role, social function, and relationship to nature and time. $95.00. Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-29785-1. Readers smitten by the jester bug may also wish to consult Greenwood’s Humor in Eigh­ teenth-and Nineteenth-Century Literature, by Don L. F. Nilsen (294 pages, Jun e 1998), which analyzes the humor in authors from Daniel D efoe to Oscar Wilde. $75.00. ISBN 0-313- 29705-3. Foundations o f Library and Inform ation Science, by Richard E. Rubin (495 pages, 1998), is a wide-ranging treatise on librarianship in the 1990s. Yes, it is intended to b e a text­ book for use in library school; but its clear, well-organized presentation makes it a good summary o f the information issues that have emerged in the past ten years. Specifically, Rubin addresses information policy, redefin­ ing the library, intellectual freedom, the library’s mission and values, and ethics and standards. The tenth chapter is an insightful history of library education and the evolution o f the pro­ fession. $45.00. Neal-Schuman. ISBN 1-55570- 309-7. A History of the American Suffragist Move­ m en t, by Doris Weatherford (280 pages, Jun e 1 9 9 8 ), c h ro n ic le s the w o m en ’s voting-rights movement from its roots in colonial Quaker cul­ ture to the passage o f the 1 9 th A m e n d m e n t in 1920. Essentially an un­ dergraduate overview, W eath erfo rd ’s history weaves together many quotes, facts, and illus­ trations into a convinc­ ing narrative. A b rie f chronology and selected docum ents relating to w o m en ’s suffrage a p ­ p e a r as a p p e n d ic e s . $50.00. ABC-Clio. ISBN 1-57607-065-4. Slave in a Box: The Strange Career o f Aunt Jem im a, by M. M. Manring (210 pages, Feb­ ruary 1998), is the story o f a symbol— the mammy— as well as a product history. “Aunt Jem im a,” he writes, “is a guide to how the image o f African Americans changed in popu­ lar culture over this century, and how her own im age rem ains p olitically charged today, makeovers and all.” Manring exam ines the mammy from several angles: as an icon that justifies the correctness o f slavery, as a mar­ keting tool to portray a southern ideal o f ra­ cial order and leisure, as an advertisement that hearkened back to minstrelsy, and as a sym­ bol o f black transformation when her ban­ danna was discarded in 1968. A neglected but significant chapter in African-American history. $14.95. University Press o f Virginia. ISBN 0- 8139-1811-1. C&RL News ■ S eptem ber 1998 / 615