ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


6 4 0 /C&RL News June 2001 ■ 

N e w  P u b l i c a t i o n s George M. Eberhart

The Catholics of Ulster, by Marianne Elliott 
(642 pages, March 2001), begins in the re­
mote pagan past, as the author explains, b e­
cause o f the quarrel betw een Irish Catholics 
and Protestants as to which faith is the true 
Christianity, and goes all the way to the post- 
1999 power-sharing situation in Northern Ire­
land. A staunchly revisionist history, this 
book recounts Irish history from the view­
point o f northern Catholics, a group that has 
been  on the losing end o f many conflicts 
but w hose story is rarely told in the first 
person. Elliott, who has also written books 
on the United Irishm en and 
Wolfe Tone, had difficulty with 
this one because, as she writes 
in her prologue: “I have dis­
co v e red  in m y self lingering 
p re ju d ic e s  and s e n sitiv itie s 
which I either believed I had 
left far behind or never recog­
nized in the first place, and I 
know that I am not alo n e.” She 
then proceeds to serve up well- 
d o cu m en ted  argum ents that 
d is p e l s o m e  m a jo r  m y th s, 
among them: The Catholic gen­
try were not so much exiled 
and dispossessed as converted; 
the penal laws o f 16 9 5 -1 7 0 7  
were not intentionally anti-Catholic; the Ul­
ster Catholics are not rebels by definition, 
though they may resent the excesses o f loy­
alists; and there never was a Gaelic Catholic 
race w hose land was stolen by imported 
Protestant planters. A lucid and honest treat­
ment o f more than 1,000 years o f com plex 
cultural conflict. $35.00. Basic Books. ISBN 
0-465-01903-X.

The L a st T a sm a n ia n  Tiger, by Robert 
Paddle (273 pages, January 2001), chronicles 
the wanton persecution and extinction o f the 
Tasmanian tiger ( T h y la cin u s c y n o ce p h a lu s )

George M. E b e rh a rt is se n io r e d ito r o f A m erica n  
Libraries; e-mail: geberhart@ ala.org

in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Paddle 
claims that this dog-like marsupial becam e 
a convenient scapegoat among sheep farm­
ers for the rural depression, feral dog pre­
dations, sheep-stealing, and the increasing 
number o f rabbits that affected the profit­
ability o f agriculture in Tasmania. One of 
his more controversial ideas is the idea of 
“placental chauvinism ”— that 19th-century 
scientists and farmers considered marsupi­
als s e c o n d -c la s s  a n im a ls co m p a re d  to 
p la c e n t a ls  an d  p a s s iv e ly  a llo w e d  th e 
thylacine’s demise in spite o f evidence that 

it had little to do with livestock 
d e p r e d a tio n s . P a d d le  a ls o  
documents the little-known fact 
that “Benjam in,” the last Tasma­
nian tiger in captivity, was ac­
tually a fem ale and died b e ­
cause o f the appalling condi­
tions at the Hobart Zoo in 1936. 
$64.95. Cambridge University. 
ISBN 0-521-78219-8.

Live Television Drama, 1946­
1951, by William Hawes (390 
pages, March 2001), examines 
a neglected period in American 
and British television history, 
six years o f live drama that gave 

postwar audiences a novel, escapist experi­
ence different from the movies or radio. Ex­
tensive coverage is given to the NBC an­
thologies K r aft T elevision T h eatre and P h ilco 
T elevision  P la y h ou se, and the CBS antholo­
gies F o r d  T h e a tr e  and S tu d io One, all o f 
which becam e training centers for writing 
and acting talent. Appendices list the titles 
and cast members on BBC, NBC, and CBS 
shows for each night. For exam ple, on No­
vem ber 20, 1950, viewers had the choice of 
tuning in to “Goodnight, Please” on the L ux 
V ideo T heatre, “The Floor o f H eaven” by 
Sylvia Chatfield on S tu d io One, Nathaniel 
Hawthorne’s “Dr. Heidegger’s Experim ent” 
on L ig h ts  Out, or O sca r W ild e ’s “T h e 
Canterville G host” on R o b e n  M on tg om ery  
P resents. Compare that to any Monday night

mailto:geberhart@ala.org


C&RL News ■ June 2001 / 641

50 y e a rs  la te r. $45.00. 
McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-0905- 
3.

A Modern Renaissance Li­
brary: 200 Selections from 
the Collection of Edward R. 
Leahy, edited by Michael Knies 
(136 pages, November 2000), 
documents tw o exhibits at the 
University of Scranton in 2000- 
2001 from the private library 
of 1968 alum nus Leahy that 
showcased his collecting inter­
ests: medieval and renaissance 
books from 1475 to l600, English literature 
and printing, Cosway and other fine bind­
ings, m odern illuminated manuscripts, hor­
ror and science fiction, and children’s books. 
This catalog contains substantive biblio­
graphical, historical, and biographical infor­
mation on the books and their authors, along 
with 56 color and 135 black-and-white im­
ages. $30.00, plus $4.00 p/h. Weinberg Me­
m orial Library, U niversity o f S cranton, 
Scranton, PA 18510. ISBN 0-9705592-0-8.

Quotations on the Vietnam 
War, by Gregory R. Clark (294 
pages, March 2001), tells the 
story of the w ar differently 
and in some ways more ef­
fectively than a standard his­
tory. T h o u g h  a r ra n g e d  in 
chronological order with no 
to p ical subdivisions, th ese 
3,300 quotations by leaders, 
participants, activists, journal­
ists, and scholars are well-cho­
sen, h arsh , a n d  p o ig n a n t. 
Clark, w ho w rote the excel­
lent lexicography, Words o f 

the Vietnam Wz«rfMcFarlarid, 1990), provides 
full attribution and context for each quota­
tion, from Ho Chi Minh’s 1946 statement, 
“There is nothing left but to fight,” to the 
anonym ous GI graffito in Saigon, “As I slide 
dow n the banister of life I’ll always remem­
ber Vietnam as a splinter in my ass.” $65.00. 
McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-0945-2.

Reading the Skies: A Cultural History of 
English Weather, 1650-1820, by Vladimir



642 I C&RL News ■ June 2001

Jankovic (272 pages, April 2001), is an im­
portant contribution to the early history of 
meteorology. Pre-industrial England had few 
clues about the true cause of atm ospheric 
events, and the seemingly unpredictable Brit­
ish w eather often provided opportunities for 
speculation for anyone with a vivid imagi­
nation and a religious or political ax to grind. 
Many 18th-century broadsheets, tracts, and 
scientific observations focused o n  such ex­
traordinary p h enom ena as aurorae, w ater­
spouts, lightning strikes, m ock suns, earth­
quakes, and fireballs—all o f them  called “me­
teo rs” in the classic sense of “transient aerial 
phen o m en a,” although shooting stars w ould 
be included, as well. An interesting chapter 
on “public m eteors” show s how  the Great 
Storm o f 1703 and the aurorae of 1716 p ro ­
duced lively religious an d  philosophical d e ­
bates on the limits of hum an know ledge. 
An excellent acquisition for history o f sci­
ence collections. $55.00. University o f Chi­
cago. ISBN 0-226-39215-5.

Rhino's Cruise through the Blues, by Barry 
H ansen (208 pages, O ctober 2000), provides

a quick visual history of blues recordings 
from the m usic’s origins to its current re­
vival. Better know n as radio DJ Dr. Demento, 
H ansen is also a respected blues m usicolo­
gist an d  record collector, and in this b ook 
h e offers blues new bies a taste of the genre. 
$19-95. Miller Freeman. ISBN 0-87930-625- 
4.

The War of the Worlds, by H. G. Wells and 
edited by Wellsian scholar Leon Stover (321 
pages, May 2001), is the seventh in a series 
o f texts of Wells’s first editions, extensively 
annotated an d  analyzed by Stover, w h o  p ro ­
vides the social, political, and scientific back­
g round to appreciate the 1898 novel p ro p ­
erly. Unlike the m ovie it was m ade into, 
Wells’s science fiction is laced w ith elem ents 
o f Saint-Simonian social philosophy and sci­
entific progressivism  that begs for com m en­
tary. $55.00. McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-0780- 
8.

Also released at the sam e time is Wells’s 
The Sea Lady: A Tissue o f  M oonshine (1902), 
a dark dystopian fantasy featuring a m er­
maid. $49.50. ISBN 0-7864-0996-7. ■