dec04d.indd


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

Civil W ar Pharmacy, by Michael A. Flan­
nery (358 pages, May 2004), fills a gap in the 
medical literature of the mid­19th century by 
focusing on the laboratories, medicines, pur­
veyors, 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 well­referenced, accompanied 
by a nine­page bibliographical essay. $34.95. 
Haworth. ISBN 0­7890­1502­1. 

Another title from Haworth’s Pharmaceu­
tical 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 
0­7890­1626­5. 

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 for­
mer 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 1­55652­516­8. 

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

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 nonspe­
cialist 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 addi­
tional reading from a substantial bibliography. 
$75.00. Greenwood. ISBN 1­57356­557­1. 

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 mat­
ter,” while the Oxford does not). The only 
drawback is the lack of an index. $59.95. 
Firefly Books. ISBN 1­55297­797­8. 

Forensic Linguistics: An Intr oduction to 
Language, Crime and the Law , by John 
Olsson (269 pages, June 2004), examines 
the analytical and statistical techniques cur­
rently in use to determine the authorship, 
provenance, veracity, language characteris­
tics, and phonetics of written or recorded 
texts. Although his major focus is on such 
criminal­justice 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 0­8264­6109­3. 

The Great Pictorial History of World 
Crime, by Jay Robert Nash (1755 pages, 2 
vols., May 2004), is the author’s effort to com­
pile and illustrate the most important crimes 
in history, arranged by type of felony from 
assassinations to terrorism. Although Nash 

720 / C&RL NewsDecember 2004 

mailto:geberhart@ala.org


tends to favor of­
ficial verdicts (the 
FBI’s version of 
the Waco siege, 
for example), he 
offers a convinc­
ing case that the 
man shot in an 
alley next to Chi­
cago’s Biograph 
Theater was not 
the real John Dill­
inger, who man­

aged 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 1­928831­20­6. 

Historical Dictionary of the Hittites,  by 
Charles Burney (364 pages, May 2004), de­
scribes 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 mysteri­
ous origin. This dictionary summarizes what 
we do know about their civilization. $80.00. 
Scarecrow. ISBN 0­8108­4936­4. 

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 mys­
tery 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 fi lm The Gorilla, 
from a contemporary issue of Moving Picture 
Stories, appears as an appendix. $35.00. Mc­
Farland. ISBN 0­7864­1722­6. 

Human: The Defi nitive 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 wide­ranging reference that covers human 
origins, anatomy and physiology, psychology, 

growth, sociology, culture, and diversity. Each 
section offers a concise topical summary, am­
ply 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 0­7566­0520­2. 

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 0­7566­0521­0. 

The Meaning of Sports, by Michael Man­
delbaum (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. PublicAf­
fairs. ISBN 1­58648­252­1. 

Microterrors, by Tony Hart (192 pages, 
October 2004), is a concise guide to 186 
disease­causing 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 
three­dimensional. 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 fi rst identified. $29.95. Firefl y. 
ISBN 1­55297­971­1. 

Reference Collection Development: A 
Manual, edited by Alice J. Perez (80 pages, 
2d ed., June 2004), provides a model develop­
ment 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 As­
sociation. ISBN 0­8389­8277­8. 

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