oct05c2.indd


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

Battlegrounds of Freedom, by Norman 
Desmarais (241 pages, June 2005), is a state­
by­state survey of the battlefields of the 
American Revolution, with a description of 
each engagement as well as travel directions 
and information about what can still be seen 
at the site. An active re­enactor in his spare 
time from serving as acquisitions librarian at 
Providence College, Desmarais includes a 
chapter on who re­enactors are and how to 
become one. Contains maps and illustrations 
and a bit more analysis than Doug Gelbert’s 
American Revolutionary War Sites, Memori­
als, Museums, and Library Collections (Mc­
Farland, 1998). $26.95. Busca, www.buscainc. 
com. ISBN 0­9666196­7­6. 

Care and Conservation of Manuscripts 8, 
edited by Gillian Fellows­Jensen and Peter 
Springborg (300 pages, April 2005), consists 
of 20 papers presented at the eighth annual 
international conservation seminar held at the 
University of Copenhagen, October 16–17, 
2003. Well­illustrated with examples and 
techniques, this volume includes such topics 
as Vatican Library manuscript conservation, 
how parchment is manufactured, a history 
of pens and inks, conservation aspects of 
Ottoman manuscripts, biomonitoring of rare 
books, and an overview of manuscript care 
at the Library of Congress. $42.00. Published 
by Museum Tusculanum; distributed by In­
ternational Specialized Book Services, www. 
isbs.com. ISBN 87­635­0257­7. 

Faculty Towers: The Academic Novel and Its 
Discontents, by Elaine Showalter (141 pages, 
January 2005), takes an informal look at Brit­
ish and American novels about university life 
since the 1950s and notes the dark views of 
academia that recent authors tend to show­
case, especially sexual harassment. Showalter, 
professor emeritus of English at Princeton, 

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

describes the gradual change from portrayals 
isolated idealism in the 1950s to a milieu of 
vituperation amid struggles for tenure and 
power. $24.95. University of Pennsylvania. 
ISBN 0­8122­3850­8. 

French for Le Snob, by Yvette Reche (398 
pages, July 2005), arranges French loan­
words and expressions by popular topic for 
handy use by theatre buffs, gourmands, art 
critics, antique dealers, and fashion design­
ers. However, non­snobs unfamiliar with the 
language will also find it a useful glossary 
that demystifies chance encounters with such 
mots as pain perdu, ceinture, frottage, faux 
culs, mouchard, or zut! A pronunciation guide 
helps hesitant speakers. $16.95. Santa Monica 
Press. ISBN 1­59580­003­4. 

From Dissertation to Book, by William Ger­
mano (141 pages, April 2005), offers indis­
pensable advice to the graduate student who 
has completed a doctoral thesis and wonders 
whether anything publishable lies within. 
Germano lays out the options (chapters as 
articles, cosmetic or deep revisions, electronic 
publication), then explains how to transform 
the often dreary, passive­voice prose into a 
package that a book editor might accept. 
Both entertaining and blunt (“someone who 
writes in the passive hopes that no one will 
notice that she’s there”), this book will also 
aid any academic writer who seeks to polish 
a rusty expository style. $16.00. University of 
Chicago. ISBN 0­226­28845­5. 

Imagining Postcommunism: Visual Nar­
ratives of Hungary’s 1956 Revolution, by 
Beverly A. James (201 pages, May 2005), 
examines the artistic commemorations of the 
1956 uprising against Soviet totalitarian rule 
that have taken place since the free elections 
of 1990. Suppressed as a legitimate topic of 
public debate until then, the revolt has taken 
on the status of a foundation myth in pres­
ent­day Hungary. James evaluates the icons 

October 2005  681 C&RL News 

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of 1956 as displayed in Budapest’s Statue Park 
and House of Terror museums, the symbolism 
of the fall of Stalin’s statue, and the eleva­
tion to folk­hero status of executed medical 
worker Ilona Tóth and Prime Minister Imre 
Nagy. $50.00. Texas A&M University. ISBN 
1­58544­405­7. 

Infinite Worlds: An Illustrated Voyage to 
Planets beyond Our Sun, by Ray Villard and 
Lynette R. Cook (252 pages, April 2005), 
blends science and artistic speculation with a 
fascinating look at the search for planets and 
life outside our solar system. Since the fi rst 
confirmed discovery of an extrasolar planet in 
1992, astronomers have identified at least 140 
more. While Villard’s text explains the astro­

p h y s i c s  
and plan­
etary ge­
ology in 
accessible 
language, 
C o o k ’ s  
paintings 
of extra­
terrestrial 

landscapes are strikingly vivid and based on 
cutting­edge research. This is quite simply 
the best book of space art since the trilogy 
by Ron Miller and William K. Hartmann in 
the mid­1980s (The Grand Tour, Out of the 
Cradle, and Cycles of Fire). $49.95. University 
of California. ISBN 0­520­23710­2. 

Innocents in the Arctic: The 1951 Spitsber­
gen Expedition, by Colin Bull (254 pages, 
June 2005), chronicles the misadventures of 
ten young geologists from the University of 
Birmingham who spent more than a month 
on the Norwegian Arctic island of Spitsber­
gen. Bull was the cook and glaciologist on 
the expedition, and he supplements his own 
account with diaries and field notes from the 
others who describe their troubles with the 
weather, a ship with perpetual mechanical 
failures, and the expedition’s lack of prepara­
tion for Arctic survival. $34.95. University of 
Alaska. ISBN 1­889963­73­9. 

Letterwriting in Renaissance England, by 
Alan Stewart and Heather Wolfe (214 pages, 
June 2005), was published in conjunction 
with an exhibition at the Folger Shakespeare 
Library from November 2004 to April 2005. 
Many of the letters and other artifacts dating 
from the early 16th to the early 18th cen­
turies are reproduced in color, transcribed 
verbatim, and put into context by Stewart, 
an English professor at Columbia University, 
and Wolfe, who is Folger’s curator of manu­
scripts. Of particular interest are chapters 
on the postal system of the time and the 
manuals for secretaries that explained what 
letters were and how they should be writ­
ten. $45.00. University of Washington. ISBN 
0­295­98509­7. 

The Library of the Villa dei Papiri at Hercula­
neum, by David Sider (123 pages, September 
2005), tells the story of the only library ever 
recovered from the Greco­Roman world, a 
cache of at least 1,000 papyrus rolls unearthed 
in the 1750s that had been buried 65 feet 
deep in volca­
nic ash from 
the eruption of 
Vesuvius in 79 
A.D. The library 
existed in a 
house thought 
to have been 
the seaside re­
sort of Lucius 
Calpurnius Piso 
Caesoninus, a 
Roman consul 
and senator 
who was the father­in­law of Julius Caesar. 
Although many of the scrolls are charred 
and cannot be unrolled without damaging 
them, scholars hope that their contents can 
be discerned through multispectral imaging 
techniques. Sider describes the eruption, 
the recovery of the papyri, ancient books 
and libraries, reading charred scrolls, 
and everything known about the library’s 
texts. $40.00. J. Paul Getty Museum. ISBN 
0­89236­799­7. 

C&RL News October 2005  682 



The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court 
of the United States, editor­in­chief Kermit 
L. Hall (1,239 pages, 2d ed., May 2005), of­
fers 20% more pages than the earlier edition, 
expanded coverage on many topics, bios of 
Clinton­appointed Justices Ginsberg and Breyer, 
and articles on 60 new cases decided between 
1992 and 2004. Appendices show nominations 
and succession of the justices, the number of 
days particular seats have been vacant, Senate 
votes on nominees, and trivia and traditions of 
the Court. The numerous contributors have for 
the most part written lucid and well­organized 
entries that are accessible to laypersons and 
lawyers alike. The topical index is marvelously 
detailed and supplemented by a case index that 
includes decisions for which there is no main entry. 
$65.00. Oxford University. ISBN 0­19­517661­8. 

Success by the Numbers: Statistics for Business 
Development, edited by Ryan Womack (59 
pages, June 2005), is a useful annotated guide 
to business statistical sources, from the 2002 
census and state demographic data to economic 

forecasts, labor trends, and international trade. 
The book is based on a RUSA Business Refer­
ence and Services Section program at the 2004 
ALA Annual Conference in Orlando. $24.00 
(ALA members, $21.60). ALA Reference and 
User Services Association Occasional Paper #28. 
ISBN 0­8389­8327­8. 

Traveling Literary America: A Complete Guide 
to Literary Landmarks, by B. J. Welborn (518 
pages, September 2005), surveys the historic 
homes and haunts of American writers from 
Pilgrims to postmodernists. Welborn provides 
directions, background, and suggestions for 
visiting the major sites, and lists other places of 
interest in each region, including many book­
stores and library collections. An interesting 
guidebook, though marred significantly by the 
lack of an index. Also, not a word about Friends 
of Libraries USA, which has been responsible for 
creating the landmark status of many of these 
places since 1987. $19.95. Jefferson Press; distrib­
uted by Independent Publishers Group, www. 
ipgbook.com. ISBN 0­97189­742­5. 

October 2005  683 C&RL News 

http:ipgbook.com