jan06c.indd George M. Eberhart N e w P u b l i c a t i o n s Guide to Political Campaigns in America, edited by Paul S. Herrnson (457 pages, August 2005), serves as a one­volume resource for a wide variety of U.S. political campaigns and campaign activities. Topics covered include the evolution of campaigning (John Quincy Adams was the fi rst to use the term in 1816), suffrage laws, voting and ballots, primaries, campaign finance laws, the electorate, candi­ dates and parties, campaign tactics, debates, polling, voter mobilization, gubernatorial campaigns, judicial elections, referenda, and campaign reform. The book is fi lled with tables, figures, and boxes that show demo­ graphic differences between Republicans and Democrats, the average number of initiatives from the 1900s to 2000, and memorable mo­ ments in debate history. $112.00. CQ Press. ISBN 1­56802­876­8. A good companion volume is The Geog­ raphy of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868–2004, by Albert J. Menendez (350 pages, August 2005), which offers commentary on the state results in each presidential election since Ulysses S. Grant won in 1868. Of special interest are the 200 pages that present a county­by­county list showing the winning party in each of the past 35 presidential elections. $49.95. McFarland. ISBN 0­7864­2217­3. The Internet: A Historical Encyclopedia, edited by Hilary W. Poole (768 pages, 3 vols., September 2005), is a good fi rst stop for undergraduates investigating the issues, the innovators, and the history of the Inter­ net. Divided into volumes on biographies, chronology, and issues, the set unfortunately does not have one unifying index. The 41 biographies include some lesser­known individuals (Sky Dayton, Anita Borg) as well as the big names (Tim Berners­Lee, Marc Andreessen, Bruce Sterling). The chronology George M. Eberhart is senior editor of American Libraries, e-mail: geberhart@ala.org begins in 1843 with the published description of Charles Babbage’s analytical engine and winds up in 2004 with the Internet’s role in the presidential election. The issues volume covers copyright, digital libraries, encryp­ tion, open source, peer­to­peer networks, and 30 other topics, each with sources for further reading. $285.00. ABC­CLIO. ISBN 1­85109­659­0. Joséphine and the Arts of the Empire, edited by Eleanor P. DeLorme (208 pages, October 2005), examines the distinctive vi­ sual and decorative arts of the French Empire by way of the preferences and possessions of the Empress Joséphine. Nine contributors discuss the paint­ ings and sculpture in her rooms and gallery at the Châ­ teau de Malmaison, the interior designs by the architects she sponsored at the Tuileries Pal­ ace and other residences, the exotic species of plants in her gardens, and the furniture, porcelain, dinnerware, costume, jewelry, and music she preferred. Richly illustrated with samples of the style that influenced the tastes of an empire. $100.00. J. Paul Getty Museum. ISBN 0­89236­801­2. The Silverplate Bombers: A History and Registry of the Enola Gay and Other B-29s Configured to Carry Atomic Bombs, by Rich­ ard H. Campbell (235 pages, August 2005), tells the story of the 65 airplanes and their crews that were modified in 1944–1947 as atomic­bomb carriers. Campbell has assem­ bled much hard­to­find information on the development of these special aircraft, their missions, their accidents, the bases where they operated, and the Army’s 509th Com­ January 2006 37 C&RL News mailto:geberhart@ala.org posite Group that flew them. Many rarely seen photographs, a chronology of signifi ­ cant events, a mission list, crew information and rosters, individual aircraft histories, and a foreword by Enola Gay commander Paul W. Tibbetts accompany the text. $45.00. McFarland. ISBN 0­7864­2139­8. Using PDAs in Libraries, by Colleen Cuddy (145 pages, August 2005), provides some practical advice on using personal digital as­ sistants (PDAs) in a library setting. In addition to explaining wireless connectivity, Cuddy sheds light on uses for bundled software, add­ons, and PDA reference resources, and gives some creative examples of how librar­ ies can deliver content to PDA users. $65.00. Neal­Schuman. ISBN 1­55570­543­X. The World Atlas of Language Structures, edited by Martin Haspelmath, et al. (695 pages + CD­ROM, October 2005), charts the geographic distribution of 142 structural features of pronunciation and grammar. The world maps are accompanied by an essay that explains each linguistic feature and the relevance of geographic patterns. The CD­ ROM allows users to zoom in on particular regions and manipulate the data. The linguis­ tic categories include the number of genders (50 languages have two, but 144 have no gender, and 24 have five or more); the use of the definite article (almost as many languages have no definite or indefinite articles as have a recognizable definite); passive tense; anti­ passive tense (hard to explain, since English does not have it); future tense (Finnish, for example, doesn’t have it but expresses future condition by saying “tomorrow is cold”); color categories (useful for exploring percep­ tion among various cultures); the optative tense (absent in English, but expressing the wish of the speaker); word order; indefi nite pronouns; negation and questions; purpose and reason clauses; and semantic distinctions of evidentiality (talk about critical think­ ing—English has no grammatical evidentials, but 71 languages, including Georgian, Turk­ ish, and Haida, make a distinction between witnessed versus unwitnessed actions in the past tense). Essential for linguists and gram­ marians, but also of interest to anthropologists and geographers. $395.00. Oxford University. ISBN 0­19­925591­1. Writing Dylan: The Songs of a Lonesome Traveler, by Larry David Smith (488 pages, August 2005), distinguishes itself from other studies by making the case that the public performer Bob Dylan is actually a series of characters created by the very private Robert Zimmerman, of Hibbing, Minnesota. Smith analyzes the seven periods of Dylan’s career from his arrival in Greenwich Village in 1960 to his post­Christian persona of the 1990s, Jack Fate, and blends biography with a close look at his lyrics, philosophies, and movie roles. Although he praises the poetry in Dylan’s songs, Smith’s treatment is no dry literary deconstruction; rather it’s a mix of rollicking postmodernism and gonzo rock journalism. $49.95. Praeger. ISBN 0­275­98245­9. C&RL News January 2006 38