feb06c.indd


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

American Babel: Rogue Radio Broadcasters 
of the Jazz Age, by Clifford J. Doerksen (157 
pages, June 2005), explores the impact of in­
dependent radio stations of the 1920s—those 
that were not affiliates of Westinghouse, GE, 
AT&T, or RCA—on popular culture and broad­
casting preferences. Doerksen profi les WHN 
of New York City, which featured hot jazz and 
lowbrow nightclub shows, and went against 
contemporary opinion by pioneering commer­
cial sponsorships; WHAP of New York City, 
a classical station with an overtly racist and 
nativist agenda; KWKH of Shreveport, home 
of pioneer shock jock William K. Henderson; 
and WCBD of Zion, Illinois, a beacon of gos­
pel music and evangelical fundamentalism. 
The author has rewritten conventional radio 
history by looking in some unusual places. 
$34.95. University of Pennsylvania. ISBN 0­
8122­3871­0. 

Death Rays, Jet Packs, Stunts and Superstars: 
The Fantastic Physics of Film’s Most Celebrat­
ed Secret Agent, by Barry Parker (231 pages, 
December 2005), reveals the secrets behind 
Q’s gadgets and 007’s cars and physical stunts. 
Parker, a physics professor at Idaho State 
University and a big James Bond fan, looks at 
the mechanics of skiing and bungee jumping, 
lasers and holograms, minijets and autogyros, 
magic pens and homing devices, car chases 
and speedboats, and the ballistics of rockets 
and bullets. Not as detailed as Mark C. Glassy’s 
The Biology of Science Fiction Cinema (McFar­
land, 2001), but a fun romp with a handful of 
equations, charts, and diagrams. $25.00. Johns 
Hopkins University. ISBN 0­8018­8248­6. 

A Farewell to Justice: Jim Garrison, JFK’s As­
sassination, and the Case That Should Have 
Changed History, by Joan Mellen (545 pages, 
November 2005), is one of two recently pub­
lished books that have rekindled intense de­

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

bate among JFK scholars. Mellen sifts over old 
and new evidence surrounding New Orleans 
District Attorney Jim Garrison’s prosecution of 
Clay Shaw as a conspirator, and makes a con­
vincing case that the CIA was closely involved 
in the murder. This conclusion is hard—but 
perhaps not impossible—to square with that 
of the other book, Ultimate Sacrifi ce, by Lamar 
Waldron with Thom 
Hartmann (912 pag­
es, November 2005), 
which asserts (just 
as convincingly) that 
Kennedy’s death was 
orchestrated by three 
Mafia dons, under 
investigation by the 
Justice Department, 
who knew that he 
and his brother Rob­
ert were planning a 
coup and invasion of Cuba in December 1963 
and figured that the government would go 
to any length to keep the operation secret to 
avoid a nuclear war with the Soviet Union—in­
cluding a massive cover­up of the assassina­
tion involving the CIA­operated patsy, Lee 
Harvey Oswald. In addition to new analysis 
of the Zapruder film that clearly disposes of 
the single­bullet theory (see David R. Wrone, 
The Zapruder Film, University Press of Kansas, 
2001, and the “stabilized” footage at www. 
jfkmurdersolved.com/film/Zapruderstable. 
mov), these two books effectively sink both 
the Warren Commission report and Gerald 
Posner’s Case Closed (Random House, 1993). 
A Farewell to Justice, $29.95, Potomac Books, 
ISBN 1­57488­973­7. Ultimate Sacrifi ce, $33.00, 
Carroll & Graf, ISBN 0­7867­1441­7. 

Herbert Putnam: A 1903 Trip to Europe, edited 
by John D. Knowlton (115 pages, September 
2005), presents a snapshot of the mind of 
Librarian of Congress and ALA President Her­
bert Putnam (1861–1955) through the letters 
he wrote to his wife and daughters while on 

C&RL News February 2006  112 

mailto:geberhart@ala.org


a trip through Great Britain, Holland, Ger­
many, Scandinavia, and Russia. He dines and 
plays golf with Andrew Carnegie, who warns 
that “he is in retreat and doesn’t want to talk 
libraries or hear about libraries.” Extensively 
annotated by Knowlton, the correspondence 
reflects Putnam’s bibliographic interests and 
cultural tastes, as well as the sights and society 
of turn­of­the­century Europe. $25.00. Scare­
crow. ISBN 0­8108­5172­5. 

Historical Dictionary of Afghan Wars, Revo­
lutions, and Insurgencies, by Ludwig W. 
Adamec (401 pages, 2nd ed., October 2005), 
serves as a quick reference to Afghan people, 
events, and issues from the Middle Ages to the 
present. Entries are shorter than those in Frank 
A. Clements, Conflict in Afghanistan: A History 
(ABC­CLIO, 2003), but more numerous. With 
an extensive chronology, historical introduc­
tion, and helpful bibliography, this volume 
updates the 1996 edition to mid­2005. $70.00. 
Scarecrow. ISBN 0­8108­4948­8. 

The Indian Interviews of Eli S. Ricker, 1903– 
1919, edited by Richard E. Jensen (495 pages, 
October 2005), contains interviews conducted 
by Nebraska judge Eli S. Ricker (1843–1926) 
with Indian eyewitnesses to the Wounded 
Knee massacre, the Battle of the Little Big 
Horn, and other events that were already fad­
ing from memory when he began to gather 
information for a book he planned to write 
but never completed. Ricker was rare among 
his contemporaries in that he saw the Native 
American viewpoint of American history as 
valid as the white man’s version. A second 
volume, The Settler and Soldier Interviews of 
Eli S. Ricker, 1903–1919, focuses on the oc­
cupiers. Each volume, $55.00. University of 
Nebraska. ISBN 0­8032­3949­4 (vol. 1) and 
0­8032­3967­8 (vol. 2). 

The Oxford History of Christian Worship, 
edited by Geoffrey Wainwright and Karen 
B. Westerfield Tucker (916 pages, December 
2005), examines the worldwide traditions of 
Christian liturgy from the apostolic era to the 
ecumenical convergences of the late 20th cen­

tury. The volume’s 38 contributors provide an 
in­depth scholarly examination of both Catho­
lic and Protestant ritual by time, place, and 
topic, with special looks at women in worship, 
liturgical music, the spatial setting, visual arts, 
and vestments and ritual objects. An essential 
overview for theological collections. $55.00. 
Oxford University. ISBN 0­19­513886­4. 

Another recent Oxford title is The Oxford 
Companion to Philosophy, edited by Ted Hon­
derich (1056 pages, 2nd ed., July 2005), which 
provides succinct academic definitions of 2,230 
philosophical concepts, terms, techniques, 
schools, and individuals. Appendixes include 
logical symbols, maps of philosophy, and a 
chronology. $60.00. ISBN 0­19­926479­1. 

Wave of Destruction, by Erich Krauss (244 
pages, December 2005), follows the fortunes 
of four families in Ban Nam Khem, Thailand, 
during and after the devastating tsunami 
of December 26, 2004. Krauss, who hap­
pened to be in the country for a martial arts 
competition, joined the relief effort and felt 
compassion for the people he met who had 
lost everything. He decided to tell their har­
rowing stories and 
draw attention to 
the fate of this fi sh­
ing village 80 miles 
north of the resort 
beaches at Phuket. 
We meet Wimon, 
who managed to sur­
vive four successive 
40­foot waves in a 
rickety fi shing boat; 
Nang, who saved 
herself by climbing to the top of a tall coco­
nut tree; Dang, who fought a corrupt mining 
company to gain access to land where her 
family and neighbors were lying dead; the 
blind masseuse Puek and his wife Lek, who 
endured the horrors of a refugee camp; and 
the policemen, doctors, and nurses who had 
to improvise services during an unimaginable 
emergency in a place where life was hard 
even before the waves hit. $24.95. Rodale. 
ISBN 1­59486­378­4. 

February 2006  113 C&RL News