june09c.indd


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

A.D. 381: Heretics, Pagans, and the Dawn 
of the Monotheistic State, by Charles Free­
man (252 pages, February 2009), explores 
the crucial year of 381, when the Council of 
Constantinople ratified the edict of Roman 
Emperor Theodosius I, who decreed in 380 
that the Nicene version of the Christian Trin­
ity (where the Father and Son, but not quite 
the Holy Spirit, are equal and of one sub­

stance) would 
become the 
state religion 
in the east. 
In addition, 
he criminal­
ized all other 
faiths, both 
Christian and 
Pagan, call­
ing them “de­
mented and 
insane [and] 
shall carry the 
infamy of he­

retical dogmas.” Freeman points out that 
the Council’s acquiescence was far from a 
democratic decision (since many would­be 
dissenters were not invited or in hiding) and 
in fact was a politically expedient move by 
the Nicene bishops to extend their power as 
Theodosius attempted to patch the cracks in 
the empire. This seemingly obscure decision 
had the effect of stifling free discussion of 
spiritual matters and scientific knowledge (a 
luxury that was taken for granted through­
out the Hellenistic world) for centuries to 
come and ushered in an orthodox partner­
ship of church and state that lasted until the 
Renaissance. $27.95. Overlook Press. 978­1­
59020­171­8. 

The Elvis Encyclopedia, by Adam Victor 
(598 pages, October 2008), should fulfi ll 

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

the informa­
tion quest of 
even the most 
ardent fan. 
In addition 
to entries for 
each Elvis Pre­
sley song and 
album, live 
performance, 
movie, friend, 
and associate, 
Victor pro­
vides subject 
essays on every aspect of the King’s life and 
music—his favorite books, charitable works, 
humor, character traits, memorabilia, clothes, 
guns, cars, karate skills, sex life, drugs, vocal 
mannerisms, stage act, bands, fans, money, 
mysticism, and death. Typos mar the fl ow of 
many of the entries, but Victor has tried to 
be as factually accurate as possible. Abun­
dant illustrations make this the best one­
stop source for everything Elvis, although 
it should be supplemented with Joseph A. 
Tunzi’s Elvis Sessions III (JAT Productions, 
2004) for discographical details, and Peter 
Guralnick and Ernst Jorgensen’s Elvis Day 
by Day (Ballantine, 1999) for the ultimate 
timeline. $65.00. Overlook Duckworth. 978­
1­58567­598­2. 

“Knowledge Is of Two Kinds…”: A Short 
History of the Gale Research Company 
and Its Advancement of the Second Kind, 
1954–1985, by John Tebbel and amended 
by James M. Ethridge (116 pages, January 
2009), alludes to the knowledge of where to 
find information, rather than knowing a sub­
ject first­hand. Tebbel was commissioned to 
write a history of Gale Research and deliv­
ered this manuscript in 1984, shortly be­
fore the company was sold to International 
Thomson. The draft was rediscovered only 
after Tebbel’s death in 2004, and now Om­
nigraphics has published this warm tribute 

370C&RL News June 2009

mailto:geberhart@ala.org


and retrospective on Frederick G. Ruffner, 
who founded Gale in his Detroit bedroom 
in 1954 and built it into a librarian­friendly 
reference publisher that has provided free 
shuttle bus service at ALA conferences 
since 1965 (and still does, as Gale Cen­
gage). Ruffner’s first successful title was 
the Encyclopedia of Associations, released 
in 1956, and followed in quick succession 
by the Acronyms and Initialisms Diction­
ary and the Research Centers Directory in 
1960. Fred is still chairman of Omnigraph­
ics, which he founded with his son Peter 
in 1985. As Tebbel writes, Fred’s idea of 
a good time is to “get in the car and go to 
the library.” $30.00. Omnigraphics. 978­0­
9798648­2­7. 

Library World Records, by Godfrey Oswald 
(327 pages, 2d ed., January 2009), expands 
the 2004 first edition by some 90 pages, all 
filled with fascinating facts about book and 
library superlatives. The book is divided into 
nine major sections: national libraries (list­
ing the oldest and largest); public and sub­
scription libraries (such as the busiest public 
library in Asia); university and academic li­
braries (ten oldest in Eastern Europe); spe­
cialty libraries and archives (largest prison 
libraries); miscellaneous world records (no­
table people who have worked in librar­
ies); books, periodicals, and bookstores 
(first book to use page numbers, fi rst book 
blessed by the Pope, oldest bookstores); 
library buildings (tallest, oldest, most fas­
cinating); library catalogs, databases, and 
technology (largest biology database); and 
LIS organizations (first library school in the 
Middle East, the 345 largest libraries). Docu­
mentation for these records is sparse; one 
hopes that Oswald will improve on this in a 
third edition. $39.95. McFarland. 978­0­7864­
3852­5. 

Lynching and Spectacle: Witnessing Racial 
Violence in America, 1890–1940, by Amy 
Louise Wood (349 pages, March 2009), at­
tempts to explain the complex cultural forc­
es that enabled southern whites to accept 

lynching as a dramatization and reinforce­
ment of their perceived racial supremacy. 
Wood notes that photos of lynching inci­
dents were widely circulated in the South as 
postcards and served to both normalize the 
brutality of the event and extend the specta­
cle to a wider, sympathetic audience. How­
ever, by the 1930s the same images were 
used by the NAACP and other antilynching 
groups as evidence of the casual atrocity of 
southern racism. Wood also examines the 
shift in cinematic depictions of lynchings 
from Birth of a Nation (1915) to Fury (1936). 
$39.95. University of North Carolina. 978­0­
8078­3254­7. 

Taming the Land: The Lost Postcard Pho­
tographs of the Texas High Plains, by John 
Miller Morris (220 pages, April 2009), is the 
fi rst in a projected series of volumes on real­
photo postcards that uniquely characterize 
life and society in West Texas from 1906 to 
1937. Morris pieces together biographies of 
the traveling professionals and town pho­
tographers who captured and marketed 
these images during the great land boom 
in the Texas Panhandle, when huge cattle 
ranches were being replaced by small towns 
and wheat farms. The photos are repro­
duced larger than their original size, allow­
ing Morris to comment on subtle details in 
each photo. $45.00. Texas A&M University. 
978­1­60344­037­2. 

Tippecanoe and Tyler Too, by Jan R. Van 
Meter (334 pages, November 2008), details 
the origins of 57 famous catchphrases in 
American history, such as James Otis’s “No 
taxation without representation” and Dr. 
Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a dream.” Al­
though reference librarians can easily locate 
the sources for most of these in a quotation 
dictionary, Van Meter provides extensive 
background on their origin and signifi cance. 
Each is emblematic of the prevailing val­
ues and viewpoints held during a particular 
phase or turning point in American history. 
$22.50. University of Chicago. 978­0­226­
84968­3. 

June 2009  371 C&RL News