ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 36 / C&RL News m January 1998 N e w P u b l i c a t i o n s George M. Eberhart C h a ra c te r Is C a p ita l: S u cce ss M a n u a ls and M anhood in Gilded A g e America, b y Judy Hilkey (210 pages, September 1997), offers a cultural history of “success manu­ als,” didactic, book-length works o f nonfic­ tion that promised to show men how to find success in life. Written in the United States between 1870 and 1910 by ministers, edu­ cators, and publicists, these books were mar­ keted door- to -d oor by traveling b o o k agents. Hilkey shows that the manuals ex­ tolled old-fashioned virtues like character as essential to finding success in the new, uncertain industrial age. An excellent genre study. $39-95. University of North Carolina. ISBN 0-8078-4658-9. Th e C o m p le te D in o sa u r, edited by James O. Farlow and M. K. Brett-Surman (752 pages, November 1997), makes an excellent com­ panion volume to Donald Glut’s Dinosaurs: The Encyclopedia ( C&RL News, October 1997). Instead of an alphabetical listing of species, this new volume features contribu­ tions by 47 experts on such topics as dino­ saur fossil hunting, taxonomy, molecular paleontology, coprolites, combat and court­ ship, eggs, biogeography, and footprints. Nor are the popular controversies o f warm­ bloodedness and catastrophic extinctions ig­ nored. Species are described in ten chapters on each o f the dinosaur groups. Realizing the popular appeal of dinosaurs, the editors have included a chapter (coauthored by Glut) on dinosaurs in science fiction, in the mov­ ies, on postage stamps, and on the Internet. Numerous illustrations by paleontological artists accompany the text. $59.95. Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-333349-0. For the latest information on how a huge asteroid or cometary impact killed off half the species on the planet at the end o f the Mesozoic, read T. rex a nd the C rater o f D oo m , by Walter Alvarez (185 pages, July 1997). This tells the story of the geologists who pieced together evidence that points George M. Eberhart is associate e d ito r o f American Libraries; e-mail: geberhart@ ala.org to the earth’s largest impact crater (discov­ ered in 1950 but little recognized until 1991) at Chicxulub in Yucatan as the place where the celestial object fell. $24.95. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-01630-5. Crim inal Justice Research in Libraries and o n th e In te rn e t, by Bonnie R. Nelson (276 pages, October 1997), is a revised edition o f Marilyn Lutzker and Edward Sagarin’s 1986 Criminal Justice Research in Librar­ ies that covers research using the Web and other online resources. A new chapter on library research in forensic science corrects an omission from the first edition. $75.00. Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-30048-8. The Encyclopedia o f Cryptolo gy, by David E. Newton (330 pages, October 1997), de­ scribes every prominent code and cipher from Egyptian hieroglyphs to data encryp­ tion. It also traces the development of in­ visible inks, cipher disks, transposition and substitution ciphers, microdots, and digital signatures, as well as Ogham and Norse runic encryption. Famous ciphers in history and literature are covered, such as the Na­ vajo code talkers of World War II and Poe’s short story “The Gold Bug.” If you’re not sure where to turn for information on the RSA algorithm, knapsack problems, or the Babington plot, this is the book for you. $60.00. ABC-Clio. ISBN 0-87436-772-7. The En cyclo p ed ia o f H ealin g Therapies, by Anne Woodham and David Peters (335 pages, November 1997), though not as com­ prehensive as the Burton Goldberg Group’s A lte rn a tiv e Medicine, is certainly more practical and better illustrated. Each therapy is rated according to the scientific evidence supporting it, the degree of its acceptance by the medical profession, whether or not it can be self-administered, and its compat­ ibility with conventional or other holistic therapies. The final part o f the book covers various ailments and suggests how they might be treated by holistic therapies. $39-95. DK Publishing. ISBN 0-7894-1984-X. mailto:geberhart@ala.org C&RL News m January 1998 / 3 7 Other new releases from DK are Quentin W ilson’s C la ss ic A m e r ic a n C ars ($29.95, ISBN 0-7894-2083-X), which showcases au­ tomobiles from 1943 to 1978 (back in the days when you could tell them apart); and Bruce F ogle’s E n c y c l o p e d i a o f t h e C at ($34.95, ISBN 0-7894-1970-X), which goes beyond describing breeds and delves into feline behavior and physiology. Encyclopedia o f Religious Controversies in th e U n ite d States, edited by George H. Shriver and Bill J. Leonard (542 pages, No­ vember 1997), attempts to bring a sense of understanding to the causes and types of con­ flict in American reli­ gious history. This ref­ erence covers individu­ als (Maria Monk, Pat R o b e r ts o n , B is h o p P ik e ), ch u rch es (S ix ­ teen th Street B aptist, Reform ed E piscopal), theological seminaries (Southwestern Baptist, G o r d o n - C o n w e l l ) , movements and prac­ tices (chu rch growth, faith healing, liberation theology, serpent han­ d lin g , p ie tis m ), and events (the Great Awak­ ening, Bloody Monday). $99 50. Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-29691-X. H oliday Symbols 1998, edited by Sue Ellen Thompson (558 pages, November 1997), is a com pendium o f lore on 174 holidays around the world. For each holiday, the con­ tributors provide background on its origin, date, and place o f celebration, symbols, col­ ors, and related holidays. What separates this from other holiday books is its focus on sym­ bols. For example, England’s St. George’s Day involves armor, b lessing o f the horses, crosses, dragons, Green George, and lances; for Easter there are bonnets, bunnies (or hares), eggs, fires, lilies, Paschal candles, and lambs. The general index is supplemented by a symbol index, so you can find out which holidays are symbolized by pigs, goats, or water buffalo. $55.00. Omnigraphics. ISBN 0-7808-0072-9. M edical W arrior, by Miguel A. Faria Jr. (207 pages, November 1997), is an unabashed polemic against managed care or “corpo­ rate socialized medicine,” as the author calls it. Faria is editor-in-chief of M ed ical Senti­ nel, the journal o f the Association o f Ameri­ can Physicians and Surgeons. In this collec­ tion of essays he makes many radical con­ servative claims, such as that HMOs are “an unholy partnership o f government and im­ personal health care megacorporations”; that “child abuse has been deliberately placed at the forefront o f the social justice debate for ulterior political reasons”; and that the “gun c o n tr o l lo b b y m eans to disarm the la w -a b id in g c itiz e n , step by step.” Libraries w ith w i d e - r a n g i n g s o cia l p o licy c o l le c ­ t i o n s m ay w is h to c o n sid er this. O ther­ w is e b e w a r e — th e co n ten t is inflam m a­ to r y . $ 2 3 - 9 5 . H a c i­ enda Publishing, P.O. B o x 1 3 6 4 8 , M a co n , GA 3 1 2 0 8 -3 6 4 8 . T ra p p e d in th e N et: T h e U n a n t ic ip a t e d C o n s e q u e n c e s o f C o m p u te riz a tio n , by G ene I. Rochlin (293 pages, May 1997), is less a diatribe against cyberspace than a reminder of how society is changing because of its dependence on computers. A physicist and social scientist, Rochlin warns that as automation gets more complex there is less control o f technology on the client end, especially in critical op­ erations like air traffic control and combat. The central problem is that these systems are designed and maintained by “technical experts who seem to view the interactive social world as an exercise in game theory”; and although computers certainly make hu­ man tasks more efficient and accurate, this loss o f operational control severely limits human learning, adaptation, innovation, and c r e a tiv ity . He m e n tio n s th e lo s s o f browsability in automated library catalogs as a symptom. $29-95. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-01080-3 ■