feb08c.indd


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

Custerology: The Enduring Legacy of the 
Indian Wars and George Armstrong Custer, 
by Michael A. Elliott (336 pages, October 
2007), explores the many reasons why a 
fascination for Custer can flourish even as 
most 21st­century Americans are appalled 
at the Manifest Destiny that he represented. 
Elliott looks at Custer reenactors and inter­
preters, museums and parks, Custer buffs, 
and Indian narratives in an effort to assess 
the ongoing resonance of the events on the 
Washita River in 1868, in the Black Hills 
in 1874, and on the Little Bighorn in 1876. 
As a final insight, he compares the Indian 
Wars to American interventions in Iraq and 
Afghanistan that can be seen as a modern­
day struggle for cultural supremacy with 
tragic consequences for indigenous peo­
ples. $25.00. University of Chicago. 978­0­
226­20146­7. 

Field Guide to Harry Potter, by Colin Du­
riez (300 pages, December 2007), serves 

as a convenient 
analytical intro­
duction to J. K. 
Rowling’s seven­
book series. Du­
riez, also an ex­
pert on Inklings 
C. S. Lewis and 
J. R. R. Tolkien, 
shows how the 
Harry Potter se­
ries fi ts easily 
into the larger 

traditions of both romanticism and chil­
dren’s fantasy literature, and he examines 
the key themes of education, relationships, 
personal growth, metaphysics, magic, and 
morality. An 80­page glossary of beings, 
places, things, and events in the Potter­
verse is followed by a short summary of 

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

each of the books and a timeline. $16.00. 
InterVarsity Press. 978­0­8303­3430­3. 

Haunted Halls: Ghostlore of American Col­
lege Campuses, by Elizabeth Tucker (241 
pages, October 2007), examines the social, 
psychological, and cultural elements em­
bedded within the academic ghost stories 
passed along by students both verbally 
and in their e­mails. Since this is primarily 
a literary exercise, Tucker isn’t concerned 
with the veridicality of the experiences, in­
stead focusing on the paranormal tale as 
part of an initiation ritual into college life 
and adulthood. The one library ghost men­
tioned is the spectral construction worker 
of Rush Rhees Library at the University of 
Rochester. $20.00. University Press of Mis­
sissippi. 978­1­57806­995­8. 

Institutions of Reading: The Social Life of 
Libraries in the United States, edited by 
Thomas Augst and Kenneth Carpenter (368 
pages, July 2007), offers several perspec­
tives on the influence of American librar­
ies on public reading habits. Of particular 
interest are Michael A. Baenen on the po­
litical role of the Portsmouth (N.H.) Ath­
enaeum prior to the Civil War; Elizabeth 
McHenry on the importance of black read­
ing rooms; Elizabeth Amann on 1898 and 
the Hispanic Society of America; and Roy 
Rosenzweig on preserving digital informa­
tion. $28.95. University of Massachusetts. 
978­1­55849­591­3. 

Literary Trails of the North Carolina Moun­
tains: A Guidebook, by Georgann Eubanks 
(426 pages, October 2007), is the fi rst of 
three travel guides to North Carolina liter­
ary landmarks and historic sites. This one 
covers the 27 counties in the state’s moun­
tainous west, highlighting Black Mountain 
College, Cold Mountain, Biltmore House, 
the Thomas Wolfe Memorial, the childhood 
home of Anne Tyler, the Carl Sandburg 

C&RL News February 2008  108 

mailto:geberhart@ala.org


House, and the Brown Mountain lights 
(the starting point for Jules Verne’s 1904 
novel Master of the World). Many librar­
ies, bookstores, colleges, and museums 
are included in the 18 suggested driving 
tours. $35.00. University of North Caro­
lina. 978­0­8078­3137­3. 

Multicultural and Ethnic Children’s Litera­
ture in the United States, by Donna L. Gilton 
(236 pages, July 2007), reviews the history 
of multiculturalism in American children’s 
literature, general trends and controversies 
in the field, mainstream responses, and the 
many specific initiatives to produce, dis­
tribute, and collect ethnic children’s books. 
Gilton summarizes an impressive array of 
sources in arguing for continuing research 
into this topic and serving the needs of a 
new mix of immigrants. $45.00. Scarecrow. 
978­0­8108­5672­1. 

Rudolph, Frosty, and Captain Kangaroo, 
by Judy Gail Krasnow (408 pages, No­
vember 2007), memorializes the Golden 
Age of children’s music in the late 1940s 
and early 1950s when the author’s father, 
Hecky Krasnow, produced for Colum­
bia Records such classic children’s songs 
as “Rudolph the Red­Nosed Reindeer,” 
“Frosty the Snowman,” “I Saw Mommy 
Kissing Santa Claus,” “The Captain Kanga­
roo March,” “The Ballad of Davy Crockett,” 
and “Smokey the Bear.” A vivid portrait of 
a forgotten pre­rock era when the voices 
of Gene Autry, Bob Keeshan, Fess Parker, 
Rosemary Clooney, Art Carney, and Burl 
Ives offered kids imaginative, nonsenti­
mental music of substance. $24.95. Santa 
Monica Press. 978­1­59580­026­8. 

The Secret History of the War on Can­
cer, by Devra Davis (505 pages, October 
2007), documents the shady, behind­the­
scenes influence of corporate interests on 
the search for cancer cures from the 1940s 
onwards, primarily through emphasizing 
treatment rather than prevention, ensur­
ing that many key researchers have indus­

try backgrounds, and manufacturing and 
magnifying public doubts about scientifi c 
evidence. Epidemiologist Davis uncovers 
evidence showing how the carcinogenic 
dangers of tobacco, asbestos, air pollu­
tion, workplace cancer risks, benzene, 
power lines, and personal care products 
have been underplayed by corporations, 
lawyers, governments, and even the med­
ical profession itself. $27.95. Basic Books. 
978­0­465­0156­5. 

Slinging Doughnuts for the Boys: An Amer­
ican Woman in World War II, by James H. 
Madison (300 pages, August 2007), tells the 
story of the author’s accidental discovery 
in the American 
Cemetery above 
Omaha Beach 
of the grave of 
a woman from 
his home state 
and what he 
found out about 
her through the 
boxes of corre­
spondence and 
her diary that 
her brother had 
kept. Although Elizabeth A. Richardson of 
Mishawaka, Indiana, seemed an ordinary 
enough 25­year­old who joined the Red 
Cross in 1944 to serve in England and 
France, Madison soon learned that “the 
women slinging doughnuts and pouring 
coffee from Red Cross Clubmobiles were 
hardly typical and their work anything 
but ordinary.” Her perceptions of the war, 
the hardships, and the GIs she met are an 
invaluable record of the mostly forgotten 
social life of World War II. Luckily, she 
took many photos and even drew some 
watercolors. Madison places her frank and 
detailed observations into vivid context. 
Richardson’s tragic death in a military 
plane crash in July 1945 comes just at the 
point when you feel that you were getting 
to know her well. $24.95. Indiana Univer­
sity. 978­0­253­35047­3. 

February 2008  109 C&RL News