dec08c.indd


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

College and University Archives: Readings in 
Theory and Practice, edited by Christopher 
J. Prom and Ellen D. Swain (357 pages, June 
2008), addresses the new opportunities and 
challenges of maintaining academic archives 
in the 21st century. The first essay is by Mar­
quette University Dean of Libraries Emeritus 
Nicholas C. Burckel, who discusses changes in 
the profession in the 30 years since he urged 
archivists to take a more proactive role in the 
1979 edition of this collection of readings. Also 
of interest are chapters on documenting diver­
sity by Kathryn M. Neal, student oral history 
by Ellen D. Swain, and privacy issues by Tim 
Pyatt. $54.95. Society of American Archivists. 
978­1­931666­27­5. 

The Encyclopedia of Superheroes on Film and 
Television, by John Kenneth Muir (696 pages, 
2d ed., September 2008), expands the 2004 
edition by 75 pages to cover new fi lms and 
TV series in the ever­proliferating superhero 
genre. Muir (the author of Horror Films of 
the 1970s and Horror Films of the 1980s) is 
at his best in analyzing trends and critiquing 
plots, and he pulls no superpunches in his 
reviews: “Ghost Rider is one of those movies 
in which you know the next bad line even 
before it’s spoken.” $75.00. McFarland. 978­
0­7864­3755­9. 

Encyclopedia of World’s Fairs and Exposi­
tions, edited by John E. Findling and Kimberly 
D. Pelle (474 pages, July 2008), describes and 
illustrates more than 100 international fairs, 
from the Great Exhibition of the Works of 
Industry of All Nations in London’s Crystal 
Palace in 1851 to the upcoming World Exposi­
tion in Shanghai in 2010. Each entry offers a 
wide array of essential facts and an insightful 
bibliographical essay, for both little­known 
exhibitions and such well­researched fairs as 
the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 

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

and the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. 
Louis in 1904. Appendixes include attendance 
statistics for each of the fairs, names of ex­
position officials, a list of fairs not included, 
and a summary of fairs that were planned 
but never took place. The editors note in an 
introduction that fairs have evolved from their 
original purpose as showcases of industrial 
progress to a wider range of artistic programs, 
entertainment, and public education. $125.00. 
McFarland. 978­0­7864­3416­9. 

The Geysers of Yellowstone, by T. Scott Bryan 
(462 pages, 4th ed., July 2008), has been thor­
oughly updated since the last edition was pub­
lished in 1995. Geyser gazers will be pleased 
to note that names and serial numbers of the 
700 or so Yellowstone geysers have been 
revised, with new ones added and recently 
dormant ones noted. Updated information on 
intervals, years of most recent activity, dura­
tion, and height are provided. The fi rst chapter 
offers some geological background on geysers 
and why they are so plentiful in Yellowstone. 
Descriptions are arranged by geyser basin, ac­
companied by maps and photos. An appendix 
lists known geyser fields in other parts of the 
world. $24.95. University Press of Colorado. 
978­0­87081­924­7. 

The Lindbergh Child, by Rick Geary (76 
pages, September 2008), is the artist/author’s 
first graphic novel to 
portray a notorious 
20th­century crime, 
after taking nine for­
ays into sensational 
murders of the Vic­
torian Era. Geary’s 
trademark scrupulous 
attention to detail 
aids comprehension 
of this complicated 
case that involved 
the kidnapping of the 20­month­old son of 
aviators Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh 

December 2008  743 C&RL News 

mailto:geberhart@ala.org


in 1932, as well as the trial and execution of 
German carpenter Bruno Hauptmann for the 
crime. Geary also summarizes the unanswered 
questions in the case. $15.95. Nantier Beall 
Minoustchine. 978­1­56163­529­0. 

The Model T: A Centennial History, by Robert 
Casey (148 pages, July 2008), celebrates the 
roll­out of America’s first mass­produced, af­
fordable, and versatile automobile in 1908. 
Casey includes vintage advertisements and 
spectacular photographs from the Henry Ford 
Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, where he is 
curator of transportation. Calling the Model T 
Ford an “earthshaking technological device,” 
Casey describes its creation, manufacture, 
advertising, driving experience, and ultimate 
cultural meaning. Engineering students will 
appreciate the sections on the auto’s most 
significant features—its transmission and 
magneto. $24.95. Johns Hopkins University. 
978­0­8018­8850­2. 

Racing Odysseus: A College President Be­
comes a Freshman Again, by Roger H. Martin 
(262 pages, October 2008), describes the au­
thor’s one­semester sabbatical as a 61­year­old 
freshman enrolled in the Great Books program 
at St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland, 
in 2004 as an experiment to evaluate the role 
of a liberal arts education in the 21st century. 
Martin, president of Randolph­Macon College 
in Ashland, Virginia, rediscovers the relevance 
of Plato, Homer, and Herodotus and manages 
to perform on the college rowing team four 
years after nearly dying of cancer. In this en­
gagingly written memoir, he concludes that 
a generalist curriculum lasts forever and may 
even be more relevant in an era when students 
can be expected to have multiple careers over 
their lifetimes. $24.95. University of California. 
978­0­520­25541­8. 

Reading the OED: One Man, One Year, 21,730 
Pages, by Ammon Shea (223 pages, July 2008), 
provides 26 chapters (one for each letter of 
the alphabet) of commentary and musings on 
dictionaries, words, language, libraries, col­
lecting, and reading. As the title implies, Shea 

spent a year reading 
the entire Oxford 
English Dictionary 
from start to fi nish. 
It wasn’t the fi rst time 
he read a diction­
ary straight through, 
but it was by far the 
largest. Each chapter 
includes a few of the 
interesting words he 
found (antithalian, gove, grimthorpe, kakistoc­
racy, misdelight, onomatomania, and pissup­
prest are some examples) with their defi nitions 
and some comments by Shea. Published just 
in time for the OED’s 80th birthday in 2008. 
$21.95. Perigee. 978­0­399­53398­3. 

A good companion book is The Professor 
and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, 
and the Making of the Oxford English Dic­
tionary (242 pages, August 1998), by Simon 
Winchester, which traces the history of the 71­
years­in­the­making OED and examines the 
lives of Scottish lexicographer James Murray, 
the primary editor of the dictionary from 1879 
to 1915, and one of its contributors, William 
Chester Minor, who supplied word lists for 
Murray from his quarters in a lunatic asylum. 
$23.00. HarperCollins. 978­0­06­017596­2. 

Worlds Before Adam: The Reconstruction of 
Geohistory in the Age of Reform, by Martin J. 
S. Rudwick (614 pages, July 2008), continues 
the author’s survey of geological theory fi rst 
laid out in Bursting the Limits of Time (2007). 
This volume extends the narrative into the fi rst 
half of the 19th century as scientists began to 
deal seriously with building a timeline for earth 
history based on the discovery of new fossils, 
the realization of the antiquity of the human 
species, and growing evidence for periodic 
widespread glaciations. Rudwick closely exam­
ines the work of Georges Cuvier, Charles Lyell, 
William Buckland, and Louis Agassiz, as well 
as the work of other European and American 
geologists and paleontologists in an era that 
was leading inexorably towards Darwin and a 
coherent theory of evolution. $49.00. University 
of Chicago. 978­0­226­73128­5. 

C&RL News December 2008  744