College and Research Libraries Civil War Dictionary The Civil War Dictionary. By Mark Mayo Boatner III; maps and diagrams by Major Allen C. Northrop and Lowell I. Miller. New York: David McKay Company, Inc. [c. 1959]. xvi, 974p. $15.00. Current interest in the American Civil W a r is reflected at all levels of historical sophistication—in the casual interest of the general reader, in the battlefield-pacing in- terest of the full-fledged Civil W a r buff, in the specifically directed interests of students, and in the deep and inclusive research of scholars. It is unlikely to abate during the next six years, years which will see the cen- tenary of the war commemorated in all manner of national and local celebrations. Colonel M . M . Boatner's The Civil War Dictionary will be of continuing use in an- swering library questions produced by any level of Civil W a r interest. The Civil War Dictionary contains more than four thousand entries, over two thou- sand of them biographical. Maps and dia- grams add considerably to its already con- siderable value. Although its scope includes all aspects of wartime life, its emphasis is very heavily military. T h e book is at its best in giving short, succinct accounts of Civil W a r battles. Next useful are its brief identi- fications of Civil W a r personalities, both Federal and Confederate. W h i l e any book of this size and scope al- most inevitably embraces a number of minor errors in its text, such errors as have crept into The Civil War Dictionary are few and their presence is certainly understandable if not necessarily excusable. (And they should be excused in the book's first edition, at least.) T h e volume's faults should not be overemphasized as they are far outweighed by its virtues. It does, however, have limita- tions which should be understood by its users. Its coverage of civilian personalities is insufficient and haphazard. Its geographical entries are weak. It is based on a bibliog- raphy that is reasonably extensive but quix- otic in what it includes and downright baf- fling in what it omits. Cross-references are woefully inadequate. Its arrangement—even its alphabetization—is individualistic rather than by accepted library practices. Much ma- terial is included in coverage of broad topics that is lost to the user searching for a par- ticular heading. The Civil War Dictionary is a good book. It will be particularly useful in libraries with limited collections of Civil W a r ma- terials. Wisely used (and used in conjunc- tion with such other books as Ezra Warner's Generals in Gray, Frederick H . Dyer's A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion, and Frederick Phisterer's Statistical Record of the Armies of the United States) it will be of value in almost any general library. Like many reference books, however, its values and limitations and the most efficient methods of using it must be carefully learned before the volume will concede its maximum u s e f u l n e s s . — R i c h a r d Harwell. Comment LC Catalog Books'.Subjects Is there any possible way that more col- lege and research libraries can be encour- aged to subscribe to the Library of Congress Catalog Books .-Subjects} T h e current sub- scription list numbers about 365 as against 1,065 to the National Union Catalog. T h e price goes up almost every year because of the few subscriptions and increased produc- tion costs. In 1950 I entered into a discussion on the lack of sufficient subscribers with of- ficers at the Library of Congress and with the A C R L Executive Secretary. W e here at the Union Library Catalogue find ourselves in the embarrassing position of being the only library organization which could not live without Books:Subjects. This is because we do not have any foreign biblio- JULY 1 9 6 0 251 graphical tools. T h e very nature of our re- quests is such that the Books:Subjects is the only way we can get at a large n u m b e r of obscure items for which we are asked to find locations. For example, today we had a re- quest for a book on hydrodynamics by one " Z h u k s k i i . " T h e inquirer said it was pub- lished in 1949. A quick look in Books .Sub- jects located readily Zhukovskii, Nikolai E., Sobranie sochinenii. Moscow, 1948-1950. O n e of the seven volumes deals with hydro- dynamics. T h e r e is absolutely no other tool which would answer this question quickly for us. W e feel that there must be literally hun- dreds of small college and research libraries which could make the same kind of use of this tool if they only knew how. Instead of an explanation of the kind of value which this tool does have, library literature is filled with lengthy critical reviews by learned ref- erence librarians sniping at its inadequacy. From the large research library's viewpoint this may be quite true. But for the poorer and smaller institutions this is not so. W h i l e we are aware of increased produc- tion costs all along the line, we are not in sympathy with an increase in price to meet these costs without some concerted effort on the part of the producer and the consumer to increase the sales. Is there anybody who Cares about this situation? I ask these ques- tions with the faint hope that there may be some kindred soul who would be willing to undertake to determine the use made of Books:Subjects by its subscribers. I suspect that little or no use is made of it by the large research libraries and that the smaller ones have not used their imagination to discover just how valuable it could be to t h e m . — Eleanor Este Campion, Director, Union Li- brary Catalogue, University of Pennsylvania. IMPORTANT! F O R E I G N C A P I T A L A N D E C O N O M I C D E V E L O P - M E N T : J a p a n , I n d i a a n d C a n a d a , by NURUL ISLAM. A Study of the impact of foreign invest- ment capital on underdeveloped countries. Time- liness and direction of capital and enterprise are considered. 255 pps., 7 " x 8V2", cloth $ 5 . 0 0 J A P A N E S E F O L K - P L A Y S : T h e I n k - S m e a r e d L a d y a n d other K y o g e n . Translated by SHIO SKA- NISHI. New edition of "Kyogen: Japanese Comic- Interludes." $ 2 . 9 5 H A N I W A : THE C L A Y SCULPTURE O F P R O T O - H I S T O R I C J A P A N , by FUMIO MIKI. 92 illustra- tions $ 8 . 7 5 S E C R E T S O F J U D O : A Text f o r Instructors a n d S t u d e n t s ; by JIICHI WATANABE and LINDY AVAKIAN $ 3 . 7 5 CHARLES E. TUTTLE COMPANY P u b l i s h e r s R U T L A N D , V E R M O N T • T O K Y O , J A P A N ENGLISH HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS ON MICRO-FILM Historical documents in English li- braries and museums in any part of Great Britain can be micro-filmed by W E S T ' S micro-film service. Details and prices from:— A . W e s t & P a r t n e r s , Ltd. 3 6 , B r o a d w a y , W e s t m i n s t e r L o n d o n , S . W . 1 Established 1 8 9 8 .