mcilvain.p65 466 College & Research Libraries September 1998 Selected Reference Books of 1997-98 Eileen McIlvaine his article follows the pattern set by the semiannual series initiated by the late Constance M. Winchell more than fifty years ago and continued by Eugene Sheehy. Because the purpose of the list is to present a selection of recent scholarly and general works, it does not pretend to be either well balanced or comprehensive. A brief roundup of new editions of stan­ dard works is provided at the end of the articles. Code numbers (such as AJ51) have been used to refer to titles in the Guide to Reference Books, 11th ed. (Chicago: ALA, 1996). Religion and Mythology Mohrer, Fruma, and Marek Web. Guide to the YIVO Archives. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 1998. 400p. $125 (ISBN 0­ 7656-0130-3). LC 97-34858. An essential addition to any serious Jew­ ish studies or East European reference collection is this useful guide to the valu­ able archival holdings of one of the world’s leading collections of resources for Jewish history and one of this country’s most important repositories of material relating to the history of Eastern Europe in general. The history of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and its collections is a complex and dramatic one. Founded in 1925 in Vilna (Polish Wilno, Lithuania Vilnius) by a group of scholars led by the linguist Max Weinreich as a teaching and research center for Jewish scholarship, particularly in the Yiddishist tradition, as well as a library and archives to support these activities, it quickly grew and pros­ pered in the prewar period, developing a vast, but only partially cataloged, collec­ tion of unique material documenting Jew­ ish history, society, and culture in East and Central Europe and mounting an ambi­ tious program of study and teaching. The outbreak of the war brought disaster, however, particularly after the German invasion of the Soviet Union, when the institute was closed. Many of its reserachers and staff perished in the Ho­ locaust and its collections were broken up or destroyed. A small group of YIVO members who had managed to escape to the West reestablished the institute in New York, basing themselves on the American branch office established in 1926 and already assembling a modest collection of its own. Miraculously, at war ’s end, significant parts of the older collections were recovered from storage in Frankfurt where looted material had been transported from caches hidden by institute staff, or (at least in the form of copies) from various other sites that had been dispersed in Lithuania. In addition, in the years since the war, YIVO has amassed important new collections docu­ menting more recent years and more spe­ cifically American Jewish issues, as well Eileen McIlvaine is Head of Reference and Collection Development in Butler Library at Columbia Univer­ sity (e-mail: mcilvain@columbia.edu). Although it appears under a byline, this list is a project of the reference departments of Columbia University Libraries, and notes are signed with the initials of one of the following staff members: Barbara Sykes Austin, Avery Library; Mary Cargill, Anice Mills, Robert H. Scott, Junko Stuveras, Sarah Spurgin Witte, Butler Library; Olha della Cava, Lehman Library; Nancy E. Friedland, Undergraduate Library. 466 mailto:mcilvain@columbia.edu Selected Reference Books of 1997-98 467 as the earlier periods that had tradition­ ally been the institute’s area of interest. The result is a large, complex collection comprising the papers of such important Jewish institutions as the American Jewish Committee, Joint Distribution Committee, Jewish Labor Bund, the manuscripts and correspondence of Yiddish writers and ac­ tors, documents of Jewish communities in East and Central Europe, Holocaust testi­ monies, and rich holdings of photographs and other visual materials. The sources re­ flect not only the length and breadth of Eu­ ropean and American Jewish history and cultures but also many important sources for the study of Eastern Europe, in general, and Poland and Lithuania, in particular. In­ formation on many of these holdings has been accessible through the RLIN database, but given the complexity of this collection, the appearance of a general overview of the collections in a single volume is a welcome event. As the authors, the institute’s archivist and associate archivist, indicate, the de­ scriptions here are necessarily brief, but they provide a comprehensive and sys­ tematic overview. Collections are listed in alphabetical order with an indication of dates and scope of coverage, size of the holdings, and availability of finding aids. A detailed subject index provides addi­ tional access to the contents. Preceding the descriptions is a survey of YIVO’s his­ tory and the development of its collec­ tions, as well as useful information on access to the institute. Appearing as it does shortly before the opening of new and expanded facilities later this year, this guide should contrib­ ute significantly to researchers’ use of this scholarly treasure.—R.H.S. The Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. Ed. John Bowker. Oxford, New York: Oxford Univ. Pr., 1997. xxiv, 1111p. $45 (ISBN 0-19-213965-7). LC 97-166787. The Dictionary was born out of the editor’s teaching experience in an introductory course on religions at Lancaster Univer­ sity. It aims “to provide initial bearings on new and unfamiliar ground, not just for students, but for the general reader as well” (Pref.). One half of the book was written by the editor and the rest by con­ tributors from American, British, and Australian universities and seminaries. Short and mid-length unsigned articles cover concepts, people, sects, works, dei­ ties, and so on; some have a bibliographic reference to one or two titles. As the edi­ tor states in the preface, the coverage of religious art and music was much cur­ tailed. Fewer than four pages are devoted to art and barely three pages to the music of all the religions of the world. The books contains no illustrations. The Dictionary could best be used as a supplement or introduction to a college survey course. Although the topic index (pp. 1075–1102) groups terms under gen­ eral keywords such as heavens, hell, heal­ ing, mysticism, religions leaders, and women, it does not provide a cohesive survey of a particular religion. Sometimes there are too many secondary concepts included so that it is hard to grasp the major tenets of a sect. This is not a historical dictionary of religions, although it contains a number of references to historical figures and events. It is a pity that the “dead” reli­ gions of Greece and Rome are not included because their comparative studies would have helped in understanding Shinto prac­ tices, for example, which the book has given considerable coverage.—J.S. Sienkewicz, Thomas J. Theories of Myth: An Annotated Bibliography. Magill Bib­ liography Series. Lanham, Md.: Scare­ crow/Salem Pr., 1997. 227p. $32.00 (ISBN 0-8108-3388-3). LC 97-25078. Intended as a companion volume to Sienkewicz’s bibliography of world my­ thology (World Mythology, Scarecrow, 1996. 469p.), Theories of Myth is devoted to citations for the analysis and interpre­ tation of myths from around the world. As in his previous work, only English­ 468 College & Research Libraries September 1998 language resources are cited, and myth is defined broadly to include classical my­ thology as well as traditional stories, leg­ ends, tales, and sagas. Included here is “material dealing with the interpretation of traditional myths and legends about gods, heroes, and the origin of the uni­ verse” (Introd.). The material indexed in­ cludes individual texts plus specific chap­ ters, articles, and essays in books. When a journal article has been reprinted in a collection or anthology, the compiler gives both references. Beginning in the early chapters with general surveys of myth theory and defi­ nitions of myth, Sienkewicz, professor of classics at Monmouth College (Illinois), organizes the remaining chapters by spe­ cific approach—that is, comparative my­ thology, myth and anthropology, myth and psychology, myth and religion, and the structural study of myth. The scope of this volume does not allow citations for modern reinterpretations or adapta­ tions of myths in nineteenth- or twenti­ eth-century literature. Entries are arranged alphabetically by author within each chapter. The para­ graph-length annotations following each citation are well written and informative, and help to illuminate the distinctive fea­ tures of each cited work. Author, editor, and subject indexes are all useful access points and allow one to find all references to myths of a particular origin. Although not as comprehensive as bib­ liographies of specific approaches to myth such as Man, Myth & Magic: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Mythology, Religion, and the Unknown (1983. BC64) or Kiell’s Psycho­ analysis, Psychology, and Literature: A Bibli­ ography (1982–1990. BE19), this volume nev­ ertheless fills a need by providing citations in one place for various interdisciplinary theoretical approaches and patterns of myth interpretation. With its global scope and em­ phasis on broad overviews, this general bib­ liography is a recommended source for undergraduates and others new to the study of myth theory.—A.M. Literature Encyclopedia of Latin American Literature. Ed. Verity Smith. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997. 926p. $125 (ISBN 1­ 88496-418-4). LC 97-128039. This is an excellent, comprehensive, one- volume encyclopedia with entries on writers, works, topics, and survey articles on all the continent’s individual countries. It is obvious that great care went into the selection of entries and topics: “the edi­ tor has had to bear in mind what has al­ ready been done, with a view to filling perceived gaps, noting new trends while avoiding fashionable ephemera, incorpo­ rating new areas of academic interest and reviving an interest in older ones . . . this encyclopedia participates in the task of re-igniting an interest in the literature of the continent’s past and also stimulating interest in that of some of the smaller countries of the region such as Ecuador and Bolivia” (Ed. Note). Entries for writers include a signed criti­ cal overview; a brief biographical sketch; a selected list of primary works in chrono­ logical order broken down by genre, when appropriate; an annotated list for further reading; and, in many cases, additional entries about individual literary works, with citations to translations and further bibliographies. These essays on individual works will make this an extremely valu­ able encyclopedia. Topical essays cover a wide variety of material, from entries on African American literature, African Bra­ zilian literature, and African Caribbean lit­ erature through the Boom, the Postboom, journals, romanticism, theater, and women’s writing. Country surveys ad­ dress each of the Latin American countries. Francophone countries are treated collec­ tively in essays on the French West Indies and in essays including negritude. Au­ thors writing also in English are treated in essays on Hispanic minorities in the United States, but the focus is primarily on Spanish-language literature, with ad­ ditional essays on Mayan, Nahuatl, and other indigenous literature. Selected Reference Books of 1997-98 469 The Encyclopedia of Latin American Lit­ erature is highly recommended for librar­ ies of all sizes. It is an excellent first place to check for a variety of topics, from pro­ test literature to an individual author.— S.S.W. Kemp, Sandra. Edwardian Fiction: An Oxford Companion. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Pr., 1997. 431p. $39.95 (ISNB 0­ 19-811760-4). LC 96-037878. Edwardian fiction is a somewhat vague term, often used as a catch-all phrase for anything not Victorian and not modern. The editors recognize this problem and have defined the period by including au­ thors who published any works between 1900 and 1914, deciding that “this is a period of enormous interest and almost u n p r e c e d e n t e d l i t e r a r y a c t i v i t y ” (Introd). Thus, both G. A. Henty (died 1903) and his gung-ho children’s books of Victorian high imperialism, and James Joyce, with his Dubliners (published in 1914), are considered Edwardian authors. There are brief entries for some 800 authors and 250 of their works. The au­ thors are all from England or Ireland, with a few important Canadian and Australian writers; no purely American writers are included, although Henry James, as an honorary and later legal Englishman, is. His eventual English citizenship is not mentioned in his entry; and, in fact, this work would not be a first source for bio­ graphical sketches of major authors. However, the entries for the more obscure authors make this work invaluable. The work also includes twenty thematic essays on major trends and issues of the period, from the Boer War to suburban fic­ tion, which point out the literary and so­ cial variety of the period. The growth of the suburbs, the New Woman, the contin­ ued labor unrest, and the fear of German aggression all turned up in fiction, and these essays and the plot summaries pro­ vide a fascinating glimpse of the period. However, there are some factual errors (George Gissing did know his first wife before he went to America) and some sloppy proofreading. Maybe reading too many children’s stories led to the phrase “mosts of the stories” in the entry on the Just So Stories; Bulwer-Lytton can be heavy going, but Benjamin Fargeon prob­ ably did not become “aged after reading the Caxtons.” Nevertheless, this guide will be extremely useful in any library sup­ porting English literature. Moreover, it should increase interlibrary loan traffic. I, for one, want to find out more about Joan Sutherland, who specialized “in frontier tales featuring cool, brusque En­ glishmen with impossible names whose qualities of leadership fail them in the boudoir” (p. 380).—M.C. Architecture Avery’s Choice: Five Centuries of Great Ar­ chitectural Books: One Hundred Years of an Architectural Library, 1890–1990. Ed. Adolf K. Placzek. New York: G. K. Hall, 1997. xxvii, 292p. $185 (ISBN 0­ 7838-1597-2). LC 97-3066. To celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the Avery Architectural Library at Co­ lumbia University, scholars have com­ piled a bibliography of 427 books consid­ ered the most important in the fields of architecture and the decorative arts and published over the last 500 years, 1485– 1985. A book qualified for inclusion if it met any of the following criteria: “firstness,” profound influence, sheer beauty, “originality combined with a cer­ tain modernity . . . [i.e., the work] articu­ lates or anticipates ideas which are about to arrive . . . ahead of its time” (Introd.). The book is handsome with excellent illustrations and is heavily annotated (in many cases, short essays that describe the importance of the author as well as the content of the book). The entries are signed, and the work is under the gen­ eral editorship of Adolf Placzek, librar­ ian emeritus of Avery. The focus is on European and Ameri­ can literature “which arose in Italy in the 16th century, spread, and transformed it­ 470 College & Research Libraries September 1998 self through all the varieties of stylistic, ideological and national upheavals until this literature became in the end an inter­ national language for a global architec­ tural theory, practice and technology.” The arrangement is by broad periods, with each period introduced by essays that are themselves very useful summa­ ries of the history of the development of architectural thought. The annotated lists follow according to date of publication. The earliest entries are Alberti’s De re aedificatoria (Florence 1485) and Vitruvius’s De architectura (Rome 1486), and the latest is Venturi’s Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (New York 1966). Along the way, we find the ex­ pected Piranesi, Inigo Jones, Otto Wagner, Gropius, and Vincent Scully, and then are surprised by a Charles Perrault festival book (Paris 1670) or the first transla­ tion into English of Alb erti (London 1726). The volume is indexed for author, title, and date of publication, although one could have wished for a topical or geo­ graphical index so that all the works com­ ing from a particular country could be found. However, this is a worthy tribute to a great library; art historians as well as social and intellectual historians will find much of interest in this work.—E.M. Encyclopedia of Vernacular Architecture of the World. Ed. Paul Oliver. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Pr., 1997. 3 vols. 2384p. $900 (ISBN 0-521-56422-0). LC 97-6060. If there were a “Book of Revelation” on the architecture reference shelf, this may well be it. Ten years of research by 760 contributors from 80 countries have re­ sulted in a resource unique in both con­ cept and content. This first-ever encyclo­ pedia of nonformal, nonmonumental architecture still in existence and use in the twentieth century covers in three vol­ umes that which has been neglected in all the standard encyclopedias of archi­ tecture to date: a comprehensive survey and analysis of those self-built and com­ munity-built, secular and sacred struc­ tures—mostly dwellings—that express “the common speech of building” (p. 21) throughout the world. The arrangement of the encyclopedia is neither an alphabetical list of entries nor a national frame of reference. Volume 1 presents “Theories and Principles of Or­ ganization,” and it is here that the sub­ ject reveals itself in its overwhelming va­ riety. “Approaches and Concepts” encom­ passes twenty different facets of the study of vernacular architecture: aesthetic, an­ thropological, archeological, architec­ tural, behavioral, cognitive, conservation­ ist, ethnographical, evolutionary, histori­ cal, museological, spatial, to name just half. “Cultures, Traits, and Attributes” considers domestic routine, family types, food, gender roles, languages, nomadism, play, politics, rites and ceremonies, sym­ bolism, Westernization, among a number of others. “Environment” is as varied as the earth’s geography upon which the structures are built and people live and work; each climate, geographic feature (and the typical forms of natural disas­ ters), level of population density, etc., are categorized. Other major sections are devoted to materials and building resources (more than ninety, including recycled beer cans); production (assembly by process and building component, including some fur­ niture); services (activities such as cooking, heating and ventilation, sanitation, water supply); symbolism and decoration (six detailed studies); typologies (more than thirty forms); uses and functions (two hundred examples within eight primary ac­ tivities, such as authority and status build­ ings, economic, religious, funerary, agricul­ tural, technical, social, and portable or temporary buildings). These and the cultural–geographical entries in volumes 2 and 3 are classified in a numerical “triple-sequence system” that moves from larger subjects to smaller in an attempt to comprehend changing Selected Reference Books of 1997-98 471 political boundaries, cultural practices, and building materials and techniques over several millennia. Maps on the end papers of each volume demonstrate where the scheme is applied for easy ref­ erence as the areas are treated more in continental and regional groupings than by country. There are good black-and­ white photographs and line drawings (plans, sections, cutaway axonometric views, etc.) on nearly every page, and the graphical presentation of the entire set is extremely attractive: gray and black FF Quadraat 9/12 type on coated white pa­ per with wide inner margins, well bound. Volume 2 includes a seventeen-page glossary, a comparative foreign-language Lexicon for more than three hundred ar­ chitectural terms in English, French, Ger­ man, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic; a bibliography arranged to complement the table of contents orga­ nization of each of the volumes, and in­ dexes: cultures, habitats, nations, loca­ tions, and a concluding general index. The work is timely; it probably has been produced at very nearly the last op­ portunity, the end of this century, to cap­ ture and record traditions that are becom­ ing extinct. In the third world, especially, where populations are exploding and migrating to cities of incomprehensible size, massive urbanization is creating a world of squatter settlements and non­ descript housing for millions of people without regard to the indigenous-built environments from which they come. This survey makes a vital contribution to architectural and ethnographic studies that will keep researchers—and, it is hoped, builders—busy well into the next century.—B.S.A. Dance International Encyclopedia of Dance. Ed. Selma Jeanne Cohen. New York: Ox­ ford Univ. Pr., 1998. 6 vols. $1,250 (ISBN 0-19-509462-X). LC 97-036562. After many years (work on the Encyclo­ pedia began in 1976) and the failure of sev­ eral publication plans, Oxford University Press has finally published this long- awaited work. It was a heroic effort on the part of its editors, and the foreword explains some of its complicated history. Despite some very useful dictionaries, the editors felt that “thoughtful, analyti­ cal discussions were lacking,” and they wanted to provide a source that would offer “extensive historical surveys of the evolution of all kinds of dance in coun­ tries throughout the world” (Pref.)— ritual, social, and theatrical. The empha­ sis nevertheless is on theater rather than anthropology, although folk and religious dance are certainly well covered. More than 500 writers contributed ar­ ticles, all of which are signed. The articles range from country surveys to detailed descriptions of specific steps. There are brief bibliographies at the end of each ar­ ticle; despite the time involved in publish­ ing the Encyclopedia, many references are to quite recent publications. The articles are arranged alphabetically with exten­ sive cross-references, and there is an ex­ tremely detailed index. Dance is a visual form, and although the Encyclopedia is generously illustrated throughout, unfortunately the photo­ graphs are small and poorly reproduced. This does not, of course, detract from the scholarship of the articles, but it does di­ minish the pleasure in reading them. Inevitably, this work will be com­ pared to the much-less-expensive Inter­ n a t i o n a l D i c t i o n a r y o f B a l l e t ( 1 9 9 3 . BH142), which has beautifully repro­ duced, if poorly documented, illustra­ tions. Individual ballet dancers are cov­ ered in more detail in the latter work (which has, for example, detailed lists of roles danced). But for scholarly over­ views of the topic and, of course, for anything outside the ballet, the Ency­ clopedia is the much better choice. Any library with an interest in the humani­ ties, popular culture, or anthropology will want to start saving up to buy this monumental work.—M.C. 472 College & Research Libraries September 1998 Film and Television Encyclopedia of Television. Ed. Horace Newcomb. Sponsored by the Museum of Broadcast Communication, Chi­ cago. Chicago, London: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997. 3 vols. xxxv, 1948p. $300 (ISBN 1-88496-426-5). LC 97­ 214692. Over three years in the making, the Ency­ clopedia of Television covers some one thou­ sand topics relating to “television pro­ grams, people and topics drawn from the United States, Britain, Canada and Aus­ tralia” and “the history and current status of television in a number of other coun­ tries” (Pref.). A large number of entries are biographies of actors, producers, filmmak­ ers, writers, journalists, and media execu­ tives. Because biographical entries empha­ size professional accomplishments on television, they tend to overlap with en­ tries on programs. Equally numerous are articles on notable programs of all genres, along with an article surveying each type of program. There also are articles on busi­ ness and the social aspects of television such as advertising, audience research, rating, cable network, children, Vietnam and television, and violence, to name a few. Less emphasized are the technical aspects of television, although the Encyclopedia does cover topics such as color television, camcorder, and high-definition television. Virtually every article is accompanied by a bibliography for further reading. A biographical entry includes a portrait, and an article on a program is illustrated with clips from the show. There are publica­ tions that cover some of the areas (for ex­ ample, programs) more thoroughly than this one, but libraries will find this comprehen­ sive encyclopedia a useful addition.—J.S. Canadian Film and Video: A Bibliography and Guide to the Literature/ Film et vidéo canadiens: Bibliographie analytique sur le cinéma et la vidéo. Ed. Loren Lerner. Toronto: Univ. Toronto Pr., 1997. 2 vols. xli, 1811p. $275 (ISBN 0-8020-2988-4). LC 97-201017. Canadian Film and Video is an extensive work intended to assist in the advance­ ment of Canadian film history and to pro­ mote the study of Canadian film by pro­ viding access to the English and French literature on film and video in Canada during the twentieth century to 1989. With an impressive 24,800 entries, the two-volume, bilingual work covers the many aspects of film in Canada as it relates to feature, documentary, edu­ c a t i o n a l a n d i n d u s t r i a l f i l m s , and video. Nearly half the entries are annotated, although primarily film reviews and newspaper articles are not. Abstracts are descriptive and detailed, and are entered in either English or French or both, when appropriate. Works cited include both Canadian and foreign popular and schol­ arly publications, books, newspapers, catalogs, government reports, theses, and newsletters. The process of compiling information for this work began with identifying rel­ evant articles and reviews in a wide vari­ ety of periodical indexes such as Canadian Periodical Index, Film Literature Index, In­ ternational Index to Film Periodicals, Art Bibliographies Modern, Sociofile, and America: History and Life. As a result, 325 relevant periodicals and newspapers were identified, collected, and reviewed for subsequent articles with abstracts pro­ vided, if needed. More than a hundred, mostly Canadian periodicals, also were searched issue by issue. For books, bib­ liographic searching included scanning the shelves of major library collections. The result is a comprehensive index of Canadian literature including important journal publications such as Cinema Canada, a journal that documents Cana­ dian trends in film theory, film and in­ dustry, and film and government. The first volume is a sweeping bibli­ ography well organized into broad topi­ cal subject sections that are further di­ vided into narrower subject and geo­ graphic areas. Within each subject, entries Selected Reference Books of 1997-98 473 are arranged chronologically. Topics range from general studies (publications that document the history and develop­ ment of film in Canada, Quebec, and Brit­ ish Columbia); genres (works on docu­ mentary, industrial, experimental, ani­ mated films, and video); film and govern­ ment (more than two thousand citations); festivals and awards (general entries ar­ ranged chronologically, followed by en­ tries arranged alphabetically by title of festival or award); industry, production distribution, and exhibition companies; film and video associations and organi­ zations; and related studies with sections on cinema and theatres, film and litera­ ture, film and society, among others. The section on film and government is invaluable; citations are provided from a wide range of materials including peri­ odicals, government publications, re­ ports, studies, and newsletters. In particu­ lar, significant reports and studies are provided on the National Film Board of Canada, a public agency that for almost sixty years has produced and distributed films and audiovisual works in Canada. The second volume contains sections of persons involved in film, including filmmakers and video artists, cinematog­ raphers, editors, producers, composers, scriptwriters, and actors. Also contained in this volume is an appendix with a chro­ nology of the Canadian film industry and detailed indexes by author, film and video title, and subject that are essential for lo­ cating specific articles. This is an exhaustive work that, as in­ tended, provides a solid beginning for research on Canadian film and is highly recommended for research collections and colleges and universities offering programs in film studies.—N.E.F. Women’s Studies Jewish Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia. Eds. Paula E. Hyman and Deborah Dash Moore. Sponsored by the American Jewish Historical Soci­ ety. New York: Routledge, 1997. 2 vols. 1770p. $250 (ISBN 0-415-91936-3). LC 97-26842. Two questions immediately come to mind when examining this sort of reference work: what are the parameters of inclu­ sion, and when would one turn to this work for information? Jewish is defined as those who considered themselves Jew­ ish, or had Jewish fathers or mothers, or who were converts. Living women are in­ cluded whose age is 60 or above unless they are in national politics. America means the United States and includes immigrants. The Encyclopedia focuses on women, their biographies, organizations, movements, issues, journals, roles, etc., in order to “provide a usable past for Ameri­ can Jewish women . . . to recover their rich history . . . and to make visible their di­ verse accomplishments” (Ed. Pref.). Thus, we find eighty biographical en­ tries, Lina Arabanell (1879–1963) to Miriam Shomer Zinser (1882–1951), with articles along the way for 110 topics, in­ cluding advertising and consumer cul­ ture, assimilation of nineteenth-century Jewish women (and another for the twen­ tieth century), National Council of Jew­ ish Women, and journals such as Ameri­ can Jewess and Bridges. The articles are well written, many illustrated, and signed, with short bibliographies. The article on Bella Abzug, written by Profes­ sor Blanche Wiesen Cook, for example, is about five pages long, with three photo­ graphs and a listing of four bibliographic citations, although there is no mention of the location of her papers. There is an en­ try for Dina Abramowicz, librarian at YIVO Institute with a photograph. The set concludes with some very help­ ful sections: a list of contributors with a paragraph on each; a classified list of bio­ graphical entries, activists to Zionists and including Nobel Prize winners; and an “Annotated Bibliography and Guide to Archival Resources on the History of Jew­ ish Women in America” by Phyllis Holman Weisbard (pp. 1553–86) that “concentrates on books, chapters in an­ 474 College & Research Libraries September 1998 thologies, and periodical articles on the collective history of American Jewish women as well as archival resources on individuals and women’s organizations” (p. 1553). The index is full with cross- and see-also references. Altogether, this is a major reference tool.—E.M. Women in Context: Two Hundred Years of British Women Autobiographies: A Ref­ erence Guide and Reader. Ed. Barbara Penny Kanner. New York: G. K. Hall, 1997. 1052p. $60 (ISBN 0-8161-7346-X). LC 96-29645. This bibliography treats the published autobiographies of 812 British women writing between 1750 and 1950, with gen­ erous annotations and indexing. Entries are arranged alphabetically by author, with a citation to the published work fol­ lowed by a citation from either NUC or the British Library Catalogue for interli­ brary loan verification, followed by a three-paragraph annotation. The first paragraph provides biographical infor­ mation: place of birth, names of parents and significant friends and family mem­ bers, marital status, occupations, and class. The next paragraph summarizes the autobiography. This section is fairly long—often more than a page—and aims “to preserve the author ’s experiences and opinions in the terms she uses, and to avoid either inserting our own interpre­ tations of her meanings and motivations or placing matters important to late twen­ tieth-century studies over her own con­ cerns. In this section of each entry we have attempted to make the author ’s mental makeup transparent to our readers” (How to Use This Book). The final paragraph places the work into a larger sociohistorical context and sometimes includes citations to other autobiographi­ cal and biographical works concerning the author. There are three indexes to the autobi­ ographies. The author index groups the authors into twenty-year cohorts by date of birth; the majority were born in the nineteenth century, 69 were born before 1800, and another 135 were born in the twentieth century. The identification in­ dex lists vocations, activities, marital sta­ tus, religious and ethical belief systems, and social class. The subject index lists topics addressed in the autobiographies and appears to be quite thorough, al­ though, unfortunately, it is an index only to entry numbers so the subject, “Cultural Differences: Anglo and Non Western,” is followed by rows of 197 different num­ bers. One also wishes that they had made the generic non-Western more geographi­ cally specific. The treatment of geographi­ cal areas is the only true weakness of this index. There are virtually no entries by country, and these appear only as sub­ headings (e.g., British Empire: India or Foreign Customs: India). Many topics (e.g., education, abroad) list hundreds of entries with no further geographical sub­ division. But this is still the best bibliog­ raphy of its kind, providing access never available before to autobiographies of a wide variety of British women. There is considerable overlap with Kanner ’s Women in English Social History 1800–1914, vol.3, Autobiographical Writings (CC607), but not enough to supersede it.—S.S.W. Political Science McCarthy, Ronald M., and Gene Sharp. Nonviolent Action: A Research Guide. Garland Reference Library of Social Science, 940. New York: Garland, 1997. xxxvi, 720p. $99 (ISBN 0-8153-1577-5). LC 97-25316. This research guide, the lifelong work of Gene Sharp, one of its editors, brings to­ gether a wide range of information sources on the worldwide experience, both historical and contemporary, of us­ ing nonviolent action. The guide, in es­ sence an extensive annotated bibliogra­ phy, is divided into two parts: (1) “Cases of Nonviolent Struggle,” and (2) “Stud­ ies of Nonviolent Action and Related Fields.” The case studies are arranged first Selected Reference Books of 1997-98 475 by geographical region, then alphabeti­ cally by country. The citations draw not only on the scholarly literature of aca­ demic disciplines such as history, sociol­ ogy, and political science but also include journalistic accounts, personal testimo­ nies, policy statements, and official re­ ports. Individual country entries, when the material warrants, are further subdi­ vided by topic. The second part of the book compiles references on the nature of nonviolent action itself, the various concepts and methods brought to bear on it, and on related theories and research models that contribute to an understanding of its workings. A detailed table of contents, cross-ref­ erences in the text, section introductions, and an extensive subject index as well as an author index help the researcher to navigate through the vast amount of ma­ terial assembled and to select entries of greatest interest. Nonviolent Action: A Research Guide is serious work of vast scope and meticu­ lous research, an invaluable addition to any academic library’s reference collec- tion.—O.dC. History Modern British History: A Guide to Study and Research. Eds. L. J. Butler and An­ thony Gorst. London: Tauris, 1997 (dis­ tributed in the United States by St. Martin’s Pr., New York). 310p. $55 (ISBN 1-8604-103-2). LC 97-178046. Oxford Companion to British History. Ed. John Cannon. Oxford, New York: Ox­ ford Univ. Pr., 1998. 1044p. maps. $60 (ISBN 0-19-866176-2). LC 97-27598. Modern British History is an extremely use­ ful guide that addresses research meth­ ods as well as the current state of research in twentieth-century British history. Thus, chapters cover the most effective way to use libraries and archives, public records, computing techniques, and the Internet, with a section on how to cite electronic materials. The chapters that follow focus on specific fields within modern British history such as gender history, social his­ tory, or diplomatic history discussing the “current scope and methodological prob­ lems of each field” (Pref.). The chapters are written by scholars, and many provide a short bibliography for further reading. The essays are very informative, but also well written by aca­ demics in the United Kingdom. For any­ one new to archival research or to the use of electronic materials or looking for a state-of-the-art account of twentieth- century British history, this is a must- buy. From one one-volume Dictionary of British History by S.H. Steinberg (DC293), the world of British history has been en­ riched by a number of them (see the re­ view of new dictionaries of British his­ tory in C&RL, Sept. 1996, pp. 471–72). The most recent entrant is the Oxford Compan­ ion to British History, edited by John Can­ non. From Abbayes and Priories to Zutphen, Battle of, the work covers all periods and topics in signed articles, a few with bibliographies. “Considerable space is devoted to ’local history’ with a general article on the subject and shorter entries on all the English and Welsh coun­ ties, Scottish provinces, ancient king­ doms, modern regions, on the most im­ portant towns, together with entries on a number of castles, cathedrals and coun­ try houses” (Pref.). To aid readers, there are maps, genealogies, and asterisked words in entries as a form of cross-refer­ ence. The subject index is a bit problem­ atic in that it is a list of broad subjects (e.g., class and rank or economics), with a list of related articles following, but this is more than one usually gets in an Oxford Companion. Comparing the Oxford with the His­ tory Today Companion to British History (London: Collins & Brown, 1995) and Bamber Gascoigne’s Encyclopedia of Brit­ ain (1993. DC292), one discovers some surprising gaps. For example, the Profumo Affair is treated in both earlier http:tion.�O.dC 476 College & Research Libraries September 1998 volumes, but not mentioned in the Ox­ ford. Even looking under “Macmillan,” there is no mention, although the text leads one to believe Macmillan himself was involved. The are no cross-references in the Oxford to Glyndwr from Glendower, nor from Boleyn to Anne. Glyndebourne is not described by the Oxford, but by the other two. Of course, the Oxford is more current, I can find Tony Blair. So I think the Oxford would be my third choice for an identification, a fact check, a description of the significance of a person, place, or event, but possibly a first choice for local history and survey articles, although the History Today vol­ ume has some very useful ones, too.— E.M. New Editions and Supplements The Cambridge Encyclopedia by David Crystal (3d ed. Cambridge Univ. Pr., 1997. 1303p. $54.95; 2d ed. 1994, 1st ed. 1990. AB3) is much updated for coverage of the past five years for newsworthy events, film personalities, and sports. Also up­ dated to 1996–1997 is the political leaders portion of the ready reference section (pp. 1175–1303). There is some overlap in this part of the Encyclopedia with the Cambridge Factfinder, also by David Crystal (2d.ed. New York: Cambridge Univ. Pr., 1997. 891p. $16.95; 1st ed. 1993). Flags of the nations are reproduced on the end papers of the Encyclopedia. The sixth edition of the Chambers Bio­ graphical Dictionary, edited by Melanie Parry (Edinburgh: Chambers, 1997. 2008p. $55) has now reverted back to its old name. The fifth edition (1990. 1604p. AH24) was entitled Cambridge Biographi­ cal Dictionary and was published by the Cambridge University Press, as well as by Chambers. The new edition has, of course, added names, updated coverage, and also has a new format to try to make the elements of an entry clearer. Oxford has revised a number of its lan­ guage dictionaries. The Oxford Dictionary of New Words, edited by Elizabeth Knowles and Julia Elliott (New Ed. Ox­ ford, New York: Oxford Univ. Pr., 1997. 357p. $25; 1st ed. 1991. AC96) has added “2,000 high-profile words and phrases which have come to public attention in the last 15 or 16 years” (Pref.). Thus, we find in the first edition entries such as new wave, pac man, skateboarding, and Sloane Ranger, which in the second edi­ tion have been replaced by entries such as ADD, bad hair day, java, joe-sixpack, and Megan’s law. The Oxford Thesaurus by Laurence Urdang (2d ed. Oxford: Clarendon Pr., 1997. 1078p. $19.95; 1st ed, 1991. AC146) is about one inch taller than the first edi­ tion, but the word list is little changed except for the addition of antonyms. The Oxford Desk Thesaurus: American Edition (1995. 660p. $12.95) also uses the same wordlist with the occasional addition (e.g., Yahoo) but lacks the index of the larger work and, of course, includes no antonyms. The first edition, 1991, of the American edition thesaurus also has been merged into The Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus: American Edition (1996. 1829p. $30; also called Reader’s Digest Oxford Com­ plete Wordfinder) edited by Frank Abate. The arrangement is alphabetical by head­ word, with the synonym section within the entry set off by a small black box. Bloomsbury also has published a new edition of its thesaurus. The Bloomsbury Thesaurus, edited by Fran Alexander (Lon­ don: Bloomsbury, 1997. 1201p.; 1st ed. 1993), is arranged by category with a word index giving a brief definition and the category. The revision “incorporates recent changes in the language . . . but also the most current general terms” (Introd.) of the 1990s. Here, one can find “bad hair day” with its synonyms. The new edition of the Dictionary of Contemporary Slang, compiled by Tony Thorne (London: Bloomsbury, 1997. 440p. $17; 1st ed. 1990, under the title Bloomsbury Dictionary of Modern Slang) has been much revised, especially necessary because the editor notes that much slang Selected Reference Books of 1997-98 477 comes from adolescents and children. The Pronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names, compiled by John K. Bollard et al. (2d ed. Detroit: Omnigraphics, 1998. xxxv, 1097p. $80; 1st ed. 1993. AC109) has grown to “pronunciations for more than 28,000 proper names, selected for currency, fre­ quency, or difficulty of pronunciation in­ cluding place names; given names; names of famous individuals; cultural, literary, historical and Biblical names; mythologi­ cal names; names of people and tribes; company names and product names . . . (Subtitle). Most of the 5,000 new geo­ graphical and biographical names have come from current events, popular cul­ ture, and sports. The Encyclopedia of Early Christianity, ed­ ited by Everett Ferguson (1990. BC274) has expanded into a two-volume, second edi­ tion (New York: Garland, 1997. 2v. [xxvii, 1213p] Garland Reference Library of the Humanities, 1839. $150) with an updating of the bibliography, but also greater cover­ age of the eastern expansion of Christian­ ity (extending the chronological coverage), the “influence of the biblical books and Greek philosophers on Christian writers and the patristic use of these” (Pref.), the historical context (pagan relations and phi­ losophy) and social history of the saints, monasticism, and modern scholars. The articles are signed, there are cross-refer­ ences, and the indexing is careful, with pagi­ nation of major treatments given in bold. Garland has produced a number of reference resources for Arthurian litera­ ture: Medieval Arthurian Literature: A Guide to Research (1996), The New Arthurian En­ cyclopedia (1991. BE343), and now a re­ vised Arthurian Handbook (2d ed. 1997. 409p. $60, $22.95; 1st ed. 1988. BE342). This new work updates the bibliographies and some of the chapters have been com­ pletely rewritten, such as the poetry sec­ tion in modern literature, the discussion of Arthurian themes in the nonliterary arts, and the chapter on the visual arts. The number of entries in the second edition of the Oxford Dictionary of Nurs­ ery Rhymes, compiled by Iona and Peter Opie (New York: Oxford Univ. Pr., 1997. xxix, 559p. $45) is about the same as the first (1951. BE721), but new material fea­ turing the history of a rhyme or additional sources have expanded the coverage. For example, for “Yankee Doodle,” more in­ formation appears on the earliest print­ ings as well as a definition of macaroni. The newly issued Biographical Directory of the American Congress 1774–1996 is no longer published by the Government Print­ ing Office but, rather, by CQ (Ed. Joel D. Treese. Alexandria, Va.: CQ Staff Directo­ ries, 1997. 2108p. portraits. $295; previous edition had the title Biographical Directory of the United States Congress 1774–1989. CJ232), which has used its resources to update many of the entries with death dates, dates for non-Congressional offices (e.g., diplo­ matic posts, governors, Supreme Court, Cabinet coverage) and to bring the cover­ age up to September 30, 1996. With the 79th Congress (1945–1947), political party mem­ berships are noted. The price is unfortunate, limiting public information to the libraries with larger reference budgets. The new edition of the Guide to the Pa­ pers of British Cabinet Ministers 1900–1964 (London: Royal Historical Society; New York: Cambridge Univ. Pr., 1996. 417p. $27.95. Guides and Handbooks, no. 19; 1st ed. 1974 ) by Cameron Hazlehurst, Sally Whitehead, and Christine Woodland of­ fers the same alphabetical arrangement under family name, adds information on the 323 ministers covered by the first edi­ tion, and “includes all Cabinet ministers (or those who held positions in a Cabinet during the period) until the resignation of Sir Alec Douglas-Home as Prime Min­ ister in 1964” (Introd.), increasing the to­ tal to 384. The volume ends with a list of repositories, giving the address and the name of the archivist for each, an index of ministers with cross-reference from vari­ ant names, and a table of ministers who were not in the Cabinet, 1900–1964. Longman has updated several titles in its handbook series and added new ones. 478 College & Research Libraries The Longman Handbook of Modern European History, 1763-1997, compiled by Chris Cook and John Stevenson (3d ed. New York: Addison-Wesley Longman, 1998. 550p. $22.95; 1st ed. 1987. 2d ed. 1992. DC21) increases its coverage of events es­ pecially for the mid-1990s in the Soviet Union and the Balkans, updates the bibli­ ographies and tables, and extends the bi­ ography portion. The Longman Handbook of Modern British History, 1714–1995 (3d ed. London: Longman, 1996. 543p. $21.50; 1st ed. 1983. 2d ed. 1988. DC294), compiled by Chris Cook and John Stevenson, up­ dates coverage to the end of 1995 with particular attention to Britain’s relations with Europe and the European Union. See also the Longman Companion to Britain Since 1945, also compiled by Chris Cook and John Stevenson (London: Longman, 1996. 324p. $60.50, $22.50), which covers up to July 1995 and has some of the same tables and chronologies, biographies, and glos­ sary terms, but, of course, some that the Modern British History does not. New to the group and following the same pattern is Longman’s Handbook of Modern American History, 1763–1996, com­ piled by Chris Cook and David Waller (London: Longman, 1998. $67.50, $19.95), covering “from the Boston tea party to the presidential elections of November 1996 and the politics of contemporary America in the middle 1990s” (Pref.) and using stan­ dard sources such a E. Austin, Political Facts of the United States Since 1789 (DB53), Sta­ tistical Abstracts and Historical Statistics, the World Almanac and Information Please. The compilers give chronologies and statisti­ cal tables for most of their topics, arranged under broad topics subdivided. The com­ pilers conclude that the problem is not one of too little material, but too much. Bibliographie der Tarnschriften 1933 bis 1945 by Heinz Gittig (Munich: Saur, 1996. 260p. DM248) is a new edition of Illegale antifaschistische Tarnschriften 1933–1945, which appeared in 1972 as Beiheft 87 of the Zentralblatt fur Bibliothekswesen. It is a listing in chronological order of more than September 1998 a thousand works (all the compiler could identify) of illegal publications under cam­ ouflaged authors and titles issued in Ger­ many, Austria, and the German-occupied lands, 1933–1945. The compiler provides the false author and title, the real one, bib­ liographical information, and locations along with author and title indexes.—M.C. Reuben and Naomi Musiker have pro­ vided scholars with useful compilations of South African reference resources. Their Guide to South African Reference Books (6th ed. London: Mansell, 1997. 240p. $80; 1979 ed. AA353) with 1,139 numbered entries and extensive annotations “includes hand­ books, manuals, and histories whenever conventional reference books (such as dic­ tionaries, yearbooks, encyclopedias) do not exist for a specific subject field” (Pref.). The arrangement is still by broad subjects with a comprehensive index for authors, titles, and subjects. “Bibliographies are ex­ cluded . . . except in the case of a few car­ dinal subject bibliographies . . . [because] almost a thousand South African bibliog­ raphies are listed and described in a com­ panion volume, South African Bibliography” (Introd.). The South African Bibliography is a survey of bibliographies and biblio­ graphical work (3rd ed. London, New York: Mansell, 1996. 142p. $70; 2d ed. 1982. AA72) that cites 1,139 numbered, anno­ tated items in a topical arrangement. The third edition of Merriam-Webster’s Geographical Dictionary (3d ed. Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1997. 1361p. maps. $29.95; 2d ed. 1972, called Webster’s New Geographical Dictionary. CL97) still covers historical as well as contemporary place names, but its focus is the United States and Canada, including all incorpo­ rated places in the United States with a population of 2,500 or more and for Canada a population of 4,500 or more, whereas for the United Kingdom it is 10,000 and for Turkey, 30,000. New to this edition are the glossary and the explana­ tory front matter. This is such a handy dic­ tionary/gazetteer that one hopes it will be revised much more frequently.