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C&RL News, December 2007
Vol. 68, No. 11

by George M. Eberhart

Asylum: A Mid-Century Madhouse and Its Lessons about Our Mentally Ill Today, by Enoch Callaway (196 pages, August 2007), is a memoir of the Worcester (Massachusetts) State Hospital in the years 1948–1950 when the author served there as a resident psychiatrist in the days before the psychopharmacology revolution. The methods for treating psychosis in that era included electroconvulsive treatment, barbiturate sedatives, lobotomy, insulin shock therapy, hydrotherapy, and simplistic psychoanalysis. However, Callaway argues that society can learn something from the asylum experience in caring for our deinstitutionalized schizophrenics who are now on the streets, cared for by their families, or within the criminal justice system. $44.95. Praeger. 978-0-275-99704-5.

Of related interest is The Madness of Mary Lincoln, by Jason Emerson (255 pages, September 2007), which argues convincingly that Mary Todd Lincoln did indeed have mental illness severe enough to justify her commitment in 1875. Based on the discovery in 2005 of long-lost correspondence relating to her life and insanity, Emerson concludes that Mary Lincoln showed signs of bipolar disorder (manic depression) even before her husband was assassinated, an event that led to erratic and occasionally psychotic behavior, and that her son’s decision to institutionalize her came reluctantly, painfully, and as a last resort. $29.95. Southern Illinois University. 978-0-8093-2771-3.

Books on Fire, by Lucien X. Polastron (371 pages, August 2007), chronicles the destruction of books and libraries throughout history, from ancient Alexandria through World War II to the invasion of Iraq. Although scholarly and well-documented in most respects, the narrative sometimes seems anecdotal and rambling—but this may be partially due to the translation from the French. Polastron finishes up with some one-sided, negative digressions on weeding and online vs. print collections that are a bit off-topic. Nonetheless, he has unearthed many little-known incidents of biblioclasm that make this title a worthy acquisition. $24.95. Inner Traditions. 978-1-59477-167-5.

The Citizen’s Guide to Lobbying Congress, by Donald E. deKieffer (196 pages, rev. ed., September 2007), is a practical, straightforward manual on how to influence lawmakers. Chapters cover letter-writing campaigns, hearings, the press, etiquette, the Hill blitz, funding and spending, alliances, and resources. A useful handbook for understanding the methods and gimmicks of lobbyists, even if you’re not planning on using them yourself. $17.95. Chicago Review Press. 978-1-55652-718-0.

The Columbia World Dictionary of Islamism, edited by Olivier Roy and Antoine Sfeir (430 pages, September 2007), explores the principles, organizations, personalities, history, geography, and politics of Islamism, defined as a “broad intellectual, religious, and political school within contemporary Islam whose adherents cling to the doctrine that the faith is indivisible, and base their actions on its fundamental principles.” Originating with the early 20th-century Muslim Brotherhood, Islamism includes both reformists and revolutionaries. This volume is a translation and update of the 2002 Dictionnaire mondial de l’islamisme. $75.00. Columbia University. 978-0-231-13130-8.

A related title translated from the French is A Glossary of Islam, by Dominique Sourdel and Janine Sourdel-Thomine (187 pages, March 2007), which includes short definitions and explanations of theological and juridical schools, historical figures, Qur’anic symbols and themes, and religious rites and institutions within Islam in general. $18.00. Edinburgh University. 978-0-7486-2138-5.

Historical Dictionary of the Gypsies (Romanies), by Donald Kenrick (343 pages, 2d ed., July 2007), assembles some essential facts about Romany people, places, events, organizations, and culture. A chronology of Gypsy history supplements this concise dictionary written by an international Romany scholar. $85.00. Scarecrow. 978-0-8108-5468-0.

Horror Films of the 1970s, by John Kenneth Muir (662 pages, 2 vols., September 2007), has been reissued in paperback, in case you missed the 2002 hardcover and were intrigued by the author’s Horror Films of the 1980s (C&RL News, May 2007). Muir calls the 1970s the “disco decade,” a tense transition between the Peace Corps ’60s and the yuppified ’80s, where economic, social, religious, technological, environmental, and political fears coalesced on the screen as images within Dawn of the Dead, The Wicker Man, The Exorcist, Westworld, Night of the Lepus, and The Boys from Brazil. Excellent commentary and insights. $49.95. McFarland. 978-0-7864-3104-5.

How Mathematics Happened: The First 50,000 Years, by Peter S. Rudman (314 pages, July 2007), answers two questions: Why did ancient cultures develop math in a particular way and how did the Egyptians, Babylonians, Mayans, and Greeks think about numbers, multiplication, fractions, and algebra? Readers will need a basic comfort level with mathematical expressions, but Rudman salts his narrative with diagrams, brain teasers (with answers in the back), and anecdotes to make it all more fun. Along the way he examines ziggurats and pyramids, how pebble counting evolved into written numbers, and how the Babylonians used Pythagorean triples a millennium before Pythagoras. $26.00. Prometheus. 978-1-59102-477-4.

The Kenana Handbook of Sudan, edited by Peter Gwynvay Hopkins (884 pages, July 2007), offers encyclopedic coverage of Africa’s largest country. Sponsored by the Kenana Sugar Company of Sudan and published by Kegan Paul in London, this handbook goes far beyond descriptions of the economy, agriculture, industry, and petroleum reserves designed to encourage investors. There are chapters on archaeology, history, art, literature, religion, food and drink, flora and fauna, the environment, coral reef diving, tourism, and politics, accompanied by maps and hundreds of color photographs, all intended to offset the one-sided picture presented in the media of starving refugees from the Darfur region. Of particular interest are photos from the Sudan Archive at the University of Durham that show life under the Anglo-Egyptian mandate; the old seaport of Suakin, with its buildings made of coral, a Christian center in the Middle Ages and one of the last slave export centers in the 19th century; and excerpts from Tayeb Salih’s 1996 novel Bandarshah. $49.95. Kegan Paul, distributed by Columbia University. 978-0-7103-1160-3.

The Missouri Compromise and Its Aftermath: Slavery and the Meaning of America, by Robert Pierce Forbes (369 pages, May 2007), takes a fresh look at the debates over slavery that surrounded the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and argues that they served to polarize and radicalize both North and South on the issue. The Missouri debates gave Southerners the opportunity to hone and articulate a proslavery ideology, while Northerners for the first time realized the grim realities of American sectionalism that could split the Union apart if the nation’s idealized vision of liberty and equality were applied to slaves. Forbes also reveals the role of James Monroe in stretching the powers of the presidency to engineer the compromise behind the scenes, and follows the politics of slavery through 1854, when the law was repealed by the Kansas-Nebraska Act. $45.00. University of North Carolina. 978-0-8078-3105-2.

Pots and Plays, by Oliver Taplin (309 pages, September 2007), makes a strong case for the connection between the painting of mythological scenes on 4th-century B.C. Greek pottery found in southern Italy and the performance of those scenes in the contemporary tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. Taplin contends that these “tragedy pots” were primarily made for display at funerals and within tombs so that the survivors could glean some comfort from a visual reminder that death and suffering were an essential part of life. Examples are given for each playwright as well as for unknown plays. $75.00. J. Paul Getty Museum. 978-0-89236-807-5.

A Practical Guide to Information Literacy Assessment for Academic Librarians, by Carolyn J. Radcliff, et al. (180 pages, July 2007), describes numerous methods for testing and surveying information literacy in a higher-education setting, especially in conjunction with the 2000 ACRL competency standards. A final section offers advice on statistical analysis of the results and reporting the findings to stakeholders. $45.00. Libraries Unlimited. 978-1-59158-340-3.

Putting “America” on the Map, by Seymour I. Schwartz (400 pages, October 2007), is an entertaining and thoroughly researched history of Martin Waldseemüller’s 1507 world map, the first to use “America” to designate the New World. The only known copy was rediscovered in a German private collection in 1901, and 100 years later the Library of Congress (LC) purchased it for a record $10 million. Schwartz, a renowned surgeon as well as a collector of rare maps, offers many intriguing details about what has been called the “holy grail” of American cartography, its provenance, its creator, its importance as the first map to depict clearly a separate Western Hemisphere with the Pacific as a separate ocean, and the long negotiations that led to its purchase. The map is part of a larger exhibit opening December 13 called “Exploring the Early Americas” in LC’s Jefferson Building. $29.95. Prometheus. 978-1-59102-513-9.

Where Fate Beckons, by John Dunmore (291 pages, August 2007), examines the life of the largely forgotten French naval officer and explorer Jean-François de La Pérouse (1741–1788), best known for his ill-fated scientific expedition to the Pacific, where his two ships were destroyed on a reef in the Solomon Islands. But he also played an important role in the American Revolution and made notable visits to Alaska, California, Japan, Russia, Hawaii, Easter Island, and Samoa. $45.00. University of Alaska. 978-1-60223-002-6.

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

ACRL is a division of the American Library Association