'BRIEFLY NOTED' BOOKS

Books written or edited by members of the Cosmos Club and given to the Cosmos Club library, April 1997–April 1998

REVIEWED BY THE EDITOR

Ancient Civilizations of the New World
By Richard E.W. Adams
(Westview Press 1997)

Incorporating the latest breakthroughs in the study of the cultures of Mesoamerica and the Andes, Adams examines the development of the Olmec, Maya, Aztec, and Inca peoples from simple agricultural societies to urban civilizations with complex transportation networks, distinct social hierarchies, rich artistic and religious traditions, and writing systems that have defied anthropological investigations until recently. The question of why these thriving cultures collapsed so suddenly when faced with the European conquest is explored as are comparisons with ancient Old World civilizations of the Middle East and Asia.

The Ecstatic Journey:
The Transforming Power of Mystical Experience
By Sophy Burnham
(Ballantine Books 1997)

For millennia, mysticism has spread a special radiance over humanity. Today, interest in mystical practices is increasing, and just as Sophy Burnham first focused modern awareness on the presence of angels in our lives, she now explores the drama and mystery of mystical experiences and their power to change our lives. She describes the age–old practices that invite mystical experiences—prayer and fasting, meditation, ascetic discipline.

The Irony of Virtue: Ethics and American Power
By Ernest W. Lefever
(Westview Press 1998)

For this volume, Lefever selected forty of his most influential essays from some 500 published pieces. They reveal his dramatic transformation from a liberal pacifist during World War II to a humane realist.

Receiving Soren Kierkegaard
By Habib C. Malik
(The Catholic University of America Press 1997)

Malik’s detailed exposition of the historic events, his summaries of positions of persons opposed to Kierkegaard, and his review of the spread of knowledge about him is an important contribution to the intellectual history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Mars the Living Planet
By Barry E. DiGregorio with Dr. Gilbert V. Levin, Dr. Patricia Ann Straat
(Frog, Ltd. 1997)

Despite relatively favorable conditions for life the majority of the NASA scientific community maintains the current Mars environment is incapable of supporting even simple microorganisms. They base this opinion on the biology tests conducted by the Viking Lander in 1976, claiming “no evidence” of life was found. But one of the biology experiments, Dr. Gilbert Leven’s Labeled Release experiment, produced intriguing and still–unexplained reactions that more likely than not constitute an unacknowledged discovery of life on Mars.

International Straits of the World (The Torres Strait)
by Stuart B. Kaye, edited by Gerard J. Mangone
(Martinus Nuhoff Publishers 1997)

This is the 12th book in the series International Straits of the World, which seeks to describe the geography of a narrow waterway linking two seas and its relevance to shipping, economic development, and social welfare in the region, especially examining the legal status of the strait and its international relations.

Aging and Mental Health: Positive Psychosocial and Biomedical Approaches (Fifth Edition)
By Robert N. Butler, Myra I. Lewis, Trey Sunderland
(Allyn and Bacon 1998)

This new edition uses the latest demographic and epidemiological data to create an all–encompassing portrait of older people in America today, their mental health care needs, and ways to respond to their needs. The book incorporates the newest information concerning the dementias of old age, the neurobiology of depression, and geriatric psychopharmacology. The full range of psychosocial and biological therapies are covered as well.

The Computer–Based Patient Record: An Essential Technology for Health Care (Revised Edition)
Edited by Richard S. Dick, Elaine B. Steen, Don E. Detmer
(National Academy Press 1997)

Most industries have plunged into data automation, but health care organizations have lagged in moving patients’ medical records from paper to computers. The revised edition describes recent developments in the United States and Europe, including the creation of a computer–based patient record institute. It also explores such issues as privacy and confidentiality, costs, the need for training, and legal barriers.

Intravenous Immunoglobulins in Clinical Practice
Edited by Martin L. Lee, Vibeke Strand
(Marcel Dekker, Inc. 1997)

Recognizing the explosive growth in information on intravenous immunoglobulins (IVIGs) this exhaustive, single– source volume surveys all available literature on the employment of IVIG preparations in clinical practice from pharmacoeconomics and pharmacokinetics to prophylaxis and management of infections and autoimmune diseases.

The Selfish Brain: Learning From Addiction
By Robert L. DuPont
(American Psychiatric Press, Inc. 1997)

In his new book, Dr. DuPont has linked, for the first time, the rapidly expanding scientific knowledge about addiction and his own intensely personal experiences over more than a quarter of a century of working with addicted people and their families. He extends his useful ideas to the areas of public policy and to the global dimensions of this uniquely human disease.

The American College of Radiology: The First 75 Years
By Otha W. Linton
(American College of Radiology 1997)

The history of an organization can have one dimension or several. The first dimension is to get the names and dates correct, noting the official actions and the results therefrom. This is useful, if sterile. What is more helpful and entertaining is an effort to explain how and why things happened as they did. A further dimension is to breathe life into the account by invoking the people involved in more than 70 years of growth and struggle.

To understand how aging affects the brain, Dr. Restak surveys what current research has discovered about the aging process, including the role of genetics and diet. Factors of successful aging include regular physical activity, intellectual curiosity, and maintaining a strong social network. He separates the facts from the myths about the mature brain on such topics as Alzheimer’s, stroke, insomnia, and depression and examines the pros and cons of drugs used in treating these disorders.

Nuclear Weapons Handbook Volume I: U.S. Nuclear Forces and Capabilities
By Thomas B. Cochran, William M. Arkin, Milton M. Hoenig;

Volume II: U.S. Nuclear Warhead Production
By Thomas B. Cochran, William M. Arkin, Robert S. Norris, Milton M. Hoenig;

Volume III: U.S. Nuclear Warhead Facility Profiles
By Thomas B. Cochran, William M. Arkin, Robert S. Norris, Milton M. Hoenig;

Volume IV: Soviet Nuclear Weapons
by Thomas B. Cochran, William M. Arkin, Robert S. Norris, Jeoffrey I. Sands;

Volume V: British, French, and Chinese Nuclear Weapons
By Robert S. Norris, Andrew S. Burrows, Richard W. Fieldhouse.
(Westview Press 1987)

In the most important debate of the 1980s—the debate to end the arms race—a critical element has been missing: precise, factual information about nuclear weapons. To fill this void are the volumes in the Nuclear Weapons Data Book series. When completed they will be the standard reference work on nuclear armaments throughout the world, how they work, and where they are deployed.

Making the Russian Bomb: From Stalin to Yeltsin
By Thomas B. Cochran, Robert S. Norris, Oleg A. Bukharin
(Westview Press 1995)

Taking advantage of previously unavailable information, the authors describe the origin, growth, and decline of the massive Soviet nuclear weapons production complex—the places involved in the recent headline–making episodes of nuclear smuggling. They provide an exhaustive treatment of how the bombs are made, where they are made, and the key personalities who have overseen the stockpile. They also reveal exclusive details of Russia’s persistent dumping of radioactive waste in the Arctic region.

IRE Bonding in Microelectronics (Second Edition)
By George Harman (McGraw–Hill 1997)

Wire bonds are used to interconnect integrated circuits, multichip modules and hybrids, and microwave as well as power devices to their packages.

Electronic Genie: The Tangled History of Silicon
By Frederick Seitz and Norman G. Einspruch
(University of Illinois Press 1998)

Electronic Genie takes its readers on a two–century journey that begins with Antoine Lavoisier’s prediction of the existence of silicon as an element. It traces the emergence of silicon as key to the development of most forms of today’s electronics and its role in making possible the revolutionary digital computer.

Designing the Bayous: The Control of Water in the Atchafalaya Basin 1800–1995
By Martin Reuss
(U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 1998)

In this history, Dr. Reuss tells the complicated but fascinating story of how local, state, and federal agencies have attempted to reconcile conflicting visions for Louisiana’s Atchafalaya Basin, which includes the largest river–basin swamp in North America. The basin serves as a major floodway to convey Mississippi River water to the Gulf of Mexico.

Human Choice and Climate Change (four volumes)
Edited by Steve Rayner and Elizabeth L. Malone
(Battelle Press 1998)

Volumes 1–3 provide a state–of–the–art compendium of relevant social science. Volume 4 is invaluable as a reliable summary for non–professionals.

Take Down Flag & Feed Horses
By Bill Everhart
(University of Illinois Press 1998)

Take Down Flag & Feed Horses is devoted to the daily work of staff members at Yellowstone National Park. The book is divided into two parts, the first chronicling daily life at Yellowstone and the second detailing the savage fires that hit the park during the summer of 1998 and their aftermath.

Keeping Children From Harm’s Way: How National Policy Affects Psychological Development
By Annette U. Rickel, Evvie Becker
(American Psychological Association 1998)

Today, large numbers of America’s children, adolescents, and families are at unprecedented risk of social problems. Among them are lack of health care, violence, substance abuse, teen pregnancy, and homelessness. Yet the public’s interest in preventive programs is at an all–time low. Drawing on their behind–the–scenes experience as Congressional Fellows, the authors make a case for well–designed, economical prevention programs.

Utilizing the techniques of tapes, phone taps, and wireless recordings, Weisman creates the impersonal world of the driven journalist. For the first time we go behind the bylines, as Weisman dissects the real ABC’s of reporting: alienation, betrayal and cynicism.

The Allied Occupation and Japan’s Economic Miracle: Building the Foundations of Japanese Science and Technology, 1945
By Bowen C. Dees
(Japan Library 1997)

This book chronicles the story of the Scientific and Technical Division of General MacArthur’s Occupation Headquarters, setting about to encourage the formation of new national bodies for science and technology and persuade the Japanese government to create new and more efficient means of dealing with technological matters.

Virtual Money: Understanding the Power and Risks of Money’s High–Speed Journey into Electronic Space
By Elinor Harris Solomon
(Oxford University Press 1997)

Solomon produces a wide–ranging introduction to electronic monies. Starting on familiar ground with gold and paper money, she examines the growth of the credit card to its present nearly universal use throughout America. She offers an engaging discussion of exotic new e–monies, such as “Smart Cards,” e–cash, electronic wallets, and cybermoney, as well as upcoming innovations such as electronic benefits transfers.

Congressional Caucuses in National Policy Making
By Susan Webb Hammond
(The Johns Hopkins University Press 1998)

An important and well–researched book on one of the most significant phenomena of the modern Congress—the proliferation and policy impact of informal congressional caucuses. The emergence of these caucuses may well be one of the most important institutional developments in the national government in the late twentieth century. Hammond identifies six categories of caucuses—party affiliation, personal interest, national constituency, regional, state/district, and industry—and describes how caucus members share information, coordinate legislative plans, seek ways to influence colleagues, and affect congressional agendas.

Licensed to Kill? The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Shoreham Power Plant
By Joan Aron
(University of Pittsburgh Press 1997)

Shoreham appears to be the largest engineering project in all history that ever was completed and then abandoned without ever being used. This book takes the approach that the Nuclear Regulation Commission disclosed a distrust of the public, which in turn exacerbated public nonconfidence in the NRC. New York and Suffolk County distrusted the NRC, but the commission in turn doubted the competence and good faith of the state and the county in the emergency planning controversy. Finding ways to increase acceptability of nuclear power decisions is not just an academic exercise. Those who have studied Shoreham will know that even the best–laid nuclear schemes can go awry, but they will also recognize mistakes that can be avoided.

Masters of the House: Congressional Leadership Over Two Centuries
Edited by Roger H. Davidson, Susan Webb Hammond, Raymond W. Smock
(Westview Press 1998)

Much of the nation’s political life and public policy have been shaped by a handful of powerful people—the leaders of the U.S. House of Representatives. Masters of the House identifies enduring patterns of House leadership, explaining the effects of such factors as party strength, White House–congressional relations, leaders’ formal prerogatives, members’ expectations, public attitudes, shifts in the policy agenda, and leaders’ personal attributes and style.

The Reluctant Sheriff
By Richard N. Haass
(Council on Foreign Relations 1997)

Americans have always sought to deny the complexity of foreign policy with a single word or phrase. Since the end of the Cold War political leaders have failed to establish an epigram to capture public support and guide specific action. The Reluctant Sheriff is organized around two ideas: the notion of a deregulated world and that of the United States as a sheriff leading posses to deal with violent threats to international stability. These notions help frame a stimulating discussion about how and when the United States should become involved in international crises.

Continuity and Disruption: Essays in Public Administration
By Matthew Holden, Jr.
(University of Pittsburgh Press 1998)

Matthew Holden argues that administration is indispensable to politics. Public administration consists of making decisions about information, money, and force—the three crucial sources of power. Politics and administration cannot be separated, and no political system can be sustained when its administrative core collapses. Holden examines turbulence in the intellectual history of administration as reflected in traditional political theory and in specific contemporary theories of organization, bureaucracy, and management.

Creating Public Policy: The Chairman’s Memoirs of Four Presidential Commissions
By David F. Linowes
(Praeger 1998)

This story is rich in testimony from public and private collectors of personal data who were pressed, under oath, to reveal how they obtain, use, and abuse the information. Two energy commissions reveal their discovery of the theft of oil on federal and Indian lands by major oil companies. The privatization effort demonstrates the growing need to separate the functions of government and business.

Between Damascus and Jerusalem: Lebanon and Middle East Peace
By Habib C. Malik
(The Washington Institute for Near East Policy 1997)

Although Washington and much of the world have paid little attention to Lebanon for the past two decades, it is impossible to ignore in perpetuity a country and people that have such an important role to play in the search for peace and stability in the Middle East. It is hoped this Policy Paper will provoke considerable ‘new thinking’ on a topic that has been overlooked for too long.

Politics and the Political Imagination in Later Stuart Britain: Essays Presented to Lois Green Schwoerer
Edited by Howard Nenner
(University of Rochester Press 1998)

This volume, a fitting tribute to Lois Green Schwoerer, explores several topics that have been central to her interest during a distinguished scholarly career: politics, political thought, and the role of women in later Stuart Britain.

Democracy at Dawn: Notes from Poland and Points East
By Frederick Quinn
(Texas A & M University Press 1998)

In 1993, Quinn, an American career foreign service officer, began a two–year stint as head of the Rule of Law Programs in Warsaw. His task was to assist the nations of Eastern Europe with constitutional and judicial reforms, but he quickly became bogged down in the bureaucratic frustrations of everyday life in the former communist states. His book is an episodic account of his travels and meetings, told in a diary format that creates a revealing sociological ethnography of those emerging nations.

Holding Government Bureaucracies Accountable (Third Edition)
By Bernard Rosen
(Praeger 1998)

For what and to whom are bureaucracies answerable? How are they held accountable? The most important developments are The Chief Financial Officer Act, The Government Performance and Results Act, and the Government Reform Act. Together, these three laws have the potential to substantially improve performance and accountability.

Politics, Position, and Power: The Dynamics of Federal Organization (Fifth Edition)
By Harold Seidman
(Oxford University Press 1998)

This text shows how structural reorganization and procedures may be used to achieve political purposes and to alter the balance of power among the President, Congress, judiciary, and interest groups. It covers the Clinton–Gore National Performance Review and the Gingrich revolution.

Divided Democracy: Cooperation and Conflict Between the President and Congress
Edited by James A. Thurber
(CQ Press 1991)

Although the constitutional system of checks and balances between the branches is one of the strengths of the U.S. government, it has been a source of friction between the legislature and the executive since the Founders crafted the Constitution. In Divided Democracy, 11 scholars examine the evolving relationship between these two institutions from various perspectives.

Campaigns and Elections American Style
Edited by James A. Thurber, Candice J. Nelson
(Westview Press 1998)

The way in which we elect public officials in this country has been revolutionized by the increasing role of polling, mass media, and professional political consultants. This book allows the new bosses of American politics, the consultants and the political scientists who analyze the system, to weigh the changes that have taken place. The result is a valuable and unique contribution to the discussion of our election campaigns.

Rivals for Power: Presidential–Congressional Relations
Edited by James A. Thurber
(CQ Press 1996)

This book of 12 original essays is designed to explain the political dynamic between the president and the U.S. Congress. It is an examination by scholars of the competition between the president and Congress using a variety of approaches and perspectives.

Watchdog generates not only the vertiginous excitement and tension of a topflight thriller but also the fascination of seeing how one of our most famous but least known government agencies (The Presidential Detail of the Secret Service) works, feels, and acts.

Research and the Manuscript Tradition
By Frank G. Burke
(The Scarecrow Press 1997)

Why is there both a Library of Congress Manuscript Division and a National Archives? Why are the Hemingway papers in a Presidential library, and why aren’t the Presidential libraries centralized instead of being scattered all over the country? Why don’t archives have library–style catalogs of their collections? Why aren’t the papers of former Congressmen in the Library of Congress? This book attempts to answer these questions with reasonable– sounding answers.

In the next 20 years everyone on earth will be able to place a phone call to anyone else anywhere. This Meganet is a patchwork of networks, big and small, local and global, primitive and high tech, that fit together because they share compatible technologies. Meganet is a report on the progress and setbacks in expanding Meganet resources to everyone on earth.

The Evolution of the Book
By Frederick G. Kilgour
(Oxford University Press 1998)

Frederick Kilgour tells a 5,000–year story in this exciting work, a tale beginning with the invention of writing and concluding with the emerging electronic book.

What Do We Say? What Do We Do? Vital Solutions for Children’s Educational Success
By Dorothy Rich
(Tom Doherty Associates Books 1997)

Dr. Dorothy Rich has developed a comprehensive framework of everyday strategies to help parents help their children build the social and emotional skills necessary for school success and beyond. She provides conversation guidelines and family activities to be used to create a cooperative problem– solving effort between parent and child.

The Mace and the Gavel: Symbols of Government in America
By Silvio A. Bedini
(American Philosophical Society 1997)

When the First Federal Congress convened, one of the most important priorities of the newly formed legislative branch of the government of the United States was formation of its organization. Next in order was the formulation of the rules of conduct. A symbol of the body’s authority was the next order of business. The House of Representatives adopted the mace. The Senate used a gavel, in the form of an ivory knocker, to bring the body in order. Both of these symbols of authority have continued in use to the present time.

Ever since Teddy Roosevelt introduced the concept of the “bully pulpit,” speechmaking has become an increasingly important tool of leadership. Biographer Carol Gelderman traces the rise and development of the “rhetorical presidency”—from Franklin Delano Roosevelt to Bill Clinton—and the impact each president’s approach to speechwriting has had on his ability to govern. A pattern emerges: successful presidents depend on speech writers to help clarify their policies; less successful presidents relegate these functions to mere image managers.

Star–Spangled Men: America’s Ten Worst Presidents
By Nathan Miller
(Scribner 1998)

Every American knows the merits of the nation’s best presidents, but in this authoritative yet amusing book, respected presidential biographer Nathan Miller shows us the leaders notable for their abject failures as chief executive. With pointed humor and a deft hand, Miller presents a rogues’ gallery of those men who were both incredibly fallible and occasionally farcical.

In a tour de force of original scholarship, Dr. Bedini resurrects the engaging tale of the Pope and his elephant, with references to contemporary literature, and to drawings, paintings, and other objects scattered now around the world.

Lodge of the Double–Headed Eagle: Two Centuries of Scottish Rite Freemasonry in America’s Southern Jurisdiction
By William L. Fox
(The University of Arkansas Press 1997)

Lodge of the Double–Headed Eagle is a critical review of the Scottish Rite’s distinctive place in middle–class American culture. Forming first in America in Charleston, South Carolina, in May 1801, the Supreme Council was composed of 11 founders, an almost evenly divided representation of Protestants, Catholics, and Jews—a stunning example of how the Rite would mirror American assimilation and tolerance. The institutional history presented here for the first time provides a most useful and, until now, unexplored perspective on the influence of the Scottish Rite in the development of American democratic, civic, and moral values.

The U.S. Navy: A History (Third Edition)
By Nathan Miller
(Naval Institute Press 1997)

As readable as fiction, as timely as today’s headlines, this authoritative, concise history of the U.S. Navy traces the development of American sea power from the raggle–taggle Continental Navy of 1775 to current efforts to deploy strategic and tactical naval innovations for the twenty–first century.

America’s Court: The Supreme Court and the People
By Barrett McGurn
(Fulcrum Publishing 1997)

During the 1950s and 1960s, periods marked by increased Court activism and intervention in American life, public interest in the Court and its Justices also grew, and it became evident to the Court’s Justices that the Court would have to begin interacting with the American public. In this lively and revealing book, McGurn describes the intricate and often erratic relationship among the Justices, the public, and the media, taking the reader behind the scenes of this secretive body and opening the Court to the people it serves.

From the Field: A Collection of Writings from the National Geographic
Edited by Charles McCarry
(National Geographic Society 1997)

From the Field presents a splendid cross–section of outstanding prose published in the National Geographic by gifted poets and novelists, renowned historians and scientists, explorers, inventors, aviation pioneers. It revisits the debate over whether Robert Peary (a former member of the Cosmos Club) reached the North Pole. Among the dozen or so Cosmos Club contributors are Alexander Graham Bell, Gilbert M. Grosvenor, and Archibald MacLeish.

From Blue Ridge to Barrier Islands: An Audubon Naturalist Reader
Edited by J. Kent Minichiello, Anthony W. White
(The Johns Hopkins University Press 1996)

From Blue Ridge to Barrier Islands is the first collection of nature writing devoted to the particular attractions of the central Atlantic region. These selections bring together all of the outdoor experiences that have bonded people to the land: exploration, science, travel, country life, conservation, hunting, fishing; stirring examples of our changing views of the natural world and the values we place upon it.

In bringing out the human qualities of Lyman Lemnitzer, telling us why he was held in such high and warm regard by those who knew him, Jim Binder also traces his role in the key U.S. military undertaking of his time—from combat service in World War II and Korea to his successful leadership of NATO’s forces in Europe during a time of severe challenges that could have overwhelmed a lesser man.

The Frost Family’s Adventure in Poetry: Sheer Morning Gladness at the Brim
By Lesley Lee Francis
(University of Missouri Press 1994)

In the Frost Family’s Adventure in Poetry, Lesley Lee Francis, granddaughter of Robert Frost, brings to life the Frost family’s idyllic early years. The result is a captivating portrait of a closely–knit family, struggling to overcome hardships. This is a beautifully written evocation of the “sheer morning gladness” of a fleeting chapter in the life of a literary family.

Appetite for Life: An Autobiography
By Samuel A. Goldblith
(Food and Nutrition Press 1996)

Reflections on World War II imprisonment after the Death March of Bataan and a peacetime career in Food Science and Technology at MIT.

Woodswoman III
By Anne LaBastille
(West of the Wind Publications, Inc. 1997)

In her third decade at the log cabin she built near wilderness, Anne and her dogs encounter a perilous tornado, new environmental controversies, joys of guiding, and the challenge of becoming an older woodswoman.

In Rogue Warrior, Marcinko recounts his searing adventures in the special branches of the military reserved for a handpicked few.

General Reinhard Gehlen: The CIA Connection
By Mary Ellen Reese
(George Mason University Press 1990)

Combining the best elements of the spy novel—suspense, intrigue, drama— with sound scholarship, this is the first authoritative account of the long secret postwar relationship between General Reinhard Gehlen, Hitler’s chief of eastern front intelligence, and American intelligence.

Shadow Warrior is the autobiography of Felix Rodriguez, one of the most extraordinary agents in the history of the CIA.

The Library of Congress: The Art and Architecture of the Thomas Jefferson Building
Edited by John Y. Cole, Henry Hope Reed
(W.W. Norton & Company 1997)

A magnificent guide to the newly restored Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress, with introductory essays on “The Architect’s Fourth Dimension” by Daniel J. Boorstin, and “The Thomas Jefferson Building” by Brendan Gill. The Jefferson Building is an optimistic expression of turn of the century American self–confidence— and a dazzling expression of the living connection between the classical past and the American future, helping to epitomize Jefferson’s faith in learning and his practical determination to make democracy work.

The Dome of the United States Capitol: An Architectural History
By William C. Allen
(U.S. Government Printing Office 1992)

In this delightfully written and beautifully illustrated book we have the story of the dome, the history of its inception, the fascinating details of its construction, a rare insight into the human struggle that it seemed to foster, and the tale of its triumphant finish.

The Hundred and One Treasures from the Collections of the William L. Clements Library: A Celebration of Seventy–Five Years 1923–1998
Edited by John C. Dann
(Clements Library, University of Michigan 1998)

This book is a joy to read even in small bites. It is a selective visual feast of the library’s collections, if only a fraction of them. Emulating Scheherezade in a highly abbreviated format, it presents these treasures in the form of 101 illustrated stories.

The Collected Short Plays of Thornton Wilder (Volume 1)
Edited by Donald Gallup, A. Tappan Wilder
(Theater Communications Group 1997)

On the occasion of the centennial of his birth, Thornton Wilder’s short plays are published for the first time in two volumes.

Songs of the Serbian People: From the Collection of Vuk Karadzic
Translated and edited by Milne Holton, Vasa D. Mihailovich
(University of Pittsburgh Press 1997)

Vuk Karadzic’s collection of nineteenth century South Slavic folklore is one of the great treasures of world literature. Vasa Mihailovich is a sensitive and nuanced poet in his own right, and, together with Milne Holton, they have brought tremendous skill to bear on the extraordinarily difficult task of translating epic poetry from one language to another while preserving the metric structure. At a time when news from the former Yugoslavia is so often tragic, it is well to remember that its territory gave rise to a great poetic tradition that has lasted into this century.

Warrior Artists: Historic Cheyenne and Kiowa Indian Ledger Art Drawn by Making Medicine and Zotom
By Herman J. Viola
(National Geographic Society 1998)

An artistic community unique in American history flourished in St. Augustine, Florida, between 1875 and 1878. Some 70 Plains Indians, imprisoned for their refusal to accept life on the reservations, produced an extraordinary body of work that chronicled their history, their lives, and their experience of exile from the freedom so central to their heritage. Called “ledger art” after the large lined books that in most cases were the first form of paper they used, these remarkable pencil and ink descriptions are vivid evocations of a poignant chapter in American history.

State of the World 1998
By Lester R. Brown, Christopher Flavin, Hilary French
(W.W. Norton & Company 1998)

State of the World 1998 describes the consequences of the collision between the expanding economy and the earth’s natural limits: shrinking forests, falling water tables, eroding soils, collapsing fisheries, rising temperatures, and disappearing species.

This Gifted Age: Science and Technology at the Millennium
By John H. Gibbons
(AIP Press 1997)

Through this remarkable collection of writings by an outstanding American, we can trace out our nation’s gradual awakening to the need for a responsible stewardship of the earth’s resources. With his unique combination of tenacity and humor, Jack Gibbons has used the analytical skills of a physicist to bring compassionate intelligence to the forefront of U.S. science and technology policy. His range of interest and expertise is astounding.

Vital Signs 1998: The Environmental Trends That Are Shaping Our Future
By Lester R. Brown, Michael Renner, Christopher Flavin
(W.W. Norton & Company 1998)

This book shows in graphic form the key trends that often escape the attention of the news media and world leaders— and are often ignored by economic experts as they plan for the future.

Winter Rules: A Commonplace Book
By George Gardner Herrick
(International Scholars Publications 1997)

Commonplace books begin as a need to remember what one has read or seen or heard. Herrick is the collector of the unusual; he is intrigued by the passing show and enjoys transmitting his discoveries to the reader but without vulgar fanfare.

HDR Affordable Seniors Housing Handbook
By Evelyn Howard, David S. Schless, Charles L. Edson
(West Group 1998)

The updated 1998 Edition is the first single–volume reference to address the opportunities for creating and developing seniors housing for the growing market of older Americans who live on limited incomes.

Apartment in Paris is a unique, entertaining guide to rental accommodations in Paris based on the author’s experiences visiting many interesting points in the city and nearby environs.

The Best American Mystery Stories 1997
Edited by Robert B. Parker
(Houghton Mifflin Company 1997)

For many years some of the most vital, creative, and exciting fiction published in America has been in the field of mystery, crime, and suspense. Now, in this inaugural edition of The Best American Mystery Stories, Robert Parker has assembled the very best mystery stories published in 1996.

‘BRIEFLY NOTED’