april05c.indd


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

Chasing the Dragon, by Roy Rowan (262 
pages, July 2004), is a first­hand account of 
the final years of China’s civil war and the 
victory of the Communists over the Nation­
alist army of Chiang Kai­shek. Rowan, who 
worked first as a UN transportation specialist 
delivering relief supplies to villages in the 
interior and then found a job as a war cor­
respondent for Life magazine, was uniquely 
positioned to report on the fall of Manchu­
ria, the capture of Beijing, and the last days 
of the colorful port of Shanghai. He also de­
scribes his return to China in 1973 to meet 
Zhou Enlai for the second time in 25 years. 
A rare and fascinating look at the last days 
of the Republic. $23.95. Lyons Press. ISBN 
1­59228­218­0. 

Cybercrime: A Reference Handbook, by 
Bernadette H. Schell and Clemens Martin 
(247 pages, October 2004), is a compact 
history of malicious attacks on computer 
systems from the 1960s to the present. An 
offering in ABC­Clio’s Contemporary World 
Issues series, this book describes the catego­
ries of “black hat” hacking, famous crimi­
nal cases, legislation, controversies about 
system vulnerabilities, software suppliers, 
Web resources, and a cybercrime timeline. 
$50.00. ABC­Clio. ISBN 1­85109­683­3. 

Dictionary of Literary Characters, edited by 
Una McGovern (818 pages, October 2004), 
is an update of the 1994 Larousse Diction­
ary of Literary Characters that describes 
more than 6,500 characters in English­lan­
guage novels, plays, poetry, and stories. 
Though the preponderance of authors are 
British and American, writers from Ireland, 
Australia, Canada, the Caribbean, Africa, and 
India are also represented. An index of au­
thors lists the titles and characters included. 
$35.00. Chambers. ISBN 0­550­10127­6. 

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

E­Journals, by Donnelyn Curtis (419 pages, 
December 2004), offers a state­of­the­art, 
practical explanation on how to build and 
maintain collections of electronic journals. 
Curtis includes chapters on licensing and 
user authentication, ordering and receiving, 
fostering e­journal use, and gathering usage 
data. Of particular interest is a section on 
various ways to provide access—through Web 
pages, online catalogs, and online course­de­
livery systems. $75.00. Neal­Schuman. ISBN 
1­55570­465­4. 

Encyclopedia of the Library of Congress: 
For Congress, the Nation and the World, 
edited by John Y. Cole and Jane Aikin (569 
pages, December 2004), offers a compre­
hensive history 
and description 
of the collec­
tions, services, 
and activities 
of America’s li­
brary. Part one 
begins with a 
brief history of 
the Library of 
Congress’s (LC) 
d e v e l o p m e n t  
written by Cole 
and Aikin, followed by 13 essays empha­
sizing the library’s major functions, such as 
the Congressional Research Service, the Law 
Library, the Copyright Offi ce, cooperative 
cataloging and other services to the Ameri­
can library community, and its relationships 
with the Smithsonian and the National Ar­
chives. Part two includes 79 shorter articles 
on other LC functions (the Music Division, 
the Kluge Center, the Center for the Book, 
poets laureate), the Librarians of Congress, 
the three buildings (Adams, Jefferson, and 
Madison), and selected collections (Geog­
raphy and Map, Hispanic, Asian, and Rare 
Books). Appendices offer data on LC ap­
propriations and collection growth, and a 

322C&RL News April 2005

mailto:geberhart@ala.org


list of senior library officials from 1802 to 
2004. This fact­filled, generously illustrated, 
eminently browsable reference is a fi tting 
tribute to LC’s first two centuries. $125.00. 
Bernan Press. ISBN 0­89059­971­8. 

Germans of Louisiana, by Ellen C. Merrill 
(380 pages, November 2004), documents 
the several waves of German immigration to 
the New Orleans area from the 18th century 
through World War I. Merrill points out the 
German place names in the area and identi­
fies the meeting halls, churches, breweries, 
businesses, residences, schools, clubs, ho­
tels, and theaters associated with the German 
population. The final chapter presents short 
biographies of prominent German­Ameri­
cans. $25.00. Pelican. ISBN 1­58980­244­6. 

Nixon at the Movies: A Book about Belief, by 
Mark Feeney (422 pages, November 2004), 
explores the complex persona of the 37th 
President from a fresh perspective—Nixon’s 
own fascination with film that compelled 
him to watch more than 500 movies while 
he was in office from 1969 to 1974 (all of 
them listed in an appendix). His obsession 
with the movie Patton before and during the 
U.S. bombing of Cambodia is well known, 
but Feeney turns up some additional insights 
into the man’s character by identifying the 
films that influenced him the most. (Michael 
Todd’s Around the World in 80 Days was ap­
parently his all­time favorite, but John Ford 
was his favorite director.) Even Nixon’s bi­
zarre predawn visit to the Lincoln Memorial 
in May 1970 “was straight out of Frank Cap­
ra’s Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” Feeney 
notes as he points out the parallels between 
Nixon’s life and a handful of notable fi lms— 
among them Double Indemnity, Advise and 
Consent and Two Rode Together. $27.50. Uni­
versity of Chicago. ISBN 0­226­23968­3. 

The Pursuit of Learning in the Islamic 
World, 610–2003, by Hunt Janin (229 pag­
es, December 2004), surveys the cultural 
achievements of noteworthy Islamic person­
alities from the Prophet Muhammed to the 

fundamentalist fugitive Osama bin Ladin. In 
between are 90 other scholars and activists 
lesser known in the West, including the “Sec­
ond Master” Abu Nasr al­Farabi (878–950), 
the physician Ibn Sina (also known as Avi­
cenna, 980–1037), Suleyman the Magnifi cent 
(1495–1566), and Turkish President Mustafa 
Kemal Ataturk (1881–1938). A useful primer 
on Islamic culture. $45.00. McFarland. ISBN 
0­7864­1954­7. 

Tuned Out: Why Americans under 40 Don’t 
Follow the News, by David T. Z. Mindich (172 
pages, August 2004), documents through in­
terviews and statistics the oft­noted trend that 
young people these days are far less likely to 
know or care about current events. Mindich 
examines the reasons for this and offers some 
suggestions for improvement, including mak­
ing civic knowledge a college requirement, 
and teaching and demanding more accessi­
ble and engaging journalism. $20.00. Oxford 
University. ISBN 0­19­516140­8. 

Twisted Rails, Sunken Ships: The Rheto­
ric of Nineteenth Century Steamboat and 
Railroad Accident Investigation Reports, 
1833–1879, by R. John Brockmann (273 pag­
es, December 2004), compares the reports of 
seven accidents to show how investigations 
were conducted before the creation of the 
Interstate Commerce 
Commission in 1887. 
As transportation 
technology became 
more complex and 
legal concepts of 
liability and negli­
gence evolved, the 
different types of ac­
cident investigations 
by coronor’s juries, 
company investiga­
tors, scientific forensic experts, and newspa­
per reporters shed light on the confl icts of 
interest that accompanied the Industrial Rev­
olution. Brockmann’s textual analysis of the 
various reports is insightful. $58.95. Baywood. 
ISBN 0­89503­291­0. 

April 2005  323 C&RL News