McFarland & Co.

Animators of film and television; nineteen artists, writers, producers and others.

Evans, a playwright and animation historian, profiles 18 film and television animators, focusing on the artist at a specific time and how he or she changed the medium, took a specific path, and affected popular culture. Animators profiled are idealists Art Babbitt and John Hubley; mavericks John Kricfalusi and Terry Gilliam; technicians Max and Dave Fleischer; influential animators Frank Tashlin, Matt Groening, Ray Harrhausen, and Ed Benedict; trailblazers Lotte Reiniger and Lillian Friedman; storytellers Henry Selick, Joe Grant, Bill Scott, and Michael Maltese; and teachers George Newall, Tom Yohe, and the First Motion Picture Unit. Lists of career awards and a selective filmography are included for each. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Entertainment in the Old West; theater, music, circuses, medicine shows, prizefighting and other popular amusements.

Popular theater in the Old West (from 1850 to the early 20th century) entertained miners, loggers, railroad men, and high society, in venues from tents to opera houses. Illustrated with many b&w historical photos from state and city archives, plus photos of present-day locations from the author's own collection, this book describes types of entertainment such as theater, music, circuses, and medicine shows promising 'Indian cures,' as well as preachers and temperance workers, American Indian fandangos, and military bands. One chapter is devoted to women as actresses. The book includes a chronology from 1841 to 1917. Agnew, a consultant in biomedical electronics, has written other books on the Old West. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Frank K. Hain and the Manhattan Railway Company; the elevated railway, 1875-1903.

Hain, a retired CIA Clandestine Services staff officer, provides a history of the Manhattan Railway Company, which was the ultimate in public transportation in 19th century New York City, and the involvement of the man who was its vice president and general manager for 16 years, Frank K. Hain. During his tenure, he dealt with union organizers, horrible accidents, and a persistent media campaign to convert the system to electric power and develop a subway system. Numerous photographs and illustrations are included. Frank Hain was the author's great-grandfather's brother. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

The French and Indian War; a complete chronology.

Hannings, a reference book writer who is associated with a company specializing in military history, presents a chronology of the French and Indian War in North America from 1748 to 1766. He focuses on military actions and campaigns on specific dates, rather than the politics, and the hardships and experience of warfare, the duties of the individual troops on land and sea, and the tactics of the Indians. He also overviews the battles between the French and British in the West Indies, Europe, India, and Africa, as well as the conflict known as Pontiac's War. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

The generation starship in science fiction; a critical history, 1934-2001.

Caroti (Brevard Community College, Cocoa, Florida) explores the history of the "generation starship" concept and its development in both science fiction and the scientific community. He surveys scientific thought from the turn of the twentieth century, the first literary conception of generational space travel in the 1930s, and the multitude of modern science fiction literature on the subject to follow. Caroti also examines the technological, cultural, political, and historical influences on generational space travel concepts. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Kate O'Brien and the fiction of identity; sex, art and politics in Mary Lavelle and other writings.

Queer Irish author Kate O'Brien's 1936 novel Mary Lavelle was banned at the time of its first publication. Author Mentxaka, who holds a PhD from the School of English, Drama, and Film from University College Dublin, examines the body of O'Brien's work in light of this novel. The author has chosen to concentrate on Mary Lavelle for three reasons: it was a new direction for O'Brien, it is a good example of O'Brien's interest in redrafting and mixing a variety of genres and forms, and it is still one of O'Brien's most popular books. After an overview of O'Brien's shifting position in the literary canon, the book considers a number of possible contexualizations of Mary Lavelle, from Kate O'Brien's own work and some 19th-century sub-genres and movements, to activist fiction and modernism. The author then explores the relevance of history, biography, and autobiography to Mary Lavelle, bringing in all major and minor works by O'Brien, and concludes with some reflections on O'Brien's representations of subjectivity. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Literature of the global age; a critical study of transcultural narratives.

Just as the notion of sacred encompasses all religions, says Ascari (English literature, U. of Bologna, Italy) a notion of planetary literature can provide a setting for all national literature and literature that crosses specific borders. He demonstrates how it works by looking at such works as Julian Barnes' 1984 Flaubert's Parrot, Abraham B. Yehoshua's 1990 Mr. Mani, Haruki Murakami's 2002 Kafka on the Shore, and Aaar Nafisi's 2003 Reading Lolita in Tehran. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

The making of Stan Laurel; echoes of a British boyhood.

Stan (Jefferson) Laurel (1890-1965) was best known as the innocent half of the celebrated Laurel and Hardy comic team in Hollywood films. Lawrence (U. of Nottingham), a retired British sociologist, traces his influences from a childhood born into a theatrical family in North Shields, England, to his return tours of UK variety theaters. The biography includes photographs, Laurel's letters, a map and appended list of the UK theaters he played from 1947-1954. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Mission to mach 2; a fighter pilot's memoir of supersonic flight.

In this autobiographical piece, Haney, who served as colonel in the United States Air Force from 1952 to 1982, offers a detailed recollection of his most memorable experiences. These include the time he bravely faced an in-field court martial after refusing to let an unsafe plane fly to his ejection from an aircraft that was about to explode. The text includes scattered photographs of both supersonic jets and the author's personal life. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Modernist painting and materiality.

Staff (U. of Northampton, UK) explores the role of materiality in Cubism and Abstract Expressionism. He examines the extent of Clement Greenburg's model of painting within the postwar avant-garde, explores the role of 'gesture' in discourses of Abstract Expressionism, and discusses the extent to which specific facets of Michael Faried's criticism encompass considerations of abstraction's material register. The book's final chapter considers how certain painters attempted to authenticate what they did by invoking the law of identity. In this chapter, the author investigates to what extent these painters remained loyal to the formalist account of modernism as a means of seeking to extend the modernist credo of materiality. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Perry Como; a biography and complete career record.

In his career of 61 years, Perry Como sold over 100 million records; between 1936 and 1987, he recorded over 700 songs. This biography focuses on his career and does not probe his private life and family, although it does cover his early years. The book's 73 b&w photos include film stills, promotional photos, and a few behind-the-scenes shots, plus album covers and record labels. The book also contains a complete discography, a complete listing all TV appearances, and a year-by-year chronology of his life from 1912-2001. Macfarlane and Crossland have written previous books about Bing Crosby. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Projecting America, 1958; film and cultural diplomacy at the Brussels World's Fair.

By the late 1950s, America's foreign diplomacy depended on the power of film as one means to combat Soviet propaganda and as a way to foster neutral countries' suppoprt for the US's foreign policy objectives. The Brussels World's Fair in 1958 served as another stage on which to enact the struggle between communism and democracy. Author Nilsen (film and television studies, U. of Vermont) explores the efficacy of film as an element of political persuasion in the American pavilion at the fair. She argues that the efforts of the US government to present an American image to a European audience had paradoxical effects, both undermining the intended nationalistic efforts and also presenting a viable image of American democracy as a vital cultural and economic force. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Science fiction and computing; essays on interlinked domains.

Ferro (computer science, Weber State University) and Swedin (information systems and technologies, Weber State U.) gather 18 invited, original essays on the symbiotic relationship between science fiction and real-life developments in computing, robotics, and artificial intelligence over the past 50 years. Contributors are scholars and academics in computer science, digital media, sociology of technology, history of science; a few science fiction writers and editors add their voices. Contributors write from various perspectives such as anthropology, sociology, science and technology studies, political science, and cultural studies. After an introduction reviewing science fiction as a literary genre, discussion touches on areas such as the interplay of Star Trek and modern computing, the 'electronic brain' and cybernetic imagination in Brazilian cinema, science fiction and cyberculture, nanocritters and other tiny things in science fiction, and the production history of The Lawnmower Man. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

A socioeconomic history of North Korea.

This work is written to be accessible to readers with no background in statistics or economics, including students, policy makers, journalists, and relief workers. After presenting background on the reliability of the data and on the historical roots of North Korea, the book provides separate sections on social, anthropometric, and economic perspectives. Coverage encompasses 1948 to the present. The section on social perspectives looks at social status, family, gender, food, public health, education, media and mobility, and national security. Later chapters cover anthropometric and economic perspectives. This investigation of socioeconomic issues in North Korea draws on UN data as well as qualitative data and secondary literature ranging from books and newspaper articles to North Korean defectors' testimonies. Some of the data were released by South Korean authorities, UN agencies, and the German Federal Statistical Office; there is also data from 10,000 North Korean individuals surveyed inside North Korea by international organizations, as well as 7,000 North Korean escapees interviewed in South Korea. The book also relies on information released by the North Korean government and the government-controlled Korean News Agency. B&w maps and charts are included. Schwekendiek holds a doctorate in economics from the University of Tuebingen, Germany. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Tennessee in the Civil War; selected contemporary accounts of military and other events, month by month.

Compiled by Jones (public historian, Tennessee Historical Commission) this collection goes beyond the traditional focus on military events. He draws on primary documents, from newspaper accounts to diary entries, to provide a variety of pieces arranged chronologically from April 1861 to April 1865. A glance through the book provides, for instance, extracts of civil war fiction, reports on confederate conscription agents disrobing southern women, and colorful pleas for readers to go see the wonderful violinist Mademoiselle Urso. Includes a citation after each entry. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

United States Merchant Marine casualties of World War II, rev.ed.

During WWII, many US Merchant Marine ships were attacked. Browning, chief historian for the US Coast Guard, provides year-by-year entries on these attacks from 1940 to 1946, illustrated with b&w historical photos of ships and crews on most pages. The ships included in the book are American-flagged merchant ships, including those of the Philippines. Entries give information on time of attack and position, owner and operator, details on the ship itself, and details on the attacks and the fates of the crews. The author draws on a number of sources: the US Navy's Survivors Statements, the US Coast Guard's War Action Casualty Reports, the Coast Guard's War Casualty Shipping Records, Cadet Voyage Reports of the US Merchant Marine Academy, and war journals of various U-boats. This revised edition draws on new scholarship on German U-boat and Japanese I-boat records. An appendix lists a number of attacks on Merchant Marine vessels that have not been thoroughly documented by any government agency. The book includes a bibliography of manuscript sources, published sources, newspapers, and websites, plus a glossary. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Walter M. Miller, Jr.; a reference guide to his fiction and his life.

Walter M. Miller, Jr., was a science fiction writer of the 20th century. His A Canticle for Leibowitz remains a popular work and a standard text in many high school and college courses, especially those dealing with 20th century science fiction, apocalyptical literature, or religious themed science fiction. This reference for students and general readers contains 1,500 alphabetical entries on Miller's life and writing. The entries offer summaries of his novels and shorter works, character descriptions, explanations of religious, literary, and other allusions, and translations of foreign words and phrases, plus biographical information on Miller. The entries are largely information, but critical judgments are occasionally implied or explicit. The book includes a chronology. Roberson is professor and head librarian at the Brentwood Campus of Long Island University. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

William Gibson; a literary companion.

Science fiction aficionados and scholars familiar with Gibson's works will find this literary guide insightful. Structured alphabetically with themes, words and key phrases, readers can peruse the book easily for quick reference, or read through the phrases and find the literature attached to it. An introduction and chronology of Gibson's life precedes the literary companion. Henthorne (English and women's and gender studies, Pace U.) who claims Gibson is a visionary writer of not only the human condition, but of the "very nature of existence," additionally provides a glossary of words, characters and people associated with Gibson's writings. An easy reference timeline in appendix A, as well as further writings and research projects in appendix B are included. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)