Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2019 -

American Revolution is a five-volume set with over 1,300 entries from more than 120 scholars and historians covering military, political, and social aspects of the American War for Independence. Entries cover the decades leading up to and including the Revolution as well as the years following its conclusion. Each includes cross-references from within the encyclopedia and to a number of external resources. Each volume boasts a great number of black-and-white illustrations, maps, and tables. Volume I features "Causes of the Revolution" and "Overview of the Revolution" as general background material before the alphabetical entries begin (I: A-C, II: D-K, III: L-R, IV: S-Z). Volume IV also includes sections on military honors and ranks as well as a detailed chronology, a glossary of military and naval terms, and a thorough bibliography. The final volume features 153 primary source documents presented in chronological order, beginning with Cato's Letters from 1721 and concluding with the Alien and Sedition Acts, passed in 1798. Primary source material is always sought after by the student as well as the seasoned historian, and this volume provides a wealth of it in clean, clear text. What might set this encyclopedia apart from those that have come before it is that a number of entries look at the American Revolution as a world war rather than just one between Great Britain and its American colonies. Hence there are entries on France, Ireland, the Dutch Republic, and Spain as well as a number of other countries; there is detailed coverage of Native American tribes' involvement in the war and its effect on their nations. These perspectives can add a great deal to the conversation when looking at the impact of this war on the world.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All academic levels.

Astrology through History: Interpreting the Stars from Ancient Mesopotamia to the Present is a welcome addition to the burgeoning academic literature on astrology. The introduction presents a summary history of astrology that encompasses the scope of human practice. The bulk of the text is given to individual entries, arranged alphabetically, but a number of additional tools enhance the encyclopedia's utility. These include separate topical and alphabetical lists of entries, a time line, a curated bibliography, and a glossary. Each entry consists of a detailed article of varying length, a brief bibliography of further resources, and--when relevant--a list of related articles under a "see also" heading. Authoritative in scope, this work covers the undeniable historical engagement of astrology, in entries ranging from Ancient Greece to New Age, Theosophy to Judaism, Yeats to Chaucer, and Nazism to Feminist Astrology. It outlines elements of astrology such as Zodiacs, House Systems, and Horoscopes, but it remains focused on astrology's undeniable historical impacts. Entries focus on the West but also include global traditions such as Indian, Chinese, and Mesopotamian astrology, and include astrology's use for predictive, elective, psychological, and spiritual analysis. This encyclopedia cannot begin to include all relevant topics, and the selections appear judicious. Nicely produced, it features occasional black-and-white portraits and textual inserts.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.

Over a century before The Federalist Papers, legal and political writers were producing hundreds of pamphlets and broadsides dealing with questions of liberty, the rule of law, and the nature of royal authority in Colonial British America. Greene (Johns Hopkins) and Yirush (UCLA) present three volumes that uncover the longevity and rich tradition of political writing that existed long before the Revolutionary generation. In this edition, which includes 75 of the 172 pamphlets from 1688 to 1774, the editors analyze the significance of this largely overlooked body of literature and the shortcomings of previous scholarship. The introductory essay carefully places this work in context, describing the impact of the expansion of printing on production of this literature, quantifying its output, and relating the themes to political events. Shorter essays precede each pamphlet, noting whether it was written in response to other publications, summarizing the specific course of events, and emphasizing thematic elements. This set is essential to undergraduate and graduate students, particularly for those seeking deeper historical understanding of Revolutionary-era writings.Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty.

This superlative resource is a good example of how a social science reference monograph should be organized. One of the first volumes in Praeger's "Health and Psychology Sourcebooks" series, this reference work covers the gamut of personality disorders, from antisocial to schizotypal. Each personality disorder has a chapter to itself, and the prose reads like a Mayo Clinic Diseases and Conditions article (the Mayo Clinic is most famous for its award-winning medical and health information website and health letters). Each individual chapter covers symptoms, diagnosis, and incidence; history and timeline of the disorder's diagnosis; development and causes; social effects and economic costs; scientific and psychological theory and research; and finally treatment. Each chapter also contains case studies of individuals with the disorder and concludes with a comprehensive bibliography of relevant articles and monographs for future research. Particularly useful is the way in which each disorder is traced back to its DSM-V classification, helping the reader to better understand how disorders fit in with psychological diagnosis. This reference resource is a highly useful addition to any academic library, particularly those libraries at institutions with programs in psychology, psychiatry, and social work.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All academic levels.

An extensive work of four volumes, this encyclopedia covers a diverse range of subjects from the theoretical to the practical scientific aspects of archaeology. With over 450 well-referenced entries by an international list of contributors, this set is a one-of-a-kind collection. It concentrates on specific topics rather than on specific geographic locations of archaeology as some previous encyclopedias concerning archaeology have. The encyclopedia's topics range widely, seeming at times chaotic, but ultimately the entries are all tied back to archaeology. For example, there are three pages on the concept of creativity and how it relates to archaeology. But then right alongside it comes a precise entry on cosmogenic dating. The contributors relate each topic back to the archaeological sciences even when a connection seems unlikely, such as with llamas and alpacas. The entries throughout the encyclopedia are linked via see and see also references. Finally, each entry is strengthened by a list of references for further research.This encyclopedia would be appropriate for undergraduates studying archaeology as well as graduates and faculty. Due to its specialized nature, it is best suited to institutions with archaeology as a field of study.Summing Up: Highly recommended for academic collections supporting archaeology programs and professionals.

Some reference works are so definitive that nearly every research and teaching collection will want them. This is one of them. Eschewing the usual four-field conception of anthropology typically used in the US, Callan (Royal Anthropological Institute, UK), in consultation with advisers, selected about 30 areas or groupings of entries. These cover such broad areas as anthropology beyond text, indigenous peoples and topics, museums and anthropology, ritual, and visual anthropology. The contributors are truly international if slightly leaning to Europe and the US. Organizationally, the work begins with a thematic list of entries corresponding to the broad topics suggested by the editor and her advisers. This list is useful for seeing what is covered and what is not. When looking at this list, one almost wishes for more entries, especially under the sections for biographies and the country entries. The entries themselves vary in length from several pages to a few paragraphs, depending on whether or not they are overviews on broad topics or brief definitions. They all have reference lists. Most have see also references. Though there are several encyclopedias in anthropology and its various branches, none is as comprehensive as this one, making it a necessary purchase for most libraries.Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty.