Greenwood Press

Library Bookwatch, Feb, 2005

Greenwood Press

88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881

Greenwood's list of history titles provides many strong selections for advanced high school to college level grades, creating references which will prove lasting and applicable to reports and curriculum studies. The documentary survey Politics And Population Control: A Documentary History (0313322791, $95.00) by Kathleen A. Tobin will prove pricey for non-specialty collection, but college-level collections will find this provides the ONLY comprehensive source of primary documents relating to world popular issues, covering the mid-18th century to modern times in an expansive collection unparalleled elsewhere. Edward Mihalkanin's American Statesmen: Secretaries Of State From John Jay To Colin Powell (0313308284) is a standard reference any serious political science collection should have: secretaries of state from John Jay to Colin Powell are presented in a collection of essays analyzing their foreign policy ideas, the changes they made while in office, and how major foreign policy issues were handled. Add biographical backgrounds and you have a fine comprehensive survey. Katherine Gischer Drews' Magna Carta (0313325901, $45.00) will appeal to any high school collection of medieval studies: the in-depth focus on a key document which codified royal power and individual liberties provides students the opportunity to understand how the original agreement gained popularity in the legal and political circles of early England. George Lane's Genghis Khan And Mongol Rule (031-3325286, $45.00) examines the war legacy of the Mongols to history--and their contributions to international trade and cultural exchange--a less stated facet of their history. The transition of Mongol policy from one of warfare to governance receives in-depth attention from historian George Lane. Paul Reed's Puebloan Society Of Chaco Canyon (0313327203) adds to Greenwood's Medieval series and will appeal to college-level collections including archaeological coverages: Chacoan society lasted for over two hundred years and the archaeological records offer some secrets which have helped scholars reconstruct this society's history. 20 annotated excerpted primary and secondary documents guide readers through the Canyon materials. Fiona Swabey's Eleanor Of Aquitaine, Courtly Love, And The Troubadours (0313325235, $45.00) tells of the 12th century troubadours who wrote new romances in vernacular language to express and present the image of the feminine. Women's imbalance in society up to their time and the resulting intellectual inquiry and discovery which came from these troubadour efforts makes for a specialty item recommended for college-level Medieval studies collections. From high school through college, Helen Nicholson's The Crusades (0313326851) will prove an outstanding survey, using a narrative history approach and thematic chapters to provide an overview of the Crusades, from the politics and religious influences of their battles to their motivations. A timeline and maps provide excellent overviews and make it easy for all to understand. Joseph Byrne's The Black Death (0313324-921, $45.00) is not only recommended for the same grade level for Medieval studies, but for any comprehensive health history collection. The Black Death killed between a quarter to a half of any stricken region's population: chapters organized by themes consider the medical perspective of the plague and its impact on society and culture of its times.