Praeger.

Library Bookwatch, June, 2005

Praeger

88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881

These outstanding new titles will appeal to very specific high school and college collection goals, providing unusual histories and lively subjects for debate. Chester G. Hearn's Circuits In The Sea: The Men, The Ships, And The Atlantic Cable (02-75982319, $39.95) relates the technological and cooperative efforts of two nations that joined forces to create the first transatlantic communication cable. From the efforts of wealthy new Yorkers who formed the first Atlantic cable-laying company to the participation of England's best, chapters detail failures, enmity, cooperation and 11 years of hard effort. Chester Hearn is a retired industry vice president: Circuits In The Sea is a unique history joining many other of his titles. Lawson Boling's Shapers Of The Great Debate On The Great Society (A Biographical Dictionary) (0313314349, $75.00) provides an A-Z bibliographic reference to survey the history of President Lyndon Johnson's vision of the Great Society, a master plan to use the national government's powers to create a better society. Debates about the concept dealt with all aspects of society from federal aid and health care to the increasing powers of the federal government. In present chapters based on individual biography, history and personal achievement join to provide a fine survey of key players, from Strom Thurmond and Martin Luther King Jr. to William Buckley Jr. Deborah A. Fraioli's Joan Of Arc And The Hundred Years War (0313324-581, $45.00) joins others in Greenwood's 'Guides to Historic Events of the Medieval World' series, this using a narrowed focus on Joan of Arc to provide essays covering the extent of the complex war surrounding her. Chapter survey contrasting views of the war, from Joan's to others' viewpoints, provide nineteen biographical sketches of key French and English figures, and uses source materials to survey the major social, political and religious issues of her times.