Featured New Titles
May 1999

 


Stevens, Anthony. Ariadne's Clue: a Guide to the Symbols of Humankind. [ Olin, BF 458 S74x 1999]
Conrad, Peter. Modern Times, Modern Places. [Olin, CB 425 .C583x 1999]
Richards, Edward Graham. Mapping Time: The Calendar and Its History. [Olin, CE 11 .R5x 1998]
Aleksandrowicz, Alina. Izabela Czartoryska: Polskosc i europejskosc. [DK 4348 .C95 A79x]
Steinepigramme aus dem griechischen Osten, herausgegeben von Reinhold Merkelbach und Josef Stauber. [Olin +CN 350.S74x 1998]
Anzulovic, Branimir. Heavenly Serbia: From Myth to Genocide. [Olin, Uris DR 1965 .A59x 1999]
Estadísticas históricas de Colombia. 2 v. Colombia: Departamento Nacional de Planeación, 1988. [Olin, +HA 1013 E78x 1988]
Tovar Pinzón, Hermes, et.al., Convocatoria al poder del número, censos y estadísticas de la Nueva Granada, 1750-1830. [Olin, +HB 2657 T683x 1994]
Brenner, Joel Glenn. The Emperors of Chocolate : Inside the Secret World of Hershey and Mars.[ Olin: HD 9200 U54 H473x 1999]
Moretti, Franco. An Atlas of the European Novel. [Olin PN 3383.S67 M67x 1998]
Donoghue, Denis. The Practice of Reading. [Olin PR 21.D66x 1998 14-DAY]
Minois, Georges. History of Suicide: Voluntary Death in Western Culture. [Olin RC 569 M55x 1999]
Confidential U.S State Department Central Files: Palestine-Israel internal affairs and foreign affairs, 1960-January 1963. [Olin, micr., Film 7076]


Stevens, Anthony. Ariadne's Clue: a Guide to the Symbols of Humankind. Princeton, N.J. Princeton University Press, 1999.
Location: BF 458 S74x 1999

Stevens traces a host of common symbols back through time to reveal their psychodynamic functioning and looks at their deep-rooted effects on the lives of modern men, women, and children. The book is divided into two parts: an interpretive section that concerns symbols in general; and a "dictionary" that lists hundreds of symbols and explains their origins, their resemblance to other symbols, and the belief systems behind them. Many of the symbols are illustrated by woodcuts.
Martha Hsu (mrh2@cornell.edu)

Conrad, Peter. Modern Times, Modern Places. New York: Knopf, 1999.
Location: Olin, CB 425 .C583x 1999

As the twentieth century, and the second millennium, draw to a close it is only natural that we look back and reflect upon the last hundred years. Modern Times, Modern Places does this in a way that "inspire(s) admiration and wonder." Not content to simply elucidate the dizzying pace of change in such disparate fields as literature, the visual arts, music and the performing arts, science, and psychoanalysis, Conrad gives us a coherent vision of the era as a whole, providing a perspective that will allow us to better prepare for the new millennium. One critic declared Modern Times, Modern Places, "An extraordinary performance. . .The erudition is awesome.
(Conrad) seems to have read, seen and understood everything. . .A breathtakingly brilliant feat."
(G. David Brumberg, gdb1@cornell.edu)

Richards, Edward Graham. Mapping Time: The Calendar and Its History. Oxford; New York: OxfordUniversity Press, 1998. Location: Olin, CE 11 .R5x 1998

Did you know: The Chinese year of the dragon starts in the spring of 2000 AD. The Islamic year contains only 354 days; 355 in a leap year. The Baha'i calendar has 19 months, each of 19 days. The mean length of the year is currently decreasing at a rate of about half a second per century. Mapping Time: The Calendar and Its History will inform you about these, and many more, issues concerning how we keep track of time. It is an account of the history and underlying basis of the most important calendars from antiquity to the present. Both a history and a handbook, this lucid and highly readable book will absorb and entertain. As the millennium gets closer, it is the ideal guide to understanding the fascinating background to the approaching celebrations.
(G. David Brumberg, gdb1@cornell.edu)

Aleksandrowicz, Alina. Izabela Czartoryska: Polskosc i europejskosc. Lublin: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Marii Curie-Sklodowskiej, 1998.
Location: DK 4348 .C95 A79x

This new biography of Izabela Czartoryska (1746-1834), an 18th-century Polish countess, describes her highly unusual and remarkable life by examining carefully her own literary works and correspondence and the reminiscences of her contemporaries.
Her younger years were occupied with the characteristic 'vie romanesque', travelling widely throughout Europe, constantly staying at the courts of the grand European aristocrats and monarchs. However, once Poland lost its independence through the partitions (at the end of the 18th century), she returned to her native country and energetically undertook the work of upholding Polish national cultural values, through, among other things, philanthropic activities and the spread and support of education among the common people.
Her travel memoirs show keen observation and a sensitivity to the political realities of her time. She tirelessly collected national historic treasures ranging from fine porcelaine to historic Polish armaments and armour (and including tents of Turkish aristocrats taken as spoils of war by King Jan Sobreski at his victory over the Turks at Vienna), as well as artifacts and paintings (such as da Vinci's masterpiece "Lady with Ermine").
Izabela Czartoryska's contributions to the preservation of Polish cultural and historical life exist to this day, in the Czartoryski Library and the Czartoryski Museum in Krakow. And the heritage which she took great pains to save is as rich, unique, and varied as her life itself was.
Wanda Wawro (wtw3@cornell.edu)

Steinepigramme aus dem griechischen Osten, herausgegeben von Reinhold Merkelbach und Josef Stauber. Band 1: Westkuste Kleinasiens von Knidos bis Ilion. stuttgart & Leipzig : B.G. Teubner, 1998-
Location: Olin +CN 350.S74x 1998

The first volume of a projected three volumes set that will contain a comprehensive collection of Greek epigrammatic inscriptions discovered to date throughout the Hellenistic East, that is, Asia Minor, Syria and Palestine. Covering inscriptions of all periods of Classical antiquity, to the end of the Roman Empire (ca. 500 A.D), it provides for each inscription a full transcription, German translation, notes and commentary. Stone carved inscriptions have always been an important primary source for the study of Graeco Roman civilization and culture. Many collections have been published, but none since 1878 that focus specifically on epigrammatic inscriptions from the eastern Mediterranean area. When complete, this collection is sure to become a landmark work indispensible to scholarly research in all aspects of Classical civilization.
Yoram Szekely (ybs1@cornell.edu)

 

Anzulovic, Branimir. Heavenly Serbia: From Myth to Genocide. New York: NYU Press, 1999. Location: Olin, Uris DR 1965 .A59x 1999

This timely book examines one of the most difficult questions on everyone's mind today: "How is it possible for a European nation to cause so great a slaughter of human life at the end of the 20th century, supposedly in the name of an event that occurred at the end of the 14th century?"
Anzulovic analyzes with sensitivity and great insight the foundations of the Serbian ultra-nationalism which has resulted in such a bloody and tragic decade of war for most of the former Yugoslav nations. "Heavenly Serbia" traces the Serbian quest for the 'Greater Serbia' to the national mythology that was created soon after the Serbian defeat at the battle of Kosovo in 1389. This myth in essence created the concept of Serbian moral victory and superiority despite the actual military defeat by the Turks. Serbian moral victory was a promise of 'Heavenly Serbia' as a reward for the suffering under foreign domination. This myth has been kept alive in the Serbian national consciousness, finding expression in much folk music and oral poetry. It has also been perpetuated by political and religious leaders, artists, and writers.
Anzulovic graphically demonstrates that this grand defeat in 1389 was in fact not glorious at all but rather full of deceit, treachery, and even collaboration with the enemy. The great moral superiority of 'Heavenly Serbia' was neither moral nor heavenly, and the Serbians, portrayed as the victims, were more often the victimizers, using the myth of 'Heavenly Serbia' as a manipulation and excuse for unspeakable violence, cruelty, murder, and genocide in the 1990s.
Wanda Wawro (wtw3@cornell.edu)

Estadísticas Históricas de Colombia. 2 v. Colombia: Departamento Nacional de Planeación, 1988. Location: Olin, +HA 1013 E78x 1988

Once upon a time, the compilation of Latin American historical statistics was an offshore enterprise. Markos Mamalakis' Historical Statistics of Chile (1978) began a publication boomlet that was to include Cuba and Brazil (along with Mali, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Thailand, in the GK Hall series Handbooks of Historical Statistics. In 1985 the Mexican Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Geografía y Informática published a two-volume Estadísticas históricas de México, and, in the 1990s, most other Latin American countries followed suit.
These two recent publications from Colombia place that country among the leaders in preparing historical statistics for scholarly use. Estadísticas históricas de Colombia , published by the national planning board aggregates economic data from the 20th century. Using today's macro economic categories-- price data, national accounts, monetary statistics-- these volumes give the reader a reconstruction of basic economic indicators for the period 1925 to 1997.
David Block (db10@cornell.edu)

Tovar Pinzón, Hermes, et.al., Convocatoria al poder del número, censos y estadísticas de la Nueva Granada, 1750-1830. (Serie Historia, 1) Bogotá: Archivo General de la Nación, 1994. Location: Olin, +HB 2657 T683x 1994

Convocatoria al poder del número, compiled, edited and contextualized by the colonial historian Hermes Tovar and two of his kin, examines the population of the Viceroyalty of New Granada. This is a scholarly edition that extracts numbers and places them alongside a running commentary, a comprehensive bibliography and a series of maps that illustrate demographic trends.

David Block (db10@cornell.edu)

Brenner, Joel Glenn. The Emperors of Chocolate : inside the secret world of Hershey and Mars. New York : Random House, 1999.
Olin Library HD 9200 U54 H473x 1999

On March 29, a report in the London Times described the contents of a NATO fighter pilot's survival kit. Among the items listed, but for only U. S. pilots, were "Two Mars bars/Hershey bars." None of the other contents were identified with a company name. The story behind this brand name inclusion dates back to 1937 when Field Ration D was developed by the Hershey Company working with the U. S. Quartermaster General. By the time of the Allied invasion at Normandy, GIs were routinely issued 600 calorie Ration D chocolate bars, the "Hershey bar" and predecessor to the NATO pilot's survival food. The inclusion of Mars bars in the survival kit is a more recent development dating from the Persian Gulf War. Mars and Hershey battled over the military contract for a non-melting chocolate ration. Their corporate strategies and logistics were as complicated as those of the actual combatants.
Joel Brenner's book, The Emperors of Chocolate, is a low calorie history of the two American chocolate manufacturers, from their kitchen table beginnings to their current competition for the global market. The anecdotal account focuses on the rags-to-riches struggles of Mr Hershey and Mr. Mars; and yes, the story about E.T. is true. The Brenner book joins Olin's economic history collection with other newly added business biographies of Disney, Guinness, Lockheed. Western Electric, and Akron's rubber giants. Recent scholarly additions to the Olin collection focus on the history of Cardiff shipowners, Anglo-American textile manufacturers, and the US steel industry. Olin's comprehensive holdings provide a range of resources on the evolution of economic enterprise.

Janie Harris (jlh9@cornell.edu)

 

Moretti, Franco. An Atlas of the European Novel. London, New York: Verso, 1998.
Olin PN 3383.S67 M67x 1998

What are the connections between literature and geography? Moretti has been called a "pioneer of geographical criticism." In a series of one hundred maps accompanying stylish text, he illuminates both the geographical assumptions of nineteenth century European novels and the reach of particular authors and genres across the space of the continent. Moretti's maps are analytical tools, revealing connections, posing new questions, and allowing us to see literature in a new way, and space as a dimension of cultural history. Olin Library owns both this English translation and the original edition, published in Turin, Italy in 1997

Sarah How (seh4@cornell.edu)

 

Donoghue, Denis. The Practice of Reading. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998.
Olin PR 21.D66x 1998 14-DAY

This lucid, elegantly written, unfashionable book is a sustained conversation about the nature and importance of literary interpretation. Donoghue argues for the close reading of texts, with chapters ranging from personal reminiscence through issues of theory, oral and written conditions of reading, and the forces of technology, at last offering his explication of several works of literature. Anthony Hecht applauds: "Donoghue writes with a grace and clarity that have become increasingly rare in today's literary discourse." Olin's collections include Donoghue's many published essays and monographs on Yeats, Swift, critical theory, Irish literature and society, and other topics.

Sarah How (seh4@cornell.edu)

Minois, Georges. History of Suicide: Voluntary Death in Western Culture. Translated by Lydia G. Cochrane. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999.
Location: Olin RC 569 M55x 1999

In classical Greece and Rome, suicide was acceptable, even heroic, under some circumstances. With the rise of Christianity, suicide became "self-murder" and an insult to God. In the Renaissance, suicide reemerged as a philosophical issue. Fifty-two of Shakespeare's characters kill themselves, suggesting how dramatically attitudes had changed by the time of the English Renaissance. Nineteenth and twentieth century developments have cast new light (or shadows) on the issue of taking one's own life. In this book, Georges Minois examines how a culture's attitudes about suicide reflect its larger beliefs and values.

Martha Hsu (mrh2@cornell.edu)

Confidential U.S State Department Central Files: Palestine-Israel internal affairs and foreign affairs, 1960-January 1963. Frederick, Md. : University Publications of America, 1998. 18 rolls of 35 mm. microfilm + printed guide.

Location: Olin, micr., Film 7076.

The U.S State Department Central Files are the definitive primary source for American diplomatic reporting on world affairs in the 20th century. Housed in the National Archives, they contain the largest historical collection anywhere of U.S diplomatic correspondence and related documentation covering all parts of the world. Over the years, University Publications has microfilmed and published many geographical segments of the Central Files, of which the Cornell Library, in turn, owns several. This particular collection continues the coverage of Israel and Israeli-Arab affairs for the early 1960's, following segments for the period 1945-1959 also available in Olin Library. It consists primarily of field reports by American diplomatic personnel from Israel and other parts of the Middle East, supplemented by reports and correspondence of various U.S. government agencies and Jewish organizations. Probably the most comprehensive primary source in English for the study of Israel, the Palestinians and the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Yoram Szekely (ybs1@cornell.edu)

 

|Return to the top|