Dubin, Steven C. Displays of Power: Memory and Amnesia in the American Museum. New York: New York University Press, 1999. Location: Olin, AM 151 D84 1999, 14-DAY An engaging discussion of key controversial museum exhibits in the 1990s, such as the Library of Congress exhibit on Southern plantation life and the Smithsonian Institution's plan to exhibit the Enola Gay on the 50th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. Dubin is an informed participant in contemporary cultural life and his book displays an easy, wide-ranging familiarity with this subject matter. Clearly he has enjoyed exploring the political aspects of exhibits that jostled Americans in the 1990s. (Sarah How; seh4@cornell.edu)

Dan, Joseph. Jewish Mysticism. Northvale: Jason Aronson, 1998-99. 4-volume set, including: vol.1: late antiquity; vol. 2: Middle Ages; vol.3: modern period; vol. 4 : general characteristics and comparative studies. Location: Olin BM 723 D365x 1998, vol.1-4. This is an encyclopedic survey of Jewish mysticism by one of the leading scholars of the subject. Provides detailed description and analysis of the ideas and their proponents who make up the mystical strain within the Jewish religious and philosophical tradition. Because of its scope is sure to become the definitive basic English language reference source on the subject. (Yoram Szekely, ybs1@cornell.edu)

Passerini, Luisa. Europe in Love, Love in Europe: Imagination and Politics between the Wars. New York: New York University Press, 1999. Location: Olin, DA110.P34x 1999 Passerini, a member of the faculty of the European University Institute in Florence, explores the two modern discourses on united Europe and on love, particularly courtly love, demonstrating their entwined development. This thoughtful book is particularly fine on the relation of discourses during the heyday of the1930s, unveiling connections between myth and literary representation and political culture. Rewarding reading, although probably not suitable beach reading for most folk. (Sarah How; seh4@cornell.edu)

The Prague spring 1968 : a national security archive documents reader /compiled and edited by Jaromir Navratil, chief editor ; Antonin Bencik ... [et al.] New York, Central European University Press, 1998. Location: Olin DB 2215 .P 72x 1998 In early 1968, after the change in the leadership of the communist party, Czech and Slovak nations set out to work toward "building socialism with a human face". The outburst of creative activities in the area of culture and citizenship, named later The Prague Spring, was brutally interrupted by foreign troupes that invaded Czechoslovakia and abducted its political representatives. As earlier in the year Czechs and Slovaks reclaimed their right to life in freedom and dignity, they manifested the same qualities in peaceful and dignified demonstrations against the crushing armed forces of the Soviet block. These events, for the first time ever, found a documented account as seen on both sides of the Iron Curtain. The book includes top-level documents from Kremlin Politburo meetings, Warsaw Pact multilateral sessions and even transcripts of KGB-recorded conversations between Leonid Brezhnev and the Czech leader Alexander Dubcek. Once highly classified documents from the National Security Archive and CIA archives are also included. Authors, members of the commission appointed by Vaclav Havel to investigate the events of 1967-70, despite the enormity of offered factual material, made every effort to make this book highly readable. They provided a vast historical and political background, chronology, glossary and extensive bibliography that in addition to precise documentation made this book a major contribution of the unique scholarly importance. (Wanda Wawro, wtw3@cornell.edu)

Caron, Vicki. Uneasy asylum: France and the Jewish refugee crisis, 1933-1942. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999. (Stanford studies in Jewish history and culture). Location: Olin DS 135 F83 C366x 1999 Drawing on a rich array of primary sources and archival materials, this large and detailed historical monograph offers the first major appraisal of French responses to the Jewish refugee crisis following the Nazi seizure of power in 1933. It explores French policies and attitudes towards Jewish refugees from the vantage points of French government policy, public opinion and the role of the French Jewish community. Presents overwhelming evidence that the Vichy government's anti Jewish measures enjoyed widespread support among the French middle and professional classes.Somewhat more surprisingly, also demonstrates that the Jewish community itself did not unanimously support refugee relief efforts. A major new contribution to the field of Holocaust studies and modern European Jewish history. (Yoram Szelely, ybs1@cornell.edu)

Frydman, Roman, 1948-. Capitalism with a comrade's face: studies in the postcommunist transition / Roman Frydman, Kenneth Murphy, Andrzej Rapaczynski. Budapest : Central European University Press, 1998. Location: Olin HC 244 .F 79x 1998 The transition from communism in East and Central Europe is in many ways longer and more troublesome than most of enthusiastic onlookers and participants first expected. The word "transition" holds as its primary definition the movement or passage from one state or set of circumstances to another but clean, revolutionary break from the past is almost never possible. History is more than a bad habit. There are numerous active and pervasive influences that bind the transition societies to the past and even the best-intentioned reformers must be aware of the captivity of the communist legacies. The essays collected in this book make an attempt to describe and analyze the upheaval in particular institutions in transition be it privatization, banking, labour relations, capital markets or corporate governance. Authors, with broad perspective and critical depth, examine historic changes that are taking place, expose the wide range of improvisations in day to day life and utter fragility of political and economic structures that can easily threaten region's rebirth and its union with the global economy. (Wanda Wawro, wtw3@cornell.edu)

Hix, Simon. The Political System of the European Union. New York: St. Martins, 1999. Location: Olin JN30.H5x 1999 The number of new books on European integration has increased each year during the last decade; this volume is the thirteenth in a series on European Unification initiated by St. Martins Press as recently as 1998, with another two dozen titles announced as forthcoming.Most 1990s studies of the European union were descriptive. With this volume, Hix has produced the "theoretical overview of the government, politics, and policy-making of the emerging European-level political system" that he had sought and not found in his student days. The study analyzes various theories and aspects of the EU political system, including among others political organization and bargaining, policy making, redistributive policies through the EU budget, economic and monetary union, and global economic and security policies. Quite current, it reflects 1997 Amsterdam Treaty revisions and contains references through 1998. (Sarah How, seh4@cornell.edu)

The History of Parliament on CD-ROM. [Cambridge, England] : Cambridge University Press ; [London]: History of Parliament Trust, 1998. Location: Olin, Disk JN 508 H578x 1998 Over thirty years and in twenty-three volumes, leading scholars published the official history of the British House of Commons. From 1951, this substantial undertaking was sponsored by The History of Parliament Trust. Cornell's set of print volumes is now also available in electronic form. The new optical disk provides this comprehensive history covering the Commons sessions from 1386 to 1820. It includes historical surveys by period, over 17,000 detailed biographies of the Members, descriptions of constituencies, statistics on Parliament, and supplementary illustrations and documents. The CD provides full indexing to its electronic contents as well as enhanced access to the print volumes. A user can search electronically by designated fields or by keyword, and can manipulate the text retrieved. System requirements are a PC 486 or Pentium with Windows 3.1+ or 95 or NT, with a minimum 8MB of RAM, double-speed (or faster) CD-ROM drive. The disk includes DynaText version 2.3 software. With this new acquisition, Olin's collection on British Parliamentary history now ranges from the yellowed pages of centuries-old contemporary accounts to this shiny CD holding 13 million words. (Janie Harris, jlh9@cornell.edu

Midelfort, H. C. Erik A History of Madness in sixteenth-century Germany. Stanford, Calif. : Stanford University Press, c1999. Location: Olin RC 450 .G3 M528x 1999 This work explores how Renaissance Germans understood and experienced madness. It focuses on the insanity of the world in general but also on specific disorders; examines the thinking on madness of theologians, jurists, and physicians; and analyzes the vernacular ideas that propelled sufferers to seek help in pilgrimage or newly founded hospitals for the helplessly disordered. The author uses the history of madness as a lens to illuminate the history of the Renaissance, the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, the history of poverty and social welfare, and the history of princely courts, state building, and the civilizing process. The author uses his prodigious command of the three professional disciplines of that age -- theology, medicine, and law -- to discuss the border zones between cultural and social history in early modern Europe. (Martha Hsu (mrh2@cornell.edu)

Informacion para el desarrollo <computer file> : catalogo hemero-bibliografico, Bolivia 93-96. (Cochabamba, Bolivia : CEDIB, 1997). Location: Olin, Limited Circulation, Disk Z 7165 B6 I54 1997 This Windows database aggregates over 400,000 citations taken from 13 periodicals that circulated in Bolivia during the years 1993-1996. This period was especially rich in references to topics of special interest to CEDIB (Centro de Documentación e Información-Bolivia): coca, drugs, drug trafficking and development, natural resources. Of the sources referenced, Olin library has microfilm of the La Paz newspaper, Presencia (Olin, Micr. Film;7086) and Bolivian Times (++ F3301 .B692) as well as access to El Diario through the library's membership in the Center for Research Libraries. Because of traditionally unreliable telecommunications links in the region, Latin America places greater reliance of CD distribution of information than does the First World. Some recent Latin American Cds, added to Olin collections include: Anuario estadístico de Venezuela (Olin, Disk HA1091 .A4), Anuario estadístico de la República Argentina (Olin,Lim Disk HA941 .A25), A era Vargas: dos anos 20 a 1945 (Olin, Lim Disk F2538 .V33 E73 1996) , and Todo de Cuba (Olin, Disk F1765.3 .T63 1997) (David Block, db10@cornell.edu)

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