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The American presidency: A guide to information sources
Government Publications Review, Vol. 11,pp. 429-437, 1984 Printed in the USA. All rights reserved.
0277-9390/84$3.00 + .OO Copyright D 1984Pergamon Press Ltd
BOOK REVIEWS
DIANE
GARNER
The Pattec Library, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802
The American Presidency: A Guide to Information Sources. By Kenneth E. Davison. (American Studies Information Guide Series; Vol. 11) Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1983. xvi, 467 p. $44.00. ISBN 0-8103-1261-l; LC 73-17552. Seven years ago, Fred I. Greenstein and several colleagues produced a selectively annotated bibliography on the American presidency which focused on the “modern” presidents-Franklin D. Roosevelt through Gerald R. Ford. Greenstein asserted that “no institution of American government has changed so drastically and with such profound consequences for American society as has the presidency [since 19321” [ 11. Kenneth Davison’s impressive new bibliography reflects this development, especially in the first 130 pages. This part of the work consists of 11 chapters which cover various aspects of the presidency (e.g., general works, aids to research, elections, powers, problems, documents, etc.) and displays the vast amount of scholarship published during the last 20 years. In the second section, a separate chapter is devoted to sources on each of the presidents, Washington to Reagan. Additionally, there are three valuable indexes (by author, title, and subject) keyed to page numbers. Davison, chair of the American Studies Department at Heidelberg College in Ohio, is a presidential buff of the first order and this bibliography is heavily based on his extensive personal collection of material on the presidency (“I suspect I now have one of the better private collections of presidential literature in the country.“) [2]. With the exception of some indisputable classic works [3], Davison has limited his ambitious compilation to post-1945 writings, with 1982 as a cut-off date. Generally, he has not included articles from popular magazines or newspapers since such items were easily accessible through library indexes. (Greenstein used a similar criterion.) Government publications are included by Davison, but not in satisfactory numbers. A short chapter in the first part cites the basic guides to documents, access points to the public papers of the presidents, 12 edited collections of documents, and 12 articles about presidential documents. Scattered throughout the rest of the bibliography are a few congressional hearings and special reports, but much useful material has been overlooked in this area (such as The Federal Executive Establishment: Evolution and Trends, prepared by Ronald C. Moe of the Congressional Research Service for the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs). Davison’s explanation in this regard is rather weak: “I might have cited many more government documents but did not do so because the essential information from this type of material is frequently well summarized in a good secondary work” [4]. Perhaps, but the original citations would have been useful in the bibliography and would have made them more accessible to researchers. The real value of this work lies in its organization and coverage. The first section provides an excellent overview of the presidency and its major facets, as well as some important research aids (bibliographies, key periodical titles, and presidential libraries). Students and scholars will find the bibliographic chapters in the second part to be excellent starting points for researching specific presidents. These presidential chapters vary in quality, however. For example, the chapter on Jimmy Carter is inexplicably slight. In addition to primary sources and monographs, only 10 articles are listed, all from scholarly journals. By way of contrast, 55 articles are listed for Ronald Reagan, many from the weekly National Journal. Also, some well-known and/or important books have been overlooked or deliberately not included by Davison: among them, The Truman Years by I.F. Stone (1953); Nightmare: The Underside of the Nixon Years by J. Anthony Lukas (1976); Eisenhower and the Cold War by Robert A. Divine (1981); and Crisis by Hamilton Jordan (1982). Some other more general 429
430
Book reviews
works that are missing are: American Journal: The Events of 1976 by Elizabeth Drew (1977); MakeBelieve Presider&x ~fl~~ons of Power from McKinley to Carter by Nicholas Van Hoffman (1978); and, Al/ Things to AH Men: The False Promise of the Modern American Presidency by Godfrey Hodgson (1980). Still, no bibliographer is perfect, and it is virtually impossible to match the values and preferences of each reader. Kenneth Davison has compiled an admirable bibliography, regardless of its weaknesses. This will probably endure as the major bibliographic work on the American presidency for years to come, and it belongs in all college and university libraries.
NOTES 1. Fred I. Greenstein, et al., Evolution of the Modern Presidency: A Bibliographical Survey. Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1977, p. i. 2. Davison, p. xiv. 3. Some examples are: The American Presidency: An Interpretatjon by Harold Laski (1940); A History of the Presidency by Edward Stanwood (1928); Abraham Lb~coin: The War Years by Car1 Sandburg (1939); George ~a~~~ngto~by Woodrow Wilson (1896); The Ltfe of Thomas JejJerson by Henry S. Randall.
4. Davison, p. xv. THOMAS A. KAREL Information Services Librarian Rider College Library Lawrenceville, NJ 08648 USA
Encyclopaedia of Occupational Health and Safety. 3rd edition revised. Edited by Luigi Parmeggiani. Geneva, Switerzland: International Labour Office, 1983. 2 ~01s. $155.00 ISBN 92-2-l-3289-2. (Distributed by NTIS, order no. PB 84138163) Published in two volumes, and amounting to 2538 pages, the 1150 articles in this new edition of the Encyciopaedia of OccupationalHealth and Safety are arranged in alphabetical order. A list of articles is given at the front of each volume. At the end of volume 2 is a list of contributing authors that gives each author’s institutional affiliation and the beginning page number for each contribution. There are also a 92 page subject index and nine appendices that provide basic technical data, a bibliography of publications of various international organizations, and operational guidelines relating to heat stress, air pollution, and threshold limit values for chemical substances and physical agents. The international organizations whose publications are listed in the bibliography include the International Labour Office, the World Health Organisation, the International Safety and Health Information Centre, the International Social Security Association, and the International Agency for Research on Cancer. It is worth noting that although references are made throughout the Encyciopaedia to “CIS Abstracts” and the “CIS Thesaurus,” these references do not mean the publications of the Congressional Information Service, but those of the International Safety and Health Information Centre. Besides those associated with the various international organizations noted in the bibliography, other cont~butors include scientists from private industry, university and research centers, and national governmental agencies. The vast majority of contributors are associated with organizations located in Western Europe, but there is significant representation from Eastern Europe, the U.S.S.R., the United States, and Canada, and occasional representation from contributors in Third World countries. The main purpose of the Encyciopaedia is to provide up-to-date, practical information to an educated readership that may include scientists, office managers, politicians, personnel directors, lawyers, physicians, architects, and union representatives, as well as students at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The principal concern is occupational health and safety, but much of the contents would be of interest to persons doing research or work in general environmental studies. Although much of the material presented contains, or refers to, scientific data, the articles are written in a style that allows understanding by the non-scientist, while retaining the respect of the scientist. For the physician or the scientist there are articles dealing with subjects such as asbestosis, dioxin, instrumental methods for the detection and analysis of airborne contaminallts, and biological exposure limits in potentially harmful situations. For the social scientist there are articles on such topics as occupational
0277-9390/84$3.00 + .OO Copyright D 1984Pergamon Press Ltd
BOOK REVIEWS
DIANE
GARNER
The Pattec Library, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802
The American Presidency: A Guide to Information Sources. By Kenneth E. Davison. (American Studies Information Guide Series; Vol. 11) Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1983. xvi, 467 p. $44.00. ISBN 0-8103-1261-l; LC 73-17552. Seven years ago, Fred I. Greenstein and several colleagues produced a selectively annotated bibliography on the American presidency which focused on the “modern” presidents-Franklin D. Roosevelt through Gerald R. Ford. Greenstein asserted that “no institution of American government has changed so drastically and with such profound consequences for American society as has the presidency [since 19321” [ 11. Kenneth Davison’s impressive new bibliography reflects this development, especially in the first 130 pages. This part of the work consists of 11 chapters which cover various aspects of the presidency (e.g., general works, aids to research, elections, powers, problems, documents, etc.) and displays the vast amount of scholarship published during the last 20 years. In the second section, a separate chapter is devoted to sources on each of the presidents, Washington to Reagan. Additionally, there are three valuable indexes (by author, title, and subject) keyed to page numbers. Davison, chair of the American Studies Department at Heidelberg College in Ohio, is a presidential buff of the first order and this bibliography is heavily based on his extensive personal collection of material on the presidency (“I suspect I now have one of the better private collections of presidential literature in the country.“) [2]. With the exception of some indisputable classic works [3], Davison has limited his ambitious compilation to post-1945 writings, with 1982 as a cut-off date. Generally, he has not included articles from popular magazines or newspapers since such items were easily accessible through library indexes. (Greenstein used a similar criterion.) Government publications are included by Davison, but not in satisfactory numbers. A short chapter in the first part cites the basic guides to documents, access points to the public papers of the presidents, 12 edited collections of documents, and 12 articles about presidential documents. Scattered throughout the rest of the bibliography are a few congressional hearings and special reports, but much useful material has been overlooked in this area (such as The Federal Executive Establishment: Evolution and Trends, prepared by Ronald C. Moe of the Congressional Research Service for the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs). Davison’s explanation in this regard is rather weak: “I might have cited many more government documents but did not do so because the essential information from this type of material is frequently well summarized in a good secondary work” [4]. Perhaps, but the original citations would have been useful in the bibliography and would have made them more accessible to researchers. The real value of this work lies in its organization and coverage. The first section provides an excellent overview of the presidency and its major facets, as well as some important research aids (bibliographies, key periodical titles, and presidential libraries). Students and scholars will find the bibliographic chapters in the second part to be excellent starting points for researching specific presidents. These presidential chapters vary in quality, however. For example, the chapter on Jimmy Carter is inexplicably slight. In addition to primary sources and monographs, only 10 articles are listed, all from scholarly journals. By way of contrast, 55 articles are listed for Ronald Reagan, many from the weekly National Journal. Also, some well-known and/or important books have been overlooked or deliberately not included by Davison: among them, The Truman Years by I.F. Stone (1953); Nightmare: The Underside of the Nixon Years by J. Anthony Lukas (1976); Eisenhower and the Cold War by Robert A. Divine (1981); and Crisis by Hamilton Jordan (1982). Some other more general 429
430
Book reviews
works that are missing are: American Journal: The Events of 1976 by Elizabeth Drew (1977); MakeBelieve Presider&x ~fl~~ons of Power from McKinley to Carter by Nicholas Van Hoffman (1978); and, Al/ Things to AH Men: The False Promise of the Modern American Presidency by Godfrey Hodgson (1980). Still, no bibliographer is perfect, and it is virtually impossible to match the values and preferences of each reader. Kenneth Davison has compiled an admirable bibliography, regardless of its weaknesses. This will probably endure as the major bibliographic work on the American presidency for years to come, and it belongs in all college and university libraries.
NOTES 1. Fred I. Greenstein, et al., Evolution of the Modern Presidency: A Bibliographical Survey. Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1977, p. i. 2. Davison, p. xiv. 3. Some examples are: The American Presidency: An Interpretatjon by Harold Laski (1940); A History of the Presidency by Edward Stanwood (1928); Abraham Lb~coin: The War Years by Car1 Sandburg (1939); George ~a~~~ngto~by Woodrow Wilson (1896); The Ltfe of Thomas JejJerson by Henry S. Randall.
4. Davison, p. xv. THOMAS A. KAREL Information Services Librarian Rider College Library Lawrenceville, NJ 08648 USA
Encyclopaedia of Occupational Health and Safety. 3rd edition revised. Edited by Luigi Parmeggiani. Geneva, Switerzland: International Labour Office, 1983. 2 ~01s. $155.00 ISBN 92-2-l-3289-2. (Distributed by NTIS, order no. PB 84138163) Published in two volumes, and amounting to 2538 pages, the 1150 articles in this new edition of the Encyciopaedia of OccupationalHealth and Safety are arranged in alphabetical order. A list of articles is given at the front of each volume. At the end of volume 2 is a list of contributing authors that gives each author’s institutional affiliation and the beginning page number for each contribution. There are also a 92 page subject index and nine appendices that provide basic technical data, a bibliography of publications of various international organizations, and operational guidelines relating to heat stress, air pollution, and threshold limit values for chemical substances and physical agents. The international organizations whose publications are listed in the bibliography include the International Labour Office, the World Health Organisation, the International Safety and Health Information Centre, the International Social Security Association, and the International Agency for Research on Cancer. It is worth noting that although references are made throughout the Encyciopaedia to “CIS Abstracts” and the “CIS Thesaurus,” these references do not mean the publications of the Congressional Information Service, but those of the International Safety and Health Information Centre. Besides those associated with the various international organizations noted in the bibliography, other cont~butors include scientists from private industry, university and research centers, and national governmental agencies. The vast majority of contributors are associated with organizations located in Western Europe, but there is significant representation from Eastern Europe, the U.S.S.R., the United States, and Canada, and occasional representation from contributors in Third World countries. The main purpose of the Encyciopaedia is to provide up-to-date, practical information to an educated readership that may include scientists, office managers, politicians, personnel directors, lawyers, physicians, architects, and union representatives, as well as students at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The principal concern is occupational health and safety, but much of the contents would be of interest to persons doing research or work in general environmental studies. Although much of the material presented contains, or refers to, scientific data, the articles are written in a style that allows understanding by the non-scientist, while retaining the respect of the scientist. For the physician or the scientist there are articles dealing with subjects such as asbestosis, dioxin, instrumental methods for the detection and analysis of airborne contaminallts, and biological exposure limits in potentially harmful situations. For the social scientist there are articles on such topics as occupational