09-4-0421

Barnhart, Stephen L. Percussionists: A Biographical Dictionary. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 2000. 464 pp. Advisory editor: John Gillespie. ISBN 0-313-29627-8, $95.00.

Barnhart, a percussionist and music professor at the University of Wyoming, is to be congratulated for his research and compilation efforts in this single volume that describes the careers of about 500 performers, ranging from Keiko Abe to Oliver Zinsmeister. There is an enjoyable photo section in the book’s middle, including Haskell Harr at the xylophone and other well-known percussionists like Bobby Christian, Morris Goldenberg, and Roy Knapp.

The book’s strength is a mountain of information well organized and easily readable. A typical subject entry on Red Norvo, a very successful vibist, includes not only text but also a selected discography, videography, and bibliography. The book includes a general bibliography and an index.

This very fine book is multiethnic in its coverage. Although its intended emphasis is on percussion performers, many excellent teachers are part of the book’s scope, such as William G. Street and John H. Beck. This reference source is highly recommended for academic and specialized library collections and interested individuals.

—Geary Larrick
Stevens Point, Wis.

09-4-0422

The Civil Rights Movement. Hackensack, N.J.: Salem Press, 2000. 2 vols. 781 pp. ISBN 0-89356-169-X, $95.00.

Martin, Waldo, Jr. and Sullivan, Patricia. Civil Rights in the United States. New York: Macmillan/Gale, 2000. 2 vols. 891 pp. ISBN 0-02-864765-3, $225.00.

These two reference works cover much of the same territory, but there are several major differences between them. As the publisher’s note in The Civil Rights Movement explains, "The overwhelming majority of essays in this set are taken from Salem’s new reference work, Racial and Ethnic Relations in America. The rest have been adapted from other Salem works, such as American Justice and Great Lives from History: American Series." A comparison of the two sets does show a word-for-word "adaptation" of the older work for the selected articles. What’s even more revealing is that the copyright page of Racial and Ethnic Relations in America states that it is primarily drawn from several other Salem Press publications. This type of "recycling" has become a serious problem in reference publishing; libraries end up buying essentially the same content over and over, and Salem is not the only offender.

For those looking to acquire a narrowly focused book on the topic, however, the content of The Civil Rights Movement is quite good. Because "African-Americans were the driving force behind the Civil Rights movement," most of the articles cover the events and background relating to the struggle by blacks in the era from the end of World War II through the Civil Rights and Voting Rights acts and the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. (the period most people regard as the height of the movement). However, there are many articles relating to the era of slavery that give important context to the civil rights struggle, and there are articles on later events such as the Rodney King incident and the Ebonics controversy.

The civil rights movement was led (and opposed) by some of the most memorable people in American history, but there are only three biographies—on Martin Luther King, Jr., Gandhi, and Thurgood Marshall—in the main part of the set. Others are given brief notices in an appendix. Longer articles have a mini-bibliographic essay, and there is a lengthy, comprehensive bibliography at the end of the second volume. Appendices also include a time line, the U.S. Constitution, and an index.

The Civil Rights in the United States set takes a much broader view of the subject but does not provide as much historical depth—the historical period considered is exclusively post–Civil War. The impetus for the encyclopedia came out of a series of National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institutes at the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute on Teaching the History of the Civil Rights Movement. The articles cover many groups and subjects not covered in the Salem set, such as the disabled, elderly, women, Asian Americans, Native Americans, Latinos, immigrants, and gays and lesbians.

The authors have included biographical sketches on the major figures of the movement. There are brief bibliographies at the end of each of the articles. In general, the quality and currency of the content is outstanding.

The articles in both sets are written primarily by academics. If a choice must be made, Civil Rights in the United States, which uses a larger format, has more pages, and contains all original work, is the better set.

—Sean P. Maloney
Siena College Library