referencebooks (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} referencebooks) wrote,@ 2005-12-26 10:51:00 |
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| Entry tags: | ethnic studies, history |
American Jewish Desk Reference
American Jewish Desk Reference
By the American Jewish Historical Society.
Published by Random House, 1999.
This is an 8" by 10" hardcover book running to 642 pages including the index, plus brief preferatory materials.
The book has something like 900 entries covering all aspects of American Jewish history and culture. It is arranged in fourteen chapters covering different spheres of life, with alphabetic entries under each (except the first, which is a chronology). The fourteen chapters are:
- History of the Jews in America
- Judaism and Community in America
- Rituals, Celebrations, Holidays, and Family Life
- Law, Government, and Politics
- American Zionism and United States Relations with Israel
- Business, Labor, and Finance
- Education and Intellectual Life
- Sports and Games
- Art, Architecture, and Photography
- Music, Dance, and Theater
- Radio, Television, and Film
- Books, Newspapers, and Magazines
- Language and Literature
- Science, Medicine, and Social Science
The book finishes with appendices titled "Finding Out about Jews Around the World," and "Organizations and Resources."
Entries range in length from a paragraph to seven pages or more, and are readable and informative.
Opening the book at random, I'm in the section on Art, Architecture and Photography, looking at the entries for George Segal, Ben Shahn, Cindy Sherman, the Soyer Brothers, and Saul Steinberg. The majority of the books entries are biographical entries like these, and they are also the briefer entries.
I wondered how Noam Chomsky, a controversial figure among many American Jews, would be represented in the book. The index has no fewer than twelve sub-entries under his name, which is not bad. Nearly all of these refer to the page-and-a-half biographical entry on him, which begins, "As a linguist, Noam Chomsky is incontrovertibly among the key figures in Western thought in this century. His innovative thinking has changed the way we conceptualize language and its acquisition, and many have called him the creator of modern linguistics. As a political activist, Chomsky is controversial, inspiring admiration and rage in equal parts." In this book, his entry is in the section on Language and Literature.
Overall I find this a useful and well-done reference book.
