American Treaties and Alliances - Hardcover

Alan Axelrod has written many works of military history, including The Real History of the Vietnam War (2012), The Real History of the Civil War (2013), A Savage Empire: Trappers, Traders, Tribes, and the Wars That Made America (2011), Selling the Great War: The Making of American Propaganda (2009), The Real History of the Cold War (2009), Patton’s Drive: The Making of America’s Greatest General (2009), Blooding at Great Meadows: Young George Washington and the Battle That Shaped the Man (2007), The Horrid Pit: The Battle of the Crater, the Civil War’s Cruelest Mission (2007), Miracle at Belleau Wood: The Birth of the Modern U.S. Marine Corps (2007), Bradley: A Biography (2006), and Patton: A Biography (2006). Among his reference books are Political History of America’s Wars (2007), Encyclopedia of Wars (2005), Encyclopedia of the United States Armed Forces (2005), American Treaties and Alliances (2000), and The Macmillan Dictionary of Military Biography (1998).

A former college professor and consultant to numerous museums and cultural institutions, Axelrod has been a featured speaker at the Conference on Excellence in Government (Washington, D.C.), the Leadership Institute of Columbia College (Columbia, South Carolina), and the Annual Conference of the Goizueta School of Business, Emory University (Atlanta, Georgia). He has been a creative consultant (and on-camera personality) for The Wild West television documentary series (Warner Bros., 1993), Civil War Journal (A&E Network, 1994), and The Discovery Channel, and he has appeared on MSNBC, CNN, CNNfn, CNBC, Fox Network affiliates in Philadelphia and Atlanta, and numerous radio news and talk programs, including on National Public Radio. Axelrod lives with his wife, Anita, an artist, in Atlanta and in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina.

Facts On File has created two appealing electronic reference sources with its comprehensive, multidimensional databases of American women's and American Indian history. Content is drawn from a variety of the publisher's print titles. In the case of American Women's History, these include the complete texts of A to Z of American Women Writers [RBB Je 1 & 15 00], The Encyclopedia of Women's History in America (1996), and Women Scientists (1991), among others, plus excerpts from many more. American Indian History and Culture is drawn from A to Z of Native American Women (1998), Atlas of the North American Indian [RBB S 1 00], and Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes [RBB Ap 1 99], to name a few. Both databases feature clear fonts, simple directions, immediate response without screen shuffling, and an appreciation of the difficulties of looking up data on so wide a range of people. Framing is attractive, spare, and color balanced for contrast. Search variables appear to the left, with results, definitions, and essays covering most of the screen at right.

The researcher can search American Women's History in its entirety or by section (Timeline, Biographies, Subject Entries, Historical Documents, Gallery, Maps and Charts). Sections in American Indian History and Culture are similar, with the addition of a glossary. Search capabilities include, in most cases, topic, era, and word or phrase, along with a browsable list of all the entries in the section or in the entire database. A customized search feature allows the user to combine additional terms. The content of American Indian can also be searched by tribe or culture area.

Presentation of a wide range of biographical entries is straightforward: name, date, achievement or skill, and a clearly written essay. Information includes background details, such as political situations. At the end of each entry, bibliographical sources suggest more possibilities to the researcher. Emphasis is on print books rather than magazine, newspaper, or journal articles or electronic materials.

The strengths of the databases include ample cross-referencing and well-researched time lines with hypertext leading to fuller understanding of particulars. Presentation of historical documents such as, in American Indians, recent speeches made by President Bill Clinton to Sioux and Navajo gatherings begins with an overview of time, place, and motivation and concludes with full text. Entries on tribes, events, and important Native Americans are well written, although coverage focuses on the U.S. The content of American Women's History, in particular, outdistances the predictable, pedestrian databases currently cropping up from large publishing houses by moving beyond the usual. Rather than camp out on the worn doorstep of Sacajawea or Pocahontas for Native American women, it highlights the warrior Lozen, activist Milly Francis, and potters Nampeyo and Nora Noranjo. Entries recover the importance of Stagecoach Mary, Dorothy Day, and Polly Bemis, who have dwelt in the backwaters of male-dominated historical compendia, if they are mentioned at all. Bibliographical sources stress landmark works by women: Mary Hunter Austin's The Basket Woman and Hisaye Yamamoto's The Pleasure of Plain Rice. Coverage is spotty in some fields, for example, contributions of female cooks and such cookbook authors as Martha Custis Washington, Mary Randolph, and Julia Child.

The search engine retrieves rapidly, although certain terms produce confusing results; for example, a search for cooking in American Indian netted information about places and people named Cook, including Captain James Cook and Cook Inlet. Search results would elucidate selection by categorizing the contribution of each heading, such as identifying Rita Moreno as an actress and dancer or Rachel Carson as an author and conservationist. Variant spellings, a vital element in electronic searches, are omitted. Thus, looking up basket-maker Datsolali in American Indian produces no results: the database user must know that the engine recognizes only Datsolalee. The American Indian glossary is pitifully thin. Explanations of chickee, cradleboard, jerky, and mocuck are elementary, and there are no entries at all for agave, bowdrill, mescal, plankhouse, ramada, or pulque.

Overall, the quality of presentation makes up for such quirks. For the school or public library, these above-average databases are keepers. REVWR
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