In the rush to assess and reinterpret the former USSR, Millbrook's six-title series by different authors is serviceable enough, though it has neither the lucid intelligence of Clark's single-volume coverage, The Commonwealth of Independent States (above) nor the detail of Lerner's as-yet incomplete series on individual states, edited by Mary M. Rodgers et al. (e.g., Lithuania, p. 1508). This volume of ``The Former Soviet States'' series, for instance, suffers from awkward phrasing (``...the standard of living of most of the people of the Soviet Union [in 1985] was unbelievably low''—What does ``unbelievably'' mean here? ``Low'' compared to what?), while of the information is oversimplified and some explanations are too truncated to be clear. Still, Roberts makes an adequate introduction to the historic crossroads occupied by Russian Orthodox Georgia and Armenia and their Muslim neighbor, an area with particularly bitter ethnic strife, and also threatened by interference from neighbors Turkey and Iran. ``Outlook'' (summary of major current issues); ``Facts and Figures''; chronology—confusingly formatted with six ``Famous People'' (Peter I, Stalin, Mstilav Rostopovish, et al.); maps, photos, and historical prints; index. (Nonfiction. 10-13)
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 1992
ISBN: 1-56294-309-X
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Millbrook
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1992
In glossy textbook style, this latest entry in The Other Half of History series (Women of Ancient Greece, p. 1746, etc.) illuminates the days and lives of wealthy, middle-class, and poor women who lived thousands of years ago in Egypt. The large-scale format of the book allows elaborate full-color photographs to appear on every page, often accompanied by sidebars with brief quotations from ancient Egyptian writers. These provide the book’s main source of interest; Macdonald resorts to a textbook writing style, with deliberately short, declarative sentences that make the material sound more somber than it is. Nevertheless, this book provides a useful tracing of the role of women in history, and would be a good companion reference to Eloise Jarvis McGraw’s classic Mara, Daughter of the Nile (1953) or Sonia Levitin’s Escape from Egypt (1994). (maps, glossary, further reading, index) (Nonfiction. 8-12)
Pub Date: Nov. 30, 1999
ISBN: 0-87226-567-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A warm tribute to the WPA-funded “book women” (and men) who rode Kentucky’s backwoods in the 1930s and early ’40s, delivering library service to some of this country’s most impoverished citizens. Gathering information from archives, hard-to-find published sources, and interviews, the authors write feelingly of the Pack Horse Library Program’s origins and the obstacles its dedicated employees overcame. These ranged from the chronic scarcity of books and magazines (nearly all of which were donated) to the rigors of riding, generally alone, over rugged terrain in all weathers. Those rigors are made more immediate by a reconstructed account of a rider’s day: rising at 4:30, stopping at isolated hamlets, cabins, and one-room schools to drop off materials and, sometimes, to read aloud, then plodding wearily home through darkness and drizzle. Supported by a generous array of contemporary photos and sturdy lists of sources and Web sites to give interested readers a leg up on further inquiry, this adds unique insights not just to the history of library service, but of Appalachian culture, and of women’s work in general. (Nonfiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: May 31, 2001
ISBN: 0-06-029135-4
Page Count: 64
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2001
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