RUSA BRASS Business Reference Sources Committee
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Using established guidelines and criteria, a working group of the BRASS Business Reference Sources Committee voted to adopt these recent titles as either “outstanding” or “other noteworthy titles.” Following extensive discussion on the merits and shortcomings of each, three were voted for inclusion in the outstanding category. Seven additional works were selected as other noteworthy titles. Brief reviews are included.
Many business reference sources were evaluated. This year’s selections include interdisciplinary titles, significant new editions of standard works, and titles with an international focus. Selectors and reference librarians serving business users will find these sources to be valuable additions to their reference collections. All are suitable for public and academic libraries.
Outstanding Titles
The Encyclopedia of Taxation and Tax Policy, 2nd ed. Ed. by Joseph J. Cordes, Robert D. Ebel, and Jane G. Gravelle. Washington, D.C.: Urban Institute, 2005. 499p. alkaline, soft $75 (ISBN 0-87766-752-7).Public finance can be a difficult subject for students and citizens to comprehend, with its use of often-complicated economic theory and arcane jargon. Couple this difficulty with the impenetrability of governmental program design and tax law concepts, and it’s quite easy for lay people to get lost in this topic. The second edition of this well-designed reference work provides a nice compass to help navigate the topic of tax policy.
The volume editors are academically and vocationally well qualified in public finance; the writers of the individual entries are a mix of academics and public and private sector tax practitioners. The entries are well written and concise, and rang true with this reviewer’s understanding of the subject area. The work effectively addresses the major topics in U.S. public finance and tax policy.
Entries included address:
- economic and public-finance principles and concepts (for example, ability to pay, benefit principle, tax incidence);
- major tax types (income, sales, property);
- key features of major taxes (charitable deductions, investment tax credits);
- methods of tax and expenditure analysis (generational accounting, dynamic scoring);
- budgeting processes and structures (Highway Trust Fund, Congressional Budget Office); and
- tax administration issues (tribal taxation, state, tax amnesty)
The book contains 235 entries arranged in a standard A-Z encyclopedia layout with an extensive 22-page index. The editors report that the work reflects extensive updating of the entries in the first edition plus 45 new items.
Individual entries often include a short definition of the concept, followed by a one-quarter to several page treatment of the topic depending on its scope and complexity. Many entries include extensive, authoritative bibliographies. The authors make effective use of tables and graphics as needed for illustrative purposes. Cross references to related entries are included.
A WorldCat search yielded no comparable reference works on tax policy. While a key strength of the work is its clear presentation of often technical concepts to a lay or generalist audience, experts in the field will also find it useful as a refresher and referral source. This encyclopedia is suitable for all academic, selected special, and medium-to-large public libraries.–John P. Heintz, University of St. Thomas, Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota
Encyclopedia of White-Collar and Corporate Crime. Ed. by Lawrence M. Salinger. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage, 2005. 2 vols. acid free $325 (ISBN 0-7619-3004-3).
This timely source fills a gap in the reference literature. There is nothing similar that combines criminal and unethical behavior in business, medicine, and politics, as well as the people involved in that behavior. The Encyclopedia employs a broad definition of these types of crimes. Readers will find entries on topics as diverse as Firestone tires, cigarette advertising, WorldCom, and a summary of Unsafe at Any Speed, Ralph Nader’s groundbreaking book on automobile safety. Still, many may find it surprising that entries on the Challenger disaster as well as prostitution are included.
Key to using this source for the novice researcher is the “Reader’s Guide” section at the beginning of the first volume. Seventeen broad categories are listed, including: “Products”; “Companies”; “Financial and Securities Fraud”; “Consumers”; “Scams and Swindles”; “Laws”; “Business Fraud and Crimes”; “Medical and Healthcare Fraud”; “Pollution”; “Political Scandals”; and “People.”
Contributors are primarily from criminology and sociology fields. Some of the entries on political and corporate scandals perhaps may have benefited from a review by political scientists and management specialists, respectively. For example, although recent notable corporate crimes are, of course, included, the entry for “Enron” doesn’t mention Arthur Andersen (there is a separate entry for the accounting firm; it discusses Enron and does have a cross reference to the Enron entry). And the entry on “Savings and Loan Fraud,” while lengthy, devotes only two sentences to Lincoln Savings and Loan (though there are cross references to entries for “Charles Keating” and the U.S. Senate’s “Keating Five”).
Interesting topics among the five hundred entries include unnecessary surgery, Nigerian 419 (Internet fraud), workplace violence, real estate fraud, ABSCAM, Exxon Valdez, Michael Milken, and research fraud. Each entry is one or two pages long and includes a brief bibliography as well as cross references.
Law summaries (including Sarbanes-Oxley) and a glossary assist the reader with legal concepts; these are included in the second volume. An extensive index and well-written introductory essay add to its usefulness.
Ideal for students, general readers, and business practitioners seeking background information on white-collar and corporate crime, the Encyclopedia is highly recommended for all collections.–Patricia Kenly, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta
History of World Trade Since 1450. Ed. by John J. McCusker. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Macmillan Reference USA, 2006. 2 vols. alkaline $295 (ISBN 0-02-865840-X).
History of World Trade is a historical encyclopedia that provides a panoramic survey of the globalization of world trade since the Age of Exploration in the fifteenth century to the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in modern times. Edited by eminent economic historians, the work has more than four hundred entries contributed by expert international scholars. Entries range in size from two hundred to three thousand words and are written for high-school and college students as well as general readers.
The encyclopedia follows the fortunes of famous business families and influential people across the centuries: the conquistadors and explorers who forcibly opened the New World in the early sixteenth century; the reign of Elizabeth I that witnessed England’s rise as a seafaring trader; the influence of the Rothschild Banking dynasty; the establishment of the Sa’ud family’s oil power; and Deng Xiaoping’s historic opening that led China to become the twenty-first century’s rising trading power. Entries cover exotic historical port cities from Amsterdam, Barcelona, and Gdansk to Havana, Mumbai, and Shanghai. Coal, cotton, coffee, and other commodities have their own individual entries. Important ideas and concepts such as the balance of payments, the English Corn Laws, Most-Favored-Nation treaty provisions, the American System, patent laws, and smuggling are given separate entries. The historic and contemporary roles of companies and forms of business ownership are illustrated with articles on the East India Companies, Lloyd’s of London, DeBeers, and the Nanyang Brothers Tobacco Company. The encyclopedia visits the Black Sea, the Gold Coast, Angola, Brazil, China, Vietnam, and a host of other countries and regions notable as trading locales. Ethnic groups active in international trade are profiled along with piracy, slavery, travelers and travel, and other activities that have played important roles in extending and facilitating trade.
Essays on the great trading empires include the British, Dutch, French, Spanish, Ming, and Mughal Empires, as well as related institutions and practices, such as China’s Imperial Maritime Customs, the British Board of Trade, the Tribute System, and the African Slave Trade. Important international industries discussed in detail include arms and armaments, banking, books, illicit drugs, petroleum, retail, rubber, shipbuilding, textiles, toys, and tobacco. The infrastructure of international trade receives special attention in entries on canals, harbors, and port cities. The organizations and institutions that trade has created are covered in entries on the caravan trade, the Canton System, chambers of commerce, the Gold Standard, the Common Market of the South (MERCOSUR), General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), and WTO.
Each entry includes a short bibliography for more in-depth exploration of the topic. Volume 1 has both an alphabetical list of all of the articles and a thematic-outline grouping the articles by broad topic. All of the contributors are listed with their positions, credentials, and articles written. Volume 2 contains an extensive glossary, selected primary source documents, and a comprehensive index. Carefully chosen illustrations help bring articles to life. Sidebars highlight engaging aspects of selected subjects. Although there are not many primary sources reprinted, the chosen few provide a contemporaneous glimpse of historical developments such as Charles D’Avenant’s eighteenth century Essay on the East-India Trade. The encyclopedia will enrich collections large and small, public as well as academic.–Peter McKay, University of Florida, Gainesville
Other Noteworthy Titles
The Federal Reserve System: An Encyclopedia. By R. W. Hafer. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 2005. 451p. alkaline $95 (ISBN 0-313-32839-0).Whether the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates to control inflation has recently been of concern to consumers and professionals. This encyclopedia puts the issue into perspective as it explains how the Federal Reserve operates and how its monetary policy functions.
The introduction serves as a timeline, starting with the rise of central banking in the eighteenth century, and concluding with the Federal Reserve’s reaction to recent financial and economic crises.
The 280 entries average two pages; graphs and charts aid the reader in understanding complex subjects. Some of the “Further Reading” lists after each entry are limited, but the book is not meant to be comprehensive; rather, it serves as a point of departure for further study.
R. W. Hafer, professor of economics at Southern Illinois University, was a research officer at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. His style is clear and concise. Reading the entry on the “LDC Debt Crisis” was like sitting across the table from a friendly economist and getting all one’s questions answered.
Reference librarians will find the topical list of entries useful, as well as the extensive index. College students and the general reader will find this a valuable source to explain topics that will continue to be headline news.–Lee Pasackow, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia
Globalization: Encyclopedia of Trade, Labor, and Politics. Ed. by Ashish K. Vaidya. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, 2006. 2 vols. acid free $185 (ISBN 1-57607-826-4).
This encyclopedia focuses on the economic, political, legal, and environmental aspects of the phenomenon of globalization. The two volumes are divided into four parts and organized by broad topics. Arrangement is unwieldy; browsing the table of contents is a must to use this source effectively because of the limited index. Entries are lengthy (some more than twenty pages, though most are about ten pages); each includes cross references and a list of references for further reading. The international contributors are economics faculty, faculty in related disciplines, and specialists.
Globalization‘s greatest strength is found in the excellent overviews of such major issues as global climate change and sustainable development, found in volume two. Also in the second volume are almost three hundred pages of well-written essays covering thirty-two international blocs and organizations.
Twelve broad industry sectors are separately covered, including “Chemicals,” “Pharmaceuticals,” and “Food and Beverages.” Each entry is about ten pages, and the entries are somewhat uneven in coverage. For example, in the entry for “Food and Beverages,” the beverage industry is not discussed. Much more successful is the entry on “Chemicals,” written by an International Labour Office specialist in that industry. It includes an excellent discussion of the various segments of the industry (such as petrochemicals) plus many charts and tables. Though the statistics are available elsewhere, the compilation in one place is useful.
Intended for college students and faculty, it is also accessible to many general readers because of the important global issues it covers. Overall, Globalization is an excellent resource and would be a valuable addition to most reference collections.–Patricia Kenly, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta
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