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This seventh annual survey of American history reference sources is the largest yet; 23 books have been selected for review, while past surveys averaged about 15 titles. The reviews include 14 titles published in 1983, eight published early in 1984, and one 1982 title. The 1982 imprint, Proceedings and Debates of the British Parliaments Respecting North America, was overlooked before. Since it is still in progress it is included in this survey.

Judging from the titles in this year's survey, 1982/83 was the “Year of the Bibliography.” Wherein half of last year's reviews were bibliographies, almost three‐fourths of this year's are (11 out of 15): much of this can be attributed to the computer. The outstanding (and anachronistic) exception to this general truth is Beers' Bibliography, which was compiled laboriously by hand.

While few college students are majoring in history today, perhaps the field is not as close to extinction as some people fear. Professional historians continue to delve into various historical nooks and crannies and are busy planning future endeavors. A collection of articles in two 1981 issues of the Journal of Interdisciplinary History explores a variety of recent historiographical developments. These state‐of‐the‐art essays cover economic, intellectual and population history, the history of science, political history, family history, biography, and quantification. They are must reading for anyone interested in knowing where historical studies are headed during the remaining two decades of the 20th century.

This index accompanies the index that appeared in Reference Services Review 16:4 (1988). As noted in the introduction to that index, the articles in RSR that deal with specific reference titles can be grouped into two categories: those that review specific titles (to a maximum of three) and those that review titles pertinent to a specific subject or discipline. The index in RSR 16:4 covered the first category; it indexed, by title, all titles that had been reviewed in the “Reference Serials” and the “Landmarks of Reference” columns, as well as selected titles from the “Indexes and Indexers,” “Government Publications,” and “Special Feature” columns of the journal.

This eighth annual survey of American history reference sources includes reviews of seventeen new books, most of which were published in 1984. (The two 1983 imprints were received after the seventh survey went to press.) While the annual survey was never intended to be all‐inclusive, the authors have tried to review as many new, general‐interest titles as possible. As always, the authors have based their evaluations on copies in hand.

Today's historian of American history and culture is part of a highly diversified profession. While politics, economics, and social and intellectual history remain basic categories for historical inquiry, new subareas have appeared over the past decade or so. Contemporary historians have found it necessary to adapt the methodologies of psychologists, sociologists, and demographers to their own purposes. As a result of this gradual process, psychohistory (including the history of childhood and the family), urban history, popular culture studies, and studies of the impact of science and scientists on American society have evolved into separate areas of historical scholarship. These new study areas have made certain types of historical records more important than ever before — fiscal documents, censuses, electoral data, parish records (births, deaths, marriages), slave owners' records, etc. It is expected that such documents will light up formerly dark historical corners. The concurrent development of computer technology has obviated the tedium that manual studies of mountains of raw data used to entail. The computer has also made it possible to manipulate data in numerous ways. While traditional historians view the results of quantitative history with suspicion, its potential is great — if the computer is used as a tool and not as an end in itself.

The first edition of the Academic American Encyclopedia (AAE) appeared in July, 1980. The vigorous advertising campaign preceding its initial appearance has been maintained, both in the library press and elsewhere. All reviews of the set to date have been laudatory, although most reviewers have found a few minor points to criticize.

This, the ninth annual survey of American history reference sources, comprises reviews of twenty 1985 imprints. The largest categories are bibliographies and encyclopedias (in which there are, respectively, five and four entries), followed by atlases, collective biographies, and dictionaries (two each), and one each of the following: a chronology, a directory, a document collection, a reference guide, and a statistical compendium.

The two major trends in American history reference publishing, noted in last year's survey, continued throughout 1978: the refinement of past efforts and improved access, via micrographics, to elusive source materials. The genuinely new or unique reference work is indeed a rara avis, but the reason for this situation is not all that puzzling. Historians of American history and culture, each looking at a particular aspect of our past, need to gain access to a number of already existing historical records (out‐of‐print books, obscure government reports, archival records, regional studies, etc.) and publishers are merely attempting to fulfill these needs in a variety of ways. Therefore, the revision of standard sources, new titles in series, and the completion of large micrographics collections reflect the principal publishing activities of 1978. The few exceptions include the unique Dictionary of American Library Biography and the essentially new Handbook of North American Indians.

It has been two years since our “current” survey last appeared (RSR, Summer 1987). In that survey, we covered 1985 publications. For the sake of continuity, this new survey looks at 28 titles from 1986 and 14 from 1987. All of them are still listed in Books in Print.