July/August 2010
 The Core is an online newsletter providing information about H.
W. Wilson’s Core Collections and related resources and services—and
a forum for the exchange of ideas from librarian to librarian.
CONTENTS
Finding Your Future
Current Issues: Careers
While the employment outlook may seem bleak, it is far from hopeless. There are opportunities waiting for those with the knowledge and the will—the pound-the-pavement persistence—to track them down.
And that’s where Current Issues: Careers, the latest addition to Wilson’s award-winning Current Issues suite, comes in. Whether users are looking for a first job, a new job, a career change, job advice, or other employment information, Careers will give them the insight and direction they need. Each Careers topic, ranging from such subjects as “Carpenter,” “Finding a Job,” “Unemployment,” “The Nursing Profession,” and “Architect,” among dozens of others, is composed of three major components: pertinent full-text articles culled from Wilson’s comprehensive OmniFile periodical database; links to reputable related Web sites, with annotations provided by Careers editors; and succinct editors’ introductions.
Every topic contains at least fifteen helpful, editor-selected articles divided into three or more chapters or subtopics. Carefully read and arranged by Careers editors, these articles were selected for their overall quality and the particular focus of their content. Those on a specific profession—“Carpenter,” say—were picked with an eye toward users considering a career in the field. Consequently, the material emphasizes training and education requirements, pay scale, advancement opportunities, and other essential information. For those needing more full-text content, each subtopic has a “More Articles” option, which gives users access to dozens of additional articles on the subject. Among these will be the latest material, as well.
Along with the full-text articles, another important feature of every Careers topic is a list of at least five annotated links to recommended Web sites. Editors comb the Internet for the essential sites on a subject and, after exploring the features of each, write up a short annotation describing what visitors will find on the site. For a topic like “Carpenter,” users can expect to find links to educational and training sites, reputable industry publications, established labor organizations, and other such content.
The editors’ introductions offer a short synopsis of the topic, its importance, and the underlying chapter structure that follows. In “Carpenter,” for example, visitors could expect a short definition of the profession and the duties involved—what it is a carpenter does—as well as a brief exploration of the required training and education, the pay, and the prospects.
Finally, Current Issues: Careers offers a unique new feature: the “Job-Finder’s Toolbox.” The Toolbox is an extensive annotated database of helpful career Web sites. The sites included run the gamut from the general job-search pages, like Monster and CareerBuilder, which offer resume help and interviewing tips and other assistance in addition to job listings, to more specialized categories, such as “Financial Careers Web Sites,” “Health Care Career Web Sites,” and “Minority Careers Web Sites,” among others.
Combining the most helpful and informative full-text material with the best on-line resources available, Current Issues: Careers offers jobseekers and career agnostics alike a leg-up on the competition, helping them determine what it is they want out of their professional lives and giving them the tools to go out and get it.
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Sears List of Subject Headings, 20th Edition
So what’s new in the new edition of Sears?
How about 300 new subject headings? More than 300 new headings—in the areas of ecology and environment (Rainforest ecology, Climate change, Sustainable agriculture); dinosaurs (Raptorex, Pteranodon, and Edmontosaurus); social networking (Twitter (Web site)) and arts and crafts (Acrylic painting and Wire craft).
Then there is Russia. Since the end of the Soviet Union nearly twenty years ago, materials on Russia have been very awkwardly separated among three headings: Russia, Soviet Union, and Russia (Federation). In the new Sears there is now a single heading, simply Russia. All the headings for the Soviet Union have been canceled in favor of period subdivisions under Russia—History. It was only in 1982 that Sears (and the Library of Congress) changed Russia to Soviet Union, nine years before the end of the Soviet Union. We thought we might wait another fifty or seventy years to change it back, and then we thought again.
The other big change is India and Indians. It was in the seventeenth edition of the Sears List (2000) that the headings Indians, Indians of North America, Indians of Mexico, etc., were canceled in favor or Native Americans, which may be subdivided geographically by continent, region, country, state, or city. In the new twentieth edition the heading Indians has been re-established to denote the people of India, replacing East Indians, and a number of headings relating to the literature and culture of India have been similarly established, such as Indian literature and Indian music, replacing Indic literature, etc. This revision reflects the increasing globalization of our culture and the international use of the Sears List in library cataloging.
Sears on WilsonWeb
Don’t wait for the next edition to find out what revisions the editors have up their sleeves for the twenty-first edition. Subscribe to Sears on WilsonWeb and get the new headings and revisions annually. Not to mention the amazing new search interface we have devised specifically for Sears. Not to mention the opportunity for multiple users and remote access. And downloadable MARC authority records.
The Pint-Sized T-Rex
Raptorex is a genus of primitive tyrannosauroid dinosaur. The type species is R. kriegsteini, described in 2009 by Sereno and colleagues. The genus name is derived from Latin raptor, “robber,” and rex, “king.” The specific name honors Roman Kriegstein, a survivor of the Holocaust, whose son Henry Kriegstein donated the specimen to the University of Chicago for scientific study.
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Ray Barber’s BEST LIST ROUND-UP Continues
BEST BOOK LISTS FOR ADULTS
Booklist The Year’s Best Crime Novels (2010)
http://www.booklistonline.com/ProductInfo.aspx?pid=4145591
Booklist Top 10 Historical Fiction (2010)
http://booklistonline.com/default.aspx?page=show_product&pid=4131957
Booklist Top 10 Science Fiction/Fantasy (2010)
http://www.booklistonline.com/ProductInfo.aspx?pid=4171919
Kirkus Reviews BEA/ALA Big Book Guide (2010)
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/static/files/BEA.pdf
Kirkus Reviews Living Well (2010)
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/static/files/livingwell.pdf
Library Journal Best Poetry (2009)
http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/ljinprint/currentissue/884223-403/best_poetry_of_2009.html.csp
BEST BOOK LISTS FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS
American Booksellers Association Children’s Indie Next List (Summer 2010)
http://news.bookweb.org/news/summer-2010-childrens-indie-next-list
Top 10 Science Fiction/Fantasy for Youth (2010)
http://www.booklistonline.com/ProductInfo.aspx?pid=4184118
Booklist Top 10 Crime Fiction for Youth (2010)
http://www.booklistonline.com/ProductInfo.aspx?pid=4167093
Booklist Top 10 Historical Fiction for Youth (2010)
http://booklistonline.com/default.aspx?page=show_product&pid=4126728
New York Public Library
Stuff for the Teen Age (2010)
http://www.nypl.org/help/getting-oriented/resources-teens/sta
VOYA Best Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror (2009)
http://www.voya.com/2010/03/30/the-b-e-s-t-science-fiction-fantasy-and-horror-2009/
VOYA Pure Poetry (2009)
http://www.voya.com/2010/03/30/pure-poetry-voyas-poetry-picks-2009/
BEST LISTS FOR REFERENCE
Library Journal Best of Free Reference (2010)
Etkin, Cynthia and Brian E. Coutts. “Best of Free Reference.” Library Journal April 15, 2010: 28-30. (Print)
AWARDS FOR BOOKS
Asian Pacific American Library Association Awards (2010)
http://www.apalaweb.org/awards/awards.htm
American Booksellers Association Indies Choice Book Awards (2010)
http://www.bookweb.org/btw/awards/ICBA.html
Orange Prize for Fiction (2010)
http://www.orangeprize.co.uk/show/feature/Orange-2010-opf-shortlist-readings
Orange Prize for Fiction Shortlist (2010)
http://www.orangeprize.co.uk/2010-Prize/shortlist
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School-libraries.net—An Update—June 2010
- It’s been a very active month for www.School-Libraries.Net. We added thirty-eight new libraries, bringing our yearly total to 233. To view the list of libraries added the past few weeks go to:
http://www.school-libraries.net/new.htm
- Thanks to Vicki Builta, the state coordinator from Indiana, and Barbara Braxton, the coordinator from Australia, those two sections of the SLN have been checked for inoperative links and enhanced with added professional resources. If you are interested in volunteering to become a coordinator, write Ray Barber at:
rwbarber@gmail.com.
- Sixteen new curriculum resources were added.
- Sadly we deleted seven libraries. We tried to find new links, but couldn’t track them down
- We appreciate those who report dead links. To do so use our form:
http://www.corecollections.net/forms/deadlinks/deadlinks.htm
This month we awarded stars to four school libraries that have outstanding Web sites:
Wendell Creative Arts & Science Elementary School Library, Wendell, North Carolina, sports a great logo, and their short video introducing the library is the best we have ever seen. Not to be missed!
http://libraryatwendellelementaryschool.blogspot.com/
St. John’s Academy, Hillsdale, New Jersey, offers a Wordle that includes all the functions of a great school library. (We’re big fans of the Wordle.)
http://sja.nj.schoolwebpages.com/education/staff/staff.php?sectionid=110&cms_mode=edit&×tamp=1272919506&&&&&&#pitem2106
The Cavitt Junior High School Library, Granite Bay, California, sponsors a book group that was featured in a recent issue of BookMarks magazine and a great monthly contest to encourage reading.
http://www.eureka-usd.k12.ca.us/education/club/club.php?sectiondetailid=1038&
Bose Elementary School Library Media Center, Kenosha, Wisconsin, has sections for teachers, kids, and parents on their Web site. This organization facilitates an economical, neat use of space.
http://bose.kusd.edu/library/bose_library/main/createdpages/index.html
A Reminder
If you are changing libraries or retiring and have used your own name on the school Web page, please change it to a generic address, such as “Library.” Then use our form to report the new Web site:
http://www.corecollections.net/forms/deadlinks/deadlinks.htm
We thank those of you who are leaving for your service to students and teachers and your support of this Web site.
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The Books the Stars Fell on—July 2010
We have reached the midpoint of the year. Between April 15 and June 15, 435 adult books and 303 books for children and young adults received one or more starred reviews. The Ask by Sam Lipsyte was on our list last month with six starred reviews, and now keeps climbing with seven. In both lists you will notice some older books appearing. While some periodicals receive books to review before they are published, others do not. A few review sources have a staff to review books, while others send them out to reviewers. Sometimes reviews appear up to nine months after the book is published. Many of the titles listed below will be appearing on best lists at year’s end.
Two books received seven starred reviews.
from FICTION CORE COLLECTION
Title: The ask
Personal Author: Lipsyte, Sam
Edited by James Meetze and Simon Pettet
Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Publication Year: 2010
Pages: 296
ISBN: 978-0-374-29891-3; 0-374-29891-2, $25
Abstract: “Milo Burke, a recently fired donations officer at a third-tier university, is a paragon of failure: a horny, bile-filled chunk of a man, veering into middle age with nothing to show for his youthful dreams of artistic glory. The Ask’s narrative heft comes from the reappearance of a wealthy friend from Milo’s college days and the tragicomic scenarios that follow—the plight of socialist daycare workers and legless Iraq-war vets among them. But the gift is Sam Lipsyte’s writing: a chewy, corrosive, and syntactically dazzling prose style that doesn’t so much run across the page as pick it up and throttle it. You may want to throttle Milo yourself frequently, but you won’t stop reading.” (Entertainment Wkly)
Kirkus Reviews (November 1, 2009)
Booklist (December 1, 2009)
Entertainment Weekly (March 5, 2010)
People (March 15, 2010)
The Week (March 19, 2010)
New York Times (March 14, 2009)
BookMarks (March/April 2010)
from FICTION CORE COLLECTION
Title: The surrendered
Personal Author: Lee, Chang-Rae
Edited by James Meetze and Simon Pettet
Publisher: Riverhead Books
Publication Year: 2010
Pages: 469
ISBN: 9781594489761; 1-59448-976-9, $26.95
Abstract: “June Han is a starving 11-year-old refugee fleeing military combat during the Korean War when she is separated from her seven-year-old twin siblings. Eventually brought to an orphanage near Seoul by American soldier Hector Brennan, who is still reeling from his father’s death, June slowly recovers from her nightmarish experiences thanks to the loving attention of Sylvie Tanner, the wife of the orphanage’s minister. But Sylvie is irretrievably scarred as well, having witnessed her parents’ murder by Japanese soldiers in 1934 Manchuria. These traumas reverberate throughout the characters’ lives, determining the destructive relationship that arises between June, Hector and Sylvie as the plot rushes forward and back in time.” (Publ Wkly)
“In its ineffably quiet way, there really is something Tolstoyan in this searching fiction’s determination to understand the characters specifically as members of families and products of other people’s influences. The characterizations of Hector and Sylvie are astonishingly rich and complex, and the risk taken in depicting the adult June as the woman readers will hope she would not become is triumphantly vindicated.” (Kirkus)
Publishers Weekly (October 26, 2009)
Library Journal (November 15, 2009)
Kirkus Reviews (February 15, 2010)
Booklist (February 15, 2010)
Entertainment Weekly (March 5, 2010)
The Week (March 26, 2010)
BookMarks (March/April 2010)
One book received six starred reviews.
from PUBLIC LIBRARY CORE COLLECTION: NONFICTION
A Most Highly Recommended Title
Title: The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks
Personal Author: Skloot, Rebecca
Publisher: Crown Publishers
Publication Year: 2010
Pages: 369
ISBN: 978-1-4000-5217-2, $26
Abstract: “Henrietta Lacks, an African American mother of five, was undergoing treatment for cancer at Johns Hopkins University in 1951 when tissue samples were removed without her knowledge or permission and used to create HeLa, the first ‘immortal’ cell line. HeLa has been sold around the world and used in countless medical research applications, including the development of the polio vaccine. . . . [The author] entwines Lacks’s biography, the development of the HeLa cell line, and her own story of building a relationship with Lacks’s children.” (Libr J)
“A thorny and provocative book about cancer, racism, scientific ethics and crippling poverty, ‘The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks’ also floods over you like a narrative dam break, as if someone had managed to distill and purify the more addictive qualities of ‘Erin Brockovich,’ ‘Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,’ and ‘The Andromeda Strain.’ More than 10 years in the making, it feels like the book Ms. Skloot was born to write.” (N Y Times Book Rev)
Booklist (December 1, 2009)
Library Journal (December 2009)
Kirkus Reviews (January 1, 2010)
Entertainment Weekly (Febuary 5, 2010)
BookMarks (March/April 2010)
Publishers Weekly (October 5, 2009)
Six books received five starred reviews.
from PUBLIC LIBRARY CORE COLLECTION: NONFICTION
from SENIOR HIGH CORE COLLECTION
A Most Highly Recommended Title
Title: Last call: the rise and fall of Prohibition, 1920-1933
Personal Author: Okrent, Daniel
Publisher:Scribner
Publication Year: 2010
Pages: 468
ISBN: 978-0-7432-7702-0; 0-7432-7702-3, $30
Abstract: This is a history of “the years 1920-1933, when the U.S. Constitution was amended to restrict . . . drinking alcoholic beverages.” (Publisher’s note)
“Okrent’s style is bracing and wry, his research is vast and impressive and his insight is penetrating. Intoxicating.” (Kirkus)
Kirkus Reviews (February 15, 2010)
Publishers Weekly (January 11, 2010)
Entertainment Weekly (May 14, 2010)
The Week (May 28, 2010)
New York Times (May 30, 2009)
from FICTION CORE COLLECTION
Title: Major Pettigrew’s last stand: a novel
Personal Author: Simonson, Helen
Publisher: Random House
Publication Year: 2010
Pages: 358
ISBN: 978-1-4000-6893-7; 1-4000-6893-2, $25
Abstract: “Shortly after being informed that his younger brother Bertie has suddenly passed away from a coronary, Maj. Ernest Pettigrew answers his door to find Mrs. Ali, proprietress of his village food shop. She’s on an errand, but when she steps in to help the somewhat older man during a vulnerable moment, something registers; then they bond over a shared love of Kipling and the loss of their beloved spouses. Their friendship grows slowly, with the two well aware of their very different lives.” (Kirkus)
“As with the polished work of Alexander McCall Smith, there is never a dull moment but never a discordant note either. Still, this book feels fresh despite its conventional blueprint. Its main characters are especially well drawn, and Ms. Simonson makes them as admirable as they are entertaining.” (N Y Times (Late N Y Ed))
Library Journal (December 2009)
New York Times (March 14, 2009)
The Week (April 2, 2010)
Book Beast (March 6, 2010)
BookMarks (March/April 2010)
from FICTION CORE COLLECTION
Title: Parrot and Olivier in America
Personal Author: Carey, Peter
Publisher: Knopf
Publication Year: 2010
Pages: 379
ISBN: 978-0-307-59262-0; 0-307-59262-6, $26.95
Abstract: Olivier-Jean-Baptiste de Clarel de Garmont “has been bundled off to America at the behest of his mother, who suffered brutally under the French Terror of 1793 and thinks only of how to save her son from a similar fate. Accompanying him is Parrot, an English orphan with artistic aspirations, trained as a printer, who is yoked to ‘Olivier de Bah-bah Garmont’ as servant, gadfly, and spy. Both men wrestle with demon love: Olivier for his democratic American girl who can never be taken home to Paris and maman; Parrot for his mistress, a beautiful and lusty painter, ‘all that smeary wine and meat and fat glistening on her lips,’ and whose talent outstrips his own. In short, it’s a buddy novel. But what a novel! . . . . Funny, bawdy, brainy, and moving, Parrot & Olivier in America is an utter delight.” (Globe and Mail)
Booklist (November 1, 2009)
Publishers Weekly (November 9, 2009)
Library Journal (January 2010)
New York Times (April 25, 2009)
The Week (May 14, 2010)
from FICTION CORE COLLECTION
Title: The devil’s star
Personal Author: Nesbø, Jo
Responsibility: translated from the Norwegian by Don Bartlett
Publisher: Harper
Publication Year: 2010
Pages: 452
ISBN: 978-0-06-113397-8; 0-06-113397-3, $25.99
Abstract: “Devastated by his inability to convince his superiors that fellow detective Tom Waaler is both guilty of his former partner Ellen’s murder . . . and an arms dealer, Harry Hole goes on a four-week bender. Dragged back to work by his loyal boss, Harry is partnered with Waaler to investigate what quickly looks like a serial killer on the loose in Oslo who leaves star-shaped red diamonds with his victims. . . . Scandinavian noir is alive and well, and Nesbø is one of its best authors.” (Libr J)
Booklist (December 15, 2009)
Entertainment Weekly (March 19, 2010)
Publishers Weekly (January 18, 2010)
Book Beast (March 21, 2010)
BookMarks (March/April, 2010)
from FICTION CORE COLLECTION
Title: The postmistress
Personal Author: Blake, Sarah
Publisher: Amy Einhorn Books
Publication Year: 2010
Pages: 326
ISBN: 978-0-399-15619-9; 0-399-15619-9, $25.95
Abstract: “Frankie Bard is an American radio gal reporting from the Blitz in London, desperate for her dawdling countrymen back home to understand the need to enter World War II. Frankie’s tough and fun. She can quip and quaff as quick as any of her male colleagues. She’s one of three terrifically moving women—each of whom responds in her own way to the horrors of the war—in Sarah Blake’s novel. Frankie’s reports of an escalating conflict, and the terrifying waves of Jews flung from their homes, hold a young bride named Emma Fitch spellbound in tiny Franklin, Mass. Emma longs for a letter from her doctor husband, who has left her behind so that he can care for London’s wounded and fallen. Yet it isn’t Emma who first learns of the doctor’s fate—it is Iris James, the town’s postmistress, who delivers, daily, the letters that change people’s lives. Iris, an ungainly 40-year-old with unflattering red lipstick and a crush on the town mechanic, ultimately proves to be the heart of Blake’s novel.” (Entertainment Wkly)
Booklist (January 1/15, 2010)
Entertainment Weekly (February 12/19, 2010)
The Week (March 5, 2010)
BookMarks (March/April 2010)
Library Journal (December 2009)
CHILDREN’S AND YOUNG ADULT BOOKS
from FICTION CORE COLLECTION
from MIDDLE AND JUNIOR HIGH CORE COLLECTION
A Most Highly Recommended Title
Title: Cosmic
Personal Author: Cottrell Boyce, Frank
Publisher: Walden Pond Press
Publication Year: 2010
Pages: 311
ISBN: 978-0-06-183683-1, $16.99;
0-06-183683-4; 978-0-06-183686-2 (lib bdg), $17.89
0-06-183686-9 (lib bdg)
Abstract: “Liam has always felt a bit like he’s stuck between two worlds. This is primarily because he’s a twelve-year-old kid who looks like he’s about thirty. . . . Liam cons his way onto the first spaceship to take civilians into space, a special flight for a group of kids and an adult chaperone, and he is going as the adult chaperone.” (Publisher’s note)
Boyce “knows how to tell a compellingly good story. But in his latest extravagantly imaginative and marvelously good-natured novel he has also written one that is bound to win readers’ hearts.” (Booklist)
Booklist (November 15, 2009)
Kirkus Reviews (December 1, 2009)
Publishers Weekly (December 14, 2009)
School Library Journal (February 2010)
Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books (February 2010)
VOYA (April 2010)
from FICTION CORE COLLECTION
from MIDDLE AND JUNIOR HIGH CORE COLLECTION
A Most Highly Recommended Title
Title: The magician’s elephant
Personal Author: DiCamillo, Kate
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Publication Year: 2009
Pages: 201
Illustration Medium: Acrylic painting
ISBN: 978-0-7636-4410-9; 0-7636-4410-2, $16.99
Abstract: When ten-year-old orphan Peter Augustus Duchene encounters a fortune teller in the marketplace one day and she tells him that his sister, who is presumed dead, is in fact alive, he embarks on a remarkable series of adventures as he desperately tries to find her. “The profound and deeply affecting emotions at work in the story are buoyed up by the tale’s succinct, lyrical text; gentle touches of humor; and uplifting message.” (Booklist)
Booklist (July 2009)
Kirkus Reviews (August 1, 2009)
School Library Journal (August 2009)
Library Media Connection (November/December 2009)
Christian Library Journal (February 2010)
from CHILDREN’S CORE COLLECTION
A Most Highly Recommended Title
Title: All the world
Personal Author: Scanlon, Liz Garton
Responsibility: illustrated by Marla Frazee
Publisher: Beach Lane Books
Publication Year: 2009
Pages: 201
Illustration Medium: Watercolor; Colored pencils
ISBN: 978-1-4169-8580-8; 1-4169-8580-8, $17.99
Abstract: “Charming illustrations and lyrical rhyming couplets speak volumes in celebration of the world and humankind, combining to create a lovely book that will be appreciated by a wide audience. The pictures, made with black Prismacolor pencil and watercolors, primarily follow a multicultural family from a summer morning on the beach through a busy day and night.” (SLJ)
Kirkus Reviews (August 15, 2009)
School Library Journal (August 2009)
Publishers Weekly (August 24, 2009)
Horn Book (September/October 2009)
Horn Book Guide (Spring 2010)
from CHILDREN’S CORE COLLECTION
A Most Highly Recommended Title
Title: The lion & the mouse
Personal Author: Pinkney, Jerry
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication Year: 2009
Illustration Medium: Watercolor
ISBN: 978-0-316-01356-7; 0-316-01356-0, $16.99
Abstract: In this wordless retelling of an Aesop fable, an adventuresome mouse proves that even small creatures are capable of great deeds when he rescues the King of the Jungle. Young readers will be drawn “into watercolors of . . . detail and splendor. Pinkney’s soft, multihued strokes make everything in the jungle seem alive. . . . His luxuriant use of close-ups humanizes his animal characters without idealizing them.” (Booklist)
Booklist (July 2009)
Kirkus Reviews (August 1, 2009)
Publishers Weekly (July 27, 2009)
School Library Journal (September 2009)
Horn Book (November/December 2009)
Horn Book Guide (Spring 2010)
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The National Debate Topic
U.S. National Debate Topic 2010-2011: The American Military Presence Overseas
The Reference Shelf, Vol. 82, No. 3 (June 2010)
Edited by Kenneth Partridge
ISBN: 978-0-8242-1098-4
The NFL is not the National Football League but the National Forensic League, and every year the NFL issues a national debate topic, challenging high-school students to stake out positions on a complex and vital issue. As a service to debaters, we here at H.W. Wilson devote the late-spring issue of our Reference Shelf series to the chosen topic. By compiling timely, relevant articles, we aim to provide students with an overview of key ideas and a starting point for further research.
This year’s debate topic is a doozy: “Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially reduce its military and/or police presence in one or more of the following: South Korea, Japan, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Iraq, Turkey.” Setting aside the historical and political issues one must consider before even beginning to formulate a response, this topic asks teenagers to take an honest look at their country. What is the United States’ role in world affairs? Have we been justified in building the estimated 1,000-plus military bases we now operate across the globe? Was our Cold War policy of communist containment—the impetus for much of our twentieth-century military expansion, not to mention the bulk of Sylvester Stallone’s ’80s filmography—truly in the world’s best interest, or was it merely an excuse to extend American economic influence?
Specifically, this year’s debate topic calls into question our two current wars. After nearly a decade of fighting, the United States is preparing to withdraw forces from Afghanistan and Iraq, the two major fronts of the “global war on terror.” For some—particularly those who, even in the aftermath of 9/11, opposed one or both invasions—the draw-downs can’t come soon enough. Others worry that neither country is stable and that in the absence of U.S. troops both will remain safe havens for al Qaeda militants.
The threat of Islamic extremism also has ramifications in Northeast Asia. During the Cold War, it made sense to house thousands of troops in Japan and South Korea. Nowadays, despite North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il’s antagonistic rhetoric and purported nuclear arsenal, the region has lost strategic importance. With the Taliban resurgent and Osama bin Laden still on the lam, some might ask, should we be quibbling with the Japanese over where in Okinawa to build our new naval base? If, indeed, North Korea has nukes, do we really want our brave men and women hunkered down just south of the 38th parallel, where they might as well be wearing targets?
And what of Turkey? Ankara insists it wants “zero problems with neighbors,” but that strategy has caused its share of problems with Washington.
The American Military Presence Overseas, edited by Kenneth Partridge, touches on these and other related issues. Piggybacking on the NFL’s topic, the book covers five countries—Afghanistan, Iraq, Turkey, Japan, and South Korea—examining current military policy and giving equal credence to conservatives and liberals, hawks and doves. The introductory chapter, “Rome Revisited?” looks at the bigger question of whether the United States is an empire, as some critics contend.
None of these are easy questions. Our hope is that we’ve given this topic the careful consideration it deserves, and that we’ll inspire students to do likewise.
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