History of the American Guitar
This colorful, large-format book by the author of Electric  Guitars (Advantage, 2000) and The Ultimate Guitar Book (Vintage,  1997) doesn't add anything new with its capsule history of the  American guitar. Indeed, several previous books do a better job  on the details, including Tom Wheeler's American Guitars  (HarperCollins, 1992) and more specific works by Jim Washburn  and Richard Johnston (Martin Guitars, Rodale) and Walter Carter  (Gibson Guitars, General Publishing, 1994). On the other hand,  this is a fine, large-format photo book filled with color photos  of hundreds of guitars, from the early 1800s to today, including  many foldout pages. Detail in the photography is uniformly  excellent, and the textual history is complete though somewhat  brief in spots. If your library is short on guitar history, this  would make an excellent start, and the price is quite reasonable  for the quality of production. Eric C. Shoaf, Brown Univ. Lib.,  Providence, RICopyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.