Library Journal Reviews
Multimedia by Cheryl LaGuardia & Ed Tallent


Fateful Lightning: A Narrative History of the Civil War

          This is the new edition (the second edition was covered in CD-ROM Reviews, LJ 10/15/97) of what is still the best integrated Civil War disc we've found. It pulls together original text, images, video (of reenactments), and music (original recordings of period music as well as lyrics and textual commentary). Supplemental information includes a (welcome!) search/find feature, charts (of army organization, war deaths from the American Revolution to Vietnam, and Civil War weapon ranges), a program tour, and the text of the Gettysburg Address and Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address. The battle maps and step-by-step progressions through campaigns illustrate just how the war was fought. A rich context is created by the breadth and depth of interlinked biographical, social, political, and demographic material. Bottom Line: Much more than just the sum of its parts, this edition gets an enthusiastic recommendation for all library collections and for Civil War enthusiasts. --Harvard University Libraries.

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Quest for Empire: A History of the Napoleonic Wars

          Another historical tour de force from Troubadour. Like its "Fateful Lightning: A Narrative History of the Civil War", there is excellent content and presentation on this disc. The "title page" lists the four major sections of the system: Timeline, Battle Chronology, Political Map, and Theater Map, along with seven section titles that follow the course of the wars. The content, which includes printed text, illustrations, maps of campaigns and individual battles, pictures of landscapes and portraits, music, video, charts, documents (Rights of Man, Tennis Court Oath, etc.), lyrics to "La Marseillaise," a Bibliography, and more, has mostly been produced by disc creator David Inglehart. There is also good narration. The one cavil is that the search feature, Find Text, is hidden under an "Addenda" button on the tool bar. It deserves a button of its own. Bottom Line: An immersion learning experience in the Napoleonic Wars: recommended for public library and academic circulating collections. --Harvard University Libraries.

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