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Call Numbers
Specific call numbers for books are found in the online catalog, but when browsing the shelves, it helps to know something about them.
Books about the Vietnam Conflict can be found shelved in the library in the call number range DS557 through DS559.9; the history of the country Vietnam starts in DS 556. However, American history from the Kennedy through the Ford administrations can be found from E 841 through E 865, and where the Vietnam conflict overlaps with other times books might be classified with other materials on that topic; for example, Songs of the Vietnam Conflict can be found under ML3477 .P45 2001 Works that address Vietnam
The broad topics indicated by the first letter of the "call number" are often broken down into subtopics with a second letter, and are then refined in much greater detail with the addition of numbers. A full listing of Library of Congress call numbers can be found here: http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/lcco/
The digits in these call numbers are read as counting numbers, not as decimals as in the Dewey Decimal system. This means that DL 1175 is found between DL 1174 and DL 1179, well after DL 117 or DL 118.
This arrangement of books by subject matter makes shelf-browsing convenient. If you find a useful book, the books nearby on the shelf are likely to be closely related in topic.
Note that these call numbers are used both for the circulating collection, of which numbers beginning with E and F are all on the third floor of Olin, and in the reference collection, which is primarily on the second floor.
Selected Histories of the Vietnam War
Vietnam by Call Number: Books - 1st Floor DS558 .K37 1997ISBN: 0140265473Publication Date: 1997-06-01"A landmark work...The most complete account to date of the Vietnam tragedy." -The Washington Post Book World This monumental narrative clarifies, analyzes, and demystifies the tragic ordeal of the Vietnam war. Free of ideological bias, profound in its undertsanding, and compassionate in its human portrayls , it is filled with fresh revelations drawn from secret documents and from exclusive interviews with participants-French, American, Vietnamese, Chinese: diplomats, military commanders, high government officials, journalists, nurses, workers, and soldiers. Originally published a companion to the Emmy-winning PBS series, Karnow's defining book is a precursor to Ken Burns's ten-part forthcoming documentary series, The Vietnam War. Vietnam: A History puts events and decisions into such sharp focus that we come to understand - and make peace with - a convulsive epoch of our recent history. "This is history writing at its best." -Chicago Sun-Times "Even those of us who think we know something about it will read with fascination." -The New York Times
America's Longest War by Call Number: Books - 1st Floor DS558 .H45 2002ISBN: 0072417552Publication Date: 2001-11-01Comprehensive yet concise, America’s Longest War provides a complete and balanced history of the Vietnam War. It is not mainly a military history, but seeks to integrate military, diplomatic, and political factors in order to clarify America’s involvement and ultimate failure in Vietnam. While it focuses on the American side of the equation, it provides sufficient consideration of the Vietnamese side to make the events comprehensible.
The Vietnam War by Call Number: OnlineISBN: 9780195314656Publication Date: 2008-08-04The Vietnam War remains a topic of extraordinary interest, especially in light of the invasion of Iraq. In The Vietnam War, Mark Lawrence offers readers a superb short account of this key moment in U.S. as well as world history, based on the latest European and American research and on newlyopened archives in China, Russia, and Vietnam. While focusing on the American involvement from 1965 to 1975, Lawrence offers an unprecedentedly complete picture of all sides of the war, drawing on now available communist records to capture the complicated brew of motivations that drove the other side. Moreover, the book reaches back wellbefore American forces set foot in Vietnam, describing for instance how French colonialism sparked the 1945 Vietnamese revolution, and revealing how the Cold War concerns of the 1950s warped Washington's perception of Vietnam, leading the United States to back the French and eventually becomeinvolved on the ground itself. Of course, the heart of the book is the "American war," ranging from the overthrow of Ngo Dinh Diem to the impact of the Tet Offensive on the political situation in the US, Johnson's withdrawal from the 1968 presidential race, Nixon's expansion of the war into Cambodiaand Laos, and the final peace agreement of 1973, which ended American military involvement. Finally, the book examines the aftermath of the war, from the momentous liberalization--"Doi Moi"--in Vietnam that began in 1986, to the enduring legacy of the war in American books, films, and politicaldebate. A quick and reliable primer on an intensely relevant topic, this well researched and engaging volume offers an invaluable overview of the Vietnam War.
