Indexes Praised and Indexes Censured are extracted from Indexes Reviewed, a regular feature in The Indexer.

These extracts from reviews do not pretend to represent a complete survey of all reviews in journals and newspapers. We offer only a selection from quotations that members have sent in. Our reproduction of comments is not a stamp of approval from the Society of Indexers upon the reviewer’s assessment of an index.

Allen Lane: To have and to hold, by Philipp Blom (274 pp, £18.99). Rev. by David Hughes, The Spectator, 24 Aug. 2002.
To my relief (and [Sir Hans] Sloane’s fury) Handel at the height of his powers suddenly puts a buttered bun on a mediaeval manuscript of untold worth. Handel’s name is not in the index.

Ashgate: The faith and fortunes of France’s Huguenots, 1600–1685, by Philip Benedict (2001, 336 pp, $94.95). Rev. by Paul Cohen, Sixteenth Century Journal, January 2003.
Given the volume’s hefty price tag, one might have wished for more from Ashgate. The lack of a bibliography is to be regretted, particularly given the coherence of the articles gathered here. The volume’s index is strangely thin – it is curious that in a work that devotes some 150 pages to early modern demography, terms like ‘plague,’ ‘fertility,’ and ‘mortality’ do not figure in the index.

Ashgate: George Ripley’s Compound of Alchymy (1591), ed. by Stanton J. Linden (2001, 138 pp, $59.95). Rev. by William C. Johnson, Sixteenth Century Journal, January 2003.
The eight-page index with which Linden concludes the volume is likewise unreliable; although indexed items do appear on the pages indicated, randomly selecting pages in the text, and then checking to see if all the items on those pages were indexed, revealed that a considerable number of them were not. Unfortunately, such inaccuracies and omissions undermine Linden’s efforts and authority.

Blackwell Science: Science and the garden, ed. by David S. Ingram, Daphne Vince-Prue and Peter J. Gregory (2002, 304 pp, £19.99). Rev. by Ken Thompson, Organic Gardening, Nov. 2002.
I found few mistakes, and only have one serious gripe: there are no plant names in the index, so if you want to look up apples or Narcissus, you can’t.

Cambridge University Press: The Cambridge history of Japan, vol. 2, Heian Japan, ed. by Donald H. Shively and William H. McCullough (1999, xxiii + 754 pp, $120). Rev. by S. A. Thornton, American Historical Review 106(5), Dec. 2001.
The over seven-hundred pages of the text provide a wealth of information. Navigation is difficult, however. Political history and foreign relations are spread over two chapters and customs and culture over three, as are religion and ritual. And yet, the index is hardly exhaustive: there are, for example, no entries for nin’yô, henushi, Bifukumon’in or Ike-no-zenni. Not every term is scrupulously identified as contemporary or as a much later neologism (e.g., sôhei or yugyô hijiri). The text needs editing; there are typos and mistakes. Nevertheless, these are minor irritations. This volume remains an indispensable resource for all students of Heian Japan.

Cambridge University Press: Life at the limits: organisms in extreme environments, by David A. Wharton (307 pp, £18.95). Rev. by John Postgate, Times Literary Supplement, 27 Nov. 2002.
… the index is satisfactory except that the numeration slips by a page after Chapter Seven. [Surely not the indexer’s fault.]

Cornell University Press: Rebels and Mafiosi: death in a Sicilian landscape, by James Fentress (2000, 297 pp, $29.95). Rev. by Charles Bertrand, American Historical Review 106(3,) June 2001.
Finally, and perhaps most disturbing of all, the author incorrectly identifies one of the most prominent Italian politicians ever, Giovanni Giolitti, as Antonio Giolitti. And the mistake is repeated, twice in the text and even in the index!

Gallimard: Écrits de linguistique générale, ed. by Simon Bouquet and Rudolf Engler (353 pp, E22). Rev. by Roy Harris, Times Literary Supplement, 26 July 2002.
In short, by current editorial standards, their presentation of the texts is disappointing and their index, which overlooks important terms such as ‘définition’, ‘écriture’ and ‘étymologie’, as well as omitting Saussure’s references to other linguists, can hardly be considered satisfactory for scholarly purposes.

Greenwood Publishing Group: Shamanism and Christianity: native encounters with Russian Orthodox missions in Siberia and Alaska, 1820–1917, by André A. Znamenski (1999, xii + 206 pp, $65). Rev. by Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer, American Historical Review 106(5), Dec. 2001.
In sum, while I would prefer more recognition of indigenous and recent anthropological scholarship, better proofreading (especially for inconsistently spelled names), an improved index (including all cited scholars), and an alphabetical rather than compartmentalized reference list, this book is an excellent contribution to the history and historiography of Siberia and Alaska.

McGill-Queen’s University Press: Builders and deserters: students, state, and community in Leningrad, 1917–1941, by Peter Konecny (1999, xv + 358 pp, $65). Rev. by Larry E. Holmes, Journal of Modern History 74(2), June 2002.
Unfortunately, the index amounts to a listing of proper names and institutions (with the exception of the entries ‘students’ and ‘professors’) and does not do justice to the book’s presentation of many issues and topics of historical and historiographical interest.

Macmillan: The botanical garden, vol. 1: Trees and shrubs; vol. 2: Perennials and annuals, by Roger Phillips and Martyn Rix (2002, 492 and 540 pp, £50 each vol.). Rev. by Alan Leslie, The Garden, Nov. 2002.
What a shame that each book is served by an introduction whose design is at odds with the remainder of the book, a nonsensical contents page, an incomplete glossary and an index that contains none of the species or cultivars illustrated!

R. Oldenbourg Verlag: Der Westfälische Friede: Diplomatie – politische Zäsur – kulturelles Umfeld – Rezeptionsgeschichte, ed. by Heinz Duchhardt (1998, xi + 888 pp, DM109). Rev. by Anuschka Tischer, Journal of Modern History 73(1), March 2001.
The book’s use is facilitated by a solid index (which, however, includes the striking error of naming Napoleon as ‘king’ of France, p. 877). Unfortunately, the index indicates only persons – no places, not to mention terms or facts. Territories and states can be found only if mentioned in relation to their rulers. A more extended index might have corresponded better with the book’s own concept.

Oxford University Press: Becoming George, by Ann Saddlemyer (808 pp, £25). Rev. by P. J. Kavanagh, The Spectator, 5 Oct. 2002.
However, these [Yeats scholars] will not be helped by the index: under ‘astrology’, for example, there are no less than 150 page references but no indication at all what occasion, or aspect of astrology, the pages mention; as an index, therefore, it is useless.

Rev. by Brenda Maddox, The Guardian, 27 Oct. 2002. Overall, the 800 pages are a hard slog. Even Yeats scholars will find it hard to make their way through the textual thicket. Names in the index are followed only by a useless succession of page-numbers, with no thematic subdivisions.

Oxford University Press: The Oxford companion to Scottish history, ed. by Michael Lynch (2001, xxvi + 732 pp, £30). Rev. by A. A. M. Duncan, History Scotland 2(4), July/Aug. 2002.
Another way of finding information is an extraordinary index which has no page numbers but gives references to entry-headings to various treatments of the subject, but does not include those subjects which have their own entry, unless they are significant towns or districts. Under this provision ‘Iona’ qualifies in both places, but in the Index there is no reference to the entry ‘Columba’ (‘anyone would know that’), ‘Adomnan’ (‘anyone using this book would know that’) or Diarmait foster-son of Daigre (!). At least the Index is alphabetical; the List of …Contributors is fine if you seek your friends, for it is alphabetical by name, but if you seek the identity of contributor RDA, seek on for you will find him third after RJA.
These peculiarities are not merely a pity; they are a bizarre obstacle to the wide, indeed popular use which the book and all the effort which has gone into its production deserve.

Politico’s: Ernest Bevin, by Alan Bullock, ed. by Brian Brivati (826 pp, £30). Rev. by Mark Wickham-Jones, Times Literary Supplement, 26 July 2002.
I have one small grumble. Wanting to see what Bevin’s attitude was to Frank Wise, a Labour MP and the first chair of the Socialist League, I turned to the index to find that two different individuals of that surname had been subsumed under the same entry (Frank with an American Rabbi Jonah Bondi Wise), a reflection presumably of relying on a computer programme.

Prospect: Mediterranean seafood (revised edn), by Alan Davidson (432 pp, £17.99). Rev. by Paul Levy, Times Literary Supplement, 25 October 2002.
The editor and publisher might note that the ‘best-known descendant’ of the Roman fish sauce known as garum, ‘the pei salat or pissalat of Provence’ is not on p. 292 as promised, and is not listed in the index.

Routledge: Publishing law, by Hugh Jones and Christopher Benson (2nd edn, 2002, £65/£24.99). Rev. by Anthony Watkinson, Learned Publishing 15(4), Oct. 2002.
‘Publishing Law is a comprehensive guide to the law as it affects the publishing process’ runs the blurb, and those of us who have used this excellent book in its first edition naturally endorse the claim. However, on second thoughts, it is clearly not an assertion to accept especially when the needs of academic and professional publishers are primarily considered. A quick look at the index gives the clue. There is no entry for ‘journal’ and no entry for ‘serial’. Actually there should be an entry for ‘periodical’ (see p. 49), so the index is clearly not up to scratch…. I have already complained about the index, because it is to my mind so important in a reference book of this type. Otherwise, Routledge as an imprint of Taylor & Francis has done an excellent job on the production.

Smith Settle: In my own good time, by Stan Barstow (2001, 262 pp, £16.95). Rev. by Malcolm Barker, Writing Magazine, June–July 2002.
In My Own Good Time’s index is lamentable, but Barstow will recognise that for what it is, a reviewer’s complaint. [And what about the readers?]

Stanford University Press: To the Harbin Station: the liberal alternative in Russian Manchuria, 1898–1914, by David Wolff (1999, xiv + 255 pp, $49.50). Rev. by Bruce E. Elleman, Journal of Modern History 73(2), June 2001.
There are notable editing problems by Stanford University Press. One example is that the reader is informed on at least three separate occasions that Japan secretly attacked Port Arthur in 1904. The Blagoveshchensck massacre (p. 33) took place July 17–20, not just on July 17, and in 1900, not 1899. Likewise, the index is inadequate; for example, it includes references to only thirteen pages that discuss the Boxer Uprising, even though this event appears on a total of twenty-two pages.

University of Michigan Press: Mobility and modernity: migration in Germany, 1820–1989, by Steve Hochstadt (1999, xviii + 331 pp, $52.50). Rev. by Jea H. Quataert, American Historical Review 106(4), Oct. 2001.
For the rich comparative data in the text, furthermore, the index is woefully deficient. But this only means that the book must be read from cover to cover to mine the wealth of details, wide-ranging analyses, and extraordinary scholarship that are at the heart of this impressive sociodemographic study. [So that’s all right, then.]

Viking: Berlin, the downfall, 1945, by Anthony Beevor (490 pp, £25). Rev. by Kevin Myers, Irish Times, 4 May 2002.
Yet, too typically of these days, the author has been wretchedly served by his publishers. The index and the footnotes are an utter disgrace – inexcusably so since new technology should long since have made the compilation of each so relatively simple. [Well . . . ] This is penny-pinching publishing at its most contemptible, yet its most predictable. The author, the reader, the scholar and most of all, the victims of that atrocious epoch, deserve far better.