Review by Choice Review
An unexceptional compilation of more than 600 English-language references published from 1979 to 1990. About 80 books, book chapters, films, pamphlets, and theses, arranged by author's name, constitute the first section. The second section lists periodical articles alphabetically by title within broad subject categories such as "General," "Ben Johnson," and "Women." Two subjects, "Side Effects" and "Testing and Drug Enforcement," are further divided into more specific subtopics. Pulled from online databases, references include articles from periodicals in a great variety of fields: medicine, sports, education, psychology, and law, as well as general-interest magazines. Only a third of the citations are annotated; some entries are inconsistent in format. An index of first-cited authors refers to page numbers in the bibliography. Citations are not individually numbered, and this page-number referral renders the very brief and vague subject index exasperating to use. A glossary of medical and slang terms relating to steroids is appended. Paterson recently published a bibliographic essay (CH, Dec'90) discussing more than half the book references found (and several not found) in this bibliography. An expanded version of the essay as an introduction would have greatly enhanced this work. Despite problems, the hardcovered and nicely printed book is a bargain: the quantity and variety of periodical articles could not be compiled for this price through any online search, and these factors outweigh the book's limitations. For collections in sports, sports medicine, or drug abuse topics in any library.-L. N. Pander, Bowdoin College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
