How to Feed and Weed Your Collection | Weeding Guidelines

Things We've Dug Up While Weeding | Reader Comments

Why Weed 20th Century Wars?

What is the best way to create an enthusiastic reader? Give them good reading material on what they are interested in, at the time of that interest. What is the best way to discourage any reader? Offer reading material that is obviously out-dated even to a novice of that topic. Wars, past and present, are in the news today. Students are hearing, seeing, and reading about it everyday. Don't let your collection be judged the last place to find good information and reading material.

Suggested Dewey Numbers to Check:

Look in the 355s for general works on military science, but most of the material to review on this topic will be found in the history section according to the geographic area of the conflict: 940s for World Wars I & II, and 950s for the Korean, Vietnam, and Persian Gulf wars. Remember to check the Reference section and the AV collection.

Specific Criteria for Weeding:

Most topics of historical interest are best seen from a relatively current perspective, unless they are primary source materials. So letters and documents of the time are fine to keep over the years, assuming the presentation and physical condition of the work is still acceptable. Keep a general 'end' year for any particular war in mind and review any older analysis of a past war, especially if current viewpoints have developed due to broader information over the years. Watch the publishing market because when new perspectives are accepted, the market follows with new titles on that topic.

In addition to works on specific wars, students watching the news might be interested in the various military branches and the technology used in warfare. This is where you really need to weed any titles that imply currency. However, there will always be an interest in historical warfare titles (such as airplanes of WWII) so keep those works that make it clear they are about a specific period and are not contemporary.

Filmstrips, on this topic as well as all others, are almost certainly dated and should be discarded.

Consider Weeding Titles Like These:

• 10 eventful years; a record of events of the years preceding, including and following World War II, 1937 through 1946, [1947]. LCCN 47006281
• 1914-1918: World War I, 1966.
• 73 North; the defeat of Hitler's navy, [1958]. LCCN 58009538
• Advanced technology warfare : a detailed study of the latest weapons and techniques for warfare today and into the 21st century, c1985. LCCN 85005483
• After 20 years; alternatives to the cold war in Europe,[1965]. LCCN 65011252
• After victory: Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin and the making of the peace, [1967]. LCCN 66020743
• The age of containment: the Cold War, 1945-1965, 1967. LCCN 67010650
• Age of the guerrilla; the new warfare, [1968]. LCCN 68023401
• The air war in Vietnam, [1968]. LCCN 68056217
• Air power: key to survival, 1950.
• Alert the fifth force; counterinsurgency, unconventional warfare, and psychological operations of the United States Air Force in special air warfare, [1969]. LCCN 69010221
• Alliance policy in the cold war, 1959. LCCN 59-10764
• Allied intelligence bureau : our secret weapon in the war against Japan, 1958.
• America on trial; the war for Vietnam, [1971]. LCCN 73139889
• America, Russia, and the cold war, 1945-1966, [1967]. LCCN 67029014
• America's 20th century wars : the international challenge [filmstrip], c1979.
• America's weapons of psychological warfare, 1951. LCCN 51008838
• American and Soviet military trends since the Cuban missile crisis, c1978. LCCN 78058310
• Atlas of 20th century warfare, c1982.
• The atomic bomb and the end of World War II, 1966. LCCN 66013312
• The axis alliance and Japanese-American relations, 1941, 1958. LCCN 58002112
• Backgrounds of conflict; ideas and forms in world politics, 1945. LCCN 45004415
• Banner of people's war, the party's military line, [1970]. LCCN 72120153
• Battlefield : the weapons of modern land warfare, 1986. LCCN 77070292
• Bibliographic guide to the two world wars : an annotated survey of English-language reference materials, 1977. LCCN 77070292
• The brink : Cuban missile crisis, 1962, c1979. LCCN 78004758
• Cambodia & the Vietnam war, [1971]. LCCN 76166436
• Can American democracy survive cold war?, 1963. LCCN 63017279
• Causes of World War I [filmstrip], 1969.
• Causes of World War II [filmstrip], 1970.
• China crosses the Yalu; the decision to enter the Korean War, c1960.
• The Chinese Communist Army in action; the Korean War and its aftermath, 1967. LCCN 67012659
• The Cold war [filmstrip], c1979.
• Cold war America; from Hiroshima to Watergate, [1974]. LCCN 74007885
• Cold war and common sense; a close look at the record of Communist gains and failures and of freedom's fortunes in the mid-twentieth century, 1962. LCCN 62013308
• Cold war and détente : the American foreign policy process since 1945, [1975]. LCCN 75006281
• The cold war from Yalta to Cuba, [1964].
• The cold war in Asia; a historical introduction, [1974]. LCCN73016200
• The cold war years : American foreign policy since 1945, [1969]. LCCN 75079484
• The cold war, a re-appraisal, [1964]. LCCN 64025786
• The cold war; a concise history, [1965]. LCCN 65021627
• Combat actions in Korea: Infantry. Artillery. Armor., 1954.
• Communist guerrilla warfare, [1954]. LCCN 54009288
• The compact history of the Korean War, [1965]. LCCN 65022904
• The complete book of submarines, [1958]. LCCN 58009408
• Conflict; the history of the Korean War, 1950-53, [1962]. LCCN 62010975
• Cuba and the United States; long range perspectives, [1967]. LCCN 67021483
• D day, the sixth of June, 1944, [1959]. LCCN 59008542
• Danger is the password; stories of wartime spies, 1965. LCCN 65018510
• The dirty wars; guerrilla actions and other forms of unconventional warfare, [c1968]. LCCN 68010323
• The divine wind; Japan's Kamikaze Force in World War II, 1958.
• The encyclopedia of land warfare in the 20th century, 1977, c1976. LCCN 76-041073
• The encyclopedia of sea warfare : from the first ironclads to the present day, 1975. LCCN 77358673
• Essence of decision; explaining the Cuban missile crisis, [1971]. LCCN 70168998
• The evolution of the cold war : from confrontation to containment, c1972.
• The fallen sky; medical consequences of thermonuclear war, [1963]. LCCN 63012581
• The fight for the sea; the past, present, and future of submarine warfare in the Atlantic, 1961. LCCN 61005991
• The final secret of Pearl Harbor; the Washington contribution to the Japanese attack, 1954. LCCN 54009575
• Fire and movement : bargain-basement warfare in the Far East, [1967]. LCCN 67018528
• First book of World War II, 1958. LCCN 58-5167
• From the Turtle to the Nautilus; the story of submarines, [c1963]. LCCN 63007117
• Global conflict; the United States in World War II, 1937-1946, [c1962].
• Guerrilla warfare and terrorism, 1977. LCCN 76053576
• Guidelines for cold war victory, 1964]. LCCN 64024366
• The Guinness history of land warfare, 1974, c1973. LCCN 73-018501
• Handbook of intelligence and guerrilla warfare,[1963]. LCCN 63009900
• Home from the war : Vietnam veterans : neither victims nor executioners, c1973. LCCN 73002315
• History of the cold war : from the Korean war to the present, 1969.
• The illustrated encyclopedia of 20th century weapons and warfare, c1979. LCCN 78026585
• An illustrated guide to modern sub hunters, 1954.
• Is the cold war over? A new look at Communist imperialism, [1973]. LCCN 73085062
• Jane's pocket book of naval armament, 1976. LCCN 76379284
• Korea : 1950-1953, [1969]. LCCN 79004050
• Korea and the fall of MacArthur; a précis in limited war, 1960. LCCN 60013203
• The Korea knot, a military-political history, 1957. LCCN 57007459
• The Korean war : How we met the challenge : How all-out Asian war was averted : Why MacArthur was dismissed : Why today's war objectives must be limited, 1967. LCCN 67011172
• Latin America in the cold war, 1952. LCCN 52011803
• Legal limits on the use of chemical and biological weapons, [1970]. LCCN 78128123
• The long, long war; counterinsurgency in Malaya and Vietnam, [1966]. LCCN 66013678
• The Middle East in the cold war, 1956. LCCN 56009192
• Military policy and economic aid; the Korean case, 1950-1953, [1961]. LCCN 61-007301
• Modern air combat : the aircraft, tactics and weapons employed in aerial warfare today, 1983. LCCN 83072743
• The new face of war, [1965]. LCCN 65017701
• A new history of the cold war, 1966. LCCN 66021017
• The new soldier, [1971]. LCCN 76171990
• Nobody wanted war; misperception in Vietnam and other wars, 1968. LCCN 68010553
• The origins of the cold war in Asia, 1977. LCCN 77379481
• The origins of the cold war in the Near East : great power conflict and diplomacy in Iran, Turkey, and Greece, c1980. LCCN 79083999
• Premises for propaganda : the United States Information Agency's operating assumptions in the cold, c1976. LCCN 75018007
• Purnell's illustrated encyclopedia of modern weapons and warfare, 1967, 1978.
• The road from war; Vietnam 1965-1970,[1970]. LCCN 70123961
• Roots of the cold war [kit], 1972.
• Russia at war : 1941-1945, 1964. LCCN 64019533
• The Signal Corps today : its role in modern warfare, 1966. LCCN 66007371
• Special Forces, the U. S. Army's experts in unconventional warfare, [1964]. LCCN 64017988
• The story of Vietnam; a background book on the war in Southeast Asia, [1971]. LCCN 66010018
• The strained alliance; Peking, Pyongyang, Moscow, and the politics of the Korean Civil War, [1975]. LCCN 74004891
• The strategy of persuasion; the use of advertising skills in fighting the Cold War,[c1965]. LCCN 64025768
• Submarine : men and ships of the U.S. submarine fleet, 1953. LCCN 53012465
• Tomorrow's weapons, chemical and biological, [1964]. LCCN 63022553
• Twenty years of crises; the cold war era, [1968]. LCCN 68011552
• Two Viet Nams in war and peace, 1967.
• The United States, Cuba, and the cold war; American failure or Communist conspiracy?,[1970]. LCCN 73088758
• Victor Charlie; the face of war in Viet-Nam, [1967]. LCCN 67018835
• Vietnam : inside story of the guerilla war,[1965]. LCCN 65018719
• Vietnam : the undeclared war ; Part I [filmstrip], 1979.
• War in Korea, and the complete history of World War II, [c1955]. LCCN 56000637
• Weapons & warfare of the 20th century : a comprehensive and historical survey of modern military methods and machines, [1976]. LCCN 77361800
• What you should know about submarine warfare, [c1942].