Eponyms--naming things, events, or social phenomena for persons--are a way of immortalizing those with whom we associate memorable and/or notorious activities. Trahair limits the eponyms here to the social sciences and related disciplines. Eponyms were chosen from general reading and scanning textbooks, dictionaries, professional journals, and newspapers. The final choice of entries was his personal predilection, which accounts for the inclusion of such entries as "Brokaw hazard," a reference to the TV journalist's style of interviewing. Some entries are recent, for example, "Clinton Republicans", "Clintonism", "Clinton doctrine". He includes fictitious characters such as "Fagin", names of places such as "Masada" and "Jonestown", and such familiar terms as "Nobel Prize" and "Fulbright Scholarships". Where this dictionary differs from others is in the often scholarly choice of entries. For example, the pocket-size "Webster's New World Dictionary of Eponyms" (Simon & Schuster, 1990) uses the term "maverick" to refer to anyone who "takes an independent stand." Trahair lists "maverick independent", a reference to a British political term. There are more than 1,000 entries; almost one-third are from government and politics. With half as many, the nearest competitor is sociology, followed by economics, religion, business, psychology, philosophy, education, anthropology, legal studies, popular culture, language and linguistics, human geography, gender, and journalism. The eponyms are listed under these classifications in an appendix
The alphabetically arranged entries include a definition, the period when the term was used, a brief biographical sketch of the individual for whom the term was named, and a list of biographical sources that are easily found in most academic libraries. A select bibliography of titles about eponyms is at the end of the volume, followed by an index
Beeching's "Dictionary of Eponyms" (Library Association, 1989) and "Webster's" are not focused on the social sciences and are more suited for quick reference for familiar eponyms. "Eponyms Dictionaries Index" (Gale, 1977) is much larger but dated. Zusne's "Eponyms in Psychology" (Greenwood, 1987) is an excellent source for that discipline. For eponymous nouns, adjectives, and phrases, "From Aristotelian to Reaganomics" spans centuries of social science and touches important people, places, and events throughout the history of Western civilization. It is a useful purchase for academic libraries, especially those serving political science and upper-level sociology programs.
