HIT: Sec: Accuracy of Reference source

[Ellen Fisher <EFisher610@AOL.COM>]

My query was about "Working Americans, 1880-1999, Vol. I: The Working Class,"
which is published by Grey House.  I am previewing it and was trying to
decide whether to keep it.  It has great information about specific families
in specific circumstances and years, and then a section labeled "Economic
Profile" with Food Expenditures (and other things) in it.  I took this to
pertain more broadly than just to the family profiled for the same time
period, but the publisher's rep whom I talked with today said she thought
this data was specific to the family.  That would explain why the list of
foods is not comparable from one year to another and why the prices show some
variation.  Also, though the chart is labeled "Annual Food Expenditures," the
one for 1898 seems to be weekly costs.  This was my primary complaint.  There
is a hint of this given in a note for this particular chart which says "Food
expenses are typically $2.00 to $2.50 per week" but I'm not sure how many
students would use that hint to really understand that the costs which follow
are weekly and not annual as the label says.  Anyway, the rest of the book
has very good information and I have decided to keep it because we do a lot
of projects that this will be very valuable for.  I think I will highlight
the words "per week" above this chart and hope that students will understand
in spite of what I see as poor labeling. The rep I spoke with today said they
didn't intend this book to be a source of price comparisons, since that was
accomplished in "The Value of a Dollar," which we also find very useful, and
is also from Grey House Publishing.  My original post follows these comments,
and then answers I received which contained information.  Many answers were
requests for a hit.

Original post:
Earlier this year I bought "The Value of a Dollar, 1860-1999" from Grey House
Publishing.  Students have used it for various authentic history projects
using prices of things in specific years.  Now, the same publisher (even the
same editor) is offering "Working Americans, 1880-1999, Volume I: The Working
Class" and I am trying to decide whether to keep it or return it.  My problem
in deciding is that it contains some information that looks very valuable and
other information that looks misleading or maybe even inaccurate.  It makes
me wonder whether the same kind of problems occur in "The Value of a Dollar"
and I just didn't catch them.  Have any of you had any experience with these
books or this publisher?  Do any of you have any advice about whether to
reject the whole source because one part is misleading / poorly labeled / not
labeled?   Does anyone know of another source that would give specific
information about family life in the US during the period 1850-1999 (or any
part of that period)?  Thanks for any advice.

Answers
--------------------
So far, we've had no problems with "The value of a dollar".  However, I'll
probably return without opening the "Working " volume, just because I
didn't order it.
------------------
My Social Studies Department Chair previewed the new book and
thought it was quite good.  Perhaps when he actually uses it, he might
find some errors but all in all I think it is a good source.  We have
used the Value of a Dollar a lot.
------------------
I, too, previewed _The Vallue of a dollar_. I returned it, because I
couldn't justify the $100 it cost for the amount of useful information in
it. I doubt that I'll be interested in anything else from them in the future.
------------------
I JUST purchased the $125 book Working Americans - at first wasn't going to
keep the preview copy, but discovered enough stuff about real life and
primary documents to make at least 2 of my teachers VERY happy. Which parts
are inaccurate or misleading. Guess I didn't look as carefully as you did. I
would appreciate any enlightenment. I will be more critical of the next in
the series before I purchase. Thanks for your question.
------------------
Ellen Fisher, Librarian
Radnor HS, Radnor PA
efisher610@aol.com

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