Recently released is Matt Wickham's Tournament Casting Tackle: A History and Collector's Guide to Tournament Casting Reels, Rods, Weights, Flies, Lines, Oils, Metals and Ephemera. I bought it when it was on sale at Amazon for forty bucks. It's sixty bucks now.
It has all my favorite reels; small vintage bait-casters with free spool, but no AR or drag. Also of interest was the evolution of rods from wood, to bamboo, to fiberglass to graphite and the evolution of lines from cotton to linen, to silk, to nylon. Yeah, I know, it's not your cup of tea. The sections on casting weights, medals and such may also be of marginal interest to non-collectors.
What might be of some interest to people here is the section on surf-casting tournaments. In a round-about way it sheds light on a topic we recently discussed here; does a wide- or narrow-spool cast better. However, the surf-casting section focuses on Shakespeare, Pflueger, Meisselbach and some lesser-known brands that could be modified for competition. There is no mention of Penn, Ocean City, or Luxor anywhere. It delves into some friction between Northeast and West Coast surf casters. The Northeast felt that surf-casting was their heritage and invention and they were galled when California started beating them at their own game.
There is also discussion of the spinning reels designed specifically for competition, evolution of the CT frame style and drilled crossbars.
This book can't compete with Harlan Major's Saltwater Fishing Tackle, but did add to my understanding of tackle archaeology.
Aswesome! - john
yes, good post Steve, a few others that may fit into that category, is daiwa,shimano and abu, cheers don.