Sign-In
Cart
All the Knowledge in the World: The Extraordinary History of the Encyclopedia
Paperback
Business of WritingLexicographyBritish History
Publisher Price: $21.99
ISBN13: 9780063292307
Publisher: William Morrow & Company
Published: Feb 6 2024
Pages: 400
Weight: 1.00
Height: 0.90 Width: 5.50 Depth: 8.25
Language: English
From the deliriously clever (Boston Globe) Simon Garfield, New York Times bestselling author of Just My Type, comes the wild and fascinating story of the encyclopedia, from Ancient Greece to the present day.
New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice
A brilliant book about knowledge itself. --Deirdre Mask, author of The Address Book
Garfield's witty history captures the obsessive, quixotic and sometimes error-filled quests of those--from Pliny the Elder in the first century A.D. to Wikipedians in this one--who have attempted to corral all the world's information into a single source.--New York Times
The encyclopedia once shaped our understanding of the world. Created by thousands of scholars and the most obsessive of editors, a good set conveyed a sense of absolute wisdom on its reader. Contributions from Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Orville Wright, Alfred Hitchcock, Marie Curie and Indira Gandhi helped millions of children with their homework. Adults cleared their shelves in the belief that everything that was explainable was now effortlessly accessible in their living rooms.
Now these huge books gather dust and sell for almost nothing on eBay. Instead, we get our information from our phones and computers, apparently for free. What have we lost in this transition? And how did we tell the progress of our lives in the past?
All the Knowledge in the World is a history and celebration of those who created the most ground-breaking and remarkable publishing phenomenon of any age. Simon Garfield, who has a genius for being sparked to life by esoteric enthusiasm and charming readers with his delight (The Times), guides us on an utterly delightful journey, from Ancient Greece to Wikipedia, from modest single-volumes to the 11,000-volume Chinese manuscript that was too big to print. He looks at how Encyclopedia Britannica came to dominate the industry, how it spawned hundreds of competitors, and how an army of ingenious door-to-door salesmen sold their wares to guilt-ridden parents. He reveals how encyclopedias have reflected our changing attitudes towards sexuality, race, and technology, and exposes how these ultimate bastions of trust were often riddled with errors and prejudice.
With his characteristic ability to tackle the broadest of subjects in an illuminating and highly entertaining way, Simon Garfield uncovers a fascinating and important part of our shared past and wonders whether the promise of complete knowledge--that most human of ambitions--will forever be beyond our grasp.
Also from
Garfield, Simon
All the Knowledge in the World: The Extraordinary History of the Encyclopedia
Garfield, Simon
Hardcover
All the Knowledge in the World: The Extraordinary History of the Encyclopedia
Garfield, Simon
Audio Book
Also in
Lexicography
F*ck Off, I'm Coloring! Swear Word Coloring Book: 40 Cuss Words and Insults to Color & Relax: Adult Coloring Books
Swear Word Adult Coloring Book
Adult Coloring Books
Swear Word Coloring Book
Paperback
Quack This Way: David Foster Wallace & Bryan A. Garner Talk Language and Writing
Wallace, David Foster
Garner, Bryan
Paperback
The Dictionary People: The Unsung Heroes Who Created the Oxford English Dictionary
Ogilvie, Sarah
Hardcover
Hardly Harmless Drudgery: A 500-Year Pictorial History of the Lexicographic Geniuses, Sciolists, Plagiarists, and Obsessives Who Defined the English L
Lynch, Jack
Garner, Bryan A.
Hardcover
Quack This Way: David Foster Wallace & Bryan A. Garner Talk Language and Writing
Garner, Bryan
Wallace, David Foster
Hardcover
Lexical Demands in CLIL Primary-School Textbooks: A Corpus Linguistic Perspective
Castellano-Risco, Irene
Hardcover
The Lexicon: A Cornucopia of Wonderful Words for the Inquisitive Word Lover
Beahm
Buckley, William F., Jr.
Paperback
Arabic Lexicography - Its history, and its place in the general history of Lexicography
Haywood, John A.
Paperback
There's a Word for It (Revised Edition): A Grandiloquent Guide to Life
Elster, Charles Harrington
Paperback
All the Knowledge in the World: The Extraordinary History of the Encyclopedia
Garfield, Simon
Hardcover
Acquiring a Scientific Vocabulary: A Short Course for Building Lexical Literacy for Advancing AP and College Students
Belmont, Anthony M.
Paperback
Bhagavad Gītā Concordance: A Comprehensive Word Reference with English and Sanskrit Indexes
Schweig, Graham M.
Hardcover
The Word Detective: Searching for the Meaning of It All at the Oxford English Dictionary
Simpson, John
Hardcover
Samskrta Bharati: Indus Script Dictionary, Epigraphia Mlecchita Vikalpa, 'Meluhha cipher'
Kalyanaraman, S.
Paperback
El Intelectual Y La Cultura de Masas: Argumentos Latinoamericanos En Torno a Ángel Rama Y José María Arguedas
García Liendo, Javier
Paperback
Writing a War of Words: Andrew Clark and the Search for Meaning in World War One
Mugglestone, Lynda
Hardcover
Dictionnaire Du Bon Français Contemporain: Avec Des Exemples Effrontés Et Des Commentaires Insolents
Nore, Francoise
Paperback
Abc Tracing Workbook for Pre-K (Ages 4 to 5): Alphabet tracing for preschoolers with fundamental prewriting practice exercises - 120 Tracing letters w
Education, Alphabet Tracing
Paperback
Imparare l'Inglese: Una Guida Completa, Pratica e Strategica per Imparare con Maestria l'Inglese in Poche Settimane Divertendoti Padronegg
Quintessenza, Federico
Paperback
Non-Semitic Loanwords in the Hebrew Bible: A Lexicon of Language Contact
Noonan, Benjamin J.
Hardcover
A Frequency Dictionary of British English: Core Vocabulary and Exercises for Learners
Brezina, Vaclav
Gablasova, Dana
Paperback
Literary History of Hebrew Grammarians and Lexicographers Accompanied by Unpublished Texts
Hirschfeld, Hartwig
Hardcover
The Smutesaurus: The Ultimate Guide to Superior and Preposterous Language for Romance Writers
Swart, Samantha
Paperback
El arte del insulto
Luque Duran, Juan De Dios
Pamies Bertran, Antonio
Manjon Pozas, Francisco Jose
Paperback
Literary History of Hebrew Grammarians and Lexicographers Accompanied by Unpublished Texts
Hirschfeld, Hartwig
Paperback
Wikinger Malbuch: Entspannende Wikinger- und Walhalla-Designs für Erwachsene
Färbungen Editions, Merijn
Paperback
The Manchu Mirrors and the Knowledge of Plants and Animals in High Qing China
Saarela, Mårten Söderblom
Bian, He
Hardcover
The Downton Abbey Lexicon Primer: For the Curious American Mind of a British Costume Drama Addict
Jones, Susan Elizabeth
Paperback
The Language of Colour in the Bible: Embodied Colour Terms Related to Green
García Ureña, Lourdes
Valeriani, Emanuela
Angelini, Anna
Hardcover
The Spanish Lexicon of Baseball: Semantics, Style, and Terminology
Chaston, John M.
Smead, Robert N.
Hardcover
Análisis filológico de textos notariales: Estudio histórico, léxico y lingüístico de seis inventarios de bienes: Cádiz y Veracruz a través de los docu
García Gaytán, Juan Eduardo
Paperback
Novum Lexicon Manuale Graeco-latinum Et Latino-graecum, Volume 1...
Patrick, Samuel
Pinzger, Gustav
Hederich, Benjamin
Paperback
Vedic Concordance of Mantras as Per Rishi and Devata
Arya, Dr Ravi Prakash
Arya, Sh Ram Narain
Paperback
Vocabulary in the Foreign Language Curriculum: Principles for Effective Instruction
Milton, James
Hopwood, Oliver
Paperback
Cognitive Lexicography: A New Approach to Lexicography Making Use of Cognitive Semantics
Ostermann, Carolin
Hardcover
Redefining the Hypernym Mensch: in in German: Gender, Sexuality, and Personhood
Pober, Maria
Hardcover
Vollständiges Wörterbuch Deutsch-Esperanto in drei Bänden. Band 1 (A-G): Plena Vortaro Germana-Esperanto en tri volumoj. Volumo 1 (A-G)
Krause, Erich-Dieter
Hardcover
Vollständiges Wörterbuch Deutsch-Esperanto in drei Bänden. Band 2 (H-R): Plena Vortaro Germana-Esperanto en tri volumoj. Volumo 2 (H-R)
Krause, Erich-Dieter
Hardcover
Vollständiges Wörterbuch Deutsch-Esperanto in drei Bänden. Band 3 (S-Z): Plena Vortaro Germana-Esperanto en tri volumoj. Volumo 3 (S-Z)
Krause, Erich-Dieter
Hardcover
Ein Fachsprachliches Elektronisches Lernwörterbuch: Konzeption, Prototyperstellung Und Evaluation Am Beispiel Der Mathematik
Kruse, Theresa
Hardcover
Sprachliche Zweifelsfalle: Lexikalisch-Semantische, Flexivische Und Wortbildungsbedingte Zweifelsfalle
Storjohann, Petra
Paperback
Die Französischen Wörterbücher Von Den Anfängen Bis 1600: Entstehung Und Typologische Beschreibung
Lindemann, Margarete
Hardcover
All the Knowledge in the World: The Extraordinary History of the Encyclopedia
Garfield, Simon
Audio Book