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Published Feb 2023
400 pages
Genre: History, Current Affairs and Religion
Publication Information
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.
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
"Quirky and entertaining. ... Fast-paced and fact-filled, this entertaining compendium is a worthy tribute to the pursuit of knowledge." - Publishers Weekly
"A wealth of research wrapped into an eccentric, charming package. ... Fits easily into [Garfield's] unpredictable canon, combining information, entertainment, and insight. ... Garfield's great affection for his subject shines through, making this book a pleasing, intriguing read." - Kirkus Reviews
"[A] suitably encyclopaedic book—written with all [Garfield's] usual wit and sharp eye for memorable facts." - Reader's Digest
"Entertaining and informative." - The Canberra Times (Australia)
"Fans of Simon Winchester's The Professor and the Madman and readers who don't mind plenty of intriguing digression will devour." - Booklist
"Witty and geekily eclectic. ... Celebrates encyclopaedias in all their quirky, leatherbound glory." - The Times (London)
"An erudite and amusing exploration of the human quest for knowledge." - Financial Times
This information about All the Knowledge in the World was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Simon Garfield was born in London in 1960. He is the author of an appealingly diverse and unpredictable canon of non-fiction, including the bestsellers Mauve, Just My Type and On The Map. He is a trustee of Mass Observation, and is the editor of several books of diaries from the archive, including Our Hidden Lives and A Notable Woman. His most recent book is All the Knowledge in the World: The Extraordinary History of the Encyclopaedia.
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