Description
Encyclopaedia of the Twentieth Century / Facts On File Inc, 1991 / Hardcover
ISBN-13: 9780816024612 / 978-0816024612
ISBN-10: 0816024618
Printed By Facts On File Inc
Pages 392
Thousands of fascinating entries concerning the 20th century information on: dictators and despots, from Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin to Pol Pot and Saddam Hussein; heroes, saints and martyrs, including Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa, Dietrich Bonhoffer, Simone Weil, Mohandas Gandhi and Maximilliam Kolbe; poets and writers, from Anna Akhmatova to Stefan Zweig; significant literary and intellectual works, including Elliot's "Wasteland", Joyce's "Ulysses", Orwell's "Animal Farm" and "1984", Solzhenitsyn's "Gulag Archipelago", Koestler's "Darkness at Noon" and Freud's "Interpretation of Dreams"; intellectual ideas and movements, such as logical positivism philosophy, surrealism (art and literature, cubism (art), feminism literature, politics and sociology, serialism (music) and postmodernism. Other areas covered by the encyclopedia include musical composition, from the mighty masterpieces of Mahler to the esoteric musings of John Cage, specific works that have altered music and history such as Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" and important performers including Jacqueline Du Pre and Maria Callas; art and architecture; popular culture; war and conflict; diplomacy; international disasters; politics and law; aviation and space travel.
Roughly twice the size of David M. Brownstone and Irene M. Franck's Dictionary of 20th Century History ( LJ 8/90) and the Twentieth Century: An Almanac ( LJ 10/1/84), this hefty single-volume encyclopedia comprises about 10,000 brief, unsigned articles devoted to the most significant people, places, events, and scientific and artistic developments of this century. The entries, which are arranged alphabetically with access enhanced by numerous internal and external cross references and an index, average about ten per page, and sometimes include bibliographic citations. Most attention is accorded political leaders (e.g., Fidel Castro, Winston Churchill, the Kennedys, Henry and George Wallace, Woodrow and Harold Wilson), but prominent figures from other walks of life (i.e., sports, medicine, literature) are well represented, as are major wars and military engagements, political conferences and movements, court cases, theories, books, plays, and the like. Countries of the world and other key places are also covered, although the criteria for inclusion of place-names is not clear; why, for instance, do California and Florida have entries but not Georgia and Massachusetts? Current as of early 1991, the material is normally presented in an objective manner and written at a level comprehensible to the average newspaper reader. Approximately 750 black-and-white illustrations and 250 maps complement the articles. Although the aforementioned Dictionary of 20th Century History is comparable in organization and costs only $24.95, many libraries will still want the Encyclopedia because it is the largest and most current source of its kind.
- Ken neth F. Kister, author of "Best Encyclopedias," Tampa, Fla.
- Ken neth F. Kister, author of "Best Encyclopedias," Tampa, Fla.
- Hardcover
- English
- Facts On File, Incorporated
- Oct, 1991
- 9780816024612
- 0816024618
