American National Biography (24 Volume Set) - Hardcover

9780195206357: American National Biography (24 Volume Set)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0195206355 ISBN 13: 9780195206357

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1999

American National Biography is the first new comprehensive biographical dicionary focused on American history to be published in seventy years. Produced under the auspices of the American Council of Learned Societies, the ANB contains over 17,500 profiles on historical figures written by an expert in the field and completed with a bibliography. The scope of the work is enormous--from the earlest recorded European explorations to the very recent past.

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About the Author:

John A. Garraty is at Columbia University. Mark C. Carnes is at Barnard College, Columbia University.

Review:

"A monument of historical scholarship. These biographical narratives, well-written and riveting, often read more like character sketches than dry, dusty history."--Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Harvard University

"The time has come for a fresh look at event-making men and women of the American past. The American National Biography...will be a work that every library must have and every scholar will yearn to own."--Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., City University of New York

"A once-in-a-lifetime publishing project. How lucky we are that it has reached such high standards in excellent scholarship, imaginative coverage, and intelligent commentary."--Joyce Appleby, President of the American Historical Association

"A significant event in American cultural history....It is the collective biography of the American people...and as such should be available in every school, university, and public library in the country."--Bernard Bailyn, Harvard University (Emeritus)

"[A]n impeccably edited work that aims at the highest standards of balanced historical perspective and scholarly accuracy."--New York Genealogical and Biographical Record

"[A] masterpiece of scholarly distillation....American National Biography Online (ANB Online), with sophisticated search capabilities, learned but lively articles, internal cross references, up-to-date bibliographies, and links to external web resources, represents the benchmark for online scholarly reference tools. Erudite but accessible, this stellar scholarly undertaking is for anyone from the informed general reader to students from middle school on up."--Library Journal netconnect

"With its coverage of people excluded from [Dictionary of American Biography] and its updated treatment of many others, ANB is an esential addition to the reference collection of any large public and academic library, even if the library already has DAB on its shelves."--RBB/Booklist

"Although written to a high standard of scholarship, American National Biography is designed for the general reader. The writers and editors have sought to make each entry as clear as possible, yet have managed to do so without dumbing things down....The range of subjects is truly dazzling....Depth is not sacrificed to breadth....[A]n invaluable reference tool [that] is also likely to induce compulsive browsing."--Wall Street Journal

"Not since putting a man on the Moon has an American organisation undertaken such an ambitious logistical project....These volumes are an absorbing panorama of the long, colourful American parade....[T]he essays are well-written and entertaining [and] the pages are strewn with little nuggets....[I]ts publication is indeed something to celebrate."--The [London] Sunday Times

"American National Biography...offers a single, authoritative, current resource of high quality; a first resort that should find a place on the shelves of every aademic and public library"--CHOICE

"The editors have, in fact, set aside the older DAB and created an altogether new work....Nearly 40 per cent of the figures in the new ANB--6.802 persons--did not appear in the original DAB or its supplements....[T]he design of the ANB's editors to shorten the longer entries and lengthen the shorter ones was eminently wise....Carl Becker's article on Benjamin Franklin [in the DAB] remains a graciously written gem. Yet Leo Lemay's essay on Franklin in the new ANB, though shorter, is more complete, more knowledgeable, and more historically accurate."--The Times Literary Supplement

"Provides a vibrant picture of our nation's history as defined by the diversity of American life."--Curriculum Administrator

"All general academic and large public libraries will need this new set..."--College and Research Libraries

"A monumental work that does much to present a more balanced portrait of the American people....ANB's editors don't gloss over controversial subject areas."--Chicago Sun-Times

"One of the significant reference publishing events of the decade."--Booklist Editors' Choice

"One thing--maybe the main thing--readers want from history, and what the A.N.B. commendably gives, is stories of lives: lives that both resemble our own (and that we can therefore understand), and that are more interesting than our own, whether the people who lived them were better, more talented, or more dangerous."--Richard Brookhiser, The New York Times Book Review

"The American National Biography is a literary milestone, a kind of Human Genome Project for the advancement of historical understanding....stunningly ambitious....[Its] greatest achievement is the vitality and reach of its voice....[T]he ANB will find no equal in documentary prose for years to come. It reminds us what it means to have one life to live."--David Michaelis, The New York Observer

"A kind of Who's Who of American history and culture....[S]et[s] a standard in style, scope, and judgment that the profession [of history] will be challenged to sustain. American National Biography is not just a reference work. It is itself a defining artifact, at the end of the twentieth century, for a culture that could exist 'only in America'."--Edmund S. Morgan and Marie Morgan,New York Review of Books.

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