The Oxford Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Quotations - Hardcover

9780198601036: The Oxford Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Quotations

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0198601034 ISBN 13: 9780198601036

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1999

In The Oxford Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Quotations, Elizabeth Knowles has brought together 5,000 quotations that provide a kaleidoscopic look at the last hundred years--from inspirational words that launched great political movements, to songs that made us dance, to witty lines that made us laugh.
Here readers will find Franklin D. Roosevelt ("The only thing we have to fear is fear itself") and Martin Luther King, Jr. ("Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere"). There are numerous excerpts from works of art, from Franz Kafka's "It is often better to be in chains than to be free," to Cole Porter's "In olden days a glimpse of stocking / Was looked on as something shocking / Now, heaven knows, / Anything Goes." Knowles includes memorable flashes of wit, such as Dorothy Parker's "Men seldom make passes / At girls who wear glasses." And here too are the words of the notorious, such as Richard Nixon's "I am not a crook." In addition, the book features several special sections, including Misquotations, Newspaper Headlines ("Dewey defeats Truman"), Political Slogans ("Ban the Bomb"), Film Lines ("Let the force be with you"), and Anonymous ("Kilroy was here"). All quotations are organized alphabetically by author, and there are two indexes--a subject index and a key word index--to help readers find quotes when they don't know the author or when they need a quote to suit an occasion.
The Oxford Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Quotations opens a unique window on our time, offering a panorama that is by turns amusing, appalling, uplifting, and memorable.

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About the Author:

Elizabeth Knowles is Managing Editor of Oxford Quotations Dictionaries. Her previous publications include The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase, Saying, and Quotation and The Oxford Dictionary of New Words. She also worked for ten years on The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary. She lives in the United Kingdom.

From Booklist:

Knowles, managing editor of Oxford Quotations Dictionaries, has chosen 5,000 quotations from the twentieth century, using 1914, the year World War I broke out, as the starting point. These quotes are from writers and others alive in or after that year and come from political movements, songs, poetry, advertisements, television, sound bites, and even online sources. Earlier events that have continued to echo down the century, such as the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, are included. Coverage is international, although emphasis leans toward British sources.

Quotes are arranged alphabetically by the author of the quote. Special sidebars (e.g., "Film lines," "Last words," "Misquotes," "Official advice") add interest and variety; it would be helpful to have these listed in the table of contents. Author names are followed by dates of birth and death (where known) with a very short description. Where needed, cross-references are provided to quotations about that author elsewhere in the text. Within the author entries, quotations are separated by literary form and then arranged alphabetically by title. Primary sources are listed first, followed by other writers' works and biographies. Authors covered range from W. C. Fields and Paul McCartney to Bella Abzug and J. Robert Oppenheimer, with many others represented. Each quotation is accompanied by contextual information, if needed, and always a note as to the source. Two indexes, subject and keyword, provide additional access to users when an author is not known or when a quote for an occasion is needed.

Quotation books abound, and smaller libraries probably need only standard general titles, such as Bartlett's Familiar Quotations [RBB N 1 92], now in its 16th edition; and The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations [4th ed., RBB D 1 92]. Larger libraries can expand their collections by adding titles, such as The Oxford Dictionary of Twentieth Century Quotations, that are more specialized. Knowles and her project team have produced an authoritative overview of social, political, cultural, and scientific concerns of the century. This fun and enlightening quotation source is recommended for high-school, public, and academic libraries.

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