Synopsis
Book by
From Booklist
This single-volume encyclopedia is global in its coverage and attempts to present balanced treatment of all geographic regions. The intended audience is students from high school through undergraduate school, and the volume is designed to meet the National Standards for World History and the standards for major curricula.Coverage extends from earliest history to 2000. More than 6,500 alphabetically arranged entries are accompanied by approximately 270 color maps and several hundred color illustrations, photographs, and diagrams. Entries vary from a sentence to half a page in length with most being about a paragraph long. The many cross-references are designated by words in all capital letters.Sidebars are a prominent feature, presenting facts on all 50 U.S. states and information on more than 200 countries. In addition, conflicts, cultural highlights, groups, and prominent individuals (e.g., Columbus, Christopher; Communism; Human evolution; Mongols; War of the Spanish Succession) are highlighted. Entries on the states show the state flag, date of admission, nickname, motto, history, and population data. The land area is given in metric and English measurements. The sidebars for countries present land area, population data, government information, ethnic groups, languages, religion, and GDP per capita for a given year in U.S. dollars. The accompanying country maps show the capital, large cities, roads, rivers, and sometimes airports. The text on countries is quite current, mentioning elections and events in the year 2000. There are entries but no sidebars for the Canadian provinces. Unfortunately, the sidebars are not always well placed. For example, the state facts are frequently several columns away from the corresponding entries; and the boxes for countries may be several pages away, thus requiring a cross-reference to the main entry.Rounding out the volume are a time line and a five-page "Ready Reference" section. This section has boxes listing information on rulers of nations, religions, languages, world population, and Nobel Peace Prize winners.There are a number of single-volume world history references. Three recent examples are the Encyclopedia of World History (Oxford, 1998), The Hutchinson Dictionary of World History (ABC-CLIO, 1993), and the Larousse Dictionary of World History (1994). Facts On File's version generally has more entries, maps, and striking illustrations than these three comparable works. It also has the advantage of being slightly more current and would be an appropriate purchase for high-school, public, and undergraduate libraries. RBB
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
