Customer Reviews

The Cambridge Encyclopedia

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

...for the same amount of money you can get the Columbia Enclyclopedia, twice as many pages. Cambridge has the advantage of a more recent edition, but Columbia is still the top choice unless you need information about really current events.

The information they choose to include in this single voulme is very well selected. Most subjects that come to mind are covered which is amazing for a single book. The content per item is concise and relevant. The writing is also vibrant (unlike The World Book series). Congratulations to the Editorial team. Ideal for a quick lookup book when you you just want the initial background information. If you need more, go to the internet.

I'm perplexed that this encyclopedia managed to go through four editions, considering how brief and unhelpful its entries are. Most of them are only 50 to 100 words in length. And rather than pick and choose some topics to explore in more depth, the editors decided to give everything shallow coverage.

Worse, they don't even use those few words per entry wisely. Instead of giving the essential facts, they go for obscure details that will only mean something to people who are already familiar with the subject. This defeats the purpose of a general-use encyclopedia -- to introduce a subject and give the reader some basic understanding. Even my paperback New American Desk Encyclopedia surpasses this work by that standard, though it has less entries.

I do not recommend this book.