The Columbia Encyclopedia: Fifth Edition [Hardcover]

Columbia University Press (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 25, 1993 | Series: Columbia Encyclopedia

The Fifth Edition continues this tradition of excellence, bringing up-to-date coverage of the whole world in all its physical, historical, geographical, political, scientific, religious, and cultural dimensions between two covers. The Fifth Edition offers more information in one volume than most multivolume encyclopedias: 50,000 articles, 65,000 cross-references, and 6.6 million words in 3,000 pages.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

First published in 1935, The Columbia Encyclopedia is the oldest, largest, most prestigious, and most expensive single-volume general encyclopedia in the English language. The new fifth edition, which replaces the much revered fourth edition ( LJ 7/75), is immense; like its illustrious predecessors, it provides international coverage of basic knowledge, yet it remains, in the words of the editors, an "American encyclopedia written for American readers." The editors, a staff of nearly 100 plus 114 academic advisers, estimate that 60 percent of the fourth edition was revised for this effort. Indeed, the encyclopedia is admirably current, covering such contemporary topics and people as rap music, Janet Reno, and the new countries of Uzbekistan and Vanuatu. Inevitably, however, some older articles were insufficiently revised. For example, "rose" fails to note that in 1986 the rose became the U.S. national flower; "Turin" does not indicate that in 1988 carbon-14 dating tests on the Shroud of Turin altered its date of origin. As with previous editions, the encyclopedia's most pronounced weakness is lack of easy access to all its contents. In many instances cross references are inadequate. The reader who wants to know about Medjugorje in the former Yugoslavia, for instance, will find no entry or cross reference under that name, but information is included in the article "Mary." The only way to discover this is through serendipity. Clearly, access to the encyclopedia's fact-laden contents would be improved by a detailed analytical index. An associated problem is the absence of paragraphing. Illustrations are sparse, limited to about 500 black-and-white line drawings, which almost always add to the informational value of the book. The Columbia Encyclopedia competes directly with four other substantial one-volume general encyclopedias: The Ameri can Spectrum Encyclopedia ( LJ 12/91); The Cambridge Encyclopedia ( LJ 9/1/90); The Random House Encyclopedia ( LJ 11/15/90); and Webster's New World Encyclopedia ( LJ 8/92). Although each of these works has merit, the new edition of the Columbia can be enthusiastically recommended as the best available choice for North American librarians, scholars, and other serious consumers of knowledge and information.
- Ken Kister, author of "Best Encyclopedias," Tampa, Fla.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 3048 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin; 5 Sub edition (October 25, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 039562438X
• ISBN-13: 978-0395624388
• Product Dimensions: 12 x 9.3 x 3.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,719,569 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just right - an excellent reference, September 15, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Columbia Encyclopedia: Fifth Edition (Hardcover)

Sometimes you don't feel like booting up the PC and loading the Encyclopedia Britanica just to look up a passing fancy. This is the book to give you enough information to understand the reference without bogging you down with too much detail.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One volume does it all, May 30, 2000

By 

Carl Skutsch (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Columbia Encyclopedia: Fifth Edition (Hardcover)

The amazing thing about this encyclopedia is I often prefer it to my Britannica CD (or the online service). It's faster, more to the point, and has a surprising number of very clear and helpful illustrations and charts (all the Supreme Court Justices and their dates, p. 2659; a schematic for an iron blast furnace, p. 310).
It's also a great gazetteer (Inuvik - Northwest Territories Candada, pop. 8,491, with a whole darn paragraph on the place!).
The only downside is that as impressive as this thing is, it has to be brief. Only 2 sentences on King Khufu of Egypt, for example, seems a bit unfair, but such is life. (On the up side, they give 16 lines to my favorite writer H.H.Munro, aka Saki.)

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the Colombia Encyclopedia, April 28, 2000

By 

Sarah > Morse (St. Louis, Mo.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Columbia Encyclopedia: Fifth Edition (Hardcover)

This book never ceases to amaze me. It has information that one would never dare to hope would be there and it is written with such originality and brilliance. How I wish I had discovered it years ago.