Merriam Webster's Collegiate Encyclopedia [Hardcover]

Mark A. Stevens (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2001

The ultimate desk reference and perfect companion to the best-selling dictionary, Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition!

Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Encyclopedia was created in cooperation with Encyclopaedia Britannica and dozens of academic consultants, ensuring the highest level of accuracy, reliability, and comprehensiveness.

A rich source of answers to questions about the full range of human knowledge, with more than 25,000 alphabetical entries, covering the arts, business, computers, geography, history, literature, medicine, philosophy, politics and popular culture.

Contains over 1500 black and white illustrations, maps and diagrams that add interest and detail, with more than 10,000 pronunciations and 70,000 cross references to enrich understanding.

Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Encyclopedia delivers the information you need to succeed with comprehensive coverage of key topics in a single volume.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

There are times when a dictionary definition simply does not suffice, but one hasn't the time, inclination, or industry to work one's way through an extensive encyclopedia entry. Enter the desk reference. Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Encyclopedia is no larger than your average collegiate dictionary, yet it packs enough punch to make one feel, if not fluent in a subject, then certainly conversant. Gone are the days of dry, just-the-facts-ma'am desk encyclopedias. This one, created in cooperation with Encyclopaedia Britannica and with the assistance of 25 academic consultants, has personality. The entry for Fassbinder, for example, goes beyond merely listing his nationality, dates, and films. "Defiantly homosexual and provocative," it tells us, "he led an outrageous life and died from a drug overdose at 36." The nighthawk is so exceptionally described that one can almost hear its "sharp nasal call" and the whirring sound it makes when it dives during courtship. The 25,000 entries are illustrated by more than 1,650 photographs, drawings, maps, and diagrams. And, at nearly 1,800 pages, this volume is surprisingly not unwieldy; a spectacular addition to anyone's reference arsenal. --Jane Steinberg

From Library Journal

A new title in the "Merriam-Webster's Collegiate" line, this one-volume reference resulted from a collaboration with the editorial staff of the Encyclopedia Britannica. In fact, the articles here (over 25,000) are based on Britannica's flagship 32-volume set. The editors have managed to pack considerable information into this work, which is physically the same size as the Concise Columbia Encyclopedia (Houghton, 1994) but has twice as many pages and half again as many entries. And what entries they are! The articles are well researched, clearly written, and comprehensive yet keep between 40 and 700 words in length. In addition, the cartographers did an amazing job. The map included with each country entry is readable, visually interesting, and filled with useful information; cities other than the capital are included, as are landmarks and other distinguishing features. Each of these entries also contains a smaller map showing the country's location on the globe, more evidence of the attention to detail one finds throughout the work. All in all, this is a wonderful encyclopedia. Recommended for public and academic libraries.DManya Chylinski, Ctr. for Business Knowledge, Ernst & Young, Boston
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 1800 pages
• Publisher: Merriam-Webster (January 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0877790175
• ISBN-13: 978-0877790174
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7.3 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #898,950 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential Desk and Armchair Companion, October 14, 2000

By 

Orin Hargraves (Westminster, MD USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Merriam Webster's Collegiate Encyclopedia (Hardcover)

If you've had the experience of looking up something in the dictionary and then being disappointed either because it wasn't there or the definition stopped just short of what you wanted to know, this is the book for you. It's really great for filling in small gaps of knowledge about thousands of topics, telling you just as much as you need to know to understand a reference to a person, place, or subject in context. The extensive cross-references are an invitation to delightful browsing. Best of all, the material is largely condensed from Britannica, so you know you're getting access to information written by the top experts in all fields. I've been using it for only a few weeks now and I can't imagine being without it; a real gem among reference books.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good value, September 26, 2001

By 

William (Hudson, NC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Merriam Webster's Collegiate Encyclopedia (Hardcover)

One gets quite a lot for one's money with this one-volume encyclopedia. It's impressive how the editors at Merriam-Webster are able to make a book that is so comprehensive and concise at the same time.

There are a couple of odd things about it, though. Many of the articles cover topics that concern current events, with articles on recent celebrities like Jerry Seifeld and companies like Microsoft. Unfortunately, such current topics must come at the expense of other less current topics. This excessive concentration on current topics could make the book date quite rapidly.

Also, many of the articles have been lifted straight from the Encyclopedia Britannica. This would not have been a problem if the editors had taken advantage of the opportunity to revise the articles to bring them up to date, but unfortunately they didn't do so in many cases. The net result of these two editorial decisions is to give the book a straight-from-the-headlines feel for one article, and then an ancient feel for the next.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most useful encyclopedias you'll ever use, July 9, 2004

By 

Thomas E. Davis (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Merriam Webster's Collegiate Encyclopedia (Hardcover)

Professionals who turn to an encyclopedia on a regular basis have long had to choose between the bulk and sometimes arcane detail of the 30-volume Encyclopedia Britannica and the heft of the one-volume Columbia Encyclopedia. The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia was a redoubtable alternative in the 80s and early 90s, despite entries that could be maddeningly brief, but Columbia has not published an updated volume in years.

There's always the Internet, of course, but online information is so often of suspect provenance. I've found the Encarta Encyclopedia that was thrown in with the software that came with my computer a few years ago to be inadequate. And there's nothing like a book at hand, a physical presence requiring no booting up or electricity: just the facts, ma'am, without all the flash.

To the rescue come Encyclopedia Britannica and Miriam-Webster, who have combined forces to create a current and authoritative one-volume encyclopedia of the same size as the Miriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary. They make an admirable and emphatically useful pair. The encyclopedia is both contemporary and as comprehensive as possible for its size. Intelligently and lucidly written, thoroughly cross-referenced, loaded with maps and photographs, this superb reference book has been effectively answering my questions and settling debates for several years now. I often pick it up just to browse. Highly recommended.