Page 43 - Berkshire Encyclopedia Of World History Vol I - Abraham to Coal

xlviii berkshire encyclopedia of world history

Approach Games in Athens. We tracked down the author of our
The major challenge for our authors was to write on their “Assyrian Empire” article on a dig in Turkey, and most
subjects from what we call “a world history perspective.” appropriately received his article from there. Bill McNeill
It wasn’t always clear to them—or to us—exactly what stepped in to write a number of articles, including “Dance
that would look like.An ideal article, we believed, would and Drill” and “Ancient Greece,” a particularly beautiful
show how its subject changed over time; the subject’s article. Bill said that writing on Greece was a chance to
connections with other concepts, times, and places; and revisit his past, since he’d spent a good deal of time there
the subject’s significance for and influence on the present. early in his career, and the perspective he provides on
But it took concrete examples, not abstract discussion, to what the idea, and ideals, of ancient Greece have meant
make clear what was truly successful. Consider the story in world history are a fine demonstration of what we
of our article “Glass.” have attempted in the entire encyclopedia.
The article that was submitted said a great deal about
the influence of glass on history—on the scientific revo- How to Use the
lution, on household hygiene—but relatively little about Encyclopedia
the history of glass itself. As such, it fit within our world With our emphasis on connections and movements over
history approach. But there were questions raised by our and across time and place, the encyclopedia must also
experienced staff editors, who were expecting a very allow users to see connections across articles and move
detailed article on the history of glass itself—how it is around the encyclopedia easily. We have provided users
made, technical improvements in its manufacture. It took with six tools to facilitate such movement.
considerable discussion to clarify that what we wanted
was basically what we had received: a world history of 1. Three general era overviews, gathered together in
glass. Nevertheless, the article still required a little addi- This Fleeting World: An Overview of Human History,
tional coverage of the basic history, and “Glass” became a book-within-a-book that appears in Volume 1 and
our touchstone when it came to deciding if an article was Volume 5, divide human history into three over-
right for us or not, and helped us see the difference arching eras—foraging, agrarian, and modern.
between the kind of coverage offered in this encyclopedia 2. Eleven content overviews provide a general topical
and the coverage readers might find elsewhere. (It’s sheer context for many of the shorter, more focused articles.
serendipity that this clarity came through “Glass.”) 3. The Reader’s Guide at the beginning of each vol-
ume classifies all articles into thirty-four topical cat-
Fruition egories, with articles placed in as many categories
All publishers have tales of heroic efforts made to meet as appropriate.
deadlines, and Berkshire’s story of bringing the BEWH 4. Several dozen blind entries throughout the volume
to print is a classic case.The BEWH had a firm end date, direct readers who search for articles under one name
because the American Library Association had years to their correct location under a different name.
before scheduled January 2005 as its first-ever conference 5. Extensive cross-references at the end of articles point
in Massachusetts, Berkshire Publishing’s home state. readers to other related articles. Each article is also fol-
Launching the encyclopedia in Boston, itself a historic lowed by a rich listing (“Further Reading”) of world-
city, was clearly perfect. class sources that students can consult.
This meant that Berkshire had to finalize the encyclo- 6. The index indicates volume as well as page numbers.
pedia during the summer of 2004, a time when it seemed The encyclopedia contains 538 articles ranging in
half our contributors were away, some in Russia, some in length from about 500 words to over 4,000 words.
China, some in Latin America, and others at the Olympic Our thirty-four topical categories are listed below; the