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The World Encyclopedia | 
| Creators: Oxford University Press, Chris Humphries, Frances Adlington, Rachel Lawrence
Brand: NBC
Category: Book
List Price: $75.00
Buy Used: $0.69
You Save: $74.31 (99%)
New (6) Used (34) from $0.69
Avg. Customer Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 700096
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 880
Shipping Weight (lbs): 6.1
Dimensions (in): 10.9 x 8.5 x 2.2
MPN: V38340-00000-00000
ISBN: 0195218183
Dewey Decimal Number: 031
EAN: 9780195218183
ASIN: 0195218183
Publication Date: October 18, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Good shape, medium wear.
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Here is an authoritative, stimulating, and up-to-date reference work, with over 1.5 million words and 20,000 entries. Oxford World Encyclopedia is the first in a new series of reference works from Oxford University Press, featuring iFinger's software, which allows the easy access to electronic reference works. The encyclopedia installs to your hard drive and runs in the background on your PC, so you can consult it whenever you want, with no fuss and no waiting. As you build your library from Oxford, you build a fully integrated reference source. Any iFinger products when installed on the same Windows system will search through all installed reference titles with a click of a mouse button, or when you roll over a word in the Web browser.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Compare before you buy. April 2, 2003
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
For $... you can buy Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Encyclopedia with almost double the number of entries (25,000), and more than a 1000 (!!) extra pages. Just think about it... So many important topics you don't find in the Oxford, but you do in Merriam-W. Many others Oxford gives a mere 2 or 3 lines, whereas in Merriam-W. you find a much more extended coverage. And that for less the money. The only reason I could see to buy the Oxford instead of Merriam-W. would be for high school students who's demands may be limited, and who just love those maps and colored illustrations. I got both, the Oxford ...for a mere couple of dollars, and Merriam-W. just for the shipping costs from Book of the Month Club. But between the two I know that I'll be using the latter a whole lot more.
 Very Handy January 13, 2002
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
Great as a quick reference. The country descriptions with maps are terrific. Haven't compared it to any other one volume knowledge stores.
 Doesn't exactly do credit to Oxford University December 4, 2001
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is a huge one-volume collection of information, some 800 (8.25 x 10.5") pages long, with 13,000 entries, maps and tables and all sorts of useful information.pThe American edition comes to us from Britain (printed in Spain-very good quality) under the imprint of Oxford University Press Inc, "an authoritative but stimulating reference source" the Preface tells us, "for everyday family use - as a study aid for school and college students."pI bought a copy as a Chanukah present for a favorite niece. Attractive as it is, however, I shall not give it. Like many other compendious books from great Britain that I have seen in recent years, from cookbooks to histories and the geography of the Mediterranean basis, it seems to be suffused with a mean-spirited anti-Semitism and a strong anti-Israel bias.pMy first glance was at the entry for Jerusalem (I had just heard about a score of youngsters who had been blown to shreds there by yet another suicide bomb attack). brIn the Oxford World Encyclopedia, I read:br"Jerusalem, Capital of Israel, a sacred site for Christians, Jews and Muslims." (Excuse me, Christians first? It has been the Holy City of the Jews since around 1000 BC. Jews make up the vast majority of its population. The Christian population makes up barely five percent of the population. Does Christian sanctity take first preference for the Brits over anyone else's sanctity because their Queen is "Defender of the Faith" and titular head of the Church of England?).pIt continues:br"Destroyed (c. 587 BC) by Nebuchadnezzar, it was rebuilt (c. 35 BC) by Herod the Great." What happened to it in those 550 years? A bombed site, a parking lot perhaps? I have news for you, Oxford University: the Jews returned from Babylonian exile in 538 BCE and rebuilt the city. (Read your Bible, the books of Ezra and Nehemiah). The centerpiece, the sacred Temple, was completed in 515 BCE. King Herod the Great, a pagan with vague claims to Jewish connections was a vassal of the Roman Emperor and secured a period of peace with the building of impressive edifices in honor every religion and emperor he could think of. He did enlarge the Temple Mount to the dimensions it has today and so transformed the site that its magnificence and splendor won universal admiration. But for 500 years before Herod, Jerusalem was a thriving metropolis and religious center. And even the splendor of the new Temple earned him little appreciation from the Jews who sought sanctity, not splendor.pLook up JEWS: br"Traditionally, the descendants of Judah, fourth son of Jacob, who settled in ancient Palestine . . . . " Palestine? I thought it was the Land of Canaan when they dwelled there. The Hebrew name was Eretz Israel. There's an early reference to "Palestinian Syria" by Herodotus the historian, and that's about it. The name "Palestine" was used primarily by the Crusaders and was never used at all by Muslims and Arabs until about four decades ago. Perhaps I shouldn't have been so surprised: In an introductory time-line History of the World, I read: "c.1100 BC, Jews establish the kingdom of Israel in Palestine."pThroughout the book, the pro-Arab, anti-Israel bias is obnoxiously blatant, and the very right of Israel to exist is subtly and repeatedly called into question. Again and again we read how in 1948 the Arab population was forced to flee from Israel-and nary a mention that this was at the behest of five Arab nations (some under British army command) who invaded Israel before the Jewish state was even created, with the intent of driving the entire Jewish population into the sea.pThe Oxford World Encyclopedia reminds me of two incidents. pSome fifty years ago, Sir Ernest Bevin, HM Secretary for Foreign Affairs refused to even use the name "Israel" but referred instead to "The Jewish authorities in Tel Aviv." (After five Royal Air Force Spitfires, on spying missions for the invading Egyptians, were shot down by Israel's fledgling air force in one day, a British cartoonist showed an Israeli asking the foreign minister, "Now do you recognize me?")p(...)How accurate is the rest of the book? I don't know. I don't care. I haven't researched much further. I looked up two topics in psychology, EMOTION and MOTIVATION, in which I have both professional interest and knowledge -- about which I found nary a word. Nor did I find a word on arrhythmia, an all too common heart disorder. I did, though, find lots of information on current TV and movie idols, rock stars, and so on.pFrankly, I can't think of anyone I'd want to give the book to. But it would make an ideal doorstop for my den.
Doesn't exactly do credit to Oxford University December 4, 2001
7 out of 20 found this review helpful
This is a huge one-volume collection of information, some 800 (8.25 x 10.5") pages long, with 13,000 entries, maps and tables and all sorts of useful information.pThe American edition comes to us from Britain (printed in Spain-very good quality) under the imprint of Oxford University Press Inc, "an authoritative but stimulating reference source" the Preface tells us, "for everyday family use - as a study aid for school and college students."pI bought a copy as a Chanukah present for a favorite niece. Attractive as it is, however, I shall not give it. Like many other compendious books from great Britain that I have seen in recent years, from cookbooks to histories and the geography of the Mediterranean basis, it seems to be suffused with a mean-spirited anti-Semitism and a strong anti-Israel bias.pMy first glance was at the entry for Jerusalem (I had just heard about a score of youngsters who had been blown to shreds there by yet another suicide bomb attack). brIn the Oxford World Encyclopedia, I read:br"Jerusalem, Capital of Israel, a sacred site for Christians, Jews and Muslims." (Excuse me, Christians first? It has been the Holy City of the Jews since around 1000 BC. Jews make up the vast majority of its population. The Christian population makes up barely five percent of the population. Does Christian sanctity take first preference for the Brits over anyone else's sanctity because their Queen is "Defender of the Faith" and titular head of the Church of England?).pIt continues:br"Destroyed (c. 587 BC) by Nebuchadnezzar, it was rebuilt (c. 35 BC) by Herod the Great." What happened to it in those 550 years? A bombed site, a parking lot perhaps? I have news for you, Oxford University: the Jews returned from Babylonian exile in 538 BCE and rebuilt the city. (Read your Bible, the books of Ezra and Nehemiah). (..).pLook up JEWS: br"Traditionally, the descendants of Judah, fourth son of Jacob, who settled in ancient Palestine . . . . " Palestine? I thought it was the Land of Canaan when they dwelled there. The Hebrew name was Eretz Israel. (...) Perhaps I shouldn't have been so surprised: In an introductory time-line History of the World, I read: "c.1100 BC, Jews establish the kingdom of Israel in Palestine."pThroughout the book, the pro-Arab, anti-Israel bias is obnoxiously blatant, and the very right of Israel to exist is subtly and repeatedly called into question. Again and again we read how in 1948 the Arab population was forced to flee from Israel-and nary a mention that this was at the behest of five Arab nations (some under British army command) who invaded Israel before the Jewish state was even created, with the intent of driving the entire Jewish population into the sea.pT(...)pHow accurate is the rest of the book? I don't know. I don't care. I haven't researched much further. I looked up two topics in psychology, EMOTION and MOTIVATION, in which I have both professional interest and knowledge -- about which I found nary a word. Nor did I find a word on arrhythmia, an all too common heart disorder. I did, though, find lots of information on current TV and movie idols, rock stars, and so on.pFrankly, I can't think of anyone I'd want to give the book to. But it would make an ideal doorstop for my den.
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