Book Review: All the Knowledge in the World

Simon Garfield, All the Knowledge in the World: the Extraordinary History of the Encyclopedia. New York: William Morrow, 2023. ISBN: 9780063292277.

Genre: history

Subgenre: encyclopedias, books, reading, literacy

Format: hardcover

Source: Berea branch, Madison County (KY) Public Library 

Note: William Morrow is an imprint of Harper Collins, one of the four publishers that I am boycotting due to their lawsuit against Internet Archive. However, I was reading this book prior to March 27, 2023 when my boycott went in effect. I am posting the review, but I am not actively sharing it on social media.

 

It is not often I pick up a book, and I want to keep reading, pausing other books I may be reading at the time. I always enjoy bibliophile books, and this one fits the bill. I will say before I go on I had concerns once I realized Garfield also wrote To the Letter: a Celebration of the Lost Art of Letter Writing (link to my review). I did not care much for that book, so I was concerned. However, it seems Garfield has improved over time since this book is hard to put down. It is not flawless, but it is pretty damn good. 

By now, encyclopedias, especially general interest ones like Britannica or World Book, are seen as nothing more than obsolete relics from a pre-Internet era. To many today, the idea of trying to put all the knowledge in the world, or at least a good part of it, in a set of books may seem ridiculous. Yet before the Internet and a little site known as Wikipedia, attempting to put as much knowledge as possible in a set of books was a noble goal. Garfield looks at the history of encyclopedia from the early days to their fate today, where they are mostly forgotten and unwanted. 

Garfield chooses a witty way to arrange his book. He arranges the chapters as encyclopedia entries in alphabetical order from A to Z. Within that arrangement, he delivers a chronological history of the encyclopedia with a few "distractions" along the way. The "distractions" are like amusing historical asides; they give the reader small breaks in the main reading. In addition, if you want to learn more, the author offers a list of books for further reading at the end of the book. Those books are in addition to the various footnotes throughout the book. While Garfield does use footnotes, the notes are not excessive and often point to articles or other items of interest. 

At times, this book took me back to my childhood. Back then I had a set of yellow volumes known as the Illustrated World Encyclopedia. It was a set for children and young adults with easy to read entries and some illustrations. I remember at times pulling down a volume and reading some entries before bedtime. It was one of my reading pleasures in younger days. Sadly, I grew up and moved on, and my parents likely weeded it out when they moved to other places over time. But those good memories of reading from that encyclopedia remain, and Garfield invoked them for me once more.

The book does have some limitations. Encyclopedias are a huge topic, so Garfield has to put in some limits. For this book, he mostly focuses on the West, on the European and American tradition. Others may get a mention, like some Chinese volumes, but the focus is "within the framework of Western knowledge-building" (13). That on its own is a lot of ground to cover, but I am sure there will be critics to question or complain about the lack of diversity. I'd say maybe a next step is a history of encyclopedias in other parts of the world, but for now those are the choices the author made. Note also that specialist encyclopedias are not included either.

A choice I did find questionable was the very long material on Wikipedia. Granted, whole books can be written and have been written on Wikipedia. The author's coverage here seems a bit much. A bit more editing and summarizing could've made that part a bit more concise. After all the previous interesting stories, that part of the book seemed to drag, and at times some of the details seemed petty or a bit excessive. The chapter does look at some known issues with Wikipedia such as Wikipedians' notorious bullying and editing battles, but it was still a lot for the one topic. 

For those who wonder how a history of encyclopedias can be interesting I say it's the human endeavor. This is a history with drama, with some big personalities as well as common people, with decent people as well as con men and less than honest business people. If you enjoy some bits of drama and a bit of scandal now and then in your history books, this book has them. 

Overall, I really liked this book. It is interesting. The chapters by topic are mostly short, which makes for easy reading. If you enjoy history and/or reading about books, this book is a good option. This is also a good selection for libraries, and I am glad my local public library acquired it. It is a good choice for public and academic libraries. 

4 out of 5 stars. 

Additional reading notes: 

 

On trust, encyclopedias, and loss in the era of fake news: 

"Despite its numerous and inevitable errors, I have always trusted the intentions of the printed encyclopedia and its editors. That we don't have the space in our homes (and increasingly in our libraries) for a bit set of books suggests a new set of priorities; depth yielding to the shallows. The process of making an encyclopedia informs the worth we place on its contents, and to neglect this worth is to welcome a form of cultural amnesia" (9).

 

What the book is about: 

"This book is as much about the value of considered learning as it is about encyclopedias themselves. It is about the vast commitment required to make those volumes-- an astonishing energy force-- and the belief that such a thing will be worthwhile. Those who bought them did so in the hope of purchasing perennial value. An encyclopedia is a publishing achievement like no other, and something worth celebrating in almost every manifestation" (12). 

 

The author on what the book is not, its focus: 

"This is not an encyclopedia of encyclopedias; it is not a catalogue or analysis of every set in the world, just those I judge the most significant or interesting, or indicative of a turning point in how we view the world" (12).  

What the old volumes show: 

"These old volumes show us what we thought we knew, and we discard them with a rash disregard for the work of our forebears. Ancient editions carry a secret knowledge of their own, the enshrined accretion of learning" (361).

Books from the further reading list for possible TBR: 

• Blair, Ann, Information: a Historical Companion (2021). 
• Boyles, Denis, Everything Explained that is Explainable: On the Creation of Encyclopaedia Britannica's Celebrated Eleventh Edition, 1910-1911. (2016). (Subject to my boycott, Knopf is owned by Penguin Random House, so not anytime soon). 
• Lynch, Jack, You Could Look It Up: the Reference Shelf from Ancient Babylon to Wikipedia (2016).