New encyclopedia from Oxford

Press, 10 December 1988, Page 27

New encyclopedia from Oxford

Oxford Illustrated Encyclopedia: Volume 111, World History from Earliest Times to 1800. Volume IV, World History from 1800 to the Present Day. Oxford University Press, 1988. Both 392 pp. $49.95 'each. A new encyclopedia from a prestigious publishing house is no small event. The Oxford offering has so far reached Volume IV. Four more volumes are planned, plus a general index.

The two volumes of world history have appeared for review. Two earlier volumes dealt with the physical world and the natural world. The last four volumes will deal with the arts, technology, human society, and the universe.

They are attractive books, richly illustrated in colour, and the price is not unreasonable although the whole series will cost at least $4OO. Each volume is self-contained, with its own editor. Each of the history volumes has about 2300 entries and about 350 illustrations.

Entries are in alphabetical order, .with two wide columns to a page. The type is clear and the arrangement very easy to follow. Volume IV, for instance, goes from Abd el-Krim (a Moroccan rebel against the French) to Zuo Zongtang (or Tso Tsung-t’ang, a Chinese soldier who fought for the Imperial Government against the Taiping rebellion). Entries are generally short — these two, for instance, each get about 10 lines, but they are packed with information.

An elaborate system of crossreferences will lead a reader down many strange by-ways; these are great books for browsing, for adults as well as children.

Entries are not confined only to people. Abd el-Krim is followed by Abdication Crisis (of Edward VIII); Zuo Zongtang was preceded by Zulu War.

The alphabetical arrangement makes strange companions. Sir Robert Muldoon (a “statesman”), who gets 17 lines, falls between the Mukden Incident (the Japanese attack on Manchuria in 1931) and the Munich Beer-hall Putsch of 1923.

Another New Zealand Prime Minister, Sir Sidney Holland, is followed by Holocaust, Harold Holt (an Australian Prime Minister), Holy Alliance (of 1815), Sir Keith Holyoake, and Home Guard.

The Holyoake entry gives a sample of the encyclopedia’s style: “(1904-83) New Zealand statesman. A farmer active in agricultural organisations in the 1930 s and 19405, he entered Parliament in 1932, becoming leader of the National Party " in 1957 and 1960-72. An able politician in the tradition of. pragmatic conservatism,

he led New Zealand skilfully in the decades of growing racial tension. He served a term as governor-general of New Zealand after his retirement from politics.”

The encyclopedia tries hard to be impartial. The tone is liberal leftish, which was probably inevitable from a clutch of Oxford dons. So Stalin’s secret police, or Pol Pot’s reign of terror in Kampuchea, get appropriate criticism. But little is said about political terror in Africa, except of course for South Africa. An encyclopedia tends to reflect the cults of the day. So South Africa is attacked, especially in pictures, while equally unpleasant regimes with black rulers get whitewashed.

But in general entries are objective with short, factual accounts of very recent events such as the Falklands War of 1982 and the brief American intervention in Grenada in 1983.

Oddly for a volume with a faintly anti-war tone, the illustrations are strong on battles, some of them remarkably unfamiliar. For instance, there are contemporary paintings of the storming of the Magdala (a fort in Ethiopia) by the British in 1868; and an American attack on the bishop’s palace in Monterey, California, in 1846 during the Mexican-American War.

The earlier history volume, to 1800, is even wider in its sweep. It tries hard to avoid over-concentration on European affairs. Again the alphabet gives curious companions — for instance, Nostradamus, Nova Scotia, Novgorod, Nubians.

Over-all, from the sample of the two volumes of history, the “Oxford Illustrated Encyclopedia” emerges as a compromise — generally successful as a quick reference, but with soondiscovered limits as a source for more than the most basic information. It has the great virtue of being attractive to pick up and browse. No-one is likely to read a volume from cover to cover; if they did, they would be remarkably well informed about that particular field of human knowledge and experience. — Literary Editor.