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Booklist Review

This enlarged seventh edition is the first one since 1971. Its primary purpose ``is to make useful dates accessible to the general reader.'' Entries can be found for countries, institutions, dynasties, cities, important families, arts, sciences, philosophy, religion, and inventions. There are three sections to this dictionary. The first is a description of the various types of calendars, including Jewish, Roman, and Orthodox. The second section comprises an alphabetically arranged dictionary made up of three types of entries. Most entries are only one or two sentences long, but there are a few longer narratives of two or three columns. Other entries consist of alphabetical lists under a specific subject. A typical narrative entry can be found under U.S.S.R. One can easily determine that the Russian civil war lasted from 1919 to 1922 and that Gorbachev became leader in 1985. The typical classified entry is Welsh Literature, which lists Welsh authors in chronological order. See references to additional information or to another name are found throughout Everyman's. Under Sandwich Islands one is directed to see Hawaiian Islands for the entry. The last section is a chronological listing of events from 30,000 B.C. to 1985 that occupies the last 73 pages. This section consists of a table divided into broad subject classifications: History; Politics & People; Economics & Sociology; Religion, Education & Philosophy; Science, Exploration & Technology; and Music & the Arts. Reading across the table, one can determine that between 620 and 639 the first Norse raids on the Irish coast took place and that 622 is Year 1 in the Moslem calendar. The Timetables of History by Grun (Simon & Schuster, 1982) is a work similar in nature and style to this dictionary. The Timetables, however, is broader in coverage, has more trivial information, and is easier to use than Everyman's. For instance, the Grun book states that Amtrak began operating U.S. railroads in 1971 and that Vienna University started in 1365. Neither of these facts can be found in Everyman's, which has a British slant and some unreliable entries on American topics, e.g., Universities, American. Ease of use is facilitated in The Timetables by an alphabetical index that includes names as well as subjects. One must know to look under English Literature in Everyman's to find out when John Maynard Keynes lived. In The Timetables his name appears in the alphabetical index. Together, these two works provide any reference department with excellent coverage of when important events took place. Libraries that found the earlier edition of Everyman's to be useful may want to order this updated, augmented version.