Worldmark Encyclopedia of the Nations. 9th edition

Citation

Gorman, G.E. (1999), "Worldmark Encyclopedia of the Nations. 9th edition", Asian Libraries, Vol. 8 No. 5, pp. 188-190. https://doi.org/10.1108/al.1999.8.5.188.13

The Worldmark Encyclopedia of the Nations is a multi‐volume work charting the current developments of both the United Nations family (Vol. 1) and the present‐day nations of the world. Now in its 9th edition, this is a well‐established resource for schools and universities, or indeed any library where ready reference material of more than almanac detail is required.

While the contributors are largely American, they are sufficiently global in outlook to avoid the parochialism of so many US reference works; almost all are widely‐known experts and senior academics, journalists or members of various government‐related agencies. Data have also been gathered from a range of international sources, including foreign governments themselves, the Far Eastern Economic Review, The Economist, government Web sites, etc.

Of particular value is the first volume, devoted to the United Nations. Here the compilers have managed, in fewer than 400 pages, to provide a detailed analysis of not only the UN system in general, but also its 16 specialised agencies (ILO, WTO, UNIDO, etc.). The information in this volume is current, concise and a model of the encyclopaedist’s craft. The remaining geographical volumes follow a standard pattern, providing for each country up to 50 sections: topography, population, migration, economy, income, science and technology, social development, media, famous persons, etc. For each country the information content is adequate and commendably detailed; New Zealand is treated in 15 pages, Singapore in 13, Vietnam in 16, for example. The concluding bibliographies are reasonably up‐to‐date. A basic country and territory index concludes each volume, and there are glossaries, tables and other supplementary materials in the first volume.

The second encyclopaedia has been developed specifically to complement the first and follows the same organization. “… This encyclopedia focuses on the traditions, living conditions, and personalities of many of the world’s culture groups. Entries emphasize how people live today rather than how they lived in the past” (Preface). It covers more than 500 cultural groups around the world, ranging from the largest to some of the smallest in terms of numbers. However, the Preface indicates that many important groups have not been included in the first edition, and this is certainly the case for Asia. Vietnam, for example, contains more than 50 ethnic groups, with perhaps 35 of them wielding some influence in the country. However, only a handful of these are treated in Volume 3. Similar comments can be made about China, India and other countries. In short this is a distinctly American compendium reflecting an American perception of the significance of cultural groups in the world. The project advisers are American school teachers and school librarians; the contributors are almost exclusively American academics and “researcher/writers”. For a second edition one suggests that international contributors be used to supplement the information in this edition.

Each volume opens with an introductory essay on the cultural development of the region, and this is followed by articles on the specific cultural groups of the region. Each article consists of up to 20 headings, including such topics as location, folklore, religion, major holidays, interpersonal relations, food, education, sport, social problems. To give some indication of the depth of coverage achieved under these headings, the Azerbaijanis receive five‐page treatment; “China and her national minorities” is covered in 12 pages; the Madurese are discussed in four pages. For the most part content is reasonably fair and accurate, although at times the American bias is obvious and occasionally results in incorrect information. On the Vietnamese, for instance, it is stated that they “… are likely to marry young and have four or five children …” and that marriage “… is arranged by intermediaries and approved by parents …” ‐ both of which may be true in rural areas, but in urban centres such as HaNoi and Ho Chi Minh City or among the educated elsewhere neither is the norm any longer.

The bibliographies are an embarrassment and should not be used by anyone seeking additional reading ‐ they are exceedingly brief and dated; there are just six references in the article for Vietnamese, none of these later than 1986 and none from outside the USA. Each volume includes a country index at the front that lists the cultural groups profiled in the four volumes; there is also a detailed 50‐page subject index to the set in each volume and a glossary of terms, again replicated in each volume (but does the Feast of Santa Rosa, of Lima, have any relevance to the volume on Asia?).

These complaints aside, it has to be said that the Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life is not a bad effort at encompassing the world’s cultural groupings and that it deserves a place in many libraries serving upper secondary or lower tertiary students and where an American bias is not a problem. One hopes that a second edition will be more inclusive and that it will incorporate contributions from a more international group of experts.