STEARNS, Peter N. (ed.; orig. ed. William L. Langer). The Encyclopedia of World History: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern, Chronologically Arranged. Sixth Edition. Norwalk, Connecticut: The Easton Press, 2006.

Quarto. Full black leather. Spine with raised bands, 22-carat gilt accents. Gilt design and lettering to covers. All edges gilt. Moiré silk endpapers. Satin ribbon page marker. 1243pp. Over 20,000 entries throughout. Collector's Edition. Sixth edition. Originally published Cambridge: Houghton Mifflin, 2001.

The Encyclopedia of World History is among the most venerable single-volume reference works in the English language. Its roots reach back to the 1880s and the German chronological history of Karl Ploetz, which William Leonard Langer (1896–1977) of Harvard University adapted and expanded into the first English-language edition in 1940. Langer edited the work through five successive editions across four decades, establishing it as the standard single-volume chronological reference for historians, students, and general readers — an achievement recognised by its sobriquet in the academic community, simply "the Langer." By the time of the fifth edition in 1972, it had become the best-selling history reference work in the English-speaking world.

The sixth edition, published in 2001 under the editorship of Peter N. Stearns — Distinguished Professor and Provost at George Mason University, and one of the leading practitioners of global social history — undertook the most comprehensive revision the work had received in sixty years. Stearns and thirty prominent historians expanded the scope of coverage to reflect the transformation in historical scholarship over the preceding decades: the encyclopedia that Langer had compiled was weighted heavily toward political and military history, and primarily toward the history of Western civilisation. The sixth edition substantially expanded coverage of non-European societies, women's history, social and economic history, religious history, and cultural developments, bringing the chronological record up to the year 2000. The result is a work whose utility extends well beyond its predecessors.

With over 20,000 chronological entries arranged by geographic region and period — from prehistoric human migration and the first civilisations of Mesopotamia and the Nile Valley to the late twentieth century — the encyclopedia functions as both a timeline of major events and a framework for understanding how developments in different parts of the world relate to each other across time. The Easton Press Collector's Edition presents the complete sixth edition text in a large quarto binding suited to a reference work of this scale and permanence.

Near fine. A few minor markings along gilt edges; otherwise fine throughout.

This book is currently not on display in store. If you would like more information or to arrange a viewing, please contact: [email protected]

Catalogue Number: HH000572