The first was to send researchers out onto the streets to ask questions about current events and the ways of the world. Those in power came up with two ways of doing this. The purpose was to capture the life of the average man and woman, those who weren’t newsworthy and just made their way through generally unnoticed. Basically they wanted to find out how normal people lived, to know their views and opinions. With his characteristic ability to tackle the broadest of subjects in an illuminating and highly entertaining way, Simon Garfield uncovers a fascinating and important part of our shared past and wonders whether the promise of complete knowledge-that most human of ambitions-will forever be beyond our grasp.The Mass Observation Project was a somewhat lovely scheme instituted by the British government in the late 1930s. He reveals how encyclopedias have reflected our changing attitudes towards sexuality, race, and technology, and exposes how these ultimate bastions of trust were often riddled with errors and prejudice. He looks at how Encyclopedia Britannica came to dominate the industry, how it spawned hundreds of competitors, and how an army of ingenious door-to-door salesmen sold their wares to guilt-ridden parents. Simon Garfield, who “has a genius for being sparked to life by esoteric enthusiasm and charming readers with his delight” ( The Times), guides us on an utterly delightful journey, from Ancient Greece to Wikipedia, from modest single-volumes to the 11,000-volume Chinese manuscript that was too big to print. What have we lost in this transition? And how did we tell the progress of our lives in the past?Īll the Knowledge in the World is a history and celebration of those who created the most ground-breaking and remarkable publishing phenomenon of any age. Instead, we get our information from our phones and computers, apparently for free.

Now these huge books gather dust and sell for almost nothing on eBay. Adults cleared their shelves in the belief that everything that was explainable was now effortlessly accessible in their living rooms. Contributions from Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Orville Wright, Alfred Hitchcock, Marie Curie and Indira Gandhi helped millions of children with their homework. Created by thousands of scholars and the most obsessive of editors, a good set conveyed a sense of absolute wisdom on its reader. The encyclopedia once shaped our understanding of the world. A perfectly styled work of literature – at times sad, at times funny, but always full of life.' - Engineering & Technology Magazine 'A brilliant book about knowledge itself.” -Deirdre Mask, author of The Address Book From the “deliriously clever” ( Boston Globe ) Simon Garfield, New York Times bestselling author of Just My Type, comes the wild and fascinating story of the encyclopedia, from Ancient Greece to the present day.

Our Hidden Lives by Simon Garfield