A review by littoral
All the Knowledge in the World: The Extraordinary History of the Encyclopedia by Simon Garfield

Did not finish book.

All the Knowledge in the World is billed as a popular history of the encyclopedia - but it does explore more than this. Because of the nature of the encyclopedia as a record of knowledge, it lends itself to philosophical thought and reflection on the nature of knowledge itself. What counts as important enough to be knowledge, to be wisdom as opposed to mere observation? Garfield uses historical examples of encyclopedia entries for witchcraft and demonry and the contemporary absence of entries for geography to highlight that the answers to such questions are not so straightforward, and have often been recast over time.

The different chapters use different historical encyclopedias to highlight big questions including how to consider structuring knowledge (alphabetically? thematically?), and what to consider the purpose of encyclopedias (to “own” knowledge? or as a public good?). As a history and philosophy of science major in college, this seems like it should appeal to me. Unfortunately, the author seems to be more enamored by encyclopedic trivia than I am (something the introduction perhaps should have warned me of), and elaborations on these big questions are buried within what feels like a strained structure of alphabetically-titled chapters and subchapters.

If I had a print copy of this book, I do think it would be a nice skim through to find these nuggets of wisdom and trivia scattered throughout. But as a linear read, this one was a DNF.

Thanks to William Morrow and Netgalley for an e-ARC of this title in exchange for a fair review.