I'm perplexed that this encyclopedia managed to go through four editions, considering how brief and unhelpful its entries are. Most of them are only 50 to 100 words in length. And rather than pick and choose some topics to explore in more depth, the editors decided to give everything shallow coverage.Worse, they don't even use those few words per entry wisely. Instead of giving the essential facts, they go for obscure details that will only mean something to people who are already familiar with the subject. This defeats the purpose of a general-use encyclopedia -- to introduce a subject and give the reader some basic understanding. Even my paperback New American Desk Encyclopedia surpasses this work by that standard, though it has less entries.I do not recommend this book.