Hutchinson's new 20th century encyclopedia

A fuller text, more richly illustrated and widened in scope, is here presented in contemporary and attractive form and entirely brought up to date especially in developments in technology and science, so that Hutchinson‘s New 20th Century Encyclopedia is more than ever the ideal one-volume reference work, indispensable in the schoolroom desk, on the office shelf, or beneath the television set in the family sitting-room. Aiming at comprehensiveness, we have not forgotten that facts, figures and abbreviations in close array tend to be indigestible, and unconsulted. In contrast, we have tried to stimulate rather than jade the appetite for knowledge and have made the encyclopedia selective. readable, companionable. browseable, and even — on the appropriate occasion — amusing so that it might not be classed either by younger or older readers among the dull reference tomes condemned by Charles Lamb as ‘Things in book’s clothing'.