Encyclopedia Britannica

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., "headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, is a leading provider of learning and knowledge products. We're proud to be one of the world's most trusted sources of information on every topic imaginable - from the origins of the universe to current events and everything in between."

Twentieth Century
"The eleventh edition (1910-11) was produced in cooperation with Cambridge University, and though by then ownership of the Britannica had passed to two Americans, [[Horace Hooper and Walter Jackson, the strength and confidence of much of its writing marked the high point of Edwardian optimism and perhaps of the British Empire itself.

"The addition of supplemental volumes resulted in the twelfth (1921-22) and thirteenth (1926) editions. Contributors included Sigmund Freud, Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, Leon Trotsky, Harry Houdini, H.L. Mencken, and W.E.B. Du Bois. The article "Mass Production," signed by Henry Ford, is actually believed to have been written by his personal publicist.

"In 1929 the principal operations of the company had moved to the United States, and other important changes took place. Whereas previously the editorial staff would be disbanded after the completion of a new edition, the company now maintained a permanent editorial department whose job was to keep pace with the rapid growth of knowledge.

"The encyclopedia began to undergo continuous revision when the company’s headquarters moved to Chicago in the 1930s, and in 1938 the first edition of the Britannica Book of the Year appeared. William Benton, later a U.S. Senator, led the company from 1943 until his death in 1973. During this time the company published the innovative fifteenth edition of the Britannica and Great Books of the Western World."

Editorial Board of Advisors
Accessed January 2008:


 * Nicholas Carr - Author, editor, and blogger
 * Wendy Doniger - Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Religions, University of Chicago
 * Benjamin M. Friedman - William Joseph Maier Professor of Political Economy, Harvard University
 * Leslie H. Gelb - President Emeritus, Council on Foreign Relations & winner of the Pulitzer Prize
 * David Gelernter - Professor of Computer Science, Yale University
 * Murray Gell-Mann - Nobel laureate, Professor Emeritus, California Institute of Technology, and Distinguished Fellow, Sante Fe Institute
 * Vartan Gregorian - President, Carnegie Corporation; former President, Brown University; former President, New York Public Library
 * Thomas Nagel - University Professor, New York University
 * Donald Norman - Author; Cofounder, Nielsen Norman Group & Professor of Computer Science, Northwestern University
 * Don Michael Randel - President, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
 * Lord Sutherland of Houndwood - President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
 * Michael Wesch - Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology, Kansas State University

Contact

 * Web: http://www.britannica.com