Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Plus Index of Contributors (60 Volumes)

出版者:Oxford University Press, USA

作者:Harrison, Brian Howard; Matthew, H. C. G.; Oxford University Press

页数:61472

出版时间:2004-09-23

价格:USD 6500.00

装帧:Hardcover

isbn号码:9780198614111

具体描述

*Starred Review* This classic of British collective biography, called "an undertaking of exceptional magnitude" by Sidney Lee, its second editor, was first published between 1885 and 1900. Ten-year supplements were issued through the 1980s, and five-year supplements through the 1990s. Half the original set was written by only 34 contributors. The supplements were written by a wider range of people, often based on "personal acquaintance." The original set gave women short shrift, along with people in trade and commerce, and Victorian sensibilities meant that certain topics were taboo.

To be included among the 50,000 entries in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ODNB), subjects must have died by the end of 2000. No one was dropped, but 70 percent of the old essays (all those on prime ministers, for instance) were replaced, and the rest were revised. More than 16,000 entries treat people who were not included in the original DNB. The scope spans 2,400 years and includes mythical figures like Robin Hood and Piltdown Man. Some people are treated in group entries. Ten percent of the entries are for women. All traces of Victorian propriety are gone: now Oscar Wilde is described as homosexual, and artist Eric Gill's unorthodox sex life is described in detail. As in the original set, the writing is clear and often witty. The ODNB is aimed at the general reader, as well as the scholar, and contains many figures from popular culture: Barbara Cartland, Benny Hill, and Sid Vicious, for example.

What does national in the title mean? The set includes those who were born or died in Britain (including Ireland), as well as people "noteworthy in the history of the British Isles, and their overseas connections." This net is cast in the broadest possible way. Many people from the former British Empire, such as Malawi's president Hastings Banda and Australian novelist Patrick White, are included. There appear to be some inconsistencies in coverage: American Jimi Hendrix is here (because he died in Britain) but not Jamaican Bob Marley. Coverage of 500 people from colonial America is a useful addition, and it is interesting to see them described from a British point of view.

Each entry begins with birth and death dates and a tag describing what the person was known for (e.g., "cotton spinner," "cricketer," or a marquess who is simply labeled "wastrel"). While the average biography is about 1,000 words long, some entries are as long as 37,000 words. Entries conclude with a section called "References," which contains often-extensive bibliographies (called "Sources"), a list of archives holding the subject's papers, sources of likenesses, and, sometimes, "wealth at death." Ten thousand entries are illustrated with portraits: in the print set they are all in black and white, but online some are in color.

The print set has no list of entries nor any indexes, except a volume that lists all the contributors with a list of the entries they wrote. No institutional affiliations are given for contributors, more than 1,000 of whom are from the U.S.

Researchers looking for biographies by anything other than personal name will need to use the online version, with its powerful searching capabilities. In addition to a Quick Search by name or full-text keyword, there are three basic ways to find information online: Browse, Themes, and Search. Browse lets the user scan the entries alphabetically by name or by year of birth or death. Themes Search offers two features. Ready Reference has lists of prime ministers, archbishops of Canterbury, Nobel Prize winners, Olympic title holders, and others. Feature essays focus on topics such as medical biography and Disraeli's 2004 bicentenary.

The Search function is extremely sophisticated, with five ways to search: People, Full Text, References, Contributors, and Images. Wild cards can be used in most fields. People Search can be modified by sex, religion, field of interest, dates, places, and the presence of an image in the entry. One can find all the Jewish women in the ODNB or all the men who lived in the nineteenth century whose field of interest was travel and exploration in Africa. The Fields of Interest filter has 25 broad categories, from Agriculture to Travel and Exploration, which can then be divided into subfields and sub-subfields. The full list is so long that it can be slow to load.

Full Text Search uses Boolean limiters and can be limited to a particular part of entries, such as place or organization names. In References Search, one can search Sources, Archives, Likenesses, and Wealth at Death. Using Contributors Search results in a list of all entries by an individual, just as in the print set. Images can be searched by artist, dates, location, and credit.

In a results list, each entry name is followed by birth and death dates, the descriptive tag, and an icon if there is a portrait. Within an entry, it is possible to highlight any word or phrase and do a quick search in the whole database. Long entries have clickable lists of subheads. There are links to entries in the original DNB and entries in American National Biography (Oxford, 2000), assuming the institution subscribes to ANB Online.

The online context-sensitive help is useful, but most users will need some direction to take advantage of all the database's features. According to Oxford, the online version will be updated three times per year, and the print set "periodically."

The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography is fascinating reading and will prove useful to researchers in many disciplines. The online version provides extremely powerful tools for searching. The ODNB is an important purchase for most academic libraries and very large public libraries. Libraries that can only afford one version of this mammoth compilation should consider subscribing to the online one. Sandy Whiteley

Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"...a monumental event for the publisher and the industry." -- -Library Journal

"Oxford Dictionary of National Biography is a rollcall of the great and the good, the eccentric and the bad..." -- -Reuters News Service

"The fall reference publication with by far the most muscle" -- -Booklist

"The printed pantheon of Britons great and small, and of those who influenced them." -- -The Los Angeles Times

"The publishing achievement of the year - maybe of the decade...this is a work which makes superlatives superfluous." -- -The New York Times

用户评价

说实话，一开始我对这套书的实用性是抱有一丝疑虑的，毕竟电子资料如此发达的今天，如此厚重的纸质百科全书是否还有必要？然而，当我真正沉浸其中后，这种疑虑烟消云散了。纸张的质感、油墨的清晰度，以及排版的优雅，提供了一种纯粹的、专注的阅读体验，这是屏幕无法比拟的。我尤其喜欢它对那些艺术家和作家的处理方式。比如，我在查阅一位十八世纪剧作家时，不仅仅看到了他的生卒年月和作品列表，更有相当篇幅的篇章专门讨论了他在当时文坛受到的批评和赞誉，以及他对后世戏剧流派产生的微妙影响。这种深入骨髓的分析，往往是网络搜索碎片化信息所无法提供的整体画面。它强迫你慢下来，去理解一个人物在特定时代背景下的复杂性与矛盾性。对我来说，这不再仅仅是一部参考书，更像是一套可以随时取阅的、经过严格学术筛选的“知识伴侣”。那些贡献者名单的厚度本身，就足以说明了编纂团队的严谨和投入。

从一个历史爱好者的角度来看，这套书的价值在于它构建了一种无可替代的“参照系”。我经常会发现自己仅仅是随便翻开一页，就被其中某个名字吸引，然后一头扎进那个人的世界里去了好几个小时。举个例子，我偶然看到一个关于早期航海家的小传，书中不仅记录了他们的探险路线，还引用了当时的航海日志片段，那种身临其境的感觉，比任何纪录片都要震撼。而且，这些传记的作者们——那些贡献者——本身就是学术界的精英，他们的文字带有高度的专业性和可靠性。我可以信赖这里面记载的每一个日期、每一个事件的细节。当我将书中的信息与其他二手资料进行交叉比对时，往往发现这部《牛津国家传记词典》提供了最扎实、最无可辩驳的基石。它维护了一种严谨的学术标准，这对于任何希望建立扎实历史知识体系的人来说，都是至关重要的。

对于那些严肃的学术研究者而言，这套书的索引部分——Index of Contributors——简直是一件艺术品。它不仅仅是一个字母表排列的目录，它更像是一张精心编织的关系网。我可以追踪某一特定历史时期内，哪些学者对特定领域的人物进行了深度研究。这对于我选择研究导师或者了解学术流派的演变轨迹有着极大的帮助。例如，通过研究哪些学者集中撰写了关于苏格兰启蒙运动人物的传记，我可以推断出当时学术研究的热点和关注焦点。从装帧和内容维护的角度来看，这套书无疑是需要小心对待的“传家宝”级别的藏品。它所承载的学术重量和历史信息量，使得任何试图绕开它进行深入研究的行为都将是徒劳的。拥有它，就如同拥有了一把开启英国历史深层结构与细微肌理的万能钥匙。

我必须承认，我尚未能完全通读这六十卷，这本厚重的集合更像是我的“知识宝库”，而不是一本需要从头读到尾的小说。但它的结构设计却非常适合碎片化研究。假设我正在撰写一篇关于英国科学革命早期女性科学家的论文，我只需要定位到相关的年代和领域，就能迅速找到几位关键人物的全面概述。这些概述的深度远超教科书，它们能够清晰地勾勒出她们所处的社会障碍，以及她们如何克服这些障碍取得成就。我特别欣赏它对于那些“边缘人物”的收录，比如一些政治运动的组织者、工会领袖，他们的历史往往容易被主流叙事所忽略。这本书的存在，保证了英国社会历史的完整性，让每一个曾经在历史进程中留下印记的个体，无论其社会地位高低，都能获得应有的记录和尊重。这是一种非常积极的、包容性的历史观的体现。

这部鸿篇巨制，光是捧在手里就能感受到沉甸甸的历史分量。我刚拿到这套书的时候，光是拆开包装就花了不少功夫，每一册都装帧精美，那种老派的、典雅的封面设计，让人忍不住想要立刻翻阅。我最欣赏的是它收录人物的广度和深度，简直就像是英国历史的一部活地图册。你翻开任何一卷，随便指一个名字，背后都能牵扯出一长串影响了社会、文化、政治的关键事件。我个人对早期那些鲜为人知，却在地方治理上做出巨大贡献的人物特别感兴趣，这本书并没有仅仅关注那些帝王将相，而是深入到了各个社会阶层，这对研究社会史的学者来说，简直是无价之宝。我尝试着用它来查找一些关于维多利亚时期一些不太出名的工业先驱的信息，发现他们的生平叙述非常详尽，不仅涵盖了他们的主要成就，还细致描绘了他们的家庭背景和个人性格，读起来非常生动，一点也不像传统传记那样枯燥乏味。它的索引部分设计得极为精巧，即便是查找跨越几个世纪的人物关系，也能迅速定位，这极大地提升了研究效率。