The Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History: 5 volumes: print and e-reference editions available [Hardcover]

This is a good example of the strengths of specialized encyclopedias. Unfortunately, it also provides some examples of the weaknesses.

The description from Booklist (above) provides a good summary of the size and scope of the work (although the publisher claims 900 rather than 875 articles). According to the publisher's Web site, "Articles range from 500-word entries on inventors, theoreticians, and industry leaders to overarching, 8,000-word essays on markets, industries, and labor. ... The general conceptual categories of the work are: Geography (entries on cities, countries, and regions); Agriculture; Production Systems, Business History, and Technology; Demography; Institutions, Governments, and Markets; Macroeconomic History and International Economics; Money, Banking and Finance; Labor; Natural Resources and the Environment; and Biographies." Here are a few samples of article titles: Linen Industry: Overview, Technological Change; List, Georg Friedrich; Literacy;Livestock Leases; Living Standards; Local Banks; Local Public Goods; Lombardy; London; Philips Family; Phillips Curve; Pigs; Pilkington Family; Piracy; Pirenne, Henri; Plantation System; Poland: Early and Medieval Periods, Early Modern Period, Modern Period. There are frequent images, diagrams, graphs, and thematic maps, most of which add significant information.

Some people have wrung their hands over the alleged "Eurocenticism" of this encyclopedia. As someone who has a real need for good information about the economic history of non-European parts of the world I can sympathize, but I think the criticism is very misplaced. Economic history and analytical history in general is a subject invented by Europeans and until recently practiced almost exclusively by Europeans and people of European culture living in former colonies of European settlement. Even with scholars from other cultural backgrounds now entering the field in some numbers we cannot look forward to any quick fix, simply because the Europeans seem to have left a great deal better records than most other societies. In many cases it is going to take a lot of delving into very obscure fragmentary records coupled with painstaking archeological work to improve our state of knowledge measurably.

Most articles are very good and some are masterful. The best, naturally, tend to be written by deep and renowned students of their subjects. Some articles are mediocre, and there are a few real bombs. The articles dealing with Europe and related subjects tend to have the most meat. Some of the non-European articles are very good, however, like Robin Yates' on Ancient and Feudal China and Kent Deng's on the Tang, Song, and Yuan Dynasties. Others are limp owing to lack of good information or lack of skill in presenting what is known. Most frustrating, some present one side of an important and fruitful on-going scholarly debate, leaving the reader with a seriously distorted impression and giving him or her no leads to follow for real enlightenment. This does not happen a great deal, but much more often than it should, given the ambitions and claims of this work.

Nevertheless, I am glad to have access to a library with this encyclopedia on its shelves, and urge other libraries to follow the example. Some libraries may find their clientele better served by the online version that Oxford University Press also offers, as part of its Digital Reference Shelf series.

There is also a review on the Economic History Net at eh.net/bookreviews/library/0929.shtml.

Economics is a social science and economic history is a story of human interaction in the economic sphere.It tells the story of markets,of organizations,of institutions,of small and large communities,from tiny medieval village to the huge communal economies of the totalitarian regimes of the 20th century.

Encyclopaedia is divided in to elevan parts.It gives articles on

-Geography :countries regions like Ireland,Italy ;to

-Geography :cities like Amsterdam,Rome,Venice;to

-Agriculture e.g. green revolution,irrigated farming,mixed farming,land lordism,oil crops;to

-Production systems,Business history,technology e.g.capitalism ,corporatism,air transportation,leisure industry,oil industry,telephone industry;to

-Demography e.g. migration;to

-Institutions,governments,markets e.g. mercantalism,free trade ;to

-Macroeconomical history ,International economics e.g. economic imperialism,monetary standards,exchange rates; to

-Money,Banking,Finance e.g. money, coinage,condumer credit;to

-Labour e.g. wage systems,labour markets;to

-Natural resources and environment e.g. nuclear power,solar power,pollution pest control; to

-Biographies of -a> Inventors and Writers on technology e.g. Alexander Graham Bell,James Watt,Wright brothers --------------b>Entrepreneurs ,Bankers,Labour leaders e.g. Andrew Carngie,Benjamin Franklin -c>Economics and Economic historians e.g. Thomas Malthus Karl Marx, Max Weber.

Encyclopaedia also includes maps like

-spread of agriculture upto 500BCE

-world trading empires,circa 1914

-world deforestation

-industrial revolution in Europe

-world's largest cities,1500-2015

It also covers paintings like

-Agriculture revolution

-Amsterdam

-French caribbean view of the exportation of sugar from the colonies

It is a very good reference source for students as well as for a laymen