Best Reference Books

Chronlogical tables describe concurrent events in world history from 4241 B.C. through 1978.

The Bible has had an immeasurable influence on Western culture, touching on virtually every aspect of our lives. It is one of the great wellsprings of Western religious, ethical, and philosophical traditions. It has been an endless source of inspiration to artists, from classic works such as Michaelangelo's Last Judgment, Handel's Messiah, or Milton's Paradise Lost, to modern works such as Thomas Mann's Joseph and His Brothers or Martin Scorsese's controversial Last Temptation of Christ. For countless generations, it has been a comfort in suffering, a place to reflect on the mysteries of birth, death, and immortality. Its stories and characters are an integral part of the repertoire of every educated adult, forming an enduring bond that spans thousands of years and embraces a vast community of believers and nonbelievers.

The Oxford Companion to the Bible provides an authoritative one-volume reference to the people, places, events, books, institutions, religious belief, and secular influence of the Bible. Written by more than 250 scholars from some 20 nations and embracing a wide variety of perspectives, the Companion offers over seven hundred entries, ranging from brief identifications--who is Dives? where is Pisgah?--to extensive interpretive essays on topics such as the influence of the Bible on music or law.

Ranging far beyond the scope of a traditional Bible dictionary, the Companion features, in addition to its many informative, factual entries, an abundance of interpretive essays. Here are extended entries on religious concepts from immortality, sin, and grace, to baptism, ethics, and the Holy Spirit. The contributors also explore biblical views of modern issues such as homosexuality, marriage, and anti-Semitism, and the impact of the Bible on the secular world (including a four-part article on the Bible's influence on literature).

Of course, the Companion can also serve as a handy reference, the first place to turn to find factual information on the Bible. Readers will find fascinating, informative articles on all the books of the Bible--including the Apocrypha and many other ancient texts, such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, Pseudepigrapha, and the Mishrah. Virtually every figure who walked across the biblical stage is identified here, ranging from Rebekah, Rachel, and Mary, to Joseph, Barabbas, and Jesus. The Companion also offers entries that shed light on daily life in ancient Israel and the earliest Christian communities, with fascinating articles on feasts and festivals, clothing, medicine, units of time, houses, and furniture. Finally, there are twenty-eight pages of full-color maps, providing an accurate, detailed portrait of the biblical world.

A vast compendium of information related to scriptures, here is an ideal complement to the Bible, an essential volume for every home and library, the first place to turn for information on the central book of Western culture.

The ultimate anthology of anecdotes, now revised with over 700 new entries - a must-have reference for every personal library. From Hank Aaron to King Zog, Mao Tse-Tung to Madonna, Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes features more than 2,000 people from around the world, past and present, in all fields. These short anecdotes provide remarkable insight into the human character. Ranging from the humorous to the tearful, they span classical history, recent politics, modern science and the arts. Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes is a gold mine for anyone who gives speeches, is doing research, or simply likes to browse. As an informal tour of history and human nature at its most entertaining & instructive, this is sure to be a perennial favorite for years to come.

Offering clear and reliable guidance to the ideas of philosophers from antiquity to the present day and to the major philosophical systems around the globe, he Oxford Companion to Philosophy is the definitive philosophical reference work for readers at all levels. For ten years the original volume has served as a stimulating introduction for general readers and as an indispensable guide for students and scholars. A distinguished international assembly of 249 philosophers contributed almost 2,000 entries, and many of these have now been considerably revised and updated in this major new edition; to these are added over 300 brand-new pieces on a fascinating range of current topics such as animal consciousness, cloning, corporate responsibility, the family, globalization, terrorism. Here is, indeed, a world of thought, with entries on idealism and empiricism, epicureanism and stoicism, passion and emotion, deism and pantheism. The contributors represent a veritable who's who of modern philosophy, including such eminent figures as Isaiah Berlin, Sissela Bok, Ronald Dworkin, John Searle, Michael Walzer, and W. V. Quine. We meet the great thinkers -- from Aristotle and Plato, to Augustine and Aquinas, to Descartes and Kant, to Nietzsche and Schopenhauer, right up to contemporary thinkers such as Richard Rorty, Jacques Derrida, Luce Iragaray, and Noam Chomsky. There are short entries on key concepts such as personal identity and the mind-body problem, major doctrines from utilitarianism to Marxism, schools of thought such as the Heidelberg School or the Vienna Circle, and contentious public issues such as abortion, capital punishment, and welfare. In addition, the book offers short explanations of philosophical terms (qualia, supervenience, iff), puzzles (the Achilles paradox, the prisoner's dilemma), and curiosities (the philosopher's stone, slime). Almost every entry is accompanied by suggestions for further reading, and the book includes both a chronological chart of the history of philosophy and a gallery of portraits of eighty eminent philosophers. An indispensable guide and a constant source of stimulation and enlightenment, The Oxford Companion to Philosophy will appeal to everyone interested in abstract thought, the eternal questions, and the foundations of human understanding. - Publisher.

The revised third edition of the 'Oxford Classical Dictionary' is the ultimate reference on the classical world containing over 6,200 entries. The 2003 revision includes minor corrections and updates and all Latin and Greek words in the text are now translated into English.

An author's guide to choosing the right adjective offers readers a topical organization to Roget's classic reference source.

The Pictorial Key to the Tarot presents a tripartite manual: a brief history, an iconographic reading of Major and Minor Arcana, and directions for divination, including the Celtic Cross. In lucid yet antiquarian prose, Waite rejects fantasies of an Egyptian origin while advancing a Christian-mystical, Kabbalistic, and Hermetic synthesis. Written amid the late occult revival and keyed to the Rider–Waite–Smith imagery, it vindicates fully illustrated minors as the basis for intuitive, pictorial interpretation. A.E. Waite, a meticulous mystic and former adept of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, wrote with the habits of a bibliographer and translator of Éliphas Lévi. His reforming impulse—to separate spiritual illumination from parlour fortune-telling—guided both his commentary and his commission to Pamela Colman Smith, whose images embody his symbolic program. Skeptical documentation and guarded instruction meet here, reflecting his lifelong quest for a disciplined, Christian-inflected esotericism. Scholars of Western esotericism, tarot practitioners, and historians of modern spirituality will prize this book as a foundational primary source—clear, influential, and enduring. Read it for a reliable interpretive baseline and a vivid window onto early twentieth‐century occult culture. Quickie Classics summarizes timeless works with precision, preserving the author's voice and keeping the prose clear, fast, and readable—distilled, never diluted. Enriched Edition extras: Introduction · Synopsis · Historical Context · Brief Analysis · 4 Reflection Q&As · Editorial Footnotes.

We often use euphemisms when dealing with taboo or sensitive subjects--we speak of "full-figured" women, we "fudge" on our income tax, we get "cold feet" before our wedding. Here, author Holder celebrates this human tendency to use mild, vague, or roundabout expressions rather than those which are blunt, precise, and true. The dictionary provides definitions, examples, as well as historical explanations where appropriate.--From publisher description.

Accurate • Modern • Reliable • Convenient ♦ THE FIRST AND ONLY HANDY POCKET EDITION OF THE WORLD-FAMOUS TREASURY OF QUOTATIONS "Everyone who puts words on paper for others to reod, everyone who ever speaks to an audience, even though it be an audience of three, needs 'Bartlett.'" THE SHORTER BARTLETT'S FAMILIAR QUOTATIONS is a compact new edition based on one of the most treasured books in American life — BARTLETT'S FAMILIAR QUOTATIONS. As a rich and varied storehouse of the wit and wisdom of mankind Bartlett is unique. As a definitive guide and reference volume Bartlett is unsurpassed. We can live without dictionaries or without encyclopaedias but where is the writer who can live without Bartlett's 'Familiar Quotations'? Whoever has it possesses a sure shunch' to the memory." The Chicago Tribune

Visually compelling and completely accessible, the Ultimate Visual Dictionary 2001 explains the world around us in a unique marriage of words and pictures unmatched by any other dictionary. Using more than 6,000 color photographs and illustrations -- each one annotated in detail -- it analyzes all aspects of the natural world and human achievement in stunning visual realism. Cutaways and exploded views provide an illuminating new perspective on everything from the inside of a volcano to the inner workings of a car. The scope of coverage is immense, featuring more than 31,500 terms, over 300 major entries, and 14 sections on everything from the prehistoric Earth and physics and chemistry, to sports, art, and music. A treasure trove of knowledge for the entire family, the Ultimate Visual Dictionary 2001 helps you discover the answers to these and thousands of other questions: Where on a ship are the heads, eyes, and knees? Where on your body would you find your ala and your zygomatic bone? What kind of building has a drum and roll? What kind of substance is aa? How can you tell a Stegoceras from a Stegosaurus?

The latest installment of this trusted literary companion covers all aspects of literary theory, from definitions of technical terms to characterizations of literary movements. Geared toward students, teachers, readers, and writers alike, The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory explains critical jargon (intertextuality, aporia), schools of literary theory (structuralism, feminist criticism), literary forms (sonnet, ottava rima), and genres (elegy, pastoral) and examines artifacts, historic locales, archetypes, origins of well-known phrases, and much, much more. Scholarly, straightforward, comprehensive, and even entertaining, this is a resource that no word-lover should be without.

A guide to English grammar and style reveals the underlying logic of the language with the help of examples organized according to specific problems.

Detailed information on 101 professions in 15 categories: * Advertising * Architecture * Clergy * Courtroom Professionals * Dentistry * Education * Firefighting * Journalism * Law Enforcement * Life Sciences * Medical Sciences * Modeling * Moviemaking * Political Sciences * Sex Industry Each section contains all you need to know about that profession including buzzwords, appropriate dress, potential conflicts and lists of resources that you can use to find out further information both books and websites. The book was published in 2002 so the websites will not all be current but might still be a useful pointer.

This centenary edition of the world-famous Concise Oxford English Dictionary presents the most accurate picture of English today.

Since its first publication in 1870, Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable has become one of the world's best-loved and most-browsed-through books. Where else can one find the meanings of - and the stories behind - so many terms and phrases drawn from mythology, literature, history, folk customs, pop culture, philosophy, science, magic, and superstitions? From expressions as common as sour grapes to allusions such as Pyrrhic victory, Dr. Brewer and his editorial successors both teach and delight the reader, offering unusual, out-of-the-way, and fascinating information on thousands of familiar - and unfamiliar - phrases. Completely revised, updated, and expanded, this fifteenth edition contains hundreds of new entries, improved etymologies, and a reorganized format that make Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable even more of a delight than ever.

This remarkable and wide-ranging book is an inventory of symbols and the symbolic imagination. The editors and their fifteen contributors are drawn from a variety of scholarly backgrounds - including anthropology, ethnology, psychotherapy and art history. This diversity of approach is responsible for the book's unique character, a reflection of the multiplicity of symbols and signs and the phenomenal range of possible interpretations they offer. This book draws together folklore, literary and artistic sources, and focuses on the symbolic dimension of every colour, number, sound, gesture, expression or character trait that has benefitted from symbolic interpretation. The conscious and unconscious minds are explored, desire and dreams are treated alongside the known and the chronicled. Extraordinary in its range and eclecticism, this dictionary was originally published in French as the Dictionnaire des Symboles, and it is regarded as the standard work on the subject.

Lists more than 20,000 first and last names and their meanings, and includes advice on choosing appropriate names for specific genres.

The most widely used medical reference in the world–more than 10 million copies sold in 18 languages since it was first published in 1899–revised, updated, and redesigned with more changes than any edition in the past twenty years.

Contains 450,000 synonyms and over one million word choices that features a revolutionary concept index and more.