Before The Insanity

If you don't know where you were then you stand little chance of knowing where you are now.  It is in understanding the past that we are able to understand the present.

In 1911 the foremost encyclopædia of the age, the Eleventh Edition of Britannica was published by the Cambridge University Press with articles submitted by some of the great scholars of the time.  Astonishingly detailed, it focuses on what was important to understand and so, for example, Ukraine's entry is a paragraph whereas Russia's is a small book; the might and influence of the latter was of great interest.

The entry for Coal receives 13 pages, with Coal Tar an additional 4, but Carbon Dioxide gets 2 paragraphs in the footnotes of Carbon.

The prevailing views of society slip into many of the features, which makes for slightly uncomfortable reading at times, though the point is to see where we were to understand where we are.  For these scholarly writers (the most prominent have their initials after their features which relate to an index and mini bibliography in each volume) and for the people who read this great educational work, the encyclopædia projected understanding, an analysis of the world, science, politics and philosophy.  The work knew where it stood and it understood.

Three years later the cataclysm of the Western Front erupted, nothing and nobody would be the same again, and any new work would have to be substantially rewritten.  After all, in the Eleventh Edition there are over 11 pages devoted to cavalry and there is no entry for 'tank'.