The Oxford Essential Desk Reference

by Oxford University Press

A handy single-volume reference that is part almanac and part encyclopedia provides thousands of facts, trivia, and information on such subjects as History, Arts and Entertainment, Health, Nutrition and Fitness, Science and Technology, Geography, and other key topics, as well as helpful tools on how to locate data, cross-references, additional resources, and more. Original.

Genres: Reference

832 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published July 1, 2001

About the author

Oxford University Press (OUP), a department of the University of Oxford, is the largest university press in the world. The university became involved in printing around 1480, becoming a major source of Bibles, prayer books and scholarly works. It took on the Oxford English Dictionary project in the late 19th century, and in order to meet the ever-rising costs of the work, it expanded into publishing children's books, school text books, music, journals, and the World's Classics series. OUP is committed to major financial support of the university and to furthering the university's excellence in scholarship, research and education through its publishing.

Reviews

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of those books that is always handy to have around, and it's a blast just to open it to any page and start reading. My copy is 11 years old and I still go to it all the time. It's getting very dog-eared, and I'll eventually have to buy a new copy. But as I write, I find it an exceptional springboard for ideas, an excellent source for fact checking (who better than the Oxford, right?), and an ideal source for quick and dirty historical answers and trivia.