The Knowledge Book: Everything You Need to Know to Get by in the 21st Century

by National Geographic Society

Indispensable for every home, library, and office, The Knowledge Book distills thousands of years of humankind’s most significant ideas and achievements— explains how they are linked and why they are important—and packs everything into a single, irresistibly readable volume. The richly illustrated pages burst with essential facts from all major fields of knowledge: science, technology, philosophy, art, religion, economics, and more.

Loaded with cross-referencing, fact boxes, and other helpful features, the book is topically organized into five sections: Earth and Space; Mathematics and the Sciences; Politics and Economics; Religion, Philosophy, and Psychology; and the Arts. An introductory spread opens each section, summarizing its biggest ideas and discoveries. Time lines and fact boxes place events in the context of history, while sidebars add interesting details on processes, inventions, and artistic techniques. Famous personalities are introduced in highlighted columns. Finally, each section ends with a notation that lists the major issues to be resolved in our day. Color-coded tabs guide readers through the book and support this innovative and accessible approach.

More than a thousand vibrant images captivate readers who enjoy visual learning and function as a colorful catalog of essential knowledge.

Genres: Nonfiction, Reference, Science, History, Philosophy, Education, Politics

400 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

The National Geographic Society (NGS), headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is one of the largest nonprofit scientific and educational organizations in the world.
Founded in 1888, its interests include geography, archaeology, and natural science, the promotion of environmental and historical conservation, and the study of world culture and history. The National Geographic Society's logo is a yellow portrait frame—rectangular in shape—which appears on the margins surrounding the front covers of its magazines and as its television channel logo. Through National Geographic Partners (a joint venture with The Walt Disney Company), the Society operates the magazine, TV channels, a website, worldwide events, and other media operations.

Reviews

[William Schram · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I was a child, I was the sort of kid that wanted to know everything there is to know. I know that this is an impossible quest right now and for any human being as a whole; there is simply too much information out there and our brains aren’t designed to handle all of that data. However, if you want to learn a lot of things, you can’t go wrong with The Knowledge Book presented by National Geographic.

This massive tome comes across as a coffee table centerpiece. I own a book similar to this called the Ultimate Visual Dictionary printed by DK Publishing. It contains an entry on practically every subject you can think of. It begins with the collected cultural history of humanity. So back beyond the mists of time, some changes occurred to our ancestors that enabled them to perform more complex tasks. The primary developments were those of a spoken language to communicate and an understanding of fire to make tools and cook food. Eventually, mankind founded permanent settlements, cities, and nations that would stand the test of time. People made jewelry and stunning pieces of art; they made tools and weapons out of metal. From Gold and Copper to Bronze and Iron, we traded these ores and goods from place to place. Human beings are curious by nature and we noticed the cyclical nature of the seasons relatively early on. This allowed for a rudimentary calendar to be set up and for Agriculture to develop.

So, as I mentioned, the first portion of this book is devoted to history; general World History that doesn’t really focus on a particular country, nation, or event. I suppose it focuses on where Civilization is throughout the world, but it is something that shifts and changes from nation to nation. It follows the Western Canon. It does zoom in on China for some parts as well though.

The next portion of the book is devoted to Natural Science. Thus, the timeline visual is shelved and it goes into Astronomy and Cosmology. This introduces the lives of stars and tons of fascinating items on stuff like that. Take our own Sun. The Sun is our own star. It is a sphere of hot gases that is approximately 109 times larger in diameter than the Earth. However, I digress.

Gradually, the book moves through the fields of Chemistry, Biology, Physics, and Mathematics. It even goes through Psychology, Sociology, the Arts, and many other fields.

This book is entertaining and quite interesting. While I do know a lot of the information presented in this book, it is nice to have a little refresh every now and again. If you are a child or are at all curious about anything, this book is a good addition to any library. While the book is slightly old, this does not make all of the information held within obsolete, except for the information on computers I suppose. On the other hand, it isn't as though this book is from the 1990s, it was published in 2007.

[Anton Klink · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an absolutely fantastic, engrossing book. Bursting with wonderful information at the seams, this book really does give you a quick overview of all the major arts and sciences, nature, history, humanity's greatest achievements and most pertinent questions and much much more.

What I found especially engaging where the topics I was never really interested in and knew next to nothing about. Sure, I already knew quite a bit about information technology and movies, a thing or two about general history, law and psychology - but for example the history of philosophy, religion, art, music, architecture and literature? I never really cared much for them before and I would never have spent any time reading up on them online, but reading this book I suddenly found all these topics quite fascinating.

Of course, the more we learn, the more we realize, how little we actually know, and this is one of the very books to point this out to the reader. However, I consider this book the start of many new journeys in the realm of knowledge and for that, I thank National Geographic for publishing such a wonderful and inviting book. Highly recommended to anyone hungry for more knowledge about the world around us.

[Chelsey Cosh · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's a half-decent reference book, but The Knowledge Book only supplies a general description of its matters. It's not in depth, but that's kind of the point, I suppose. It skims over the basics of cosmology, geology, zoology, human biology, chemistry, technology, mathematics, political systems, law, economy, religions, philosophy, psychology, art, architecture, literature, music, and film. And it's okay but only okay. I wouldn't invest too much time in it because, when you find something that interests you, it only focuses on that briefly. Each topic is fleeting, which limits its usefulness, and that is my main complaint. Otherwise, The Knowledge Book is your average desk reference book. Annoyingly average.

[Kristina Moses · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally finished reading all the way through :) It's great how many different subjects are covered. Not all of them were very entertaining, though. Surprisingly it actually took me a while to get through the literature and music sections at the end.

[James Mietus · Rating 1 out of 5]

For full disclosure, I did not read this book cover-to-cover--at any rate, it's not meant to be read that way. I like the way the book is laid out and would certainly have purchased it. But thankfully I flipped through it first and found that it contains a number of embarrassing distortions of historical facts.

An example occurs on page 236, where the author confuses/conflates with witch hunts with the Inquisition. This statement could not be more misguided if it were launched by Ukrainian separatists. These were completely separate movements which generally developed within different branches of Christianity, for different reasons, and in different parts of Europe.

Of course, its treatment of science and technology might be better. Just don't use it as a reference for anything historical, because it was not well-researched and includes a number of wrong assumptions.

I am disappointed that this book was published by National Geographic. I am a big supporter of the society, but I cannot recommend this book.

[Aditya Mookerjee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know how a volume of a book as thick such as this, can be so well presented, such that the book is extremely beautiful, as fascinating as any book representing an American publishing company like National Geographic, and so informative, all at the same time, the information being concise and very accurate to the need of the writer. I would say that the book is one of the best that I have. What I do want, is for the similarly conceptualized 'The Science Book', to be updated more frequently.

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, as close to "read" as could be. I flipped through to sections that interested me at this time. I see this as a good "hook" book, where you read a section to see if you would like to learn more from a complete source. Good diagrams and photos.

[Andrea]

As read as ti can be now that it has moved on to another house! :)

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this because it's a great primer for general knowledge. I have a young son who has questions and this is the perfect reference!

[Lindsey · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not very useful at all. So brief that if you didn't know the subject, you wouldn't be able to learn it.

[Doug Hill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great organization of knowledge. Fascinating read. Some I know, many details I don't. Presentation grabs your attention avoiding uninteresting knowledge.