"A masterful title that weaves together the social, scientific, anthropological, and geographical influences on world history, this set will be the benchmark against which future history encyclopedias are compared." Booklist, January 2005 Starred Review

Volume I, Issue 4--12 January 2005

This weekend Berkshire will be celebrating World History at the American Library Association conference in Boston. As a new small publisher, we haven't got prime position at the exhibits, but we've planned a few events and activities that we hope we bring people to us. We'd especially like to meet librarians from schools where World History (AP or otherwise) is being taught, so if you think it's appropriate we'd very much appreciate your forwarding this message to the librarians you know personally. After a day or two of sessions and meetings, they might like to relax with a free chair massage, after all, which will be available all day Saturday and Sunday.

ALA is an opportunity for us to explain what World History is all about to thousands of librarians, and we're thrilled that some of our authors may be attending as well, to talk to librarians about the Berkshire Encyclopedia of World History.

And here's a special offer for the schools and libraries of World History To Go subscribers:

Now's the time to order, because your students need the encyclopedia handy this spring, because it will help you prepare them for exams, and because the price goes up by $50 on February 1st!

We know resources are stretched thin at many schools across the country, so we have come up with two ways to make the encyclopedia more affordable (in addition to the $50 your library will save by ordering now):

• Just forward today's copy of World History To Go to your librarian. When s/he sends the newsletter with an order, we’ll take $25 off. If this newsletter has been forwarded to you, sign up for it yourself at our website and give the confirmation email to your librarian. We’ll give your school an extra $25 off the order. Yes, really, $25 just for trying out World History To Go!
• Any school that buys two sets (one for the library, say, and the other for the social studies department or the classroom) will get free shipping. That's another $12 savings per set.

Next week's issue of World History To Go will be about W.E.B. Dubois, by the way, who grew up here in Great Barrington, learned about democracy in the town hall we can see from our office windows, and sledded down the hill outside in snowy Januarys like this one, a hundred years ago. And we haven't forgotten the promised article on Islam by Jamal Elias, Chair of Religion at Amherst College, along with a overview of ethnic and religious conflict by David Levinson.

Below this is the message about ALA and Berkshire's World History launch of the for your librarian.

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Greetings from New England,

Berkshire Events, ALA Midwinter 14-17 January: Booth #1529

When we first began to transform Berkshire into an independent publishing company, ALA Midwinter 2005 was in our sights. What could be more perfect than to launch in our home state? Given the scale of our global reference, the hurdles were high. But we've made it, and we look forward to meeting you in less than a week, with our already award-winning Berkshire titles. Our small booth will be packed with books, news, and special people and events. There will be book signings, free chair massage, tips sheets, and more. David Levinson and I will be around as much as we possibly can to meet and get to know the librarians who have been buying and using our books for a decade now!

• Friday 5.00-7.00pm--------Meet David Levinson, editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia of World Cultures, Encyclopedia of Marriage & the Family, and Encyclopedia of Crime & Punishment with Berkshire cofounder Karen Christensen.
• Saturday, all day------------FREE CHAIR MASSAGE (see below)
• Saturday 2.30-4.30pm----Meet Mary Leonhardt, book signing and give-away
• Sunday, all day--------------FREE CHAIR MASSAGE
• Sunday 2.30-4.30-----------Meet Karen Christensen, The Armchair Environmentalist

Librarians truly are experts in human-computer interaction and the Berkshire Encyclopedia of Human-Computer Interaction is "the first encyclopedia solely dedicated to the topic” with “highly readable general overviews and useful bibliographies,---the authoritative overviews of wide-ranging topics, gathered in one convenient resource, will appeal to general readers.”—Library Journal, January 2005.

Come to stand #1529 to get your free button, "Librarian, n.. Expert in human-computer interaction."

Celebrate the Love of Reading

Berkshire Publishing admires the work of best-selling author and English teacher Mary Leonhardt and is delighted to have her join us in Boston. Mary will be signing free copies of How to Teach a Love of Reading Without Getting Fired. This book, like her many books about how to get kids reading and writing, is full of practical tips for teachers, parents, and librarians.

Mary is a great fan of libraries, and at Berkshire we believe that reading is the business of reference publishers, too. Reading enthusiastically and with understanding matters to society: we need citizens who can think, write, and speak with clarity and knowledge!

Come and talk about how we can work together to make the world a better place.

Mary Leonhardt book signing and give-away, Saturday 15 January 2.30-4.30pm, #1529.

Join us for a free chair massage!

Berkshire Publishing believes in wellness: sports and exercise, of course, with our next big sports reference due out in April, as well as less strenuous activities. Tom Pemberton of Back to Life has been providing Berkshire staff with chair massage for over four years. Tom is joining us in Boston to offer a complimentary chair massage to our customers and colleagues throughout the day on Saturday and on Sunday. Have a look, too: Berkshire Encyclopedia of World Sport.

All day Saturday and Sunday, free chair massage at the Berkshire Booth, #1529.

The Pursuit of Truth, in World History

We’ll be showing the Berkshire Encyclopedia of World History for the first time, as well the University of Kentucky Press’s The Pursuit of Truth, William H. McNeill’s new memoir. Kentucky displayed our encyclopedia at AHA in Seattle last week. Both presses are enjoying the serendipity of having two McNeill publications coming out at the same time. (We’re also aspiring to be as productive as Bill McNeill at 87!)

“A masterful title that weaves together the social, scientific, anthropological, and geographical influences on world history, this set will be the benchmark against which future history encyclopedias are compared.----Though attempting to cover as broad a subject as world history in five volumes seems impossible, the editors and their contributors have pulled the feat off with aplomb. No article runs more than approximately 10 pages, but each captures the essence of the topic being addressed as well as the distinct style of the contributor----. As McNeill states in his preface, the title is 'designed to help both beginners and experts to sample the best contemporary efforts to make sense of the human past by connecting particular and local histories with larger patterns of world history.' The encyclopedia succeeds admirably and belongs on the shelves of all high-school, public, and academic libraries. In short: buy it. Now.” Booklist Starred Review, January 2005 and Editors’ Choice 2004.

Ordering the Berkshire Encyclopedia of World History

• Edited by W. H. McNeill, Jerry H. Bentley, David Christian, David Levinson, Heidi Roupp, and Judith P. Zinsser
• Berkshire Publishing Group, October 2004
• Five volumes, 2,500 pages
• US$575—Prepublication US$525 (good through 30 January 2005)
• ISBN: 0-9743091-0-9 (hardcover: alk. paper)
Online: BerkshireWorldHistory.com
• Shelving = World History, Social Sciences

See above for our special offer for World History To Go subscribers, an additional $25 towards purchase. The prepub price expires at the end of January. Buy now to save $75!

Between natural and human disasters (such as war), thinking globally often isn’t as much fun as we’d like it to be. But this comment by a London friend did make us laugh: "What really alarms me about President Bush's 'War on Terrorism' is the grammar. How do you wage war on an abstract noun?---How is 'Terrorism' going to surrender? It's well known, in philological circles, that it's very hard for abstract nouns to surrender." For more, take a look at Terry Jones's War on the War on Terror : Observations and Denunciations by a Founding Member of Monty Python. (We've included a link to Amazon here for your convenience, but are also enthusiastic supporters of community and independent booksellers (just as librarians, we know, want to support independent publishers).