Dictionary of the History of Ideas
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Studies of Selected Pivotal Ideas is a four-volume reference work on intellectual history published by Charles Scribner's Sons in 1973.[1] Philip P. Wiener was its editor-in-chief.[1] Associate editors included Isaiah Berlin, Salomon Bochner, and Ernest Nagel,[1] It contains more than 300 articles written by 254 contributors, organized into seven categories.[1] Contributors included Berlin, George Boas, Herbert Butterfield, Merle Curti, Mircea Eliade, Joan Kelly Gadol, Sidney Hook, Milton Konvitz, Leonard Kreiger, Judith Shklar, Peter N. Stearns, and René Wellek.[2]
An updated edition (the New Dictionary of the History of Ideas), edited by Maryanne Cline Horowitz, was published in 2004.[3] The 2004 edition has 700 articles across six volumes.[3] Scribner made the 1973 edition available for free online after the new edition was published.[4]
Reception
Writing in the Journal of the History of Ideas, F.E.L. Priestley described the book as "monumental in the sense that it establishes, as a surveyor's monuments do, the boundaries and the main points of reference in a large map of intellectual territory."[1]
Library Journal praised the 2004 edition for having a broader scope than its Eurocentric and male-focused predecessor.[3] A review in Reference & User Services Quarterly concluded, "No other reference work offers the same breadth of coverage and accessibility."[5]