The Best General Reference Works We Have Found

(Click on a title to order)

THE OXFORD DICTIONARY & THESAURUS.

This is it---the best quick reference dictionary we have found.

We all know the feeling: trying to find a synonym for a word, we turn to a thesaurus and find a group of words that might be right, but the thesaurus doesn't provide us with definitions. So, we then turn to the dictionary to check the meanings for the entire list of new synonyms and, after much flipping back and forth between thesaurus and dictionary, finally decide upon an alternative. Neither book, by itself, provides the full range of word choices. But now, The Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus offers a thoroughly integrated blend of entries from the dictionary and the thesaurus. This unified approach, treating meanings and related words within the same entry, makes it easy to find--in one place--an abundance of information about words, and provides a far more thorough analysis of the variety and nuances of our language than is possible in a dictionary or thesaurus alone.

Oxford's American dictionary staff, along with an international team of lexicographers, have drawn on the unparalleled lexical resources of Oxford University Press, the world's most respected authority on English language and dictionaries, to make The Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus the most wide-ranging resource available. It includes:

* More than 200,000 entries and definitions and 300,000 synonyms thoroughly integrated for ease of use

* Hundreds of new words and senses such as shareware, downsize, grunge, sidebar, and hypertext

* Full coverage of English from around the globe--brassed off, merrythought, billabong, Charles's Wain, high tea Valuable appendices, including:

* Selected Proverbs--more than 1,000, including both old favorites and less-familiar bits of wisdom such as "Handsome is as handsome does," "A trouble shared is a trouble halved," and "There's many a good tune played on an old fiddle"

* Terms for Animal Groups (a clowder of cats, a skulk of foxes, a parliament of rooks)

* Weights, Measures, Scientific Units, and Formulas

* Chemical Elements and Periodic Table

* Musical Notation and the Orchestra

* Presidents of the U.S.; States of the U.S.

* Countries of the World

* Helpful points on English usage, and much more

No American dictionary or thesaurus offers as much as The Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus. It not only combines an up-to-date and thoroughly reliable dictionary of American English with full thesaurus coverage, but it also provides a unique global perspective of English, the lingua franca of the late twentieth century.

THE OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY ON CD ROM

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This is truly the mother of all dictionaries--On CDs.  Over 500,000 word entries and traces their usage through 2,500,000 illustrative quotations. It is an unsurpassed guide to the meaning, pronunciation, and history of the English language.

The Oxford English Dictionary has long been considered the ultimate reference work in English lexicography. Compiled by the legendary editor James Murray and a staff of brilliant philologists and lexicographers (not to mention one homicidal maniac), the OED was originally conceived in 1857 as a four-volume set, but by the time the last volume was published in 1928, it had swelled to 10 volumes containing over 400,000 entries. In the years since, the staff of the OED has continued to keep pace with our ever-evolving language, and today the dictionary weighs in at a whopping 20 volumes. The great joy of this dictionary lies in its extensive cross-references and word etymologies, which can run a full page or more. These features not only make the OED the most comprehensive and authoritative dictionary of the English language, but a delight to browse.


Inventing America, Single-Volume Edition

INVENTING AMERICA

This is an unbelieveable book on American History--seeing much of our history and events influenced or shaped by technology!
W. W. Norton presents Inventing America, a balanced new survey of American history by four outstanding historians. The text uses the theme of innovation-the impulse in American history to "make it new"-to integrate the political, economic, social, and cultural dimensions of the American story. From the creation of a new nation and the invention of the corporation in the eighteenth century, through the vast changes wrought by early industry and the rise of cities in the nineteenth century, to the culture of jazz and the new nation-state of the twentieth century, the text draws together the many ways in which innovation-and its limits-have marked American history.

About the Author
Pauline Maier is William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of American History at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . Merritt Roe Smith is Leverett and William Cutten Professor of the History of Technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Alexander Keyssar is Matthew W. Stirling Jr. Professor of History and Social Policy at Harvard University. Daniel J. Kevles, the Stanley Woodward Professor of History at Yale University, taught American history for many years at the California Institute of Technology.