[[Image:MaryMacLane1911.jpg|thumb|Mary MacLane, 1911]]

'''Mary MacLane''' ([[May 1]], [[1881]] – [[August]] [[1929]]) was a controversial [[Canada|Canadian]]-born [[United States|American]] writer. She was quite popular in her time, writing shocking best sellers. Considered to be wild and uncontrolled, she was [[bisexuality|bisexual]] and held very vocal [[feminist]] opinions.

She was born in [[Winnipeg, Manitoba]], [[Canada]], but her family moved to [[Butte, Montana]] when she was four, and she spent the remainder of her life in the [[United States]].

She began writing published material for her school paper in [[1898]]. From the beginning, her writing was characterized by a direct, fiery, and highly [[individualist|individualistic]] style.

At the age of 19 in [[1902]], MacLane published her first book, ''The Story of Mary MacLane''. It sold 100,000 copies in the first month and was popular among young girls, but was strongly criticized by [[conservative]] readers.

She used the money from sales of this book to move from [[Butte, Montana]] to [[Greenwich Village]] where she continued to write books and newspaper articles.

Even by today's standards, MacLane's writing is raw, honest, unflinching, self-aware, sensual, and extreme. She wrote openly about [[egoism]] and her own self-love, about sexual attraction and [[lesbian|love for other women]], and even about her desire to [[marry]] the [[Devil]].

Later, she wrote an autobiographical [[silent film]] titled ''Men Who Have Made Love to Me''; the film itself is now lost.

Mary MacLane died in [[Chicago]] sometime in early August, [[1929]]. She quickly became forgotten and remained out of print until [[1993]], when ''The Story of Mary MacLane'' was republished in an [[anthology]] titled ''Tender Darkness''.

== Bibliography ==

=== Books ===

* ''The Story of Mary MacLane'' (1902)
* ''My Friend, Annabel Lee'' (1903)
* ''I, Mary MacLane: A Diary of Human Days'' (1917)
* ''Tender Darkness'' (reprint anthology) (1993)
* ''The Story of Mary MacLane and Other Writings'' (reprint anthology) (1999)

=== Selected articles ===

* Consider Thy Youth and Therein (1899)
* Mary MacLane at Newport (1902)
* On Marriage (1902)
* Mary MacLane Soliloquizes on Scarlet Fever (1910)
* Mary MacLane Meets the Vampire on the Isle of Treacherous Delights (1910)
* Mary MacLane Wants a Vote - For the Other Woman (1910)
* Woman and the Cigarette (1911)
* Mary MacLane on Marriage (1917)

=== Screenplays ===

* ''Men Who Have Made Love to Me'' (1917)

== External Links ==

* [http://www.marymaclane.com/elisabeth/tenderintro.html Introduction to Tender Darkness: A Mary MacLane Anthology] - by Elisabeth Pruitt
* [http://www.marymaclane.com/mary marymaclane.com] - Website maintained by the co-publisher of ''Tender Darkness'', Michael Brown
* [http://www.laweekly.com/ink/98/25/wls-mithers.php Hot Love, Sexual radicals bookend the century] - by Carol Lynn Mithers

[[Category:1881 births|MacLane, Mary]]
[[Category:1929 deaths|MacLane, Mary]]
[[Category:American writers|MacLane, Mary]]
[[Category:Bisexual writers|MacLane, Mary]]
[[Category:Feminists|MacLane, Mary]]
[[Category:LGBT people from Canada|MacLane, Mary]]

Biphobie

2005-07-03T21:36:27Z

Fibonacci: fixing links

'''Biphobia''' is the fear of, discrimination against, or hatred of [[bisexuality|bisexuals]]. It need not include [[homophobia]] or [[heterophobia]], because there are [[stereotype]]s that are specific to bisexuals.

These include, but are not limited to: [[promiscuity]], [[polygamy]], living the [[swinging]] lifestyle, and being confused. In some cases, bisexuals are accused of bringing [[sexually transmitted disease]] into the heterosexual community or into the lesbian community. A related stereotype is one in which a bisexual is presumed to be willing to have sex with basically anyone. This stereotype leads to unwanted attention of a sexual nature directed at bisexual [[female]]s by swingers and heterosexual males while often stereotyping bisexual males as walking [[AIDS]] risks.

(The "HNG sks 2HBB" abbreviation refers to the "horny net geek seeks two hot bi babes" posts which have clogged groups such as soc.bi for years.)

Often, however, heterosexuals and homosexuals will add more stereotypes based on homophobia or heterophobia. Homophobes may think that bisexuals are gender nonconformist. Heterophobes will often think of bisexuals as maintaining privilege and collaborating with the homophobes. Also, the belief that people are either heterosexual or homosexual (a somewhat common belief among certain homosexual males, many of whom claim that bisexual males are simply "in denial"), and thus that bisexuality does not truly exist, is considered biphobic.

One common motive for negative attitudes toward bisexuality among [[lesbian]]s is the fear that a bisexual [[woman]] will leave a woman for a [[man]]; the heterosexual male is seen as having an unfair systemic advantage both due to [[sexism]] and due to homophobia.

Some [[radical feminism|Radical]] [[lesbian]] [[feminism|feminists]] think that bisexual women are giving in to [[patriarchy]].

''See also:'' [[Sexual hierarchy]]
[[Category:Sexual orientation and society]]

Great Books of the Western World

2005-05-18T04:57:36Z

Fibonacci: /* Second edition */ fixing link

[[Image:Great Books.jpg|thumb|200px|The Great Books]]
'''''The Great Books of the Western World''''' is a series of books originally published in the [[United States]] in [[1952]] by [[Encyclopædia Britannica Inc.]] in an attempt to present the [[western canon]] in a single package of 54 volumes.

==History==

The project got its start at the [[University of Chicago]]. University president [[Robert Hutchins]] collaborated with [[Mortimer Adler]] to develop a course, generally aimed at businessmen, for the purpose of filling in gaps in education, making one more well-rounded and familiar with the "[[Great Books]]" and ideas of the past three millennia. Among the original students was [[William Benton]], future [[US Senator]] and then [[CEO]] of the ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]''. It was he who proposed a series of books presenting the greatest works of the canon, complete and unabridged, to be edited by Hitchins and Adler and published by Encyclopedia Britannica. Hutchins was wary, fearing that the works would be sold and treated as Encyclopedias cheapening the great books they were. Nevertheless, he was persuaded to agree to the project and pay $60,000 for it.

After several debates about what was to be included and how the work was to be presented, and the budget exploding to $2,000,000, the project was ready for publication. It was presented at a gala at the [[Waldorf-Astoria Hotel]] in [[New York City]] on April 15, 1952. In a speech made that night, Hutchins said "This is more than a set of books, and more than a liberal education. ''Great Books of the Western World'' is an act of piety. Here are the sources of our being. Here is our heritage. This is the west. This is its meaning for mankind." It was decided that the first two volumes would be presented to [[Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom|Queen Elizabeth]] and [[President Truman]].

Sales were initially poor. After 1,863 were sold in 1952, less than one-tenth that amount were sold the following year. A financial debacle loomed, until Encyclopedia Britannica altered the marketing strategy and sold the set (as Hutchins feared) through experienced door-to-door encyclopedia salesmen. Through this method 50,000 editions were sold in [[1961]].

==The works==

Published in 54 volumes, ''The Great Books of the Western World'' covers topics including [[fiction]], [[history]], [[poetry]], [[natural science]], [[mathematics]], [[philosophy]], [[drama]], [[politics]], [[religion]], [[economics]], and [[ethics]]. The first volume, titled ''[[Great Conversation|The Great Conversation]]'' contains an introduction and discourse on [[liberal arts|liberal education]] by Hutchins. The next two volumes "The Great Ideas: A Syntopicon" were written by Adler and contained an introduction to 102 different concepts and references to them in all the works within "The Great Books". The volumes contained the following works:

*1  [[Great Conversation|The Great Conversation]]
*2  Syntopicon I: [[Angel]], [[Animal]], [[Aristocracy]], [[Art]], [[Astronomy]], [[Beauty]], [[Being]], [[Cause]], [[Chance]], [[Change]], [[Citizen]], [[Constitution]], [[Courage]], [[Custom]] and [[Convention]], [[Definition]], [[Democracy]], [[Desire]], [[Dialectic]], [[Duty]], [[Education]], [[Element]], [[Emotion]], [[Eternity]], [[Evolution]], [[Experience]], [[Family]], [[Fate]], [[Form]], [[God]], [[Good]] and [[Evil]], [[Government]], [[Habit]], [[Happiness]], [[History]], [[Honor]], [[Hypothesis]], [[Idea]], [[Immortality]], [[Induction]], [[Infinity]], [[Judgment]], [[Justice]], [[Knowledge]], [[Labor]], [[Language]], [[Law]], [[Liberty]], [[Life]] and [[Death]], [[Logic]], and [[Love]]
*3  Syntopicon II: [[Man]], [[Mathematics]], [[Matter]], [[Mechanics]], [[Medicine]], [[Memory]] and [[Imagination]], [[Metaphysics]], [[Mind]], [[Monarchy]], [[Nature]], [[Necessity]] and [[Contingency]], [[Oligarchy]], [[1 (number)|One]] and [[Many]], [[Opinion]], [[Opposition]], [[Philosophy]], [[Physics]], [[Pleasure]] and [[Pain]], [[Poetry]], [[Principle]], [[Progress]], [[Prophecy]], [[Prudence]], [[Punishment]], [[Quality]], [[Quantity]], [[Reasoning]], [[Relation]], [[Religion]], [[Revolution]], [[Rhetoric]], [[Same]] and [[Other]], [[Science]], [[Sense]], [[Sign]] and [[Symbol]], [[Sin]], [[Slavery]], [[Soul]], [[Space]], [[State]], [[Temperance]], [[Theology]], [[Time]], [[Truth]], [[Tyranny]], [[Universal]] and [[Particular]], [[Virtue]] and [[Vice]], [[War]] and [[Peace]], [[Wealth]], [[Will]], [[Wisdom]], and [[World]]
*4  '''[[Homer]]''' -
***''[[The Iliad]]''
***''[[The Odyssey]]''
*5  '''[[Aeschylus]]''' -
***Complete Plays
**'''[[Sophocles]]''' -
***Complete Plays
**'''[[Euripides]]''' -
***Complete Plays
**'''[[Aristophanes]]''' -
***Complete Plays
*6  '''[[Herodotus]]'''
***''[[The Histories of Herodotus|The History]]''
**'''[[Thucydides]]'''
***''[[The History of the Peloponnesian War]]''
*7  '''[[Plato]]'''
***Dialogues
*8  '''[[Aristotle]]'''
***Works, Part 1
*9  '''[[Aristotle]]'''
***Works, Part 2
*10  '''[[Hippocrates]]'''
***Works
**'''[[Galen]]'''
***''[[On the Natural Faculties]]''
*11 '''[[Euclid]]'''
***The Thirteen Books of ''[[Euclid's Elements]]''
**'''[[Archimedes]]'''
***''[[On the Sphere and Cylinder]]''
***''[[Measurment of a circle]]''
***''[[On Conoids and Pheroids]]''
***''[[On Spirals]]''
***''[[On the Equilibrium of Planes]]''
***''[[The Sand-Reckoner]]''
***''[[Quadrature of the Parambola]]''
***''[[On Floating Bodies]]''
***''[[Book of Lemmas]]''
***''[[The Method and Treating of Mechanical Problems]]''
**'''[[Apollonius of Perga]]'''
***''[[On Conic Sections]]''
**'''[[Nicomachus of Gerasa]]'''
***''[[Introduction to Arithmatic]]''
*12  '''[[Lucretius]]''' -
***''[[On the Nature of Things]]''
**'''[[Epictetus]]''' -
***''[[The Discourses]]''
**'''[[Marcus Aurelius]]'''
***''[[The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius|The Meditations]]''
*13  '''[[Virgil]]''' -
***''[[The Eclogues]]''
***''[[The Georgics]]''
***''[[The Aeneid]]''
*14  '''[[Plutarch]]'''-
***''[[Plutarch's Lives|The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans]]''
*15  '''[[Tacitus|P. Cornelius Tacitus]]''' -
***''[[Annals (Tacitus)|The Annals]]''
***''[[Histories (Tacitus)|The Histories]]''
*16  '''[[Ptolemy]]''' -
***''[[The Almagest]]''
**'''[[Nicolaus Copernicus]]''' -
***''[[De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium|On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres]]''
** '''[[Johannes Kepler]]''' -
***''[[Epitome of Copernican Astronomy]]'' (Books IV - V)
***''[[The Harmonies of the World]]'' (Book V)
*17 '''[[Plotinus]]''' -
***''[[The Six Enneads]]''
*18  '''[[Saint Augustine of Hippo|St. Augustine]]''' -
***''[[The Confessions of St. Augustine|The Confessions]]''
***''[[The City of God]]''
***''[[On Christian Doctrine]]''
*19  '''[[Saint Thomas Aquinas]]''' -
***''[[Summa Theologica]]'' (Part 1)
*20  '''[[Saint Thomas Aquinas]]''' -
***''[[Summa Theologica]]'' (Part 2)
*21  '''[[Dante Alighieri]]''' -
***''[[The Divine Comedy]]''
*22  '''[[Geoffrey Chaucer]]''' -
***''[[Troilus and Criseyde|Troilus and Cressida]]''
***''[[The Canterbury Tales]]''
*23  '''[[Niccolò Machiavelli]]''' -
***''[[The Prince]]''
**'''[[Thomas Hobbes]]''' -
***''[[Leviathan (book)|Leviathan]]''
*24  '''[[Francois Rabelais]]''' -
***''[[Gargantua and Pantagruel]]''
*25  '''[[Michel Eyquem de Montaigne]]''' -
***Essays
*26  '''[[William Shakespeare]]''' -
***Complete Plays (Part 1)
*27  '''[[William Shakespeare]]''' -
***Complete Plays (Part 2)
***Sonnets
*28  '''[[William Gilbert]]''' -
***''[[On the Loadstone and Magnetic Bodies]]''
**'''[[Galileo Galilei]]''' -
***''[[Dialogues Concerning the Two New Sciences]]''
**'''[[William Harvey]]''' -
***''[[On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals]]''
***''[[On the Circulation of Blood]]''
***''[[On the Generation of Animals]]''
*29  '''[[Miguel de Cervantes]]''' -
***''[[The History of Don Quixote de la Mancha]]''
*30  '''[[Sir Francis Bacon]]''' -
***''[[Advancement of Learning]]''
***''[[Novum Organum]]''
***''[[New Atlantis]]''
*31  '''[[René Descartes]]''' -
***''[[Rules for the Direction of the Mind]]''
***''[[Discourse on the Method]]''
***''[[Meditations on the First Philosophy]]''
***''[[Objections Against the Meditations and Replies]]''
***''[[The Geometry]]''
**'''[[Benedict de Spinoza]]''' -
***''[[Ethics]]''
*32  '''[[John Milton]]''' -
***English Minor Poems
***''[[Paradise Lost]]''
***''[[Samson Agonistes]]''
***''[[Areopagitica]]''
*33  '''[[Blaise Pascal]]''' -
***Essays
*34  '''[[Sir Isaac Newton]]''' -
***[[Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy]]
***[[Opticks|Optics]]
**'''[[Christian Huygens]]''' -
***[[Treatise on Light]]
*35  '''[[John Locke]]''' -
***''[[A Letter Concerning Toleration]]''
***''[[Concerning Civil Government]]'' Second Essay
***''[[An Essay Concerning Human Understanding]]''
**'''[[George Berkeley]]''' -
***''[[The Principles of Human Knowledge]]''
**'''[[David Hume]]''' -
***''[[An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding]]''
*36  '''[[Jonathan Swift]]''' -
***''[[Gulliver's Travels]]''
**'''[[Laurence Sterne]]''' -
***''[[The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman]]''
*37  '''[[Henry Fielding]]'''
***''[[The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling]]''
*38  '''[[Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu]]'''
***''[[The Spirit of Laws]]''
**'''[[Jean Jacques Rousseau]]''' -
***''[[A Discourse on the Origin of Inequality]]''
***''[[A Discourse on Political Economy]]''
***''[[The Social Contract]]''
*39  '''[[Adam Smith]]''' -
***''[[An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations]]''
*40  '''[[Edward Gibbon]]''' -
***''[[The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire]]'' (Part 1)
*41  '''[[Edward Gibbon]]''' -
***''[[The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire]]'' (Part 2)
*42  '''[[Immanuel Kant]]''' -
***''[[The Critique of Pure Reason]]''
***''[[Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals]]''
***''[[The Critique of Practical Reason]]''
***''[[Preface and Introduction to the Metaphysical Elements of Ethics with a note on Conscience]]''
***''[[General Introduction to the Metaphysic of Morals]]''
***''[[The Science of Right]]''
***''[[The Critique of Judgement]]''
*43  '''American State Papers'''
***''[[Declaration of Independence (United States)|Declaration of Independence]]''
***''[[Articles of Confederation]]''
***[[The Constitution of the United States of America]]
**'''[[Alexander Hamilton]], [[James Madison]], [[John Jay]]''' -
***''[[The Federalist Papers|The Federalist]]''
**'''[[John Stuart Mill]]''' -
***''[[On Liberty]]''
***''[[Representative Government]]''
***''[[Utilitarianism]]''
*44  '''[[James Boswell]]''' -
***''[[The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.]]''
*45  '''[[Antoine Laurent Lavoisier]]''' -
***''[[Elements of Chemistry]]''
**'''[[Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier]]''' -
***''[[Analytical Theory of Heat]]''
**'''[[Michael Faraday]]''' -
***''[[Experimental Researches in Electricity]]''
*46  '''[[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel]]'''
***''[[The Philosophy of Right]]''
***''[[The Philosophy of History]]''
*47  '''[[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]]''' -
***''[[Faust]]''
*48  '''[[Herman Melville]]''' -
***''[[Moby Dick; or, The Whale]]''
*49  '''[[Charles Darwin]]''' -
***''[[The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection]]''
***''[[The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex]]''
*50  '''[[Karl Marx]]''' -
***''[[Das Kapital|Capital]]''
**'''[[Karl Marx]]''' and '''[[Friedrich Engels]]''' -
***''[[Manifesto of the Communist Party]]''
*51  '''[[Count Leo Tolstoy]]''' -
***''[[War and Peace]]''
*52  '''[[Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky]]''' -
***''[[The Brothers Karamazov]]''
*53  '''[[William James]]''' -
***''[[The Principles of Psychology]]''
*54  '''[[Sigmund Freud]]''' -
***''[[The Origin and Development of Psycho-Analysis]]''
***''[[Selected Papers on Hysteria]]''
***''[[The Sexual Enlightenment of Children]]''
***''[[The Future Prospects of Psycho-Analytic Therapy]]''

==Second edition==

In [[1990]] a second edition of the ''Great Books of the Western World'' was published, this time with updated translations and six more volumes of material, covering the [[20th century]], an era of which the first edition was nearly devoid. These new volumes consisted of the following:

*55  '''[[William James]]''' -
***''[[Pragmatism]]''
**'''[[Henri Bergson]]''' -
***''[[An Introduction to Metaphysics]]''
**'''[[John Dewey]]''' -
***''[[Experience in Education]]''
**'''[[Alfred North Whitehead]]''' -
***''[[Science and the Modern World]]''
**'''[[Bertrand Russell]]''' -
***''[[The Problems of Philosophy]]''
**'''[[Martin Heidegger]]''' -
***''[[What is Metaphysics?]]''
**'''[[Ludwig Wittgenstein]]''' -
***''[[Philosophical Investigations]]''
**'''[[Karl Barth]]''' -
***''[[The Word of God and the Word of Man]]''
*56  '''[[Henri Poincare]]''' -
***''[[Science and Hypothesis]]''
**'''[[Max Planck]]''' -
***''[[Scientific Autobiography and Other Papers]]''
**'''[[Alfred North Whitehead]]''' -
***''[[An Introduction to Mathematics]]''
**'''[[Albert Einstein]]''' -
***''[[Relativity: The Special and the General Theroy]]''
**'''[[Arthur Eddington]]''' -
***''[[The Expanding Universe]]''
**'''[[Niels Bohr]]''' -
***''[[Atomic Theory and the Description of Nature]]'' (selections)
***''[[Discussion with Einstein on Epistemology]]''
**'''[[G.H. Hardy]]''' -
***''[[A Mathematician's Apology]]''
**'''[[Werner Heisenberg]]''' -
***''[[Physics and Philosophy]]''
**'''[[Erwin Schrödinger]]''' -
***''[[What is Life?]]''
**'''[[Theodosius Dobzhansky]]''' -
***''[[Genetics and the Origin of Species]]''
**'''[[C.H. Waddington]]''' -
***''[[The Nature of Life]]''
*57  '''[[Thorstein Veblen]]''' -
***''[[The Theory of the Leisure Class]]''
**'''[[R.H. Tawney]]''' -
***''[[The Acquisitive Society]]''
**'''[[John Maynard Keynes]]''' -
***''[[The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money]]''
*58  '''[[Sir James George Frazer]]''' -
***''[[The Golden Bough]]'' (selections)
**'''[[Max Weber]]''' -
***''[[Essays in Sociology]]'' (selections)
**'''[[Johan Huizinga]]''' -
***''[[The Waning of the Middle Ages]]''
**'''[[Levi-Strauss]]''' -
***''[[Structural Anthropology]]'' (selections)
*59  '''[[Henry James]]''' -
***''[[The Beast in the Jungle]]''
**'''[[George Bernard Shaw]]''' -
***''[[Saint Joan]]''
**'''[[Joseph Conrad]]''' -
***''[[Heart of Darkness]]''
**'''[[Anton Chekhov]]''' -
***''[[Uncle Vanya]]''
**'''[[Luigi Pirandello]]''' -
***''[[Six Characters in Search of an Author]]''
**'''[[Marcel Proust]]''' -
***''[[Remembrance of Things Past]]'': "[[Swann in Love]]"
**'''[[Willa Cather]]''' -
***''[[A Lost Lady]]''
**'''[[Thomas Mann]]''' -
***''[[Death in Venice]]''
**'''[[James Joyce]]''' -
***''[[A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man]]''
*60  '''[[Virginia Woolf]]''' -
***''[[To the Lighthouse]]''
**'''[[Franz Kafka]]''' -
***''[[Metamorphosis]]''
**'''[[D.H. Lawrence]]''' -
***''[[The Prussian Officer]]''
**'''[[T.S. Eliot]]'''-
***''[[The Waste Land]]''
**'''[[Eugene O'Neill]]''' -
***''[[Mourning Becomes Electra]]''
**'''[[F. Scott Fitzgerald]]''' -
***''[[The Great Gatsby]]''
**'''[[William Faulkner]]''' -
***''[[A Rose for Emily]]''
**'''[[Bertolt Brecht]]''' -
***''[[Mother Courage and Her Children]]''
**'''[[Ernest Hemingway]]''' -
***''[[The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber]]''
**'''[[George Orwell]]''' -
***''[[Animal Farm]]''
**'''[[Samuel Beckett]]''' -
***''[[Waiting for Godot]]''

==Criticism==

''The Great Books of the Western World'' have received their share of criticism from the time of their publication. The stress Hutchins placed on the monumental importance of these works was an easy target for those who dismissed the project as elites in their [[ivory tower]] pretending to save the world. Likewise the project has been attacked for further promoting the deification of "dead white males", while ignoring contributions of females and minorities to the canon. This mostly emerged later with the [[feminist]] and [[civil rights movement]]s.

In his ''Europe. A History'', [[Norman Davies]] criticizes the compilation for overrepresenting selected parts of the western world, especially [[Britain]] and the U.S., while ignoring the other, particularly [[Central Europe|Central]] and [[Eastern Europe]]. According to his calculation, in 151 authors included in both editions, there are 49 English or American authors, 27 Frenchmen, 20 Germans, 15 ancient Greeks, 9 ancient Romans, 6 Russians, 4 Scandinavians, 3 Spaniards, 3 Italians, 3 Irishmen, 3 Scots, and 3 Eastern Europeans. Prejudices and preferences, he concludes, are self-evident.

But another harmful criticism was that the series was in reality more for show than for substance. While the sales were good through the aggressive promotion Encyclopedia Britannica put forth, the percentages of those purchased that were actually read to any significant extent, let alone completed, must still be rather small. Some argued that their main use was to create the illusion of being cultured, without any real substance behind it, only a modest financial investment. Furthermore the translations used were generally seen to be poor, given the scope and aim of the project, which certainly did not encourage readership. In an effort to keep ballooning costs down, the publishers decided to use only translations that were in the [[public domain]], and often quite dated. This combined with the dense formatting did not help its readibilty.

==External links==
*[http://www.angelfire.com/art/megathink/greatbooks/index.html Great Books] web page by Alan Nicoll

[[Category:Series of books]]