Global culture
Ngimbe Ngumboh

Before indulging myself with a dictionary which contains "everything every American needs to know," I felt it necessary to define for myself exactly what a dictionary consists of. For certain, the Dictionary Of Global Culture was like no dictionary I had ever seen before, nor since.

I thumbed through my trusty New Webster Encyclopedic Dictionary. It is defined as "a book, containing the words of a language arranged in alphabetical order, with explanations or definitions of their meaning; any work which communicates information on an entire subject or a branch of a subject." I do not believe Gates and Appiah have satisfied enough of the detailed criteria of a dictionary for the Dictionary of Global Culture to qualify as a dictionary, per se.

It certainly does arrange words in alphabetical order and provides definitions for them. It is not in any special order, nor does it contain any or all of one subject within a defined language. It does not provide pronunciations for the words given. These are the points which make Appiah and Gates failed dictionarians. I believe it is more important, and certainly more interesting for the common reader to know what makes this book worth having, or not, despite its illogical title.

Gates and Appiah offer a stunning sytstem of reasoning for how all of the people, places and things listed in their dictionary deserve to be included in one place.

They also, in their manifesto, manage to justify how such a book began. "Our idea in making this book was a simple one: to give those people (to give ourselves) a sampler of cultural contributions from around the globe. In doing so, we have placed some of the achievements of Western culture alongside those of many other cultures and traditions."

Nowhere to be found here are scientific definitions of any sort. The project began and was built from input acquired from their colleagues who sent in lists of things they felt were important from their fields of expertise. Included was Jaixing Wang (a professor of English at the Beijing Foriegn Studies University) who included such things as Confucianism, Beijing Opera, Tianamen Square and terra-cotta warriors. The experiment with Wang was duplicated dozens of times to garner as broad a response as possible.

I have no idea how this book would be used. It is not reliable like a true encyclopedia, nor does it offer definitions of everyday words.

It is no doubt of vast importance as a sociological study. It is a truer measure of our life and times than anything that Macleans or Time could offer because it reaches beyond news headlines and up to date phenomenon.

Buying into what mega-companies will offer you for the millenium will fail you. Owning this book will make you better as a person.