The entire 1911 Encylopedia Britannica, scanned, OCRed and posted online.
When reading the articles of the 1911 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, it may help to keep in mind the time period in which this was published. The beginning of the twentieth century was a time of unprecedented wealth, and an age of great technological achievements when humankind bragged that it could build an ocean liner that God, Himself, couldn’t sink. It was a time of honesty when people said what they felt, in spite of whom they may offend. It was a time of great passions and the beginnings of serious reforms in society. Teddy Roosevelt and his trustbusters had not yet dissolved the great business conglomerates of Standard Oil, the Motion Pictures Patent Company and U.S. Steel. The economy was booming — sort of. Yet with all the razzle-dazzle, the early part of the twentieth century was still an age of innocence when the syrupy-sweet sentimental movies of D.W. Griffith were major box office draws and novels like “Trail of the Lonesome Pine” dominated bestseller lists.
(via Robot Wisdom)