Do you ever question Usbourne encyclopedias?

[FairProspects]

We have the Usbourne's Children's Encyclopedia, which I like in general, and I was planning on getting the Encyclopedia of World History, when I came across a glaring inaccuracy (to me at least) in the Children's Encyclopedia which is making me rethink my plan.

 

The encyclopedia stated that in the Victorian era (specifically 1859 by the Godey's picture) the ideal waist size was 18 inches. As someone who has been working with museum collections of antique clothing and studying mid-19th century (1840-1865) clothing extensively for the last 2 years, I know for a fact this statement is untrue. Usbourne is perpetuating a commonly believed myth, but if you measure the dresses, the average waist was between 28-32", fairly comparable to today if we still wore corsets. Ladies magazines of the 1850s/60s specifically argue against tight-lacing, and suggest it is healthier to maintain a natural waist size.

 

Point being, it made me wonder that if Usbourne is printing that myth as "fact", how many other inaccuracies are in the text? Shouldn't encylopedias be thoroughly researched before they are published?

 

I mean, in this case, it is a very obvious error to anyone who works in the field, which makes me nervous about all the other science topics. I'm not a scientist and I would not be able to easily identify classification errors or anything.

 

Has anyone else experienced a similar situation with the Usbourne encyclopedias? I'd like to think I'm presenting science facts for our program as accurately as possible...but this really made me question the quality of Usbourne materials.

[praisefor3]

We take ALL of Usborne with a grain of salt. We introduce it that it makes some erroneous assumptions and teach our kids that you can't trust it just because it's in a book. However, there are parts of their books that are good and beautifully illustrated so we do use them to supplement our learning sometimes.

[Pam Wilhelm]

I take all things with a grain of salt......... we are using Apologia Zoo. I.... I have found a few .... irregularities in that text as well. Nothing glaring, just some comments that don't make sense....... I have a degree in Biology (Vertebrate Zoology is my thing) and I just tell the kids that a comment isn't what I learned and that anything created by man...books, etc..... could possibly have errors in it......... the trick is to be able to catch them and move on.

 

 

No particular reason to eliminate the book.......just use it as a teaching moment.

[Haiku]

I don't think any book ever written contains absolutely no inaccuracies or mistakes. Dumping the book because of one identified error would be throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

 

Tara

[calandalsmom]

Are you aware that ideal and average are not the same and that women's magazines often argue against the status quo while simultaneously promoting it?

[Laura Corin]

Someone writing in the future about the current era might say that the ideal dress size was 0, but the average is, what, 12 or 14? That future historian would also find many articles railing against the ideal.

 

That said, I think it is definitely worth questioning any book.

 

Laura

[Blessedfamily]

Someone writing in the future about the current era might say that the ideal dress size was 0, but the average is, what, 12 or 14? That future historian would also find many articles railing against the ideal.

 

That said, I think it is definitely worth questioning any book.

 

Laura

 

:iagree: