I recently came into a very large quantity of books, most of which I cycled directly to the donation box at the local library.

However, within the collection was a 3-volume set called, oddly enough, "The Volume Library" - these are an epic-scale attempt to capture the basics of all knowledge, from math to government and more. It comes in three massive books.

I have the 2009 edition.
Volume 1 consists of Math, Science, and Social Sciences, apx 1200+ pages.
Volume 2 consists of Language, History, World, apx 1200+ pages
Volume 3 consists of World maps, Geographical Maps, Study Aides, World Index (apx 1200+ pages)

I'm sure some folks here have seen this, but they are new to me. They have a delightful old-school approach to information, with a certain cultural tone that comes from an era where a printed book was the final, authoritative source of knowledge and western society and culture was all that was relevant.

For example, Volume 1, section 12: Business and Economics has the following major sections:

Business in the United States
Business in Canada
Business in the United Kingdom

Umm...yeah. No China. No Brazil. No India. The theme continues throughout, as if the rest of the world is largely irrelevant.

Anyway, despite this, the basics of math, geometry, biology and chemistry are all in there and that makes it worth keeping.

Further research shows that this "Volume Library" goes back a LONG time. I found a 1911 edition as a free PDF at http://ia600202.us.archive.org/17/items/thevolumelibrary00ruofrich/thevolumelibrary00ruofrich.pdf (warning 100+ MB)

Very cool!

Nice find!

I'm surprised the 09 edition is so Anglo-centric!