1. Berkshire goes deeper.
We don’t just ask Who, What, When, and Where? We ask the more important and difficult questions: Why? How? And what can we do to make the world a better place?
Encyclopedia of Homelessness: “Levinson’s remarkable work deserves an award for tackling this complex social problem in such a very thorough and well-organized way. Highly recommended.” – Choice
Berkshire Encyclopedia of World History: “Sorting the sum of human endeavors and presenting students with a coherent plan of study is no easy task, but a winning combination of distinguished historians and a seasoned editorial staff has proven more than equal to this massive undertaking.” –John Lawrence, “Lawrence Looks at Books”
2. We are scholars and authors ourselves.
"Incredibly, [Christensen and Levinson’s Encyclopedia of Community: From the Village to the Virtual World] is the first encyclopedia to focus on community as concept and experience, so stands alone in its field as the one title any library must buy to cover this topic…. Essential. All readerships.” –Choice
Some of our editorial staff are also published authors, and a number run websites and independent publishing projects.
3. Berkshire is small and independent.
There's been a great deal of consolidation in the publishing industry but we're bucking the trend--with an independent imprint that intends to stay that way! We share the belief of many of our readers that independent voices are needed more than ever.
“The Encyclopedia of Leadership is a model of a modern reference book … [it] belongs in the personal collection of every person seriously interested in leadership, whether as student, scholar, or practitioner.” –Compass
4. Berkshire is global.
“A monumental undertaking, [the International Encyclopedia of Women and Sports, edited by Christensen et al.] covers women’s sports worldwide and throughout history … A scholarly resource for public libraries and school at all levels, middle school through college.” –Library Journal
“[The International Encyclopedia of Women and Sports features] engaging illustrations and photos, as well as numerous sidebars, tables and charts … [and] a sense of scope and comprehensiveness not afforded by other sports references.” –Against the Grain
5. Berkshire is interdisciplinary. We are about people and ideas--and the networks they form.
We can sometimes see connections that are not obvious to people working within a single discipline.
We are a uniquely twenty-first-century publisher because our extensive human networks and personal relationships, developed as a result of working with so many thousands of contributors on collaborative projects, are an ideal fit with new communications media and social software.
Whether you are a reader or a writer, a scientist or a student, we invite you to join these networks, share your ideas and knowledge, and link to others who can help you in your own endeavors. We welcome suggestions for improvements to the works we’ve already published and are always interested in new topics, ideas, and trends that shape our world.
“Works like the Berkshire Encyclopedia of Human-Computer Interaction play a valuable role in lending definition to emerging, interdisciplinary fields of study.” –Against the Grain
“[Berkshire's Patterns of Global Terrorism] offers a great service to policy makers, journalists, researchers, and the general public … [It] provides context, coherence, and thorough access.” –Reference & Research Book News
Company BeginningsFounders David Levinson and Karen Christensen met in 1993 at the launch meeting for the Encyclopedia of Cultural Anthropology, a four-volume work published three years later. Christensen had recently returned to the United States after working in publishing in England for ten years. She was the project’s new managing editor, while Levinson was its senior academic editor and vice-president of the sponsoring organization, the Human Relations Area Files (HRAF) at Yale University.
In 1998 they founded a company, Berkshire Reference Works, and subsequented co-edited a number of titles with publishers around the United States. Their Encyclopedia of World Sport received international acclaim from institutions as varied as the academic magazine Choice, the New York Public Library, the Times of London, and All Sport and Leisure, the weekly newspaper of U.K. bookmakers William Hill.
Christensen and Levinson extended their personal networks into new fields and began to build the technical infrastructure that would enable them to manage large amounts of global content. Serendipity played a role, too, as they became friends with William H. McNeill, the renowned world historian, and met various others who would become advisers, friends, and sometimes editors as well.
The company expanded, both on site and with a team of freelance editors and proofreaders whose expertise is invaluable, and who bring a strong sense of common purpose to the work they do.
Berkshire Publishing in the Berkshire Hills
Berkshire’s offices in the Mahaiwe Block, a historic building, are across the street from the Town Hall where African-American intellectual and activist W. E. B. Du Bois attended town meetings as a boy and learned, he wrote, about "the essence of democracy: listening to the other man’s opinion and then voting your own, honestly and intelligently."
For more about the Berkshires of western Massachusetts, visit our Berkshires page.
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