Covers world cultures from prehistory through the year 700 C.E., including essays on persons, cultures, wars, battles, documents or works, traditions or cultural phenomena, structures or artifacts, places or sites, terms, and groups or civilizations.

Features annotations for more than 6,200 works in the main volume (2007), and more than 2,400 new titles in three annual supplements published 2008 through 2010. New coverage of biographies, art, sports, Islam, the Middle East, cultural diversity, and other contemporary topics keeps your library's collection as current as today's headlines.

Each vol. is divided into 2 parts 1st-7th ed.: Dictionary catalog and Classified catalog; 8th-9th ed. have 3rd. part: Directory of publishers.