Encyclopedia Americana

Type: Book

As of November 2026, Encyclopedia Americana has been mentioned in one podcast episode on Ryan Hawk (Jan 2026). In the episode "Why Wikipedia Works When Trust Is Declining Everywhere Else," Jimmy Wales references Encyclopedia Americana as a significant influence from his childhood, alongside Encyclopedia Britannica. He specifically recommends it, highlighting its role as another well-known encyclopedia brand.

The Encyclopedia Americana was a general encyclopedia written in American English. It was the first general encyclopedia of any magnitude to be published in North America. With Collier's Encyclopedia and Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopedia Americana became one of the three major and large English-language general encyclopedias; the three were sometimes collectively called "the ABCs of encyclopedias". Following the acquisition of Grolier in 2000, Scholastic took over production; in 2018, the En