WEBVTT - Information, Please! 0:00:15.396 --> 0:00:23.276 Pushkin. Imagine there's a place in our world where the 0:00:23.356 --> 0:00:29.116 known things go, a corridor of the mind, lined with shelves, 0:00:29.636 --> 0:00:35.316 cluttered with clues, stocked with books. I haven't been here 0:00:35.316 --> 0:00:37.716 in a while. I was looking for my copy of 0:00:37.756 --> 0:00:42.676 Five Acres and Independence. It's gotta be somewhere. M I'm 0:00:42.756 --> 0:00:45.196 glad to see my collection of eighteenth century almond axes 0:00:45.236 --> 0:00:50.676 still here. Huh. Mid twentieth century political posters. Damn, it's 0:00:50.716 --> 0:00:56.156 getting dusty though. The cupboard of board games weird. What's 0:00:56.156 --> 0:01:02.116 the stack of twigs doing here? Jeez? Hello, good afternoon, ma'am. 0:01:02.236 --> 0:01:05.596 Have you ever wished you own the sum of human knowledge? 0:01:05.836 --> 0:01:09.996 The library that never closes? Oh? Are you have a library? 0:01:10.236 --> 0:01:12.956 This is a library. This is the last archive. Didn't 0:01:12.956 --> 0:01:15.436 you see the big breast sign outside? I don't get it. 0:01:15.756 --> 0:01:20.196 What are you selling anyway? Twenty nine volumes, twenty eight thousand, 0:01:20.356 --> 0:01:24.836 one hundred and fifty pages, forty four million words of text. 0:01:25.236 --> 0:01:29.556 When in doubt look it up. Oh okay, really sorry, thanks, 0:01:29.596 --> 0:01:33.676 but it seems so cruel. But mister, I've already got 0:01:33.676 --> 0:01:37.556 one right here. I've had it for a very long time. 0:01:38.236 --> 0:01:45.156 Step across the threshold to my family's front door. In 0:01:45.316 --> 0:01:49.956 nineteen seventy two, the day of the Encyclopedia arrived, I 0:01:50.116 --> 0:01:53.516 was six up. Till then I had experienced only a 0:01:53.516 --> 0:01:58.516 few exciting deliveries. Remember there was no Amazon then. Not 0:01:58.676 --> 0:02:01.356 much got dropped off by truck, at least not at 0:02:01.396 --> 0:02:04.716 our house. Once we got a new refrigerator, a truck 0:02:04.756 --> 0:02:06.796 pulled up, two guys rolled it off on a little 0:02:06.916 --> 0:02:10.316 rolling cart, wheeled it into our yellow kitchen. Mostly I 0:02:10.396 --> 0:02:12.716 remember using the cardboard box that the fridge had come 0:02:12.756 --> 0:02:16.476 in to build a fort That was pretty fantastic, But 0:02:16.556 --> 0:02:20.676 the Encyclopedia was even better than the fridge. My mother 0:02:20.756 --> 0:02:24.076 unpacked the volumes from brown boxes and lined them up 0:02:24.076 --> 0:02:27.476 on a shelf in the living room. Twenty two big, fat, 0:02:27.716 --> 0:02:32.436 important looking, very serious books that would look like leather binding, 0:02:32.556 --> 0:02:36.356 cream colored and gold leaf edged pages like a Bible, 0:02:36.836 --> 0:02:40.476 color photographs, maps, and the thrill didn't end there. Every 0:02:40.556 --> 0:02:43.516 year would get another shipment updates. You were supposed to 0:02:43.556 --> 0:02:46.196 go back into the original volumes and insert new pages. 0:02:46.516 --> 0:02:49.236 Sometimes the updates came with stickers they were supposed to 0:02:49.236 --> 0:02:52.876 place over the outdated information. I really didn't have a 0:02:52.876 --> 0:02:56.756 lot of books that Encyclopedia set really was the superstar 0:02:56.796 --> 0:03:00.436 of our family library. I loved everything about it, the smell, 0:03:00.596 --> 0:03:03.836 the fanciness, the way they lined up like a regiment 0:03:03.876 --> 0:03:07.276 of soldiers, all there on a shelf in the living room, 0:03:07.556 --> 0:03:11.196 next to our stack of board games Monopoly, sorry, Clue. 0:03:11.716 --> 0:03:15.316 The encyclopedia. It was like this box with no bottom, 0:03:15.956 --> 0:03:22.996 endless knowledge. Encyclopedias for decades were sold one by one, 0:03:23.356 --> 0:03:27.036 door to door. Knowledge doesn't often travel in quite that 0:03:27.116 --> 0:03:31.276 way anymore, hand selling a knock on the door. How 0:03:31.276 --> 0:03:34.436 did that start, how did it work, why did it end? 0:03:35.236 --> 0:03:38.436 It seemed important to understanding how we gain access to 0:03:38.516 --> 0:03:42.116 knowledge today. So I asked a world class expert, a 0:03:42.196 --> 0:03:45.876 wizard at the art of selling a walking library, and 0:03:45.996 --> 0:03:47.756 I would just knock on their door, and I'd have 0:03:47.796 --> 0:03:50.036 the little card with me and I'd say, Hi, this 0:03:50.156 --> 0:03:53.556 is Myrin Taxman from Encyclopedia Britannica. You sent in for 0:03:53.596 --> 0:03:56.396 some information, and I was in the area here, so 0:03:56.596 --> 0:03:58.956 I thought I'd stop by and show you what we have. 0:03:59.716 --> 0:04:03.676 Myron Taxman started selling encyclopedias in Chicago in the nineteen 0:04:03.796 --> 0:04:07.156 sixties when he was twenty two. He's old encyclopedias for 0:04:07.276 --> 0:04:11.476 nearly thirty years in Florida. Now, I bet a lot 0:04:11.516 --> 0:04:15.196 of x Encyclopedia salesman lived there. But back in Chicago 0:04:15.236 --> 0:04:18.116 in his heyday, Taxman loved his work. He adored it, 0:04:18.556 --> 0:04:21.356 Myron Taxman. He's like a character in a short story 0:04:21.356 --> 0:04:25.476 by John Updyke or maybe Kurt Vaughnegut, Except you cannot 0:04:25.516 --> 0:04:28.436 make this guy up. You know, if I had a 0:04:28.476 --> 0:04:31.516 call Sunday night, why not? So you go out for 0:04:31.556 --> 0:04:35.756 an hour and make as say, a taxman is so 0:04:35.796 --> 0:04:37.996 good at selling that after talking to him for a while, 0:04:38.356 --> 0:04:41.036 should confess that that's pretty sure. I'd buy just about 0:04:41.076 --> 0:04:43.956 anything from this guy. But you can't sell something you 0:04:43.956 --> 0:04:48.276 don't believe him. And he believed in encyclopedias. He believed 0:04:48.396 --> 0:04:52.076 in bringing the sum of human knowledge to American households, 0:04:52.436 --> 0:04:56.316 door by door by door, we would bring out what 0:04:56.356 --> 0:04:59.836 we call the giant broadside. Well, the giant broadside was 0:04:59.876 --> 0:05:03.596 a life size picture of the whole full set of books. 0:05:03.876 --> 0:05:05.756 And you threw that out right in front of him, 0:05:05.836 --> 0:05:08.636 right under their feet, so they couldn't even move their feet. 0:05:09.916 --> 0:05:13.396 I picture the giant broadside is a folded up cardboard display, 0:05:14.076 --> 0:05:16.956 oh the size of a dining room table. The Texan 0:05:16.996 --> 0:05:19.716 would unfold like an accordion and lay out on the 0:05:19.756 --> 0:05:25.036 floor like a magic carpet. And then the real was 0:05:25.396 --> 0:05:30.356 you brought out a nice leather bound, gold filled sample 0:05:30.396 --> 0:05:34.276 of Britannica, and then you've did a little presentation with that. 0:05:34.436 --> 0:05:36.956 You put it in their hands and so they could 0:05:36.956 --> 0:05:42.076 hold it and play with it. That feeling it made 0:05:42.116 --> 0:05:44.996 my mouth water just hearing Taxman talk about the feeling 0:05:45.036 --> 0:05:48.316 of holding that sum of human knowledge in your hand, 0:05:48.436 --> 0:05:54.316 playing with it. I want that feeling back. Welcome to 0:05:54.356 --> 0:05:57.076 the third season of The Last Archive. The show about 0:05:57.076 --> 0:05:59.396 how we know what we know and why it seems 0:05:59.476 --> 0:06:02.156 lately is if we don't know anything at all. I'm 0:06:02.236 --> 0:06:05.596 Jill Lapoor. The first season of The Last Archive was 0:06:05.636 --> 0:06:09.356 a who Done It? Who Killed truth? I would back 0:06:09.396 --> 0:06:11.956 over the last century to look at forces that undermine 0:06:12.036 --> 0:06:14.876 people's ability to get the facts and to get to 0:06:14.916 --> 0:06:18.396 the bottom of things. The second season uncovered the history 0:06:18.436 --> 0:06:23.236 of doubt, from rational skepticism to mindless conspiracy theories. I 0:06:23.316 --> 0:06:27.756 met frauds and hucksters and fakes people peddling nonsense. So 0:06:27.876 --> 0:06:30.756 for two seasons, the first two years of the Pandemic 0:06:30.796 --> 0:06:32.876 mind You, I told a lot of stories about the 0:06:32.876 --> 0:06:36.116 origins of a lot of problems that got to be 0:06:36.116 --> 0:06:40.516 a little depressing. This season is the antidote my survey 0:06:40.516 --> 0:06:45.116 of solutions. This season is all about common knowledge, common 0:06:45.156 --> 0:06:48.956 in the sense of ordinary, ordinary knowledge held by ordinary people, 0:06:49.436 --> 0:06:52.516 ordinary things that people agree on, and common in the 0:06:52.556 --> 0:06:57.716 sense of communal shared held in community as a public good. 0:06:58.476 --> 0:07:01.236 Is that kind of knowledge still possible? Knowledge that we 0:07:01.316 --> 0:07:04.716 all have, knowledge that we all agree upon. That feeling 0:07:04.756 --> 0:07:12.396 of holding an encyclopedia in your hands, it's priceless. Encyclopedias 0:07:12.436 --> 0:07:16.076 are very old. They've been around for thousands of years. 0:07:16.436 --> 0:07:19.156 For all but the last few centuries. They existed only 0:07:19.156 --> 0:07:22.796 in manuscript, copied by hand, and they were for scholars, 0:07:22.836 --> 0:07:28.116 a tiny number of philosophers. Encyclopedia Britannica had been first 0:07:28.116 --> 0:07:31.996 published in Scotland in seventeen sixty eight, a product of 0:07:31.996 --> 0:07:35.956 the Enlightenment, with its faith in education and reason and 0:07:36.036 --> 0:07:38.596 the diffusion of knowledge. I think of all the other 0:07:38.636 --> 0:07:43.516 projects that got started then, libraries, public schools, self government. 0:07:43.876 --> 0:07:48.036 All these years later, it's still called Encyclopedia Britannica, but 0:07:48.156 --> 0:07:52.716 really it ought to be called Encyclopedia Americana. By the 0:07:52.836 --> 0:07:55.236 end of the nineteenth century. Most of its sales were 0:07:55.236 --> 0:07:59.196 coming from the United States, where striving self made Americans 0:07:59.756 --> 0:08:05.156 really loved its democratic ethos knowledge for all. Eventually the 0:08:05.196 --> 0:08:08.436 company itself moved to the US. It's one thing to 0:08:08.516 --> 0:08:12.116 compile knowledge, it's another to spread it. To take that 0:08:12.236 --> 0:08:15.916 knowledge stored up in universities and make it common, make 0:08:15.956 --> 0:08:19.596 it ordinary. Britannica came up with a very American way 0:08:19.716 --> 0:08:23.956 of diffusing knowledge, peddling it house by house. This is 0:08:23.956 --> 0:08:27.116 the part that really fascinates me. Even before most Americans 0:08:27.116 --> 0:08:30.196 had telephones or electricity, you could get in a way 0:08:30.516 --> 0:08:35.196 hooked up to this huge network of information encyclopedia companies. 0:08:35.196 --> 0:08:38.116 Though they didn't invent this method of door to door sales, 0:08:38.436 --> 0:08:43.876 Bible salesman did. The Bible runs as level as we 0:08:43.996 --> 0:08:47.756 have three plans on it cash cod and also they 0:08:47.796 --> 0:08:50.996 have a little Catholic on the plan. Which parent plan 0:08:51.076 --> 0:08:57.356 would be the best varu the ABSC. It was awfully 0:08:57.356 --> 0:09:00.356 easy for selling encyclopedias to fit right into this niche 0:09:00.876 --> 0:09:05.516 evangelical capitalism. In the nineteen twenties and nineteen thirties, Britannica 0:09:05.636 --> 0:09:08.156 was owned by Sears Roebuck, the department store company, with 0:09:08.196 --> 0:09:12.036 a giant mail order catalog seers trained a salesforce that 0:09:12.036 --> 0:09:14.916 would grow to more than two thousand strong to sell 0:09:14.996 --> 0:09:20.996 Encyclopedia's door to door. The house to house salesman symbolizes 0:09:21.036 --> 0:09:24.236 in a way the function evolve salesman, which is to 0:09:24.276 --> 0:09:27.276 bring good or servidus of the attention of the consumer 0:09:27.836 --> 0:09:32.556 and to help the consumer buy. Like Bible salesman, Britannica 0:09:32.596 --> 0:09:36.156 salesman work from scripts. Mostly they learned these scripts from 0:09:36.196 --> 0:09:41.076 each other and from the best salesman. There's no plays 0:09:41.116 --> 0:09:44.036 and gentleman to make sure things are rolling, will rolling. 0:09:45.436 --> 0:09:48.196 They learned those scripts from Myron Taxman. That's him in 0:09:48.236 --> 0:09:51.596 an old Britannica training video. This is going to be 0:09:51.676 --> 0:09:58.316 air Advanced Door Approach clinic for people working leads to 0:09:58.356 --> 0:10:01.796 start out with giving the basic door approach, which is 0:10:01.836 --> 0:10:04.876 the company door approach. Is everybody here know the company 0:10:04.916 --> 0:10:10.196 door approach? I'm sure you do. Encyclopedia salesman, like Bible salesman, 0:10:10.316 --> 0:10:13.276 knocked on the doors of families. They've gotten leads on. 0:10:13.676 --> 0:10:16.316 A lead is the name or addresser phone number of 0:10:16.396 --> 0:10:19.236 someone who might likely buy the stuff you're selling. Bible 0:10:19.236 --> 0:10:23.356 salesman got their leads from church attendance lists. Britannica generated 0:10:23.396 --> 0:10:27.876 its leads from places like newspaper contests. One place Britannica 0:10:27.956 --> 0:10:30.916 generated leads was from a radio quiz show. I mean, 0:10:31.196 --> 0:10:33.436 think about what better way to find nerds than to 0:10:33.436 --> 0:10:38.916 invite people to submit questions to a quiz show, Wake 0:10:38.996 --> 0:10:42.236 Up America trying to bombard the board of full experts 0:10:42.316 --> 0:10:45.156 with the toughest question who can think of? That show 0:10:45.236 --> 0:10:48.996 was called Information Please, and it was broadcast nationally from 0:10:49.116 --> 0:10:52.036 nineteen thirty eight to nineteen fifty one. And if your 0:10:52.116 --> 0:10:55.156 question stumps are all of experts, you'll receive a complete 0:10:55.156 --> 0:10:58.836 twenty four volume set of the Encyclopedia Britannica. The show's 0:10:58.876 --> 0:11:02.276 title information Please was a reference to what you'd say 0:11:02.316 --> 0:11:04.356 back in the day when you picked up the telephone 0:11:04.396 --> 0:11:07.676 and wanted information. You could ask the operator for someone's 0:11:07.676 --> 0:11:11.636 phone number, or the weather were the capital of Botswana? 0:11:11.716 --> 0:11:15.836 Who was a very old version of Siri, a secular oracle. Anyway, 0:11:16.076 --> 0:11:19.636 Information please. The radio show it was a blast Na 0:11:19.756 --> 0:11:23.756 me I present our master of ceremonies, mister Clifton Clifton Fataman. 0:11:23.796 --> 0:11:26.236 The quiz show's host was the books editor of the 0:11:26.236 --> 0:11:30.836 New Yorker He was also on the board of Encyclopedia Britannica. Gentleman, 0:11:31.076 --> 0:11:34.956 we're all I'm beginning with the following creston, Where does 0:11:35.036 --> 0:11:40.676 this line occur? Hey, nonny nonny? Hey none in Shakespeare? 0:11:40.876 --> 0:11:45.796 I suppose it weren't. Then I lose. The premise of 0:11:45.836 --> 0:11:48.916 the radio quiz show was if you submitted that question 0:11:49.076 --> 0:11:51.396 and no one on the panel answered it correctly, if 0:11:51.436 --> 0:11:55.876 you stumped the experts, you would get a free Encyclopedia Britannica. 0:11:55.996 --> 0:11:58.836 But there was also a sneaky thing going on, because 0:11:58.956 --> 0:12:01.956 if you submitted a question and it never even got asked, 0:12:02.356 --> 0:12:04.836 I'm pretty sure that what you got was that your 0:12:04.876 --> 0:12:07.836 name would be sent to Encyclopedia Britannica and would be 0:12:07.876 --> 0:12:10.676 given to one of its salesmen as a lead. He'd 0:12:10.676 --> 0:12:15.476 be given to a salesman like Myron Taxman. Hi, Myron 0:12:15.556 --> 0:12:19.876 Taxman from Encyclopedia Britannica. Here's my business card. Someone in 0:12:19.996 --> 0:12:23.076 your family indicated an interest in our products, and I 0:12:23.316 --> 0:12:25.716 stopped by to go over that with you. May I 0:12:25.756 --> 0:12:29.876 step in, As I said, Myron Taxman was not your 0:12:29.916 --> 0:12:34.036 average salesman. He didn't just hook me, He hooked everybody. 0:12:34.436 --> 0:12:37.716 He was a star and Britannica knew it. That's why 0:12:37.756 --> 0:12:41.956 they used him to train other salesman. Myron Taxman is 0:12:41.996 --> 0:12:46.156 a family man. He's on the go, Andie cares about 0:12:46.196 --> 0:12:49.036 other families like the hus and I want a lot 0:12:49.036 --> 0:12:51.876 of awards for top salesman for the month and this 0:12:52.036 --> 0:12:54.596 and that. So I didn't really have to fight for 0:12:54.636 --> 0:12:57.716 the leads. They wanted to give me the leads and 0:12:58.156 --> 0:13:00.956 give me as a misnomer because you had to buy 0:13:01.036 --> 0:13:03.596 these leads. So a lot of the leads were like 0:13:03.636 --> 0:13:07.596 ten dollars a lead. So who's getting paid for the leads? 0:13:07.596 --> 0:13:12.596 Britannica to help subsidize their advertising to make the leads. 0:13:12.956 --> 0:13:15.356 So then was it a little like Glengarry glen Ross, 0:13:15.436 --> 0:13:17.796 like fighting over the good leads? If you don't know 0:13:17.836 --> 0:13:21.036 about it. Glengarry glen Ross is a play David Mant 0:13:21.036 --> 0:13:23.796 wrote about real estate salesman. He was later made into 0:13:23.796 --> 0:13:29.116 a movie starring a very young Alec Baldwin. Absolutely when 0:13:29.156 --> 0:13:33.716 I saw that, when I saw Glen glen Ross, I said, wow, 0:13:33.796 --> 0:13:37.996 this is us. The leads are weak leads A week? 0:13:38.436 --> 0:13:41.316 You a week? Okay, I'm guessing there was less swearing. 0:13:41.516 --> 0:13:46.116 Encyclopedia Britannica. But still a leads, a lead Taxman. He'd 0:13:46.116 --> 0:13:48.996 get the leads, buy the leads, and then he'd go out. 0:13:49.516 --> 0:13:51.196 He still had to find a way to make it 0:13:51.276 --> 0:13:53.876 in the door though. In that training video he made 0:13:53.876 --> 0:13:56.996 he laid out some rules of the road. Number one, 0:13:58.276 --> 0:14:01.356 don't make the mistake of giving a price in the doorway. 0:14:01.516 --> 0:14:05.396 Don't do it. I'd rather walk away. Number two, don't 0:14:05.436 --> 0:14:08.636 make a one legged pitch. It's death in our business. 0:14:08.836 --> 0:14:10.876 Don't pitch. The wife would out the husband, or the 0:14:10.956 --> 0:14:12.996 husband would have the wife the full or the house 0:14:13.036 --> 0:14:16.396 the better. Most of the selling happened, Taxman said when 0:14:16.436 --> 0:14:20.236 he first stepped through that doorway, across that threshold and 0:14:20.356 --> 0:14:22.836 gave the warm up. But it was good if you 0:14:22.916 --> 0:14:25.476 had the children there, because then you could get them 0:14:25.516 --> 0:14:30.436 involved and actually they would help with the sale. Generally speaking, 0:14:30.476 --> 0:14:33.076 it was the wife that wanted the books more than anyone, 0:14:33.316 --> 0:14:35.276 because she'd be the one that would have to schlept 0:14:35.276 --> 0:14:37.996 the kids to the library all the time. And she know, 0:14:38.356 --> 0:14:40.036 now I don't have to go to the library. I have, 0:14:40.276 --> 0:14:43.596 you know, the encyclopedias here. When Taxman had gathered the 0:14:43.596 --> 0:14:46.116 whole family together, not just the husband and the wife, 0:14:46.116 --> 0:14:48.756 but the kids too. He'd tell everyone where to sit. 0:14:49.316 --> 0:14:51.596 He didn't like sitting on the couch. That was too comfy, 0:14:52.036 --> 0:14:55.396 too likely people would stop paying attention. The kitchen table 0:14:55.516 --> 0:14:58.756 was better. People were more alert, ready to do business. 0:14:59.236 --> 0:15:02.676 And then after we sat down, I would start really 0:15:02.796 --> 0:15:06.116 schmoozing with them. Oh, you have such a lovely house. 0:15:06.716 --> 0:15:09.236 I was always a detective when I walked in the door, 0:15:09.676 --> 0:15:11.996 and I would look around to see if I saw 0:15:12.036 --> 0:15:15.676 a trophy at golf trophy or pictures that they had 0:15:15.756 --> 0:15:20.836 kids playing football, and that really, to me made the sale. 0:15:21.996 --> 0:15:25.036 There were years in the United States when encyclopedias sold 0:15:25.116 --> 0:15:28.516 like Honestly, you could sort of say they sold like encyclopedias, 0:15:28.956 --> 0:15:32.836 because that and not hotcakes, was the measure. Owning a 0:15:32.876 --> 0:15:35.956 Bible was a mark of faith, a testament. Owning a 0:15:35.996 --> 0:15:39.276 set of encyclopedias became a mark of aspiring to belong 0:15:39.356 --> 0:15:42.676 to a community of knowledge, a democracy of knowledge. But 0:15:42.756 --> 0:15:44.836 by the end of the nineteen sixties, the door to 0:15:44.876 --> 0:15:48.476 door encyclopedia salesman had become a punchline. You can hear 0:15:48.476 --> 0:15:52.676 exactly how in this Monty Python sketch from nineteen sixty nine. 0:15:53.356 --> 0:15:56.796 I want to come in and steal a few things. Madam, 0:15:56.836 --> 0:16:00.076 Are you an incertelopedia salesman? No, madam, I'm a burglar 0:16:00.276 --> 0:16:03.876 burglar people, I think you're an incertetopedia salesman. Oh, I'm 0:16:03.876 --> 0:16:05.916 not open to all. Let me in. Please, I'll let 0:16:05.916 --> 0:16:08.916 you in your solm me instetpedias. I won't. When i'm all, 0:16:08.956 --> 0:16:16.196 just come in Ransacklefla honestly probably shops none at all. All. Right, 0:16:18.236 --> 0:16:20.516 back in the US, it was getting to be no joke. 0:16:21.156 --> 0:16:24.236 Sales methods got so aggressive that in nineteen seventy two, 0:16:24.236 --> 0:16:28.796 the Federal Trade Commission intervened, ordering Britannica to stop deceptive 0:16:28.796 --> 0:16:32.916 and aggressive sales tactics. Taxman told me this wasn't really fair, 0:16:32.996 --> 0:16:35.836 that Britannica was being punished for the sneaky methods of 0:16:35.876 --> 0:16:39.196 other companies. And I believed him, But then again, I 0:16:39.236 --> 0:16:41.916 am a sucker from iron Taxman, and so we are 0:16:41.956 --> 0:16:44.716 a lot of other people. After he'd got the family 0:16:44.716 --> 0:16:47.996 sitting down at that kitchen table, not the couch, after 0:16:47.996 --> 0:16:50.996 he'd done a schmoozing about their golf game, the kid's 0:16:51.076 --> 0:16:54.876 hockey team, after all the warming up was done, he'd 0:16:54.876 --> 0:16:57.436 begin to close in on the deal. When do you 0:16:57.596 --> 0:17:01.716 know that you've you've got him? It's something you know, 0:17:01.876 --> 0:17:05.276 it's it's kind of an innate feeling when they start 0:17:05.876 --> 0:17:08.116 looking at one another and oh, what do you think 0:17:08.196 --> 0:17:13.276 hattie as looked very nice? And they'd write the check 0:17:13.676 --> 0:17:17.196 right there for the first installment fifty dollars to start. 0:17:17.716 --> 0:17:22.316 Then they'd have to pay monthly with interest. Predatory, yes, 0:17:22.916 --> 0:17:27.036 but still an encyclopedia isn't say, a stationary bicycle or 0:17:27.116 --> 0:17:29.716 some other useless thing you might get swindled into buying. 0:17:30.236 --> 0:17:32.356 People who grew up with these books talk about how 0:17:32.356 --> 0:17:37.316 the encyclopedia changed their lives, like comedian Steve Harvey, Well, mommy, 0:17:37.396 --> 0:17:40.396 I finally got the money together help us to educate ourselves. 0:17:40.436 --> 0:17:46.076 They bought an encyclopedia set Britannica, and everything you wanted 0:17:46.116 --> 0:17:48.796 to know was in that encyclopedia. And that's all you 0:17:48.836 --> 0:17:51.596 can know. If you want to look up something about elephant, 0:17:51.796 --> 0:17:54.516 and they had two pages on elephants, that was what 0:17:54.596 --> 0:17:58.436 you knew about the elephant. Harvey's not the only one. 0:17:58.836 --> 0:18:02.716 Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor had a thing for encyclopedias. 0:18:03.156 --> 0:18:05.436 She grew up in the Bronx Her parents had moved 0:18:05.436 --> 0:18:08.516 there from Puerto Rico after her father died when she 0:18:08.556 --> 0:18:11.596 was nine years years old. Her mother, Selena, who worked 0:18:11.596 --> 0:18:16.836 six days a week, saved up for Britannica the most 0:18:16.876 --> 0:18:21.796 beautiful thing in the laurel. Now the encyclopedius today are online. 0:18:22.076 --> 0:18:25.516 They're not selling them as books anymore. And I actually 0:18:25.916 --> 0:18:29.796 know there's some value sometimes to online reading, and I 0:18:29.876 --> 0:18:33.636 kind of like you, but I love the encyclopedias and 0:18:33.756 --> 0:18:36.036 things that I could feel in my hands and turn 0:18:36.156 --> 0:18:39.636 the pages, so to Mayor says, Britannica more or less 0:18:39.676 --> 0:18:42.996 saved her life, opened the door to a world of knowledge. 0:18:43.876 --> 0:18:47.676 Myron Taxman believed that same thing in my heart. I 0:18:47.876 --> 0:18:50.636 know anyone that would buy these books, even if it 0:18:50.756 --> 0:18:53.636 just melt, made them feel better that they had this 0:18:53.916 --> 0:18:56.516 beautiful set of books on the shelf, and that was 0:18:56.556 --> 0:18:59.316 one source you could go to that you could find 0:18:59.356 --> 0:19:01.916 out about everything and anything that happened in the world. 0:19:02.396 --> 0:19:05.956 Britannica really was a kind of common knowledge. Knock knock, 0:19:06.076 --> 0:19:11.316 it's a library. Tell me about caterpillars, capillaries, the Caspian Sea. 0:19:11.516 --> 0:19:17.276 It's all there, established, verifiable, illustrated, a library that had 0:19:17.276 --> 0:19:20.876 taken years and years and thousands of people to create 0:19:20.916 --> 0:19:26.876 and produce. Look up influenza and you'll find reliable, accurate information. 0:19:27.836 --> 0:19:30.316 Think about how hard it is now to find reliable 0:19:30.396 --> 0:19:33.636 and accurate information on the Internet, or in the thousands 0:19:33.676 --> 0:19:36.956 of years before the encyclopedia. Think of all the rumors 0:19:36.956 --> 0:19:41.956 and exaggerations and ignorance and misunderstanding and misinformation that characterized 0:19:42.036 --> 0:19:47.796 human communication across time and distance. I mean, Britannica was 0:19:47.836 --> 0:19:50.356 not a perfect solution by any means. For one thing, 0:19:50.396 --> 0:19:55.276 it wasn't free. Also, it wasn't public. Britannica commercialized and 0:19:55.356 --> 0:19:58.636 privatized a body of knowledge. Why bother to go to 0:19:58.676 --> 0:20:01.356 your local public library when you could own these books 0:20:01.356 --> 0:20:05.556 in your own home. Also, there was something missing. More 0:20:05.596 --> 0:20:21.916 on that after the break. My family never owned Encyclopedia Britannica. 0:20:22.036 --> 0:20:25.516 They're too expensive. We owned instead one of its many cheaper, 0:20:25.636 --> 0:20:30.396 down market competitors, an encyclopedia set called World Book. My 0:20:30.516 --> 0:20:33.156 mother saved up for our World Book Encyclopedia set by 0:20:33.156 --> 0:20:36.276 collecting SNH Green stamps, those little coupons you got whenever 0:20:36.316 --> 0:20:39.036 you bought gas or groceries. They worked like cash. You 0:20:39.076 --> 0:20:41.356 could trade them in to buy stuff. Of course, you 0:20:41.476 --> 0:20:43.756 know that you can get everything from color television to 0:20:43.796 --> 0:20:47.516 motor boats with green stamps. But now, well, just look 0:20:47.516 --> 0:20:50.356 at this. You could buy Britannica with green stamps too, 0:20:50.396 --> 0:20:53.316 but you needed a lot more stamps. Those World Book 0:20:53.356 --> 0:20:56.636 encyclopedias were about the nicest thing we owned, but my 0:20:56.716 --> 0:20:58.876 mother didn't trust us with them. They had to stay 0:20:58.876 --> 0:21:01.396 in the living room or on a special shelf. None 0:21:01.396 --> 0:21:03.036 of us kids was ever allowed to take them into 0:21:03.036 --> 0:21:05.756 our bedrooms. Our mother was worried we lose them, or 0:21:05.756 --> 0:21:07.956 I guess maybe tear them, or I don't know actually 0:21:07.996 --> 0:21:10.756 what you're so worried about out But you can hear 0:21:10.796 --> 0:21:14.716 any entries. How different World Book was from Britannica, who 0:21:14.716 --> 0:21:18.356 was geared more towards kids than to college professors. Consider 0:21:18.516 --> 0:21:22.996 just for one example, Britannica's entry for the topic of needles. 0:21:23.716 --> 0:21:29.036 The raw material of needle manufacture consists of Sheffield crucible 0:21:29.156 --> 0:21:34.476 steel drawn down into wire of suitable gauge. World Book's entry, 0:21:34.556 --> 0:21:37.876 written more for kids, starts this way. The next time 0:21:37.956 --> 0:21:40.836 you pick up a sewing needle, remember that this little 0:21:40.836 --> 0:21:43.196 piece of steel with a fine point at one end 0:21:43.436 --> 0:21:46.196 and an eye at the other has passed through the 0:21:46.276 --> 0:21:51.196 hands of seventy workmen and undergone twenty two processes in 0:21:51.276 --> 0:21:56.556 its Manufacture World book was smart to target kids. Britannica, 0:21:56.596 --> 0:21:59.836 with its lofty style and dense prose, was at risk 0:21:59.916 --> 0:22:02.756 of being left in the dust. But Britannica had a 0:22:02.796 --> 0:22:08.556 secret weapon for reaching kids. Britannica made educational films in 0:22:08.596 --> 0:22:12.436 the nineties sixties. In nineteen seventies, Thomas G. Smith worked 0:22:12.716 --> 0:22:16.916 for Encyclopedia Britannica Films, which was really starting to take off. 0:22:17.156 --> 0:22:21.876 What happened was it In nineteen fifty seven Sputnik was launched, 0:22:22.036 --> 0:22:26.476 and America was very embarrassed and we felt we would 0:22:26.516 --> 0:22:34.876 had fallen far behind the Soviets. The day Soviet scientists 0:22:34.956 --> 0:22:38.476 jauntily drop kicked the first Sputnik around the world, the 0:22:38.556 --> 0:22:43.276 average American was shocked, bewildered, and was entful. Sputnik is 0:22:43.316 --> 0:22:46.916 a product of higher education, of instructors who teach much 0:22:46.916 --> 0:22:49.916 of the physics and mathematics in high school that we 0:22:50.036 --> 0:22:54.516 teach in colleague. After Sputnik, Congress passed the National Defense 0:22:54.716 --> 0:22:58.036 Education Act. It wanted American children to catch up to 0:22:58.116 --> 0:23:01.156 close any knowledge gaps between the US and the Soviets. 0:23:01.796 --> 0:23:03.516 All of a sudden there was tons of money for 0:23:03.676 --> 0:23:08.676 educational films. Thomas Smith again. Encyclopedia Britanica films, which are 0:23:08.796 --> 0:23:12.916 sort of been a small company, suddenly got this big surgeons. 0:23:12.996 --> 0:23:16.396 It could practically sell the films for nothing. I mean, 0:23:16.956 --> 0:23:19.396 the schools would just buy them and the photo government 0:23:19.436 --> 0:23:21.636 would paid for it. So suddenly they were producing a 0:23:21.676 --> 0:23:24.116 lot of films. It was kind of like the Myron 0:23:24.236 --> 0:23:27.596 Taxman pitch, but on a jumbo scale and fueled by 0:23:27.636 --> 0:23:30.356 the anxiety of the Cold War. Don't want your children 0:23:30.436 --> 0:23:34.756 to fall behind. Don't just buy encyclopedias, fund the films. 0:23:35.796 --> 0:23:39.716 Our survival may depend on degrees and graduates. We are 0:23:39.756 --> 0:23:44.676 not now equipped to produce. Unlike written Encyclopedia entries, Britannica's 0:23:44.676 --> 0:23:47.836 films spoke to kids on a kid level. Smith was 0:23:47.876 --> 0:23:50.196 perfect for this job because he was learning to make 0:23:50.236 --> 0:23:52.156 films in real time as he went, and because he 0:23:52.196 --> 0:23:55.276 was young, not much older than his audience. When I 0:23:55.316 --> 0:24:00.076 first began, I was very inexperienced. I was in my 0:24:00.156 --> 0:24:05.476 early twenties, and I grew with experience longer I was there, 0:24:05.996 --> 0:24:09.596 and then I joined them as a writer, and I 0:24:09.636 --> 0:24:13.596 wrote my first film for them, and they had nobody 0:24:13.636 --> 0:24:15.956 to produce it. So as I started working on and 0:24:16.276 --> 0:24:19.396 that was food from the Sun. With a special camera, 0:24:19.516 --> 0:24:22.156 we can see that this beansprout must push through the 0:24:22.236 --> 0:24:25.116 soil to grow. Smith shot part of the film in 0:24:25.116 --> 0:24:27.716 his basement. You don't learn all that much from these movies. 0:24:27.836 --> 0:24:30.476 Nothing that would directly help you beat Soviet kids at math? 0:24:30.996 --> 0:24:33.476 Would you get? I think is a kind of curiosity 0:24:33.516 --> 0:24:37.476 about the world. How does that thing work? Why is 0:24:37.476 --> 0:24:40.316 it built that way? Where did this idea come from? 0:24:40.876 --> 0:24:44.796 A good teacher? Can you use a film to promote discussion? 0:24:46.076 --> 0:24:49.236 That's the way they should be used. And see the film, 0:24:49.316 --> 0:24:51.276 then you talk about the subject. At least that's what 0:24:51.316 --> 0:24:52.996 we hoped. I think there were some teachers would just 0:24:53.036 --> 0:24:54.436 run the film and go out and have a smoke. 0:24:56.236 --> 0:25:01.396 I had those teachers. So you let me just say 0:25:01.596 --> 0:25:04.196 thank you to every teacher who showed me a film 0:25:04.476 --> 0:25:06.276 or a film strip while they went out for a 0:25:06.316 --> 0:25:08.756 smoke or a cup of coffee or any kind of 0:25:08.756 --> 0:25:13.276