(''The Laborers' Encyclopedia'') is a Norwegian

encyclopedia An encyclopedia (American English) or encyclopædia (British English) is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge either general or special to a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into articles ...

published in six volumes in the 1930s. It was the first reference book in Norwegian to have a pronounced class bias, and the first encyclopedia outside of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

to be directed specifically at the

working class The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colo ...

. The publication had a connection with the Norwegian labor movement's goal to spread knowledge among the working and lower class, and in doing so could break the monopoly the

middle class The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. Co ...

had on the dissemination of information in society. They thought that the existing encyclopedias had a middle class bias. The idea of such an encyclopedia came within the group that produced the laborers' magazine '' Arbeidermagasinet''. This magazine was produced from 1927 by members of the Communist Party of Norway (founded 1923). Communist Party member

Jakob Friis Jakob Johan Sigfrid Friis (27 April 1883 – 12 December 1956) was a Norwegian journalist, publicist, historian and archivist. He was a newspaper editor and member of the Norwegian Parliament. Biography Jakob Friis was born in Røros in ...

was hired as chief editor of the encyclopedia in 1930. (description of research project) The work was published by the ''Arbeidermagasinet'''s publishing company in six volumes from 1932 to 1936. In addition to Jakob Friis, Trond Hegna worked as editor; from the third volume on, Dagfin Juel worked as a co-editor. The Communist Party was reluctant to the whole project, and the

Norwegian Labour Party The Labour Party ( nb, Arbeiderpartiet; nn, Arbeidarpartiet; A/Ap; se, Bargiidbellodat), formerly The Norwegian Labour Party ( no, Det norske Arbeiderparti, DNA), is a social-democratic political party in Norway. It is positioned on the cen ...

was negative as well. In April 1933, ''Arbeidernes Leksikon'' received a grant from the group ''

Mot Dag Mot Dag (, 'Towards Day') was a Norwegian political group. The group was active from the 1920s to the early 1930s and was first affiliated with the Labour Party. After World War II, many of its former members were leaders in Norwegian politics an ...

'', which had formerly been affiliated with the Communist and Labour parties, but now was independent. ''Mot Dag'' leader Erling Falk was involved with the editorial work. A selection of articles from the encyclopedia was published in 1974 in a three-volume reprint by the publishing house

Pax Forlag Pax Forlag is a Norwegian publishing house, established in 1964. The first manager was Tor Bjerkmann, who chaired the company from 1964 to 1972. Starting with Bjerkmann's new translation of George Orwell's ''Animal Farm ''Animal Farm'' i ...

. This publishing house also published its own class encyclopedia, ''

Pax Leksikon ''Pax Leksikon'' is a Norwegian political encyclopedia published in six volumes by the Norwegian publishing house Pax Forlag from 1978 to 1981. Editors were Hans Fredrik Dahl, Jon Elster, Irene Iversen, Siri Nørve, Tor Inge Romøren, Rune ...

''. Portions of the encyclopedia are available online.

List of volumes

This is a list of the six volumes of the encyclopedia ''Arbeidernes Leksikon''. *Volume 1: Aachen-Båtsmann. Published 1932 *Volume 2: C-Fiskemåken. Published 1933 *Volume 3: Fisken-Husbondskar. Published 1933 *Volume 4: Husbygg-Legende. Published 1934 *Volume 5: Legering-Radio. Published 1935 *Volume 6: Radioaktivitet-Åverk. Published 1936

References

External links

*{{cite encyclopedia , url=http://mediabase1.uib.no/arbeiderlexi/arblex.html , title=Arbeidernes Leksikon , access-date=1 January 2010 , url-status=dead , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081011003116/http://mediabase1.uib.no/arbeiderlexi/arblex.html , archive-date=11 October 2008 Norwegian encyclopedias Mot Dag 20th-century encyclopedias 1932 non-fiction books Specialized encyclopedias