Karl Julius Ploetz (8 July 1819 – 6 February 1881) was a German

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of scholarly works, most notably his ''

Epitome of History An epitome (; , from ἐπιτέμνειν ''epitemnein'' meaning "to cut short") is a summary or miniature form, or an instance that represents a larger reality, also used as a synonym for embodiment. Epitomacy represents "to the degree of." An ...

'' published in the

English language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

in 1883. Ploetz was born in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. He is credited with the idea of arranging historic data by dates, geographic location, and other factors. As later used in the English language, ''

Encyclopedia of World History ''The Encyclopedia of World History'' is a classic single-volume work detailing world history. The first through fifth editions were edited by William L. Langer. The Sixth Edition contained over 20,000 entries and was overseen by Peter N. Stear ...

'' credited with being one of the most complete and comprehensive academic tools available before the electronic revolution. His work was a compilation of factual world events designed to help the students and the general reader. The first English translation was in the U.S. in 1883 by William H. Tillinghast and published by

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. The name of the original work (in a form of a handbook) was ''Auszug aus der alten, mittleren und neueren Geschichte''. Karl Ploetz died in

Görlitz Görlitz (; ; ; ; ; Lusatian dialects, East Lusatian: , , ) is a town in the Germany, German state of Saxony. It is on the river Lusatian Neisse and is the largest town in Upper Lusatia, the second-largest town in the region of Lusatia after ...

in 1881.

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* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ploetz, Karl 1819 births 1881 deaths Scholars from the Kingdom of Prussia 19th-century German scholars German male writers