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

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

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

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 transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

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 colou ...

. The publication had a connection with the Norwegian

labor movement The labour movement or labor movement consists of two main wings: the trade union movement (British English) or labor union movement (American English) on the one hand, and the political labour movement on the other. * The trade union 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. Commo ...

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 ''Arbeidermagasinet'' was a Norwegian language, Norwegian weekly literary magazine established in 1927. It changed its name to ''Magasinet For Alle'' in 1953, and ceased publication in 1970. The magazine is especially noted for its literary quali ...

''. This magazine was produced from 1927 by members of the Communist Party of Norway (founded 1923). Communist Party member Jakob Friis 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 Trond Hegna (2 October 1898 – 20 January 1992) was a Norwegian author, journalist and editor. He served as a member of the Norwegian Parliament from Rogaland from 1949–1965. Biography He was born in Kristiania (now Oslo), Norway. He ...

worked as editor; from the third volume on,

Dagfin Juel Dagfin Juel (23 February 1909 – 4 June 1985) was a Norwegian civil servant and politician for the Labour Party. He graduated as cand.oecon., in 1932. He was hired in the Ministry of Social Affairs A Ministry of Social Affairs or Department o ...

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 centr ...

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 and ...

'', which had formerly been affiliated with the Communist and Labour parties, but now was independent. ''Mot Dag'' leader

Erling Falk Erling Falk (12 August 1887 – 31 July 1940) was a Norwegian politician, ideologist and writer. He was active in the Norwegian Students' Society, the Norwegian Labour Party and the Communist Party, but is best known as a leading figure in the ...

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'', Pax published 150 qu ...

. 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 Jon Elster (; born 22 February 1940, Oslo) is a Norwegia ...

''. 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