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

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

of scholarly works, most notably his '' Epitome of History'' published in the

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...

in 1883. Ploetz was born in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

. 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'' 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

Houghton Mifflin Company Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (; HMH) is an American publisher of textbooks, instructional technology materials, assessments, reference works, and fiction and non-fiction for both young readers and adults. The company is based in the Boston Financ ...

. 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 (; pl, Zgorzelec, hsb, Zhorjelc, cz, Zhořelec, :de:Ostlausitzer Mundart, East Lusatian dialect: ''Gerlz'', ''Gerltz'', ''Gerltsch'') is a town in the Germany, German state of Saxony. It is located on the Lusatian Neisse River, and ...

in 1881.

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* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ploetz, Karl 1819 births 1881 deaths German scholars German male writers