Everything Explained That Is Explainable is the audacious, utterly improbable story of the publication of the Eleventh Edition of the legendary Encyclopædia Britannica. It is the tale of a young American entrepreneur who rescued a dying publication with the help of a floundering newspaper, and in so doing produced a series of books that forever changed the face of publishing. Thanks to the efforts of 1,500 contributors, among them a young staff of university graduates as well as some of the most distinguished names of the day, the Eleventh Edition combined scholarship and readability in a way no previous encyclopedia had (or ever has again). Denis Boyles’s work of cultural history pulls back the curtain on the 44-million-word testament to the age of reason that has profoundly shaped the way we see the world.

A survey of the world's progress since the completion in 1910 of the Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th edition, comprising a register and review of current events and additions to knowledge in politics, economics, engineering, industry, sport, law, science, art, literature, and other forms of human activity, national and international.

Organized thematically, this book tells the story of the European encyclopedia from 1650 to the present.