I have a book called The Treasury of the Encyclopaedia Brittannica. It's probably the best demonstration of the difference between serious research and Wikipedia; here is a small sample of the articles (all excerpted from past editions of the Encyclopaedia):
* Space-Time by Albert Einstein
* Radium by Marie Curie
* Mass Production by Henry Ford
* Wireless Telephony by Guglielmo Marconi
* Wilbur Wright by Orville Wright
* Leon Trotsky by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
* Guerrila Warfare by T.E. Lawrence ('Lawrence of Arabia')
* Yosemite Park by John Muir
* Life, Terrestrial and Otherwise by Carl Sagan
* The Philosophical Consequences of Relativity by Bertrand Russell
There are many, many more. Do I want to learn from those people or from the 'wisdom' of the crowds?
I think it's out of print, but I highly recommend it. (ISBN 0-670-83368-4)
* Space-Time by Albert Einstein
* Radium by Marie Curie
* Mass Production by Henry Ford
* Wireless Telephony by Guglielmo Marconi
* Wilbur Wright by Orville Wright
* Leon Trotsky by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
* Guerrila Warfare by T.E. Lawrence ('Lawrence of Arabia')
* Yosemite Park by John Muir
* Life, Terrestrial and Otherwise by Carl Sagan
* The Philosophical Consequences of Relativity by Bertrand Russell
There are many, many more. Do I want to learn from those people or from the 'wisdom' of the crowds?
I think it's out of print, but I highly recommend it. (ISBN 0-670-83368-4)