Life, 1914-11-12 · page 5 of 48
Life — November 12, 1914 — page 5: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is primarily **advertising disguised as editorial content** for Encyclopedia Britannica (29 volumes, 41,000 articles). The page uses World War I as a hook to sell reference materials. The **seven portrait medallions** appear to show world leaders of WWI era—likely including Czar Nicholas, Emperor William, Bismarck, King George, and Franz Joseph, though labels are small. The copy poses a rhetorical question: "Do You Speak as One Having Authority?" suggesting readers need comprehensive knowledge to discuss current events intelligently. The satirical angle is subtle: the ad implies that without owning an encyclopedia, ordinary people cannot understand complex geopolitical causes (the article title asks "Why Did the European Cauldron Boil Over?"), positioning the product as essential for educated conversation during wartime.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
‘New York | Do You Speak as One Having Authority? Ex-President Roosevelt used to astonish callers at the White House by his intimate fs knowledge of sheir business. With the EJ new Encyclopaedia Britannica you can equip yourself to be the peer of the \ most intelligent men and women. It is the means to comprehensive, accurate knowledge upon any subject—religion, geography, politics, science, history, invention, manufacture, commerce, finance, art and literature. Why Did the European Cauldron Boil Over? intrigues, national fears and racial hatreds that brought on this catastrophe. He turns to the O§ The Kaiser declared war on France because Russia refused to let Austria make war on Servia. This is a true but very superficial answer as to the cause of the greatest war of all times. Ask the man who knows how to find the truth of things quickly to tell you the whys of things, and he will turn straight to the one book of complete, condensed, authentic infor- mation, the New Encyclopaedia Britannica —29 volumes, 41,000 separate articles. The reader who owns this famous work is not content with mere newspaper reports of the fighting. He gets at the causes of the war—the story of the personal ambitions, article on Germany and reads of the feder- ation of the German states and the birth of the Empire; of its war with Austria, now its ally, and how the sudden rise of Germany under Bismarck’s leadership upset the balance of power on the Continent. He learns how Austria got its foothold in the Balkans. He learns all about the Czar’s aspirations in the Black Sea area, and England’s long diplo- matic effort to maintain the pore equilibrium among ve envious powers. Encyclopaedia Britannica 120 West 32d St. New York Please send me, free of cost, “The Britannica Book of the War.” Our New Booklet Tells This Extraordinary Story “The Britannica Book of the War” gives the only authoritative review of events in Europe which have resulted in calling 17,000,000 men to the fighting line. Let us send you this interesting book free. For your convenience we attach a coupon, which we invite you to fill in and send to us. comicbooks.com