Charles R. Figley has a long history of writing about issues related to trauma such as Treating Traumatic Stress Injuries in Military Personnel: An EMDR Practitioner’s Guide (Routledge, 2012), Helping Traumatized Families (Routledge, 2012), and Death And Trauma: The Traumatology Of Grieving (Series in Trauma and Loss) (Routledge, 1997) to name a few. So it makes sense that Figley would publish this reference work that fully encompasses the field of trauma. This work is intended to comprise the complete understanding of trauma worldwide throughout history with contributions from scholars worldwide.

The book defines trauma as “a sudden, potentially deadly experience, often leaving lasting, troubling memories” (xxiii). It does seem to cover the breadth of the field of trauma with entries appearing alphabetically by topic that include a diverse span such as: “Abortion,” “Bearing Witness to Trauma,” “Comstock Act,” “Date Rape/Acquaintance Rape,” “EMDR Theory,” “Hate Crimes,” “Military Trauma,” “Peacekeeping Missions,” “Role of Media in Managing Disasters,” and “Slavery and Forced Servitude.”

A Reader’s Guide is provided to categorize the entries with the largest sections being: “Children and Families,” “Crime and Law,” “Culture and Ethnicity,” “Ethics and Philosophy,” “Psychology and Psychiatry,” and “Traumatology and Trauma Recovery.” Each entry includes suggestions for further reading, related entries, and some include resources for victims.

Similar works by others include The Encyclopedia of Psychological Trauma (Ed. by Reyes, Elhai, & Ford, Wiley, 2008) and Doctor & Shiromoto’s The Encyclopedia of Trauma and Traumatic Stress Disorders (Facts on File Library of Health & Living, 2009). There is some overlap between The Encyclopedia of Psychological Trauma and the Encyclopedia of Trauma: An Interdisciplinary Guide but the former work is focused on the field of Psychology including entries on specific mental health disorders and treatments whereas the latter includes broader entries on more than one branch of knowledge.

With its wide array of topics related to the fields of Counseling, Psychology, Psychiatry, Social Work, Medicine, Nursing, Humanities, Politics, Public Health, and Criminal Justice, this work would benefit college and university libraries as well as medical school and law school libraries.