In the decade from 1990 to 1999 more than 300,000 people in the U.S and 8 million people worldwide died by their own hands. The second edition of The Encyclopedia of Suicide is a comprehensive A-Z introduction to suicide from ancient times to the present. It is a heavily expanded, updated, and revised edition of the 1988 encyclopedia, reflecting the most current data available. Among the compilers are a former member of the American Association of Suicidology and the director of the L.A. Suicide Prevention Center. The entries deal with a wide range of issues, such as causes, history, and psychology of suicide. Length varies from a short paragraph to as much as a page. Entries cover such individuals as Herbert Hendin, the medical director of the American Suicide Foundation, and Herodotus, the Greek historian who describes the custom of institutional suicide in which a man's widows vie for the honor of being the deceased's most loved. Also included are organizations such as the Voluntary Euthanasia Society and Survivors of Loved Ones Suicide, plus topics like survivor guilt and biblical suicides. New entries cover topics such as gender differences, suicide bombers, school violence and suicide, and ethnicity and suicide. Appendixes provide a listing of associations, government agencies, suicide prevention agencies, and crisis hotlines in the U.S. plus a table showing international suicide rates. The short bibliography mostly references materials that are new since the previous edition. The index is detailed. This revision is recommended for academic, high-school, and public libraries.