Encyclopedias do not generally tell stories. They define, they describe, they list and they categorize. Without strong narratives and dramatic characters, there is little need for action verbs. Encyclopedias tell us about the relicts, the trophies, the victories and the losses, but the smoke of a battlefield and the stench of death are rarely described. The irony is, of course, that we can read of great men and women without feeling much of their greatness.
Passion is wrung from content.
D. Treaties remain unbroken. Encyclopedias can sanitize and distort historical reality by emphasizing certain aspects of experience and excluding others. A keyword search for treaties in one product identified hundreds of articles on Native Americans. Somehow a major blemish upon the face of our history was lifted, forgotten, ignored and eliminated. You can read article after article about tribes who signed treaties and then moved, signed treaties and then moved, without any mention of betrayal, broken words or malconduct.