I went to Wookiepedia to read up on Jedi history. Their Jedi entry was horrible. Sorry if it was one of you guys who made it, but good god, it was just bad.

I'd like to learn more about the history of the Jedi for a campaign I'm about to start, but I really don't have time to read a stack of novels. Is there a reference source somewhere or maybe ONE book to read.

Thanks

For me it stands into this one book :

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Jedi_vs._Sith:_The_Essential_Guide_to_the_Force_(real-life_book)

You have everything, from the history to the philosophy and it goes on both sides of the Force

Learn the history of the Jedi and their enemies-from the most ancient battles of light versus darkness chronicled within the recesses of long lost Holocronsto more contemporary conflagrations recounted by heroes such as Obi-Wan Kenobi and Leia organa Solo. Discover the myriad ways to contemplate and use the force, wield a lightsaber through different forms of combat, and for the truly brave, tread the path of the Dark Side and study the secrets of the Sith.

Did you read the canon entry or the legends entry?

I've mentioned this book a few times, but The Jedi Path is a wonderful source for ideas and plot hooks. It goes over the Jedi History, Philosophy, organization, and training life. It didn't take me long to read at all, plus the little annotations from the in-universe characters are very interesting to read as well.

FIRST, it's by important to note that much of what you seek is found in Star Wars Legends, which is no longer a canon source and is subject to erasure, alteration, and/or validation by the films, TV shows, and new books released from here on. For example, and without going into depth, The Clone Wars totally messed with the (at-the-time) established lore from the EU that dealt with lightsaber crystals. Just in case this sort of thing matters to you or your gaming group.

With that, I have 3 questions that might help to clarify your terms...I hope.

1) When is the campaign set?

2) Why do you need to know the history of the Jedi?

3) How much of the history of the Jedi do you want to know? I know you can't know what you don't know, but I mean we are potentially talking about an in-depth study of the development of Jedi philosophy, training methods, lightsaber construction and crystal sources, Sith Lords, Jedi Masters, schisms, wars, related organizations, temples and academies, galactic perception of Jedi through the ages, Force use, and the list goes on.

So anything you can do to specify, like "I want to know about why the Jedi use lightsabers," it would then be easy to point you towards Legends material.

I ask because reading a Wikia article from top to bottom usually is a terrible experience they're just snippits of information that many editors in a community of nerds find either interesting or important, and don't always conform to a style of editing.

I'm assuming you're including Legends in your query, since the canon entries on both Jedi and the Jedi Order are little more than one big paragraph apiece

Would this be closer to what you're looking for? http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Jedi_Order

But really, it's best if you can clarify more about why you need to know stuff and (if possible) what kind of stuff you need to know.