The New Penguin Atlas of Medieval History

Rating:
Summary: Nice for students of Medieval Europe
Review: Good book with simple maps, black, white and green and not poor texts. Detailed. But unfortunately, mostly focuses on European history. I' d call it Atlas of Medieval Europe.

Rating:
Summary: Another wonderful atlas
Review: I love Colin's atlases. I read a lot of history, but on every page of his many books I still say "Well, bugger me why didn't >I< think of that". You may disagree, but he certainly makes me think!

Rating:
Summary: An excellent reference work!
Review: If you're looking for a very detailed history of the times between 362AD to 1478AD, this is not the work for you. It is a very broad overview of the era, however, with political maps every 40 years on average, and every two or three centuries a map showing the divisions between the eastern and western church and trade routes. Each map is accompanied by a narrative that tries to concisely cover the history of the area shown (Europe, North Africa and the Middle East). A truly excellent reference that I would highly recommend to anyone who is studying this era in a more detailed text.

Rating:
Summary: A Fascinating Overview of Medieval Europe
Review: Most of us, especially in America, have received a very slanted view of medieval history in Europe. It takes something as simple as this book to put things into perspective. In the nearly fifty maps included, you get a great feeling for the progression of the many empires that rose and fell from the time of Rome to the Age of Discovery. When compared to the more comprehensive 'Atlas of Medieval Europe', this title falls short in the amount of depth covered, but is far superior in organization and consistency of information. A must for any medieval enthusiast.

Rating:
Summary: A Fascinating Overview of Medieval Europe
Review: Most of us, especially in America, have received a very slanted view of medieval history in Europe. It takes something as simple as this book to put things into perspective. In the nearly fifty maps included, you get a great feeling for the progression of the many empires that rose and fell from the time of Rome to the Age of Discovery. When compared to the more comprehensive 'Atlas of Medieval Europe', this title falls short in the amount of depth covered, but is far superior in organization and consistency of information. A must for any medieval enthusiast.

Rating:
Summary: A classic renewed
Review: My parents are medieval historians (their books are available on Amazon!) and I remember seeing the original version of this book around the house. I was fascinated by it, and it taught me not just history but economics, geography and plenty of English. The maps are intoxicating, but it's the text that accompanies them that is the true star. That being said, let me add praise for the maps, in particular for the revolutionary idea of using the same basic map over and over, which creates a kind of flipbook effect---you can see the Arabs surge out of the deserts and overwhelm North Africa and the Near East, then fracture, you can see the Mongols surge in from Asia and recede, and you can see the little kingdoms of Europe condense into France, England, Poland and the Holy Roman Empire. The Middle Ages were an incredibly diverse and energetic time, and it's hard to imagine a standard history text doing such a thorough job of describing them in so few words.

Rating:
Summary: Less individual than the older version
Review: This atlas may benefit from more recent research results and from a slightly better base map, but it lacks the charm of the older version. No longer are we treated to ironic asides about history never being fair, for example. In what might be an attempt to permit the use of the atlas by American high school students, the vocabulary has been dumbed-down a notch or two (though not quite as far as it was for the Atlas of African History). This is a loss; one of the pleasures of reading McEvedy was the sense that you were in the presence of a acerbic, witty and somewhat old-fashioned English don.

Rating:
Summary: Poor map quality and duller history!
Review: This book uses ONE single map on every page to document the movement of various people over time. However, it does not designate major landmarks. It tells of tribes crossing the Danube and the Volga but these rivers are never labeled. It refers to the Tigris and Euphrates but you need another map to tell you where they are. When major landmarks are not identified it is hard to understand how this can be called an Atlas. The history is disjointed and poorly written. The only reason to buy this book is that you don't have a match with which to burn your money.

Rating:
Summary: Poor map quality and duller history!
Review: This book uses ONE single map on every page to document the movement of various people over time. However, it does not designate major landmarks. It tells of tribes crossing the Danube and the Volga but these rivers are never labeled. It refers to the Tigris and Euphrates but you need another map to tell you where they are. When major landmarks are not identified it is hard to understand how this can be called an Atlas. The history is disjointed and poorly written. The only reason to buy this book is that you don't have a match with which to burn your money.

Rating:
Summary: What about Africa and Asia?
Review: This is a great work and describes the barbarian migrations across Europe very well. The big flaw though lies in the, "History dosen't take place outside of Europe" mindset. India, China, Japan, South-East Asia, and Africa all should have been included in this work and than this book would have been vital to any student of history. Instead Penguin makes you have to buy three other books to get the complete history.