Atlas of World History

Rating:
Summary: I Rate and Compare World History Atlas Books
Review: As a reader I like to have quick reference books at my finger tips including a new version of the Oxford English Dictionary about 3500 pages long - that I use almost daily. So I decided to add a "history atlas". In the process of doing my research I read the other amazon.com reviewers and then made three trips to two large book stores to actually look at the books and get a better feel for which was the best. I ended up buying the Oxford Atlas of World History. Here are my picks and rankings.

Listed by My ranking, #1 is the best, #2 is a creative alternative but no substitute.

1. Atlas of World History, Oxford University Press 2002, 368 pages, $57.80, 13.5" x 10.3" x 1.62" ranked 46,632 on Amazon.com. Hands down winner - professional - good text descriptions, outstanding maps and drawings, covers most things from the cave man forward. Negatives: Big and heavy. If you want to save a few dollars buy the "concise" version.

2. Creative alternative: The Penguin Atlas of World History, Penguin Books 2004, $11.20, just a paperback sized, just published, 304 pages. Surprisingly impressive, lots of text and pictures mixed together and it is easy to carry around. A nice quick alternative but it will be printed in two volumes.
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3. Timelines of World History, DK Publishing 2002, 666 pages, $27.20. 10.0" x 1.6" ranked 25,800 on Amazon.com. Second with lots of value but in some ways not as comprehensive.

4. National Geographic Almanac of World History, National Geographic 2003, 384 pages, $28.00, 9.6" x 7.8" x 1.17" ranked 24,426 on Amazon.com. Similar to but less impressive than Oxford books. More text, narrower coverage, fewer maps and drawings.

5. DK Atlas of World History, DK Publishing, 352 pages, $35.00, 10.96" x 14.66" x 1.28" ranked 10,716 on Amazon.com. My last place book seems like a giant comic book. I love the DK travel books but this seems like one step beyond DK's area of expertise. Superficially it is similar to the Oxford book and it is cheap, and some might like it but it tries to be politically correct and fails.

6. Oxford Dictionary of World History, Oxford University Press, 704 pages, $7,66, pocketbook sized, sales rank 330,000. Mainly terms, people, and dates but has a few maps also. Limited use but an alternative. I prefer the new Penguin book but this is the best history dictionary to buy.

Jack in Toronto

Rating:
Summary: If you only buy one Atlas make it this one.
Review: I searched high and low for a book of historical maps that I could look at when reading light history. I am not a scholar, so I have constantly found myself wondering about some of the references in those books. I sought a collection of maps that would supply information on political, military, cultural and migratory trends throughout the years.

This collection is by the best I came across. It is well laid out. It is also printed in sufficient detail and quality that I can keep it out on my coffee table. Each map is accompanied by a little bit of text. So in some respects it is the history buffs perfect book...of OH! I didn't know that.

Rating:
Summary: The story of humanity from a cartographic perspective
Review: The affordable price tag of this set of maps paired with its applications to both home and school library patrons will earn it a place on many a home bookshelf as well as libraries: Atlas Of World History, Concise Edition is the result of over three years of intensive effort by a team of academics and editors, and presents the story of humanity from a physical, cartographic perspective. Five parts correspond with the five eras studied by world historians today, making for a particularly accessible set of maps.

Rating:
Summary: The Best World History Atlas Book Anywhere
Review: The Oxford Atlas is the best of all competitors. It is full-size, high quality ink and paper, 368 pages and covers most areas of history from the caveman to the present time. I am not speaking of the concise edition but of the full-size edition. The ISBN number is #0195215672.

This book covers about 2,000,000 years of history from the origins of humanity to the year 2000. The Atlas is the result of over three years' work by internationally renowned cartographers, an expert editorial team and specialist academic consultants.

Rating:
Summary: Historical overview with maps and relevant text
Review: The Oxford Atlas of World History was purchased for a High School library collection, but would serve as a wonderful historical reference for any personal collection. The maps are clear and the text is lucid. Not only does the Atlas provide the requisite information on ancient civilizations, it also provides data on changing populations, health trends, particulars on the status of women, etc. The Timechart is very helpful, delineating, as it does, what was happening when on different continents and in the areas of science/technology and arts/humanities. An up-to-date book such as this which provides an overview of history in a pictorial format, at an affordable price, is a valuable resource for both library and personal collections. It allows the reader to follow historical trends, understand boundary disputes, track the course of wars and revolutions and follow along on voyages of discovery. Charts and illustrations support the text. Portraits or photographs of important individuals, places and works of art or architecture help the reader visualize people and places. I highly recommend this Atlas.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent but see below
Review: This atlas is great for looking up those events, both momentous and not-so-momentous, to get a quick grasp and overview of the situation without getting bogged down in some more detailed and ponderous history. If it weren't for John Haywood's Atlas of World History, I would say it's possibly the best one out there in relation to features and price. However, I have a preference for the Haywood volume because I found his writing style more interesting, not to mention the fact that his book is less than half the price of O'Brien's volume. While I would not wish to base a decision just on price, I would point out that I preferred either of these two books to the Hammond atlas, which is even more expensive, and the Times atlas, at almost twice the cost, and the Dorling-Kindersley, which, although a superb atlas, is still 20% higher.

While I'm at it, I'd like to say something about O'Brien's Atlas of World History, published by Philips. I mention it here since no matter how I search, I can't find this atlas listed anywhere, but this is a really superb atlas, and I think exceeds even the present volume in terms of quality and features. So if you can find this one, I'd also pick up a copy. Because it's so good, I'd also like to discuss it here.

All the of the big 5 or 6 major atlases out there have their strengths and weaknesses, and their pros and cons, I've discovered, and this one is no different. This one has one terrific feature that's worth mentioning specifically. At the end of the book O'Brien includes many fine articles summing up the state of the world since 1945 for the major areas and countries of the world, and for topics such as demographic changes, the growth of population, civil rights and women's rights, health and disease, transport and trade relations, the breakup of empires, and so on. O'Brien discusses in the introduction that this atlas was motivated partly by the upcoming millenium year, and because it seemed like such a timely point at which to assess and sum up much of the changes and progress that had accrued during the last half century or century in these articles. O'Brien did a great job in this area, and it's one of the book's many strengths. Overall, an excellent atlas given all the outstanding features, and I'd actually give it 4.5 stars if I could.

Since I started writing this review, I've discovered (through having purchased both books), that the Philips volume and the Oxford atlas are exactly the same book, just by different publishers. The only difference that I can find is that the Philips book is somewhat larger format. I'm comparing them right now, and the Philips book is about 1 inch wider and about 2 inches taller than the Oxford volume. This means the fonts for the paragraph text and the print on the maps are somewhat bigger and easier to read. They both have exactly the same--312--number of pages, and the publication dates are in 2001 and 2002, so they're very close there. However, I just noticed that the Philips book on the copyright page says "This edition published for Borders Books," so it looks like a re-issue of the Oxford volume, only in a slightly larger format.

Well, it looks like I just bought two copies of the same atlas. Hopefully my little review will keep you from doing the same! Anyway, whichever atlas or version you decide to get, happy atlas buying and reading!

Rating:
Summary: GOOD GENERAL INFORMATION ON WORLD HISTORY!
Review: THIS BOOK IS VERY FUN TO READ AND THE PICTURE IS EXCELLENT! RECOMMENDED FOR STUDENT!! AGAIN VERY ENJOYABLE!!!

Rating:
Summary: GOOD GENERAL INFORMATION ON WORLD HISTORY!
Review: THIS BOOK IS VERY FUN TO READ AND THE PICTURE IS EXCELLENT! RECOMMENDED FOR STUDENT!! AGAIN VERY ENJOYABLE!!!

Rating:
Summary: the best historical atlas ever
Review: This is one of the best atlasses available, period. Oxford has put out a series of wonderful atlasses over the years. I read this one from cover to cover and was absolutely enthralled. The Contributors (mainly English, as one would suspect) cover a wide-range of specialties while emphasizing economic history.
Even if your interest is limited to the Twentieth Century (about a quarter of the content), this atlas is better written than Hammond's Atlas of the 20th Century. I would recommend this Atlas for all but the youngest kids, with interests from cartography and archeology to history and politics.
Rare is the atlas where the quality of maps and text is so balanced and complete. I own a paperback version of this atlas, but this edition is hardcover. In either case, this Atlas of World History is an exceptional value.

Rating:
Summary: Superb world history atlas but...
Review: This review pertains to the 312-page Concise Edition of the Oxford Atlas of World History with the ISBN 019521921X. The larger original edition has 352 pages and the ISBN 0195215672.

The book is a variation of one of the best (and perhaps *the* best) "atlas of world history" tomes. However, this scaled-down version's text is just not as easy on the eyes as that of the full-size book. The map and text content are the same for both books so the concise version is certainly a real value at about half the price. The Concise Edition does omit the glossary but I do not consider that an essential feature of the original book. The larger original version came out in 1999 (and was reprinted in 2002). The Concise Edition is merely a reprint of the 1999 book and I can find no updated data. An advantage of the Concise Edition (besides the lower price) is its physical handiness; the original is quite close in size to the big Hammond Atlas of World History. Nevertheless, I like to casually browse through atlases so the increased eye-friendliness of the larger type and map detailing in the big version is well-worth its added expense and clumsiness for my purposes.

The Concise Edition is indeed legible and would be OK for just occasional reference but not protracted reads, in my opinion. It is really a 5-star book but I rate it at 4 stars because of this truncated size. I am returning my Concise Edition and keeping its big brother. Both editions are still available from Amazon at the time of this writing.