Atlas of World History

Rating:
Summary: A real bargain at $20! Beautiful and interesting.
Review: Haywood's book is not the best of the world history atlasses, but easily the best bargain. For twenty bucks you get a beautiful, large, full-color book, with clear, accurate maps. I might prefer that the text was a bit more general, with fewer obscure historical details--at times, the text is oddly esoteric. Still, the book offers broad brushstrokes about agrigculture, technology, world religions, and empires. I also appreciate the diversity of the discussion: Africa and Asia get a healthy amount of attention, so that the book feels more truly like *world* (and not European) history. I could quibble here and there with parts of the book, but the book is gorgeous, pleasurable, and at the price, this is an outstanding achievement.

Rating:
Summary: Everyone should have this book
Review: I first purchased Haywood's "Atlas of the 20th Century" and later came across this full edition at a local...[store]. While the 20th century version is more portable, this book is the whole enchilada for a bargain price.

As the earlier reviews point out, this books is phenomenal. It is gorgeous and extraordinarily detailed. And, as also pointed out, the book gives fair coverage to other parts of the world, even detailing small civilizations like those in the pacific islands and Americas before European civilization had arrived.

My only criticism of the book is not even a fair criticism: the accompanying text is helpful but too short and modular to create an engaging story narrative. For that, I recommend "World History for Dummies" as an accompanient -- a good, but not great, book.

"Atlas of World History," however, is great. Even at twice the price it would still be a bargain.

Rating:
Summary: A well presented bargain!
Review: I took a punt on this atlas before any review was given and was rewarded for my purchase. History (in a very concise form of course)literally unfolds before your eyes, going from era to era and delving in between for a more regional glance at the culture and events. Maps clearly show movements of peoples and battles, and readers will be pleased to know that this book is not overly Europe-centred.

Rating:
Summary: This Atlas Kicks ... !
Review: I wanted to buy the best atlas of world history so I went to the library and looked through the top 3 atlases, namely Times/Hammond, Oxford, and DK. DK was clearly the nicest and most elegant of them, but contained little text and had lots of world maps in places where it should have had detailed close up maps of the regions. I eventually chose Hammond 5th edition, the most expensive of them all, and ordered it. Then in a local bookstore I found this book and because of its low cost I said "what the heck" and bought it. I am glad I did because in my opinion it is better than all the rest including Hammond. Whenever I want to look something up I go to this book first. When comparing the same events in this book and Hammond, I find that in many cases (but not all) this book provides a better and more detailed explanation.

This book is amazingly well organized. Each chapter starts with about 5 world maps spanning hundreads of years. (hammond doesn't have this). Followed by nice and detailed maps of each region. Color is used very well. The maps are mostly the same size so you can easily compare them and visually assimilate the information better. Each map has a timeline and a list of about 7 key events/battles that happened during that time.

The quality of this book matches or exceeds the quality of the major atlases. You do not need a better general world history atlas book than this. And the fact that the price is so low, gives you no reason not to buy this book. Goto the library/bookstore and compare the atlases, and you'll see this one is good enough for all your needs.

Rating:
Summary: The best combination of quality, features, and price
Review: Recently I did a detailed comparison of the 5 or 6 major offerings in this area, which includes such traditional notables as the big Hammond atlas and the one from Oxford University Press, as well as the Dorling-Kindersley one, but this atlas is the best combination of features and price out there. It's only a fraction of the cost of the big Hammond one, for example, and is cheaper than the other two by at least 50%.

So I agree with several of the other reviewers here, that this atlas really rocks, and that in many ways it's better than any of the more famous other offerings in this field on the market, including the massive Hammond one and DK ones, which, as I mentioned, are a lot more expensive.

I've read my share of ancient history books, and this atlas is just the best way to get a good overview quickly of a particular time frame and period. I've used it to clarify many aspects of ancient history, for example, when I got lost in the details in reading more standard histories on the subject. In reading your typical ponderous history, it's so easy to lose the forest for the trees, and there is no better solution for the problem than this book.

Another nice feature of the book is that periodically throughout the text there will be essays at key years or junctures in history, such as "The World in 1914," or "The World in 800 BC," or whatever, in addition to the more topically oriented essays, such as "Old Kingdom Egypt," or "The Persian Empire," or "The Warring States (referring to 5th A.D. century China) which give you further historical perspectives on the events of the time.

The book is organized into two-page spreads with the essays and their corresponding maps and illustrations. According to the jacket text, the book was also prepared with the aid of graphics experts and geographers skilled at combining the written word with visual illustrations and graphics. I would say they and John Haywood succeeded admirably, making this a great book just to browse casually, or read more seriously. Haywood also writes very well and has a nice, deft touch with the material that avoids the dry, technical-sounding quality of some atlases.

Another nice feature of the book is the detailed, color-coded timelines that accompany each two-page spread, which some atlases don't always include or set aside in a separate section of the book. This makes it easier to use and more informative since it can be referred to along with the maps and the text.

My only fault with the book is that the coverage is typically Eurocentric, but this really only applies to the DK atlas, which is suprisingly strong in terms of its coverage of Asian, African, and non-European history in general. All the others are more Eurocentric, like this one.

Keep in mind that this book (like all atlases) aims at breadth rather than depth, since it covers the entire history of the world from man's earliest origins up to modern times. Overall a great altas and a fine book to keep you oriented in whatever period of history you are reading on.

Rating:
Summary: Good History Atlas that is affordable for anyone
Review: This History Atlas is probably the best generally available. I find it to be very good as a general overview of history timelines with maps and charts. It doesn't really dig deep; it is the proverbial two miles and two inches deep view of history.

For a through understanding a reader should move on to other books. That being said any true student of history needs to have a good overview of things before they can dig into the details. And this good gives a great overview of the major topics. Which is why I would recommend it to people.

One group that could really benefit from a book like this, of course, are high school students studying history or social studies or whatever they are calling that class now a day. A provides a way to understand an outline at a glance which is very useful for a student. I know I wish I had something like this book in high school or even college.

Rating:
Summary: Good History Atlas that is affordable for anyone
Review: This History Atlas is probably the best generally available. I find it to be very good as a general overview of history timelines with maps and charts. It doesn't really dig deep; it is the proverbial two miles and two inches deep view of history.

For a through understanding a reader should move on to other books. That being said any true student of history needs to have a good overview of things before they can dig into the details. And this good gives a great overview of the major topics. Which is why I would recommend it to people.

One group that could really benefit from a book like this, of course, are high school students studying history or social studies or whatever they are calling that class now a day. A provides a way to understand an outline at a glance which is very useful for a student. I know I wish I had something like this book in high school or even college.

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Fantastic!
Review: This is a terrific gem of a world history atlas. As a history undergraduate, I wanted an atlas that would give me an opprotunity to explore a multitude of historical periods with inpsiring maps and elegant prose. Do not be fooled by the price on this fantastic Atlas, it is worth its weight in gold.

The atlas starts with early human history and migration, moves into the prehistorical world, then the ancient world, then the medieval period (my personal specialty), the early modern period, and finally the modern period. The scholarly aptitude utilized in the writing of this atlas is beyond comparision. The maps are vibrant and extremely well-done.

Truely, I can not recommend a better book for anyone interested in gleaning an overall view of world (Western, Eastern, and everything in between) history.

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Fantastic!
Review: This is a terrific gem of a world history atlas. As a history undergraduate, I wanted an atlas that would give me an opprotunity to explore a multitude of historical periods with inpsiring maps and elegant prose. Do not be fooled by the price on this fantastic Atlas, it is worth its weight in gold.

The atlas starts with early human history and migration, moves into the prehistorical world, then the ancient world, then the medieval period (my personal specialty), the early modern period, and finally the modern period. The scholarly aptitude utilized in the writing of this atlas is beyond comparision. The maps are vibrant and extremely well-done.

Truely, I can not recommend a better book for anyone interested in gleaning an overall view of world (Western, Eastern, and everything in between) history.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book for its type
Review: This is an excellent book, with detailed maps covering history from the dawn of civilization all the way upto the date of the book's publishing (only real change between the most recent map in this book and the present is the independence of East Timor.) Keep in mind that this book focuses on breadth, not depth; that isn't really a flaw, it's by design. It's not meant to be and all-in-one historical text, but a reference companion to any more in-depth historical text for a given region or period.

The best part of the book in my opinion is the several world maps that let you see the entire world at a glance during certain years. There are 27 of those, if I counted right, showing the world at a glance during key moments in history from 2000 BC all the way up to 1999 AD. Another thing the makes this book unique among historical references is the fact it isn't so Eurocentric as most history books are; it covers the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Australia with the same detail as Europe.

If you're a map-freak like me, who likes to see maps to help you picture historical periods, this is a great book to have.