The Times Atlas of World History

The atlas is a very interesting book for historical perspectives.

Every one of these maps is worth ten thousand words. Writers of history are not always very good at describing the geography they are dealing with. I love this book, and my daughter, a high school student, also found it of great help. On several occasions, despite having studied her history book dilligently, she would look at this atlas and say "oh, now I see." Every student of history should have one.

If you buy this book, give yourself at least a week of free time because once you open it, you're a goner. Curiosity, that insidious questioner, will keep you turning the pages from age to age, region to region, topic to topic; the incredible pictorial representations of the various stages of history kindle a wonderment and an appreciation of all the archeologists and historians, not to mention the cartographers, who have contributed to an amazing analysis of the development of our world.

I have enjoyed studying this volume (and The Concise Atlas; the paperbound version of it) for twenty years. The graphic representations in this book of the march of history are supremely efficient and elegant. They are a delight for the eye and are brilliant intellectual summaries of trends of history. There is no close equivalent volume to this book.