Product Description

A major reference work, "Philip's Atlas of World History" - concise edition records the history of human society throughout the world, from prehistory to the year 2005, in 450 specially commissioned colour maps, 200 illustrations, tables and diagrams, and 200,000 words. It has been updated to include recent events across the world, including those in Iraq, Afghanistan, Russia and the former Soviet republics. "The Atlas of World History" - concise edition goes beyond the conventional focus on European and American political history to give worldwide coverage of socio-economic, cultural, and religious themes. Due weight is given to regions such as Central and South America, Africa, Asia, and Oceania that are comparatively neglected by many competitor titles. Commissioned from academic writers with direct involvement in college teaching, and with a foreword and general consultancy by Professor Patrick O'Brien, former Director of the Institute of Historical Research at the University of London, "Philip's Atlas of World History" is also highly accessible for the general reader with an interest in world history. "The Atlas of World History" is organized in five main parts: the Ancient World (human origins to c.ad 500), the Medieval World (c.500-1500), the Early Modern World (c.1500-1770), the Age of Revolutions (c.1770-1914), and the Twentieth Century (from 1914). Each part opens with a two-spread introduction that highlights the main themes of the period and outlines worldwide trends and developments. Following the introduction, individual spreads each examine a particular region over a specified period, with detailed maps, illustrations, and tables, and c.1200 words of text.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #182408 in Books
• Published on: 2005-10-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 312 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
This is a solid, well-planned cartographic introduction to world history that packs a huge amount of information into its 368 pages, in an unspectacular way. Over 50 academics collaborated to write it, and it aims to have a truly global perspective, abandoning the eurocentrism of the past. The maps are plain and workmanlike, not elegant but very clear. In order to cover the world in a single volume, each two-page spread has to cover a lot of ground, especially in the earlier chapters. Topics are as broad as, for example, "Civilizations in MesoAmerica 1200BC-AD700" or "The Byzantine Empire 527-1025", and even in the modern era a single spread will cover something as big as "The American Revolution" or "The Industrial Revolution in Europe 1830-1914". The book does, however, find space to treat major religious and social movements, such as population growth and urbanisation, breaking away from the old-style focus on political history. There is far more here than just the rise and fall of empires.

A book of this kind must needs work in large generalisations, yet the authors still find time for snapshots of the little details that make the past live, and for telling statistics. Did you know that "By AD2, the date of the first national census, China had a recorded population of 57 million"? Or that the Black Death halted the construction of Siena cathedral half-way through and the building is still truncated today? 160 illustrations, diagrams and photos, 600 encyclopaedic entries, an 8,000-entry index and 24 pages of time charts back up the maps, and, we are assured, the book's content is tied in to school and college curricula. --David Pickering

Customer Reviews

Useful and informative
The good:
- It's useful. Each section is accompanied by several maps, plenty of text explanations and sometimes graphs or illustrations. I found it more informative than so called 'visual' world history books, which usually contain no or few maps.
- It's unbiased. There's a lot of information on other civilizations apart from the Western one.
- It's cheap.
- Maps are clear and informative, though they could be bigger.

The bad:
- It's more a history book with maps than a history atlas. But it's not bad in itself if you expect it.
- It's not quite up-to-date. It goes only up to 1995 and occasionally 2000. There's little or no information on the 21st century.

Try another
If you are familiar with the Times Atlas of World History don't make the mistake of thinking this is on a par with that. In fact this is more of a text history than an atlas. The maps are terrible, and very small for the most part. One of the most disappointing books I have ever bought, and a bit of a cautionary story about buying books unseen. My advice, purchase a second-hand Times one.