The Penguin Atlas of World History: Volume 1: From Prehistory to the Eve of the French Revolution (Penguin Reference Books)

User Review: - Historical Atlas, Priceless, Missing Three Big Things
20081214 DEPARTED AMAZON WITH OUTRAGE OVER THE MANIPULATION OF VOTES.

I am providing the same review for Volumes I and II.

The two volumes, together, represent an essential and priceless reference replete with details as well as clever visualizations. I venture to say that it is not possible to understand the sway of history in all its forms without such an atlas. It is, however, missing three big things:

1) Consolidated edition, larger print and larger pages. The gold in these two volumes is devalued by the reductions. Enough. Update it for 2009 and let's get it right. It makes no sense to have to use one volume for the Middle East prior to the French Revolution, another for afterwards.

2. I could not find, in the book or via an online search, an online version of the consolidated books or even one of the books. I regard it as *essential* that Penguin begin to transition all of its excellent knowledge, and especially its atlases, into interactive online form so that one can, for example, flip through any region or topic (e.g. Islam or US imperialism) and "see" history passing before one's eyes.

3. There a re a handful of automated time series depictions, e.g. of the spread and contraction of religions, the spead and contraction of various empires. We need that from Penguin for every country, every region, and every threat and policy, and I list them here from the UN High-Level Threat Panel and Earth Intelligence Network:

Poverty
Infectious Disease
Environmental Degradation
Inter-State Conflict
Civil War
Genocide
Other Atrocities
Proliferation
Terrorism
Transnational Crime

Agriculture
Diplomacy
Economy
Education
Energy
Family
Health
Immigration
Justice
Security
Society
Water

I am deeply impressed by the quality and focus on Penguin Publications. It's time they discovered the 21st Century and the demand of Digital Natives as well as global strategists for coherent holistic online visualization and sense-making.

Here are other books on history that I consider exceptional, each with a summative review:
The Lessons of History
The Landscape of History: How Historians Map the Past
Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & 'Project Truth'
Web of Deceit: The History of Western Complicity in Iraq, from Churchill to Kennedy to George W. Bush
The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic (The American Empire Project)
1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
Fog Facts: Searching for Truth in the Land of Spin
The Age of Missing Information

And for the future:
Collective Intelligence: Creating a Prosperous World at Peace

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User Review: - Another great historical atlas from Penguin
This entire series is superb and is absolutely essential for any lover of historical atlases. I have been an owner of virtually all of them for at ten years and I can honestly say that they are most read books of all that I own.

The reason is their unique portability and scope. Most historical atlas are huge, heavy and expensive. They are difficult to read unless you are sitting at a table and very difficult to carry. This limits their utility (even though I still love them). Most history books have lots of dense detail about one nation or one period. Virtually none cover the broad sweep of an entire region over centuries.

While the Colin McEvedy line of Penguin Historical Atlases (which I highly recommend) is more map oriented, the Kinder/Hilgemann line is much more text oriented. It starts in the late 18th Century and ends just after the Cold War. As its title suggests, it literally covers the entire world, although it is heavily biased towards Europe. In an effort to cover everything, the authors makes frequent use of abbreviations and symbols. This is a little annoying, but you get used to it.

Like all Penguin Historical Atlases, it is small, light, reasonably priced and incredibly broad in scope. These atlases offer a unique perspective on history than is otherwise impossible to achieve. Their size and weight make them perfect for travelling. Whenever I go on a trip, I take the most relevant ones with me. That way I can brush up on my history of the region.

What is most fun for me is to trace the history or one nation, province or sub-region through the entire atlas. In just a few minutes I can learn as much as spending days reading an entire book. You can also see how individual nations interact with each other, a subject often left out of typical history books.

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User Review: - atlas review
I hate this book. Print is tiny. Info is cryptic. I waited too long to return it. Darn.

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User Review: - Print too small
I was rather disappointed when I receive the book. The print was too small. It serves well as a history "dictionary" but not if one wish to know more in detail. The paper and colour quality is rather good though.

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User Review: - Invaluable reference in a compact format
This is one of the best histroical atlas available, given its compact size for quick desktop reference. Despite the small size, the maps and diagrams are carefully prepared to convey a lot of relevant information. Together with the text, this provides both an outline (in choronlogical order) as well as quite a lot of details on what has happened around the world. Very impressed, since I bought an earlier edition 17 years ago.

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