History of the World Map by Map

If you are a visual learner, this book is a revelation. Unlike standard history books that rely on dense walls of text, History of the World Map by Map uses cartography as the primary narrator. What I Loved: The Scope: It covers everything from the first human migrations to the digital age. It doesn’t just focus on Western history; it feels truly global. Layered Information: Each map is accompanied by a timeline and "step-by-step" explanations of how borders shifted and why. DK Quality: The oversized format and high-quality paper make the colors pop. It’s a "coffee table book" that you’ll actually end up reading cover-to-cover. Verdict: This is the perfect gift for history buffs or students who find traditional textbooks dry. It turns complex global shifts into something you can see and understand instantly.

Great graphics and easy to follow. Not only will you find many historical maps from our distant past, recent past and present, but there is a lot of important historical information included that many of us have either forgotten or never knew. It helps to connect the past with the present and to explain why things are as they are today.

Beautiful Coffee Table book. Solid, heavy, quality binding & paper, very high quality illustrations & graphics. Very interesting information! Fun to browse through at own pace.

This is a wonderful book that no home library should be without. It's a high-level overview of world history that tells its story primarily through (big, lush, custom-made) maps, although there is a fair amount of text as well. Just as a physical artifact the book is exquisite. But the real value is in the content, which is about as in-depth as a survey this broad can be while still being comprehensible. I used this book as a visual supplement while listening to some audio courses about the middle ages and Renaissance and it was awesome for that purpose. It's also just fun to browse. I'd say in terms of depth this is a mid-level book in terms of approachability. I think the primary audience for the book is adults, and you'll get more out of it if you already have a basic understanding of world history. But at the same time it is a broad survey, so I would not look to this book for an in-depth treatment of any specific period or topic. I would completely recommend it even to young people (maybe 10 and up) or people who haven't read a lot of history, though, provided they've got an interest in the topic. All in all, I can't think of a better single-volume world history book. Highly recommend.

This book is fantastic. Not too detailed to get bogged down, but a wonderful overview of world history. The maps are essential to understand what is happening, as they change dramatically between each era. I’ve learned so much. Can’t compliment it enough.

I like this book. It does many things well. For the price it provides excellent content Nevertheless, I wish it were more complete in certain key areas. In European and other world history, it leaves out cartographic and literary content with respect to some pivotal events which led to the development of the world as we live it today. Likewise, there are key omissions from Latin American, African, and Asian histories which have profound influence on our present world. I will refer to just a few following. On pages 166-7 it has a fine ecclesiastical map Europe near the beginning(1555) of the Christian reformational era, and it discusses on 169 the Thirty Years War ending in 1648, but it omits including a map of the settlements of the Treaty of Westphalia which ended that conflict. A 1648 map to compare to the one of 1555 would be very helpful. It has a decent coverage of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic era, but it fails again to indicate cartographically how the boundaries of the European political units of and the titles of noble lords of the units changed as a result of the wars and their aftermaths. Continuing, 200-1 has a map of South America at the time of the independence movement from Spain. But subsequent to this, we have nothing which illustrates the development of the boundaries of today's nation states, nor some of the events which led to the establishment of those borders. Leaping to the 20th Century, of course it covers the two world wars. It has considerable material on WW1, but what is missing is a more detail and clear cartographical and descriptive material on how the new nation states were born, and how the new borders of Germany were decided. Of course some of Germany's losses were simply imposed by the victors, but others were determined by plebiscite. I think this is important. The Austrian, Russian, and Turkish empires all lost land. How was this determined and how did the new political frontiers compare with the ethno-linguistic boundaries? (See for a good example the excellent map of Yugoslavia on pages 338-9) Also I think that the border settlements in Europe and Asia at the end of WW2 need a more thorough treatment, as well as a discussion again of political vs. ethnic boundaries and the large scale ethnic cleansing which went on in central and eastern Europe. There are other issues, but finally I wish there was some discussion and cartographic information around the partition of India in 1947.

Beautiful book but the real gift is inside! There’s so much to learn.

This book is very informative , easy to understand and the maps are great

Very informative book. High quality of paper, binding, etc.

I came across this at a physical bookstore while I was browsing but its size/weight made it impractical to buy at the time. It seemed like a great book and I thought it would be a good Christmas present for my children. Anyway, I got home and got onto Amazon and, incredibly, the book was marked 55% RRP off so I think the Universe was giving me a gift there. I saved $35... yay!

Amazing book for expanding your history knowledge. Around 450 pages, lots of illustrations and great quality maps. Came in good condition and arrived on time. Makes the "boring" school subject to be actually interesting and fun.

Bought this as a Christmas Present and it made the perfect gift. It’s absolutely full of interesting information and being by Map you can easily locate anything you want to focus on.

Love it and excellent to use with my students