The fifth edition of The Times Concise History of the World is an authoritative overview of world history, presented in a readable compact format. The most accessible, concise and visual account of world history to date. Geoffrey Parker's revised text maintains the book's reputation for excellence, incorporates the latest research and seamlessly integrates expert historical narrative with over 350 maps, charts and photographs. Based on the much-acclaimed The Times Complete History of the World, this authoritative history covers the whole story of humankind from its origins to the global economy and environment of today in 80 double-page spreads of text, maps and pictures. The Concise History avoids a Eurocentric approach, offering a worldwide view of history emphasizing change, expansion and contraction, and aiming to provide 'a sense of the past as a continuing process'
Geoffrey Parker is Andreas Dorpalen Professor of European History and an Associate of the Mershon Center at The Ohio State University. He has published widely on the social, political and military history of early modern Europe, and in 2012 the Royal Dutch Academy recognized these achievements by awarding him its biennial Heineken Foundation Prize for History, open to scholars in any field, and any period, from any country.
Parker has written or co-written thirty-nine books, including The Military Revolution: Military innovation and the rise of the West, 1500-1800 (Cambridge University Press, 1988), winner of the 'best book prize' from both the American Military Institute and the Society for the History of Technology; The Grand Strategy of Philip II (Yale University Press, 1998), which won the Samuel Eliot Morison Prize from the Society of Military History; and Global Crisis: War, Climate Change and Catastrophe in the Seventeenth Century (Yale University Press, 2013), which won the Society of Military History’s Distinguished Book Prize and also one of the three medals awarded in 2014 by the British Academy for ‘a landmark academic achievement… which has transformed understanding of a particular subject’.
Before moving to Ohio State in 1997, Parker taught at Cambridge and St Andrews universities in Britain, at the University of British Columbia in Canada, and at Illinois and Yale Universities in the United States, teaching courses on the Reformation, European history and military history at both undergraduate and graduate levels. He has directed or co-directed over thirty Doctoral Dissertations to completion, as well as several undergraduate theses. In 2006 he won an OSU Alumni Distinguished Teaching Award.
He lives in Columbus, Ohio, and has four children. In 1987 he was diagnosed as having Multiple Sclerosis. His latest book is Imprudent King: A New Life of Philip II (Yale University Press, 2014).
There is a reason why the book has had multiple editions since the date of its first publication in the distant 1978. Very concise text with correlated maps and graphs to give you an introduction into world history, or just to refresh your memory on some pretty important dates and names in case you want to impress, someone, go to a quiz or just enjoy the trip
A concise overview of world history, packed with interesting maps. It’s quite dense material, easier to dip in and out than to read for a couple of hours at a time.
I started this book/historical account of the world over fours years ago and three house moves means it got put away in the loft for years!
A really good thorough read with each page covering its own topic from the dawn of man all the way through to modern world and the issues with climate change. This is a must read and one that I will certainly take off the shelf again for a refresh on certain topics or eras.
A wonderful book. I thoroughly enjoyed this one. What an excellent Christmas present it was. It covers the whole of human history from the evolution of homo sapiens to the present day, covering civilisations, wars, cities, and how humanity got to where it is today.