The Times Concise Atlas of World History

by Geoffrey Barraclough (Editor)

Book by

Genres: History, Reference, Nonfiction, Atlases, Maps, Cartography, Geography

184 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1982

About the author

Geoffrey Barraclough was an English historian, known as a medievalist and historian of Germany.

Reviews

[Brian Griffith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great detail on all regions of the world. If you are writing anything on history, this atlas helps you connect emerging themes across cultures.

[Tom Schulte · Rating 3 out of 5]

This 1982 publication takes world history up to 1980. If it has a fault, it is that it actually not concise enough. Each two-page set in the oversized book covers the work or a region and generally multiple decades. The detail of text, maps, and legends had me bringing a bright light and magnifying glass to try and absorb the minutiae. This is tiresome reading and the glossy pages are given to glare.

Still, this is an excellent start for historical research into pre-1980 topics.

[Patrick Neylan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Never mind its age - its final entry is "The World In 1980" - this was always a rather poor offering. The whole concept was misguided, and the minor faults of the larger "Times" Atlas of World History are exaggerated in the smaller edition.

Essentially, the compilers were obsessed with producing complicated maps with gaudy colours, which were then spattered all over the page in profusion and confusion. Providing an insight into history was a long way down their list of priorities. They wanted people to be impressed by the complexity of their maps, which are so complex that it's hard to tell what they are meant to show.

The small number of scrappy paragraphs are written in a shallow, juvenile style and often have little relationship to the maps that accompany them. The reader will learn little from this book except how high an opinion of itself the design team had.

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book back in the 90s. With the reading of the maps and the concise and insightful narrative it’s a great way to learn history. Shame it finished in the 90s but you can see how the break up of Yugoslavia happened. The 20 Century is very scary and the 21st is becoming even scarier. Would be interesting to read a revised - updated version (if there is one) for the last few decades from 1990s !

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hb, Like new, protected jacket.

[Liam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Out of date, obviously, at this point. Really excellent, detailed, full-color maps though; ancient and early modern history are particularly well covered.