Concise Atlas of World History | I Rate and Compare World History Atlas Books

Concise Atlas of World History | The Best World History Atlas Book Anywhere

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Concise Atlas of W...

	Concise Atlas of World History Oxford University Press, USA, 2002 - 312 pages average customer review:based on 16 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

I Rate and Compare World History Atlas Books

As a reader I like to have quick reference books at my finger tips including a new version of the Oxford English Dictionary about 3500 pages long - that I use almost daily. So I decided to add a "history atlas". In the process of doing my research I read the other amazon.com reviewers and then made three trips to two large book stores to actually look at the books and get a better feel for which was the best. I ended up buying the Oxford Atlas of World History. Here are my picks and rankings.

Listed by My ranking, #1 is the best, #2 is a creative alternative but no substitute.

1. Atlas of World History, Oxford University Press 2002, 368 pages, $57.80, 13.5" x 10.3" x 1.62" ranked 46,632 on Amazon.com. Hands down winner - professional - good text descriptions, outstanding maps and drawings, covers most things from the cave man forward. Negatives: Big and heavy. If you want to save a few dollars buy the "concise" version.

2. Creative alternative: The Penguin Atlas of World History, Penguin Books 2004, $11.20, just a paperback sized, just published, 304 pages. Surprisingly impressive, lots of text and pictures mixed together and it is easy to carry around. A nice quick alternative but it will be printed in two volumes.
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3. Timelines of World History, DK Publishing 2002, 666 pages, $27.20. 10.0" x 1.6" ranked 25,800 on Amazon.com. Second with lots of value but in some ways not as comprehensive.

4. National Geographic Almanac of World History, National Geographic 2003, 384 pages, $28.00, 9.6" x 7.8" x 1.17" ranked 24,426 on Amazon.com. Similar to but less impressive than Oxford books. More text, narrower coverage, fewer maps and drawings.

5. DK Atlas of World History, DK Publishing, 352 pages, $35.00, 10.96" x 14.66" x 1.28" ranked 10,716 on Amazon.com. My last place book seems like a giant comic book. I love the DK travel books but this seems like one step beyond DK's area of expertise. Superficially it is similar to the Oxford book and it is cheap, and some might like it but it tries to be politically correct and fails.

6. Oxford Dictionary of World History, Oxford University Press, 704 pages, $7,66, pocketbook sized, sales rank 330,000. Mainly terms, people, and dates but has a few maps also. Limited use but an alternative. I prefer the new Penguin book but this is the best history dictionary to buy.

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The Best World History Atlas Book Anywhere

The Oxford Atlas is the best of all competitors. It is full-size, high quality ink and paper, 368 pages and covers most areas of history from the caveman to the present time. I am not speaking of the concise edition but of the full-size edition. The ISBN number is #0195215672.

This book covers about 2,000,000 years of history from the origins of humanity to the year 2000. The Atlas is the result of over three years' work by internationally renowned cartographers, an expert editorial team and specialist academic consultants.

The story of humanity from a cartographic perspective

The affordable price tag of this set of maps paired with its applications to both home and school library patrons will earn it a place on many a home bookshelf as well as libraries: Atlas Of World History, Concise Edition is the result of over three years of intensive effort by a team of academics and editors, and presents the story of humanity from a physical, cartographic perspective. Five parts correspond with the five eras studied by world historians today, making for a particularly accessible set of maps.

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Atlas of World History

Information is current, colorfully presented, and illustrated in a fascinating manner. Most would be happy to own this highly informative piece of reference material.

Atlas?

I've bought this atlas after reviewing all the options available on Amazon. This one was apparently the best one in terms of map quality and information available within; I have not seen any other atlas referenced by other reviewers so I will not make comparisons here.
I give it only 3 stars because I think an atlas should have LARGE, DETAILED maps in detriment of text (which is available in other types of publications). This is not the case here, where maps are small, and do not cover important aspects or interesting facts (e.g. battlefields); text however is more than adequate, and steals actually space from maps.
It is excellent for all the people who need an introduction in history, but for those who are looking for in depth maps and cartographic details, forget it - look somewhere else, though I'm not sure (at least from other readers' point of view) you can find something better.
Next time I'll try (and recommend this to you too) to browse the book in store before buying.

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reviews: 1, page 2, 3, 4

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