Spanning more than 20,000 years from the Ice Age to the Cold War and beyond, this book attempts to create a panorama of global history. Digiotal cartography abd historical research combine to present a visual insight into the rise and fall of empires, the birth of nations and the development of culture, language and religion.

I love DK books - they tend to be uniformly excellent, with comprehensive content and great illustrations. This atlas is no exception.

Part One has 26 world maps showing the changing map of the world and its cultures from ancient times to the present day. Topics range from shifting settlements through migration, invasions, and exploration, to the advent of agriculture, trade, the growth of the city, changing empires, industrial and economic revolutions, and of course world wars. The last map in this section shows “Hidden Worlds of Today” including topics like “the World Wide Web” and “the subterranean world of organized crime.”

Part Two examines regional histories in detail, and is divided into eight principal geographic regions: North America, South America, Africa, Europe, West Asia, South and Southeast Asia, North and East Asia, and Australasia and Oceania. Within each region the maps and narrative cover the development of nation-states, languages, religion, and culture. In this section you will learn about the Roman Empire, the Holy Roman Empire, Conquest of the Mughals, Europe in the Age of the Crusades, the Industrial Revolution, and so on.

Each part of this atlas is filled with pithy summaries of history, a number of maps, photos of artifacts and people when available, interesting sidebars, and much more.

This book can be used as background for more in-depth studies, or even as a coffee-table book for dipping into for interesting ways to pass the time and make conversation. ( )

A little difficult for what I was wanting. I do use it quite a bit when I read historical fiction. Most likely not what the author intended but I find it quite useful to me for that.
It's a very large and heavy book, not something to just carry around with you. ( )

A very terse and yet very informative fact finding at a glance book, for relevant referencing and sourcing. ( )

A good book overall. Contains several world maps depicting political entities during certain years, and more in-depth regional maps. Also contains summary histories for the maps. One of the best books of my collection, and one of the primary source books for Talessman's Atlas of World History online.