The New Atlas of World History

The 55 world maps and corresponding time lines in Haywood's (honorary research fellow, history, Lancaster Univ.; Great Migrations) oversized reference work chronicle history from prehistoric times (read: the Ice Age and Paleolithic humans) to 2010 C.E. Each map and time line has a brief summation describing notable global events occurring around the map's title year. In addition to showing changing national boundaries, the full-spread color maps display population type (e.g., hunter/gatherer, industrial), the population of the era's five largest cities, historic trade routes, and other human interactions. The two-page multithread time line that follows each map covers art and architecture, the sciences, religion, and politics, revealing what was being invented then and what was occurring in divergent areas. Small photos of people, inventions, and locations throughout the time line illustrate significant events; a graph notes the historic population. Slight overlap in time lines is initially confusing—at first glance, the one for World War II appears to show the atomic bomb being dropped before it was invented, for example. BOTTOM LINE Although this book does not have a great deal of depth, it presents a valuable picture of human development and will be useful to academic and public libraries, though those owning Patrick O'Brien's Atlas of World History (Oxford Univ., 2010) or Hermann Kinder and Werner Hilgemann's The Penguin Atlas of World History (2003) might not see the need.—Jim Langan, Univ. of Pittsburgh at Johnstown