Philip's Atlas of World History

Book excerpt: Philip's Atlas of World History presents the entire story of civilisation in its physical setting, from man's earliest beginnings to the latest political developments of the twentieth century. It is specially designed to help the reader visualise the great historical themes and turning points of the past, combining maps which graphically depict the scope of these events with text explaining key historical themes and contexts.The book is divided into five sections, each of which contains an introduction which highlights the main themes of the period and outlines its key trends and developments: 1. The Ancient World (human origins to AD500) 2. The Medieval World (500 - 1500) 3. The Early Modern World (c.1500 - 1770) 4. An Age of Revolutions (c.1770 - 1914) 5. The Twentieth Century (from 1914)These five sections contain a total of 135 double-page spreads, each of which portrays key developments in a world region over a specific period of time.Each spread features brand-new, highly-informative colour maps created by Philip's renowned cartographers, together with complementary text which discusses and explains the larger historical, political, geographical, cultural, social and religious themes behind each topic. The book also contains a wealth of additional historical information, including a detailed 22-page time chart, a 20-page gazetteer of historical places, concise biographies of significant figures and an extensive 20-page indexSuccessfully combining history and geography, Philip's Atlas of World History gives the reader a fascinating, accessible and visually-exciting picture of historical events and their impact on the world we live in today.Main map scale: