Customer Reviews

DK Atlas of World History

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4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is probably the most beautifully laid out and graphically designed of the big 5 or 6 atlases out there. I had a few miscellaneous comments to make, and then I thought I would compare it with the Hammond Atlas, which is the other "big gun" out there.

First, a few minor nitpicks. In the article on prehistoric man, they don't mention the age of Lucy of 3.6 million years. They do mention the species name, Australopithecus afarensis, but then although they mention the first genus homo was H. erectus in the main article, you have to read the other smaller print articles around the page to get the age figure. Also, there is no mention of ardipithecus ramidus, the oldest known pre-Homonid fossil, at 4.5 million years, or that we know of two different Australopithecines, africanus and robustus, representing a gracile versus a more robust species.

One characteristic of the DK atlas is it is more topically oriented than some of the others. In the ancient history section, for example (my main interest), it has essays on "Growth of the City," "Trade and the First Cities," and the "Earliest Writing, Counting, and Calendars."

But the biggest difference between the DK and the others is that it's divided up into two main sections--Eras of History, and the Regional Histories. The eras section contains essays such as "The World 1250-750 BCE" or "The World in 250-500 CE."

The regional history section has the histories of the main geographic areas of the world, such as Europe, West Asia, North Asia, East Asia, Africa, South America, Australasia, North America, and so on. Within those sections you'll find specific articles such as "Europe After the Fall of Rome," or "Early Empires of West Asia, or "North America, 1865-1920."

The DK atlas has 470 maps, 420 timelines, over 1000 photos, and a 20,000 entry index/gazetteer which is much more than an index since the entries include capsule biographies and histories of important events--a unique feature of all the atlases, and similarly there is a subject/index glossary that does the same thing.

The Hammond atlas is the other major offering in this area. Compared to the DK, the Hammond reads more like a typical history book, with articles that go on for several parallel columns of unequal depth and accompanied by maps and various illustrations. The DK text is much more broken up into smaller paragraphs with different sizes of type, often relating to a photo or smaller map or other graphic. Although visually more striking than the Hammond, its approach is more disjointed as a result and I think harder to use and learn from. The articles also are somewhat more superficial as a result compared to the the competing atlases, especially the Atlas of World History by John Haywood and the Hammond and Oxford historical atlases.

The DK has nicer, glossier paper than the others, which makes their maps and photos more attractive. Also the map colors of the DK are aften more pastel-like, whereas the Hammond often uses the traditional four-color map color scheme with bright red, green, blue, and yellow, which, after the DK, is a little garish and hard on eye, although they also have many maps with more subtle color schemes, so it's not a hard-and-fast distinction.

One other nice feature of the Hammond is that it has a separate timeline at the beginning of book of 11 pages.

Finally, the Hammond atlas is 373 pages and the DK is 352, including indexes, so they're pretty close in terms of length, and their overall dimensions are almost the same, so they're pretty equivalent there.

Finally, one major advantage of the DK atlas, however, is that it has the most coverage of all the other areas of the world, besides Europe. The others are all more Eurocentric.

The bottom line is I would say the Hammond atlas is the more informative and scholarly of the two, but the DK is more fun just to browse and page through. Depending on what you're looking for and how you like to use them, you might prefer one over the other.

One last thing I'd like to mention is that the John Haywood atlas, although not as large and as comprehensive as the Hammond and DK, is also well worth considering. It's also excellent and only a fraction of the price of these two big volumes, and I think it does the best job of integrating the text with the maps and graphics.

Hope my little comparison review helps. Happy atlas shopping, buying, and reading!

The maps in this fine new historical atlas are as good or better than old standbys like The Times (or in the US, the Hammond) editions. There are some nice touches as well, such as breaking out of the standard North=Up orientation when it enables clearer portrayal of the movement of peoples or armies (for example, several pre-1900 U.S. maps are shown as if the reader is hovering over the Atlantic looking West).

The DK atlas also differentiates itself from the pack by using more timelines, photos and charts to augment the maps. I found them to be extremely well-chosen, although the mixture of of maps, images and text can make it a bit difficult to navigate through the pages at times. Finally, this new atlas is so up-to-date it includes the new Euro zone and troop movements in the Kosovo conflict.

DK's true distinction, however, is its superior treatment of Asia and Africa, both in terms of detail and in terms of a perspective that is broader than the exclusively Western view of most atlases. DK seems to be establishing a fine standard in all of their publications, and I can only hope that their competitors' next editions try to go them one better.

I got this for my son's birthday because he is interested in history, but his Dad and I have spent many enjoyable hours pouring through its pages. The book has DK's typically graphic-intense design, with its maps augmented by timelines, photos, drawings, etc. I notice one other reviewer did not like this feature but for us the added graphics made the history more understandable and enjoyable.

I would also call the book geographically comprehensive rather than "politically correct." I don't notice any right-or-left political skew to the text, for example. The book has even-handed coverage of all continents, so it is not for those looking PRIMARILY for European history (although this is reasonably well covered). After all, you can get that sort of thing elsewhere. Where the DK book is irreplacable is its coverage of Asia, Africa, etc. - things we wouldn't know about if we didn't have this book.

As a social studies teacher I found this book extremely exciting and comprehensive. This book is better at teaching and explaining history than most textbooks. I wish that my students could each have a copy of it in the classroom. Maps are drawn without the ususal euro-north focus and the pictures and annotations draw the reader in to want to learn more. I highly recommend it for any home or school.

DK hits another home run. Measuring 15 x 11 inches, his is one of the most beautiful Atlas books ever printed. DK, of course, produces books that are beautiful to look at, and read, and enjoy over and over again. This Atlas is no exception. It is academically correct, with beautiful photos, maps, and drawings, and makes the "dull study of human history" come alive in a fun and relatively easy way. If students in schools had this book, it would enliven their minds and make them understand world development and history. It would help them connect to the world as it is today, and help them understand why it got this way. It is too bad most students will not have access to this book, thereby making school another dull place to sit around and get bored with. This book is worth buying, no matter what grade, or age bracket, you are in. DK does it again with a great book for all of us.

This atlas has kind of a coffee-table book feel. It's very good looking - at times, I think, a little too good looking. There's a lot of pictures where the space could have been used for more maps, and the maps themselves look good, but can be hard to read.

A traditional four-color map can seem garish, but has the advantage that it's easy to distinguish different countries. The maps in this atlas seems to be designed to look good, more than being usable, so at times it can be difficult to distinguish between the different shades of green (or whatever color).

That said, it's still an impressive work. One really gets a lot of maps for a very reasonable price, and a lot of eras and regions are covered.

I may be Euro-centric, but I do think that the selection of maps is a little too political correct - e.g. the Roman Empire doesn't get significally better treatment than central American Indians, despite the indisputably larger impact on the world even as it looks today.

Another example is that I haven't managed to find a map of the 10,000's March; something I'd have expected every serious historical atlas to contain - but maybe I just didn't look hard enough...

World War II also gets dissapointingly shallow treatment considering the huge impact that historical event had.

Still, despite disagreeing with the content selection, I'm very happy with having bought the book. It will still fulfill most of my needs as a casual history interested person, but my main impression is that it's mostly a politically correct coffee-table book.

With so much stuff online, why buy a reference book? I think this one is worth having because it has great illustrations that you just can't find anywhere else. You can scan through the pages of this book and feel like you have a bit of a grip on world history.

The DK World History Atlas brings the DK uniformity of style and lots of helpful illustrations to something that's more than a collection of maps. I really use this book frequently and find it well-organized and indexed. The companion to this book is the DK Timelines of History. The only complaint is one that another reviewer raised. The 20th century is short-changed given the density of boundary-moving events.

The DK Atlas of World History: Mapping the Human Journey is a huge top shelf book. It is divided into two parts: the first gives the reader a global view of history divided into different eras(e.g.the advent of agriculture, trade and first cities, the age of the crusades,etc.), the second describes regional history (North America, South America, Africa, Europe,West Asia, South and South East Asia, Noth and East Asia, Oceania, the Arctic and Antarctica).In both parts you will find numerous time lines with the important dates, small color illustrations and short paragraphs about the events covered.At the end of the book there is a subject index and glossary and an index with all the place names shown on the maps.Finally there is a two page bibliography.

There is no question that this is a very beautiful book with pleasant pastel colors, pleasant, glossy paper and maps of different sizes and seen under different angles, which avoids monotony.

Having said that, it is also clear for an attentive reader that the editor has been at pains to be absolutely politically correct, which means:
-ostentatious use of BCE and CE instead of AD and BC
-gross neglect of Christianity: whereas the spread of Islam is worth a double page with big maps in both sections of the Atlas, there is not a single chapter or map about the spread or history of Christianity, which is amazing, considering its importance for the "human journey". In the index, Jesus is nonchalantly called "the inspiration of the Christian religion" (is it an abstract character, one wonders), crucified as a "troublemaker in 29 CE". Strangely enough, Buddha and Muhammad are called "founders" of their respective religions, which is quite true but why deny the title to Christ?
The entry for "Christianity" is also enlightening: here we are told that the early Christian faith, which is decribed as an "offshoot of Judaism", split from the very beginning into "many sects". Never mind the same happened to Islam, there is no mention of any heresies or infighting inside that religion at the corresponding entry.
I also could not find a single time line showing the birth or death of Jesus and other great Christians like Paul and Peter.
-neglect of European history: although European history is the best documented, in this atlas it is treated on the same level as Africa or Australia, which means that at least a dozen chapters and scores of maps are missing for the serious student of history.

Being anti-Christian and anti-European are, as some have rightly said, the last acceptable prejudices.

If you didn't get enough falsified history in government schools, this is definitely the atlas for you. Your first clue is the book's adoption of the anti-Christian "B.C.E./C.E." affectation, denying the undeniable, that Jesus Christ is the pivot point of World History. What one reviewer terms "politically correct" is simply a polite euphemism for this book's pervasive anti-Christian treatment of World History, denying, denigrating, and/or marginalizing 1,500 years of Christendom. Christendom financed and otherwise supported the development of universities, agriculture, exploration, law, medicine, and -- notwithstanding the Black Legends about "Dark Ages" -- science. This atlas does not offer an intellectually honest assessment of World History. Too much government school? Un-brainwash yourself. Start with: How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization by Thomas E. Woods Jr.