zanthems's review against another edition
5.0
The best source I've find for a good big-picture look at European history. Paging through the maps, watching the political landscape change at 40- or 50-year intervals, brings the various threads of history together in a way that text narratives can't quite do. I never really grasped the scale of the Hun invasions, or the rise of the Arab caliphates, before reading this book. And the accompanying text is interesting and readable throughout.
willv's review
4.0
I bought this because my knowledge of world history had a giant gap between the end of the Roman empire and, say, last Tuesday. I needed something that chewed the history and fed it to me in pre-digested chunks and this book played the role of mother seagull perfectly. It shows you overview maps of the "Western" world every few decades and explanatory text on the facing page. It was nice to see some humor sprinkled here and there, it was actually quite readable and enjoyable.
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