The Penguin Atlas of World History

I purchased Hermann Kinder and Werner Hilgemann’s The Penguin Atlas of World History Volume 1: From the Beginning to the Eve of the French Revolution to visualize the geography behind the historical events I’ve been reading about. It’s helpful to look over the boundaries of the various powers at different points in time, especially since most history books have insufficient maps.

The book is a small paperback, which makes it easy to carry around and access when reading other books. On the other hand, the smaller size means the maps aren’t so detailed. Half of the atlas consists of an abbreviated description of events, which I basically ignore since I’m reading a longer book in parallel. I’m tempted to purchase a more thorough, though more expensive, historical atlas.