atlases and maps

Good book with simple maps, black, white and green and not poor texts. Detailed. But unfortunately, mostly focuses on European history. I' d call it Atlas of Medieval Europe.

This book uses ONE single map on every page to document the movement of various people over time. However, it does not designate major landmarks. It tells of tribes crossing the Danube and the Volga but these rivers are never labeled. It refers to the Tigris and Euphrates but you need another map to tell you where they are. When major landmarks are not identified it is hard to understand how this can be called an Atlas. The history is disjointed and poorly written. The only reason to buy this book is that you don't have a match with which to burn your money.

This is a great work and describes the barbarian migrations across Europe very well. The big flaw though lies in the, "History dosen't take place outside of Europe" mindset. India, China, Japan, South-East Asia, and Africa all should have been included in this work and than this book would have been vital to any student of history. Instead Penguin makes you have to buy three other books to get the complete history.