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When on Earth?: History as You've Never Seen It Before!
Teach history in a way that's fascinating to visual learners and children who are captivated by pictures and timelines. When on Earth? approaches history in a different way than most books, giving context that can put what children learn in school in a broader historical perspective. In more than 60 specially commissioned maps, this one-of-a-kind history book shows where, when, and how history happened. Find out how the first farmers lived and worked. Discover the Viking world. Learn about the Arab Spring. Beautiful illustrations, 3-D graphics, clear annotations, and fun facts bring history to life and show how it fits in to the world at large. Whether your child is a visual learner or a geography buff, When on Earth? is perfect for any student of history, giving a guide to our shared past and a birds-eye view of the history of life on Earth.
160 pages, Hardcover
First published April 7, 2015
42 people are currently reading
306 people want to read
About the author
D.K. Publishing
9,026 books2,091 followersDorling Kindersley (DK) is a British multinational publishing company specializing in illustrated reference books for adults and children in 62 languages. It is part of Penguin Random House, a consumer publishing company jointly owned by Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA and Pearson PLC. Bertelsmann owns 53% of the company and Pearson owns 47%.
Established in 1974, DK publishes a range of titles in genres including travel (including Eyewitness Travel Guides), arts and crafts, business, history, cooking, gaming, gardening, health and fitness, natural history, parenting, science and reference. They also publish books for children, toddlers and babies, covering such topics as history, the human body, animals and activities, as well as licensed properties such as LEGO, Disney and DeLiSo, licensor of the toy Sophie la Girafe. DK has offices in New York, London, Munich, New Delhi, Toronto and Melbourne.
Source: Wikipedia.
Established in 1974, DK publishes a range of titles in genres including travel (including Eyewitness Travel Guides), arts and crafts, business, history, cooking, gaming, gardening, health and fitness, natural history, parenting, science and reference. They also publish books for children, toddlers and babies, covering such topics as history, the human body, animals and activities, as well as licensed properties such as LEGO, Disney and DeLiSo, licensor of the toy Sophie la Girafe. DK has offices in New York, London, Munich, New Delhi, Toronto and Melbourne.
Source: Wikipedia.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
January 15, 2022
To get out of a minor ditch of depression, this book, full of maps and graphs, could be a helpful distraction. It helps me to think what happened in the history, look at well-known events from a different angle, and learn something new (to myself). The visual representation is helpful for children to sit down and look through, and easy for adults to explain.
Some of the visuals are clearly designed to achieve utmost psychological impacts, the enormous graphs of rodents on the topic of “plague” could look disturbing to both adults and children.
Disclosure: I could not evaluate the book’s selection of topics (is it thorough or representative?), or historical accuracy in its presentation, for a lack expertise on these topics.
Some of the visuals are clearly designed to achieve utmost psychological impacts, the enormous graphs of rodents on the topic of “plague” could look disturbing to both adults and children.
Disclosure: I could not evaluate the book’s selection of topics (is it thorough or representative?), or historical accuracy in its presentation, for a lack expertise on these topics.
October 3, 2021
This book was indeed and interesting, an innovative, way to look at history.
The book was divided up into several chapters, each tackled a different topic, and each progressed in chronological order. Every two page spread was a 3D map, and on that map where key historical points, individuals and locations pertaining to whatever topic was being discussed.
Each map provided a high level of detail. Geography and history combined together in a unique way to convey information. This would be a wonderful research tool for children, or just a fascinating book to read if you enjoyed history, culture or geography.
The book was divided up into several chapters, each tackled a different topic, and each progressed in chronological order. Every two page spread was a 3D map, and on that map where key historical points, individuals and locations pertaining to whatever topic was being discussed.
Each map provided a high level of detail. Geography and history combined together in a unique way to convey information. This would be a wonderful research tool for children, or just a fascinating book to read if you enjoyed history, culture or geography.
October 24, 2024
- เป็นหนังสือไทม์ไลน์ประวัติศาสตร์ที่ดีมาก บอกเป็นเหตุการณ์ต่างๆ โดยมีรูปภาพแผนที่และคำอธิบายประกอบ
- เนื้อหาค่อนข้างครอบคลุม แต่ไม่ได้ละเอียดมากถึงขั้นไม่จำเป็นต้องอ่านหนังสือเล่มอื่นอีก
- ภาพสวยงาม ทำให้ทำความเข้าใจได้ง่ายขึ้นมาก ไม่ต้องใช้การจินตนาการมาก เช่น การแต่งกายของชนเผ่าอินคา หรือชุดทหารในสงครามกลางเมืองสกรัฐฯ รวมถึงมีทิศทางการเคลื่อนไหวในแผนที่อีก
- เรียกว่าเป็นสารานุกรมภาพที่ดีมากเล่มหนึ่ง
- ความรู้แน่น ภาพสวย ราคาไม่แพง(ซื้อจากงาน bigbadwolf จะประหยัดได้มาก) เหมาะแก่การอ่านแล้วสะสมไว้
- เนื้อหาค่อนข้างครอบคลุม แต่ไม่ได้ละเอียดมากถึงขั้นไม่จำเป็นต้องอ่านหนังสือเล่มอื่นอีก
- ภาพสวยงาม ทำให้ทำความเข้าใจได้ง่ายขึ้นมาก ไม่ต้องใช้การจินตนาการมาก เช่น การแต่งกายของชนเผ่าอินคา หรือชุดทหารในสงครามกลางเมืองสกรัฐฯ รวมถึงมีทิศทางการเคลื่อนไหวในแผนที่อีก
- เรียกว่าเป็นสารานุกรมภาพที่ดีมากเล่มหนึ่ง
- ความรู้แน่น ภาพสวย ราคาไม่แพง(ซื้อจากงาน bigbadwolf จะประหยัดได้มาก) เหมาะแก่การอ่านแล้วสะสมไว้
January 4, 2021
This book might be seen as one for students, but it's really a great book for "students of life" at any age. Very clear explanations of historical events and humanity's origins, with lovely illustrations and diagrams throughout. Great for youth or the young at heart!
September 1, 2020
I asked my 8 year if the title was true. He said, “Definitely, it’s a very very interesting book, I could spend 2-3 days straight just looking at it.”
Want to read
March 31, 2021Note: I accessed a digital review copy of this book through Edelweiss.
October 16, 2021
Fantastic resource! Definitely one to add to the home library.
October 16, 2023
Specially made for teenagers perhaps but being an adult I loved the wonderful pictographic manner which was used to lay out many events in human history.
July 16, 2025
I liked it, but I would have loved to see some Muslim representation. Its fascinating, but I would like to see more than just the basic Roman and Macedonian empires.
April 11, 2015
Ambitious and Engaging
I tried this book mainly because it appeared to be of general interest and because I have often been impressed by the DK line of travel guides. Those guides have the necessary lists of recommended hotels and restaurants and the like, but they also serve as more general purpose introductions to destinations. There are usually quality color photos and maps, interesting sidebars, short pointed articles, and a lot more history, background and depth than you usually get. So, I was curious to see what DK would do with a book like this.
I was pleasantly surprised. This book is sharp and colorful and loaded with information.
Back in the '70's a school of thought developed in statistics and quantitative analysis that emphasized the graphical display of information. The idea was that instead of just tables and charts, information could be displayed in more imaginative visual fashion. (A famous example is Charles Minard's "figurative map" charting Napoleon's invasion of Russia. The time line is linear but narrows month by month to reflect not just the movement of Napoleon's army but also the loss of troop strength due to cold and sickness. ) Well, this book attempts the same sort of thing, with reasonable success.
Each double page spread has one large organizing theme; say, the furthest outlines of the Roman Empire. This is drawn as a map, although it looks like a map from one of those civilization sim video games. Around the margins and in places on the map there are short or medium length sidebars and factoids. Around these are smaller images that highlight some aspect of one of the sidebars. There is a lot of substantive content packed in, and not just obvious or superficial stuff.
In spirit this book is reminiscent of those old solar system posters that every kid born in the 50's had. Remember? All of the planets were drawn to relative scale and then info about density and rotation and so on was printed around them. And then there were paragraphs about comets and the like tucked in the empty spaces. Well, this book is in that tradition, but focused on historical events.
As you can imagine, some topics lend themselves more to this sort of treatment than others. The book ranges from the movement of humans out of Africa up to today. Human migration patterns lend themselves to graphical presentation. Moon landings work in terms of visuals and maps. Famous voyages of discovery certainly work. But the Bolshevik Revolution is just timeline facts dotted across a big map of the Soviet Union. The rise of the internet is mostly timeline facts dotted across a world map. As I say, some hits and some misses, depending mostly on how well the topic lends itself to visual treatment.
The upshot, though, is that this is an ambitious and rewarding effort. It probably wouldn't work as a primary text since it's too light on any particular topic. You could certainly quibble with some facts and descriptions, although I did not detect any overt bias, but more just the consequences of having to very briefly summarize complex matters. As a review tool or an engaging entertainment or just an interesting bit of non-fiction for a general reader, this struck me as very appealing and rewarding.
Please note that I received a free advance ecopy of this book in exchange for a candid review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.
I tried this book mainly because it appeared to be of general interest and because I have often been impressed by the DK line of travel guides. Those guides have the necessary lists of recommended hotels and restaurants and the like, but they also serve as more general purpose introductions to destinations. There are usually quality color photos and maps, interesting sidebars, short pointed articles, and a lot more history, background and depth than you usually get. So, I was curious to see what DK would do with a book like this.
I was pleasantly surprised. This book is sharp and colorful and loaded with information.
Back in the '70's a school of thought developed in statistics and quantitative analysis that emphasized the graphical display of information. The idea was that instead of just tables and charts, information could be displayed in more imaginative visual fashion. (A famous example is Charles Minard's "figurative map" charting Napoleon's invasion of Russia. The time line is linear but narrows month by month to reflect not just the movement of Napoleon's army but also the loss of troop strength due to cold and sickness. ) Well, this book attempts the same sort of thing, with reasonable success.
Each double page spread has one large organizing theme; say, the furthest outlines of the Roman Empire. This is drawn as a map, although it looks like a map from one of those civilization sim video games. Around the margins and in places on the map there are short or medium length sidebars and factoids. Around these are smaller images that highlight some aspect of one of the sidebars. There is a lot of substantive content packed in, and not just obvious or superficial stuff.
In spirit this book is reminiscent of those old solar system posters that every kid born in the 50's had. Remember? All of the planets were drawn to relative scale and then info about density and rotation and so on was printed around them. And then there were paragraphs about comets and the like tucked in the empty spaces. Well, this book is in that tradition, but focused on historical events.
As you can imagine, some topics lend themselves more to this sort of treatment than others. The book ranges from the movement of humans out of Africa up to today. Human migration patterns lend themselves to graphical presentation. Moon landings work in terms of visuals and maps. Famous voyages of discovery certainly work. But the Bolshevik Revolution is just timeline facts dotted across a big map of the Soviet Union. The rise of the internet is mostly timeline facts dotted across a world map. As I say, some hits and some misses, depending mostly on how well the topic lends itself to visual treatment.
The upshot, though, is that this is an ambitious and rewarding effort. It probably wouldn't work as a primary text since it's too light on any particular topic. You could certainly quibble with some facts and descriptions, although I did not detect any overt bias, but more just the consequences of having to very briefly summarize complex matters. As a review tool or an engaging entertainment or just an interesting bit of non-fiction for a general reader, this struck me as very appealing and rewarding.
Please note that I received a free advance ecopy of this book in exchange for a candid review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.
April 19, 2015
Best of 2015. So comprehensive.
August 31, 2015
Very colorful maps illustrate major cultural and historical movements over time. I enjoyed every detail in them all--great quotes and sidebars throughout.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews