History Year by Year: The Ultimate Visual Guide to the Events that Shaped the World

by D.K. Publishing

From the origins of our earliest African ancestors right up until the present day, History Year by Year covers the history of cultures and nations around the world in amazing visual detail.

Discover the events, individuals, cultures, inventions and ideas that have shaped the world in this innovative and visually arresting book that presents the 'who', 'where' and 'what' of history as never before. Explore the past using dynamic timelines that highlight major themes and "stories of the year" as well as bite-sized detail so you can move seamlessly through history.

Completely comprehensive yet perfect for browsing, History Year by Year is an essential addition to any family bookshelf making the past accessible to everyone. Now available in ebook (pdf) format.

Genres: History, Reference, Nonfiction

512 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 3, 2011

About the author

Dorling 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.

Reviews

[Lloyd Downey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really have to hand it to DK publications. They produce some outstanding illustrated books. And this is one of them. The amount of information packed between the covers in 512 pages is simply astonishing. And the quality of the photos is superb. However, It's one of those books that I always aspire to to read cover to cover, but never manage to do so. And in the rapidly contracting years left to me, it's unlikely that I will ever read this cover to cover. However, I've delved into it and checked out a few sections where I felt I had reasonable knowledge. The first was about Alexander the Great. Basically they see to have the story correct although it is greatly abbreviated and the is no mention of Alexander fancying himself as a god or the Oracle in Egypt confirming this fantasy. Elsewhere where I looked for similar detail (for example with the Olmecs in Mexico, the basic facts were there but it lacked detail and there was not even speculation about what caused the Olmec decline and resurrection followed by a decline). One thing which I liked about the book is the they have made a semi-serious attempt to cover world events. For example they mention what is happening in China at around 770 BCE but it really lacks detail and the history is decidedly lop-sidedly european biased. They have included extensive time lines on most of the pages where there is a chronological sequence of events in the text. And there are feature pages on special topics such as Metalworking, Agriculture, The rise of the Roman Empire, The American Civil War. I liked these. they are like visual summary cheat sheets. They don't replace reading multiple specialist books on a particular topic but are great for getting a fast overview.
One reservation that I have is that if you really want to know about some specific period or detail of history then the sweep of the DK book is at a too high-level. It doesn't get into the detail. For example, when I wanted to know exactly where the Sogdian Rock was located ....it's not even shown on the very small map of Alexanders travels.
Still really fascinating to dip into and one can earn a lot. An easy five stars from me.