History: From the Dawn of Civilization to the Present Day

I keep this book in the living room or by my bedside. It is an excellent text. The chapters are well written and cover a wide breadth of world history with very good illustrations , maps and photos. I read a good number of primary sources and textbooks about history and military history and this survey texts provides a strong overview of important periods, events and figures in history with illustrations and visual images which supplement the text. The authors write in a prose which is clear and sufficiently comprehensive and appropriate for a survey text. For a history fan, young (bright young person) or adult this text is very enjoyable to read and is well worth the price. Highly recommend it and I will be receiving a similar text (focused on American history from the same publisher in a similar format) from my spouse for the holidays. This book is heavy (weight), but again, I read it regularly.

I had been wanting to purchase this book for awhile, but it was pretty costly. Prime Day alleviated that- at half off, I couldn't pass it up! It is a hefty volume- many thick pages, with lots of images and photos- yet easy to read. My husband (who is not a big reader) loves it, because he can sit down for 15 minutes and read and complete a section, similar to a magazine article. Not to say it's that simplistic, but it is not diving deeply into each historical event. It's giving the basics and then some incredibly interesting side tidbits with photos and sometimes timelines and drawings, which adds to the experience. It's not a literary history of civilization; it's something you could sit down with your pre-teen and read and discuss, and it would take up just enough time but not too much time. It would keep their interest, and they would learn something, without being bored, because it's colorful and glossy. It is a lovely book with a quality hard cover and thick pages. I'm really glad I finally purchased it. Highly recommend!

DK does for history what it has previously done for the universe, the earth, animals, and humans in gorgeously-illustrated large-format "visual guides" entitled, logically enough, "Universe," "Earth," "Animal," and "Human." Each book in the series is as comprehensive as possible, though of course none of them can be as endlessly expansive as the enormous subjects they tackle. But they do a wonderful job of categorizing knowledge and related fields, including copious detail, and inspiring curiosity and wonder. "History" will not replace standard textbooks on specific historical eras or regions of the world, but it serves as an excellent general introduction, particularly for those who might otherwise be turned off by the subject of history. It starts with the origin of our species, its spread throughout the globe, and prehistoric developments that ensured our survival. Early and classical civilzations are covered next, followed by the Dark and Middle Ages, the Renaissance, Reformation, and Enlightenment, and finally the Industrial Revolution and the Modern Age. A lengthy appendix concludes the book with brief timelines for all of the world's nations. Numerous maps, links, and period documents are included. There are special two-page features on such leaders as Rameses II, Alexander, Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, Ganghis Khan, Elizabeth I, Louis XIV, Napoleon, Lincoln, Victoria, Stalin, Hitler, and JFK, along with photo features on Egyptian, Celtic, Islamic, and Native Amerian artifacts, personalities like Columbus, Leonardo, Marx, and Einstein, decisive events like the Battle of Stalingrad, D-Day, the bombing of Hiroshima, 9/11, and many others. Recommended.

In the DK Smithsonian publications you get an awful lot of book for the money. History is no exception even at its $50 asking price. I love all that's in this large (12"x10") 620 page book. It has a little bit of everything. Lets start with the massive number of beautiful photos and illustrations. It doesn't stop there. Timelines, influential figures, famous battles, discoveries, philosophies, political movements and so much more are also covered. As an overview how can you not like this book?

This is a huge book! Be prepared for a large book, but wow the material is so well explained and organized. Also, it covers the general topic of all history, so there’s a lot to include. My young teen finds the book a little difficult to tote around the house, but this really aunt been a problem. There are plenty of photos and graphics, which keeps the learning from being overly dry. The dust cover is very nice, and really this is a great education tool for advanced kids, teens, or adults looking to increase their knowledge base. I definitely feel this book gives a lot of return on investment as well as makes a great conversation starter with company as a coffee table book.

This is a good book, nice illustrations, concise descriptions of mostly relevant events in human history. Like every history book that tries to compress millions of years of human history in a single volume, not everyone will agree on the attention given to each subject, too little, too much or nothing at all. I bought this 4 years ago, and so far I just read the subjects that interest me. With the on-going pandemic I thought I'd pick it up again a see what the book says over the 1918 pandemic. In the timeline for the period 1914-present there's one picture of cops in Seattle wearing mask at the height of the pandemic, no description, just a small picture. On page 467, under the chapter "World Health", there's this one sentence: "Just after World War I, a pandemic of "Spanish flu" (influenza) killed up to 50 million people - more than the war itself." That's it, no other mention or short description of the 1918 pandemic can be found in the whole book. The book devoted 2 whole pages on Isabella of Castile, who of course was an important historical figure. But one sentence for an event where 50 to 100, maybe 150 million died, really? I'm sure a lot of world history books whose revised volumes were written this year will include a little more than one sentence over the 1918 pandemic.

This is the best single-volume history book that I have found. Not only does it have excellent explanations of everything, but also beautiful maps, charts, and illustrations. Even my mom, who doesn't enjoy history, likes it. I give the warning, though, that it's addictive to read. It is absolutely worth the price if you enjoy history.

The book appeals to almost anyone. The pictures are all fascinating, regardless of interests and education level. It has the history of evolution, the basic history of most large groups of people, whole pages for each major event in recent history, and a whole page for each modern country. Everyone I've shown it to has loved it. You can spend 30 seconds looking at an interesting picture or 30 hours going through the whole thing. Because of the pictures and the format, it's interesting and doesn't take much effort. I wish they taught history like this in schools because it's interesting, it makes history seem real, and relevant. My history classes were all names and dates to memorize, which was boring and meaningless. Obviously, the only two negative reviews (as of the time this review was written) are from nationalistic Chinese people, who are offended that the book doesn't agree with their government's propaganda. I suspect the book would similarly be offensive to Christians because it talks about evolution, and doesn't mention Adam and Eve or Noah.

DK es garantia de buenos libros y mas tratandose de historia. Son libros que parecieran formar parte de un enciclopedia ya que el contenido tiene ese formato

Wonderful book.

My entire family get to read and enjoy this book and learn a lot about human history.

A Treasury of knowledge. Recieved the book today ,April 19, 2023 on time according to date specified.New and in good package.efficient delivery service.thanks to "Depository book ."

The book is huge, and is true to the description. It is a massive book, quite comprehensive with overall history. There are plenty of pictures, and I haven’t come across a single one that looks low quality or is a duplicate image that I’ve seen in another book. I loved the timeline introduction of each chapter, giving a concise overview of each period within. Highly recommended if you love history, or want to use this as teaching material. If you have kids in a public school, or just think it’s important to teach them about history and want to give them more to learn (as they don’t teach them much of anything like this about human history these days) then I recommend this book!