Colin McEvedy (1930–2005)

I read his Atlas of Medieval History last year so when I saw this I snapped it up. It's just as good. He is outdated on one or two points but you have the grand sweep of history from the Neanderthals to the last days of the Roman Empire, all told with personality and humour. I learnt loads. I never knew Europe had native silk. My favourite Kingdom is Meroe which never seems to either invade anyone or be invaded. Are we looking at the only competently managed place on the map?

I’ve read several of McEvedy’s Penguin Atlases now and they’re all winners. If you’ve never seen one what you basically have is an outline map and facing text on each double page. The content of the maps changes chronologically as you read. The beauty of this is that you can see everything that’s happening on the continent at one particular time. Be ready for a few surprises as just a few hundred miles can make for wholly different cultures and stories.

Of particular interest was show more southern Africa. The stretch of time where nothing appears to happen is staggering. I was reminded of my thoughts on the British Isles where reading the Atlas of Ancient History. You suddenly realise how backwards and isolated the islands have been for most of their history with the delayed arrival of the Bronze and Iron

Ages, and the Renaissance of course. In southern Africa you have no metal working until the colonial period. Why doesn’t it transmit south along the east coast and then inland? This book does not provide answers. There’s no space for anything more than a summary of events and for this area, for most of the history, there’s nothing more than a vague indication of ethnic groups’ territories. There is no real ‘history’ because there was no way to write it down. This book is as old as me though, and perhaps archaeology has since shed more light.

A good format and a good introduction to the subject. show less

McEvedy's atlas is certainly a fascinating synopsis of medieval history. It's also nothing like what I hoped for when I bought it. Readers looking to identify medieval place-names with their geographic locations will be largely disappointed. Nearly all the maps are of an identical scale, to comprehend the whole of Europe, the Near East, and North Africa. What they do provide is diagrams for the location and movement of populations, cultures, and material resources throughout the area on a show more diachronic basis, with maps to account for every period of 25-50 years from the year 362 to 1483. show less

as an overview of borders changing over time, it's terrific. and it goes wide, documenting Asian migrations as a major force. it's very unlike other historical atlases, though, in steering clear of spotlights on various cultures as they are changing. and the maps are stripped of all the detail we expect to see, the record of towns and ephemeral political borders in jurisdictions that come and go. a very interesting approach.