Gordon Johnson (2) (1943–)

One of a series of exquisite large-format volumes on different civilizations, covering their geography, history fro ancient to modern, culture, economy, art and architecture, written by academic scholars and lavishly illustrated on every page. The end papers have a reproduction of an old map, from James Rennell's 'Memoir of a Map of Hindoostan', 1783 (Bodleian Library). These volumes are provided with scores of maps, and even have a Gazetteer and a chronological table appended. The section show more on the Mahrattas was quite an eye-opener for me, as usually our history textbooks peter out after the decline of the Moghuls, and pass on to the Battle of Plassey and the ascendence of the British raj. In relating this part, the author has been careful to avoid hurting nationalistic sentiments, as he has not referred to the infamous Black Hole of Calcutta incident; generally, the author has careful of the nationalist sentiments in India.

This volume has, in addition to the main section on the entire subcontinent, separate sections on Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and the Northwest, Northeast, Central, and South and East of India itself. A glorious creation, well worth acquiring, usually used, and comes in many different published editions with different covers; created by Andromeda Oxford Limited, Abingdon, mine was published by Time-Life Books, Amsterdam, in 1995. show less