The Times Complete History of the World [Hardcover]

• “This is one of the great works of historical reference in the English language. If you were allowed only one history book in the whole of your life, The Times Complete History of the World would be hard to beat because it conveys a sense not only of time, but also of place.”
Niall Ferguson, Professor of History, Harvard University.

• “Wonderfully told history, brilliant graphics and maps, comprehensive and utterly accessible. In the internet age, proof positive that this reference book still has the edge by a considerable margin.”
Jon Snow

The ultimate work of historical reference

From cavemen to the Cold War, from Alexander the Great to global warming, from warfare through the ages to the great voyages of exploration, The Times Complete History of the World is the book that has all the answers, the detail and the authoritative text in one breathtaking single historical source.

With over 600 full-colour maps and charts on a wide range of historical subjects and representing the work of a team of professional historians, this new edition continues a tradition of nearly thirty years of excellence, style, authority and cutting-edge design.

This edition is internet-linked, permitting further in-depth exploration of key subjects.

With fully up-to-date text, including material on Iraq and Afghanistan, terrorism, Israel and the EU, this book, edited by leading modern historian Professor Richard Overy, is broad-ranging and more visually enticing than ever.

Times History of the World is an enduring classic of world publishing. First published in 1978, this remarkable book has changed our way of viewing history. Its intelligent, accessible and visually sumptuous treatment by over 100 of the world’s leading historians brings the drama of history to the page in a way never previously attempted and never matched since. Its coverage is geniunely global, its conception never less than daring, its mapping consistently stunning, its texts clear, accessible and superbly well informed. Page by page, continent by continent, era by era, the full sweep of human history is revelaed in enthralling detail.

This new edition sees the most far-reaching and dramatic changes yet. Every spread has been redesigned and rewritten, every map and chart extensively reviewed and updated. There is expanded treatment of China, Japan and southeast Asia from the earliest civilizations to today’s rapidly evolving regions. The coverage of the United States has been strengthened to allow more material on the post-War period while that on the 20th century has been reorganized to reflect new historical perspectives and the dramatic events of this revolutionary century. The result is a work unequalled in its authority, quality and imagination, a masterly overview of the endlessly absorbing story of humanity.

Richard Overy (b. 1947) was educated at Caius College, Cambridge. He taught at Cambridge from 1972 to 1979 at Queens' College, and from 1980 to 2004 at King's College, London, where he was made professor of Modern History in 1994. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (1977), Fellow of the British Academy (2000) and a Fellow of King's College (2003). In 2001 he was awarded the Samuel Elliot Morison Prize of the Society for Military History for his contribution to the history of warfare. In September 2004 he took up appointment as Professor of History at the University of Exeter.