History Year By Year

Title:  History Year By Year:  The History of the World, From the Stone Age to the Digital Age

Publishers:  Dorling-Kindersley and Smithsonian Enterprises

Rating:  **  (2 out of 3 stars)
              Recommended

Audience:  Elementary and Middle School Ages

If you're a history buff, or if your middle schooler needs to bone up for the National History Bee (www.nationalhistorybee.com), this is a must-have volume.

Both DK and Smithsonian know how to put out a quality product, and those of us familiar with The Eyewitness series know what to expect:  full-color spreads, bulleted details, informative inserts.  This publication delivers on all counts and doesn't disappoint.

I recently viewed a few different history volumes to supplement our home library and found this to be the most accessible and best format.  Only two initial pages are spent on the least significant (and least evidenced) topic of history:  the evolution of man (weakly evidenced by the inclusion of only three skull visuals, of which just one appears to be human).  With a secular publisher, this is about the best you can do.  In fact, it's rather extraordinary, compared to the other books I skimmed.

The volume then immediately moves into ancient cultures and ancient history.  The chronology continues, as expected, through Middle Ages, Renaissance, revolutions and modern wars.  No culture or time period is neglected, and it really displays a remarkable synchronism of world history in a highly readable format.

The visuals are stunning and the timelines easy to follow.  Time is divided into 25 year blocks, and every few pages the reader finds a two-page spread on special topics such as "China's Golden Age," "Europe's Wars of Religion," "Unification of Germany and Italy," "The Cold War," and "Civil Rights."

At only 300 pages in length, History Year By Year is a surprisingly concise volume and a worthwhile reference to keep on hand.  Anyone from ages 8 to 80 will enjoy flipping through it and it's far more engaging than Wikipedia searches!

Encylopedias are a thing of the past, but most families would benefit from at least one good history reference.  At our home we keep Will and Ariel Durant around, as well as H.G. Wells, Winston Churchill and David McCullough, but when our 12 year old needs pictures and timelines, History Year By Year is the go-to reference.