Smithsonian Timelines of History

Smithsonian Timelines of History
Published at DK Canada

About the book

Beginning with the emergence of our earliest African ancestors and taking readers through the history of cultures and nations around the world to arrive at the present day, Timelines of History caters to readers who want a broad overview, a good story to read, or the nitty-gritty of historical events.

With easily accessible cross-references that build bite-size pieces of information into a narrative that leads readers back and forth through time, Timelines of History makes the past accessible to all families, students, and the general reader.

My Thoughts

I was looking forward to discover the World history through the lenses of the Smithsonian and this book will give you an amazing picture of the events that happened through time.    The book is packed with information, a timeline at the bottom of each pages, pictures that will take your breath away as well as maps, archeological discoveries, stats and more.

Just for fun I decided to turn to my year of birth – 1969.   Here’s some of the information I was able to read for 1969;

• Yasser Arafat became the leader of the PLO in Feb.
• The Concorde made its maiden flight in March.
• Beatle John Lennon and his wife Yoko Stuno spend two weeks in bed in an effort to draw attention to peace.  One week at the Hilton Amsterdam in March and the other week in May at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal.
• In July, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin took man’s first steps on the moon from their spacecraft Apollo 11.  
• In Lybia, Mu’ammar al-Gaddafi led a group of army officers to depose King Idris on Sep 1, in a bloodless coup, and established the Libyan Arab Republic.
• Nigeria banned food aid from the Red Cross to the breakaway state of Biafra, bringing millions of people to the brink of starvation.

The Timelines of History has recently been updated as it includes two pages on 2011 including information about the royal wedding of Catherine Middleton and Prince William, the earthquake in Japan and the death of Osama Bin Laden.

The book is quite heavy as it contains more than 500 pages and covers everything since the beginning of life on Earth.    You will find information on early civilizations, the classical age, trade & invention, reformations & exploration, the age of revolution, as well as technology & superpowers.   Studying about the discovery of Canada by Jacques Cartier – no problem you will find information about him on page 186 as well as an illustration depicting Jacques Cartier in 1541-1542.  Turning the pages of this book will be as though you are travelling through time to discover the history of the civilizations of the past.  Here’s what a page look like

As you can see this book is a great reference to have in your home if you like to know more about history. It is also a great tool to use while studying history with your kids whether you are homeschooling or not. For example, if you are covering the Roman empire this year with your kids, you can see a detailed map of the rise of the Roman Empire and see how it looked like from 240 BCE to 14CE. It is quite impressive to see how the empire expanded through the years.  Though this book is not based on creation history, it is a great tool to have along side a creation timeline for comparison and understanding of the different point of views between historians.

The Smithsonian Timelines of History is available at your favorite bookstore, even amazon.ca.

Disclaimer: Thanks to DK Canada for sending me the above mentioned product for review purposes. I was not monetarily compensated for this review. Please note that the review was not influenced by the Sponsor in any way. All opinions expressed here are only my own.