History of World Trade in Maps

Lots of reading and interesting information

The colourful maps provide absorbing interest … old trade routes tell the real people’s history alongside governments riding and fallng

Its big, about the size of an Annual and 224 pages long.Maps are the World's story in pictures and this book is full of them.It is all looked at entirely factually, no fiction at all.No little modern cartoon characters or speech bubbles or anything to turn it into a child's picture book.The maps show how the world expanded for humans and how trade played its part.I always felt at school that there needed to be more time to just look at the maps in books and work out the stories behind them and this book does just that.Our journey starts on Neolithic Earth and gives an outline of how early-man traded.This book takes us up to June 2020 and the impact of Covid on trading, with a map of the affected areas from John Hopkins University and so is very current.All the maps are historical and many have those embellishments of early times when myth sometimes migled with fact.I especially liked the US trans continental Rail Road map spreading like spider webs , just imagine what that would have looked like as a time lapse from space.This would make a fantastic book for Home Schooling, I almost wish we were still doing it because there are so many angles to grasp and roads to travel down , it would be a history/ Geography leaping-off point over and over again.This is chock full of interesting maps and informationIt covers just about every aspect of trading one could think of.You can easily lose yourself in this . I am sure there are many opportunities to research further via the internet ,if one aspect really took your attention but it is a very comprehensive and Interesting volume with masses of intriguing charts.Might be a little heavy going for the under 10s unless maps are a passion.

This is an interesting whirlwind tour through history from a different perspective. All too often history is defined by kings and queens and by battles and invasions, but this book looks at everything through the prism of trade, using historical maps to illustrate each topic.The format is that a chapter has a full-page map and a couple of pages of text. In some cases the full-page map is a detail of a larger map that is then shown as a full double-page spread. With each topic being covered in just two pages the book is necessarily not very in-depth and is not intended to be, but it still manages to throw up some surprises. It also gives a concise overview of things like the Hanseatic League in a very accessible way.The chapters are in broadly chronological order, and most of the maps are contemporary to the period being covered. Some of the earliest maps are so rudimentary that I wouldn't even recognise them as maps without being told that is what they are, but all are beautiful in their own way.The very last chapter discusses the impact of Covid-19 on world trade and is illustrated by a map from Johns Hopkin, showing infections up to June 2020, and the penultimate chapter about trade blocs has a map of the EU showing the UK as having left, so it is really is as up-to-date as you can get.This is a brilliant book to dip into, with some beautifully reproduced maps. Perfect for anybody who is fascinated by old maps.

This review is for the condition of the product and not the book contents. I have recieved a replacement from the first that arrived bound incorrectly, 2nd replacement has the same issue. Clearly a manufacturing fault as the other books in the series have arrived in perfect condition. Unfortunately amazon doesn't allow for me to request a replacement just refund. 😔😔