historic atlases

I have many world atlases from various time periods (1909, 1931, 1945, 1946, 1953, 1963, 1983, 1993 and others) and I haven't listed them due to lack of ISBNs and stuff. I could spend way too much time hand entering, and probably will. Anyone else with this "problem"!

Not so much with atlases, but definitely with my older books. It's a labor of love! :)

I entered the first few hundred of my books (ISBN or not) by hand, mainly just for the catharsis of it. I enjoyed it! To each their own, I suppose.

Even with pre-ISBN books of any kind (including atlases), I have been able to look up pretty much all Swedish titles (and many English-language ones) in LIBRIS, which is the Swedish national library catalogue. Then I have copied the LIBRIS index number (from the MARC record) into LibraryThing, and had it retrieve all the bibliographic data, just as with an ISBN.

Sometimes I have been unable to find the correct edition of a book in LIBRIS, in which case I have had to edit the bibliographic data afterwards, but it's still easier than entering it all by hand. I may want to edit the data anyway, because the LIBRIS record isn't always up to my taste, and that takes extra time, but that happens for ISBN editions too.

As an example, Andrees stora handatlas (abt 1900; exact publication year not known) was entered this way, though I ended up rewriting cartographer Richard Andree's name without an acute accent to separate him from author Richard Andrée (who I believe is a different person). I'd really like LibraryThing to introduce numeric identifiers for authors, just as for books and works, to help us separate authors with identical or similar names.

I just posted this at the Ancient History group, but thought it germane to this group, as well:

Bought this today --
$7.98 on remainder rack at Barnes & Noble

Historical Atlas of the Ancient World by John Haywood

I have lots of large format atlases but I must say this one is really outstanding, covering all of the ancient world to 500 BC with wonderful detailed maps and a well-constructed, functional timeline along the bottom of each page.

My biggest gripe in reading even the best history book is often a lack of functional maps. Even if you know the geography pretty well, easy-to-read large format maps are a real boom to your studies. Yet most books neglect them or entirely omit them. Cunliffe's Europe Between the Oceans had beautiful color maps that typically lacked many of the place names he referred to in his text. Kagan's volume one The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War, which I'm currently reading, lacks even a single map. I mean I'm pretty familiar with the Aegean and Ionia and even Magna Graecia to some degree circa 450 BC, but there are hundreds of city states; I have a color map I downloaded off the net folded into the back of the book for reference.

I also have almost a full shelf of various kinds of atlases, including many from the "Cultural Atlas" series, but these generally get bogged down with a focus on encyclopedic information in very small print and often feature maps that contain so many details they are almost unreadable -- like some travel maps of major metro regions so criss-crossed with highways and interstates that they fail as instruments of navigation.

Haywood's Historical Atlas of the Ancient World, on the other hand, is clear in its purpose and its presentation. I'm currently also reading The Horse, the Wheel and Language by Anthony about the proto-Indo-Europeans, as well as The Ancient Near East: A History by Hallo, and I am so impressed by the way the Heywood atlas illuminates both by actually capturing a wealth of place names referred to by modern archaeologists and historians that are often left off of other historical maps. I strongly recommend this atlas to everyone who craves maps as reference to their reading the way that I do.

http://www.amazon.com/Historical-Atlas-Ancient-World-Haywood/dp/1586632388/ref=s...

It's also available at Barnes and Noble on line. It looks familiar. I'm wondering whether I have it or whether I've just seen it at the store. I may order one anyway just because of the low cost and your recommendation.

Robert

Robert -- he also is the author of the smaller paperback Penguin Historical Atlas of Ancient Civilizations that I also own -- maybe you have that?

It is not conclusive that I haven't cataloged it, but I also don't recognize it. I have some Penguin historical atlases though.

Now that shipping is free on any order by a member, I think I'll go for the one you are enthusiastic about.

Robert

PS I just ordered it.

RD

You will love it Robert!

I have both Historical Atlas of the Ancient World and Historical Atlas of the Classical World. Love them both. I agree that seeing the geographic layout is key to understanding many points of history.

I recently spotted something along the lines of Atlas of World History by the same author at a Barnes & Noble, but I resisted buying and wouldn't you know, can't find it at my local store nor online. Maybe it was the reprint of Haywood's book by that title (http://www.librarything.com/work/332583) with just a different cover than what I have seen before.

On a only slight tangent, I often xerox maps and use them as a reference if I decide that a particular book might require it. (They work as book marks too) It has struck me as a bit . .... odd that fantasy books frequently have better maps in them than some history books. eek

Historical Atlas of the Ancient World came today. It didn't look like any book I remembered, but when I entered it in Add Books it showed as a duplicate ISBN. It is a handsome work that I hope to turn to, but I am glad I didn't spend too much money on this one.

Robert

Well I guess you are in trouble if you have so many books you can't remember them, but I have to admit I have had this happen to me. Fortunately, it is a truly great atlas and if you indeed do already own it this will give you an opportunity to rediscover it.

I picked up a copy from the B&N remainder table last weekend. Probably wouldn't have given a second look to such a thin book without your recommendation, but it does look like it will be useful. B&N must be wondering about the sudden surge in sales for that title!

I have two copies of Shepherd's Historical Atlas (tho can only find one right now) and they have a fair number of blank pages in them. Pages 25 and 28 are both that way. I am wondering if anyone here could pass on the story behind those? eek

Here is nice place for anyone interested in historic maps: Http://www.davidrumsey.com/

I wonder why the url didn't link: http://www.davidrumsey.com/?

Robert

>5 Garp83: Just ordered the atlas. Thank you all!

I love atlases and collect them! I have 32 under my "atlas" tag. A modest number for this group, I might add.

Let me know what you think Stellar ...

Very nice atlas. Thin, not comprehensive. But what it does have is done well. Fun to leaf through.

#20 Stellar -- you are referring to Historical Atlas of the Ancient World? I also collect Atlases (or is it Atlasi?) and this is my favorite of the ancient world. It actually has maps, something that seems to be missing in many books calling themselves "atlas" on the cover. And there aren't so many cities that you can't read it! So I like the lack of comprehensiveness just for that reason

Yes, I am referring to that atlas. It is straightforward with a lot of good info. The maps are well done. I guess that sounded like I was criticizing it. It is good for what it is. A good addition to my collection of Atli. :)