The Times Atlas of World History
book by Richard Overy
The Times Atlas of World History is a historical atlas first published by Times Books Limited, then a subsidiary of Times Newspapers Ltd and later a branch of Collins Bartholomew, which is a subsidiary of HarperCollins, and which in the latest editions has changed names to become The Times Complete History of the World. The first two editions were created by Barry Winkleman, the editorial director of Times Atlases and Managing Director of Times Books. They were edited by the Oxford Chichele Professor of Modern History Geoffrey Barraclough. It contains large full color plates and commentary on each map or set of maps. Includes approximately 600 maps covering the date span of 3000 BCE to 1975. It has been revised and reprinted for many times and the latest edition is the ninth edition, published in 2015, and reflects on the modern world up to the 21st Century.
Content
It contains seven sections:
The world of early man
The first civilisations
The classical civilisations of Eurasia
The world of divided regions
The world of emerging West
The age of European dominance
The age of global civilisation
The book is prefaced with an eleven page "World Chronology" which is quick-view timeline across general geographic regions. It is suffixed with a Glossary (38 pages), helpful in cross-referencing names and places, and an index (26 pages).
Each section is further divided into given subjects and contain between one and nine maps, charts to show economic, demographic, manufactures, agricultural output, drug trade and other data as needed. Occasionally illustrations are included on a topic.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “The Times Atlas of World History” as book by Richard Overy. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as book by Richard Overy. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7769397. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1975 and 2015.
Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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Three-step research path
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- Expand the search: follow The Times Atlas of World History primary sources, The Times Atlas of World History archive and Times research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “The Times Atlas of World History” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.