The New Global Era (The Illustrated History of the World, Volume 10)

Rating:
Summary: Out of date, but still very good
Review: [Note: the edition of this book that I read was printed in 1998, and some of what I have to say might not apply to later editions.]

This book is the tenth and last volume in the wonderful Illustrated History of the World series. This volume appears to have been a later add-on (volume nine gave a more or less state-of-the-world address, whereas this volume picks up the history that ended in the middle of that book), and follows the history of the world from after World War 2, through to the very early 1990s. As with the other books in the series, this one has many wonderful colorful maps and pictures, but decidedly fewer sidebars.

This is a good book, but is limited by when it was published. A major feature of the 1990s and into the 21st century was the rise of militant Islamic terrorism, but this phenomenon was not anticipated by the author. ("At the least, the alarming spectre of a radical and fundamentalist movement had been dissipated.") But, that said, this is a very good history book, one that provides a great deal of information in a bright and easy-to-read format. I highly recommend it to you.