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Title: Prehistory and the First Civilizations (The Illustrated History of the World, Volume 1) by J. M. Roberts ISBN: 0-19-521519-2 Publisher: Oxford Univ Pr Childrens Books Pub. Date: October, 2001 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $30.00

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Average Customer Rating: 4 (2 reviews)

Rating: 4
Summary: A nice start to a wonderful series
Comment: This book is the first volume in the wonderful Illustrated History of the World Series. This one covers human history from the evolutionary advent of mankind, through the earliest civilizations, Mesopotamia, Egypt, and finally the Assyrian empire. Along the way, the reader is treated to many colorful maps and pictures, and interesting sidebars.

This book is very good, and a give a nice start to a wonderful series. I found the book to be interesting, and quite accurate in its data. Overall, I liked the book, and highly recommend it.

Rating: 4
Summary: Well-Written and Beautifully Illustrated Introduction
Comment: This is volume one of a ten volume series called The Illustrated History of the World. This first volume covers the origins of the human race through the first civilizations. It is divided into two sections There are three chapters in the first section which is called Before History. The first chapter is on our primate precursors. The second chapter deals with early Homo Sapiens, and the third chapter discusses the earliest beginnings of civilized behaviors like agriculture, animal domestication, metallurgy, and community life.

The second section covers the earliest civilizations and consists of four chapters. Although the book states that there are seven ancient civilizations (Mesopotamia, Crete, Egypt, India, China, Meso-America, and the Andes), it only focuses on the two earliest: Mesopotamia and Egypt. The second volume in the series discusses the early cultures of India and China and then moves on to discuss the early Greeks.

The book is filled with beautiful color illustrations. Every page has at least one and most are photographs of artifacts, art works, or scenes. The text is a bit conservative, only giving the most accepted interpretations of evidence and not mentioning other proposed theories. This makes it a good basic introduction and outline, but may be less useful to someone who wants to look at these subjects in greater depth. The lack of any bibliography of further readings is also a drawback for those wanting to seek more information. The type face is large and the lines are amply spaced. Couple this with the copious illustrations and the book is actually a very quick read for its size and length. It is a few steps above the approach of Dorling Kindersley books that are predominately illustrations with supporting text. With Roberts, the text is the major part, but the illustrations are definitely more than an after thought. This is a good introduction for the general reader. It is not going to be a lasting reference book that you will turn to again and again. Read it once and move on.

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