The Timetables of History: A Horizontal Linkage of People and Events, Based on Werner Stein's Kulturfahrplan

by Bernard Grun

Book Overview

The world-famous reference that tells who did what when from 4500 BC to the present day--now updated for the 21st century. "A unique, encyclopedic book--rewarding, informative, entertaining." --The... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0671249878
• ISBN13: 9780671249878
• Release Date: October 1979
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 676 Pages
• Weight: 2.85 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Excellent Reference Material

With its upright columns that enclose events in neat rows, allows anyone to see history at a glance and simultaneously view contemporary events in all cultures worldwide, in politics, the sciences, arts, etc. Does not focus on any one area of the planet to the exclusion of others. At first its range is broad (each listing in the early stage of the work combines very general information on millennia or centuries) but later we have a year by year recounting of history. Gives an excellent overview of the story of human beings on earth but does not go deeply into the events or individuals it records. Works best for scanning the happenings of a time period, and giving information that can be taken for a more thorough investigation elsewhere.

Well done and very useful

This is one of those books that is just great to browse through to get a perspective on a particular period in history and the sequence of important events during that time. The timeline goes from earliest history, 5,000 B.C., up to modern times. One nice feature is that it displays parallel timelines for several different topics, not just history and politics, but also Literature and Theater; Visual Arts; Music; Religion, Philosophy, and Learning; Science, Technology, and Growth; and Daily Life. This makes it useful and convenient for getting a broader picture of the overal cultural context in addition to the usual events such as which king was ruling, which wars were being fought, and so on.One interesting use for this book would be along with one of those big historical atlases of the world, such as the ones from Hammond, National Geographic, Oxford, Time, and so on. Some of them include their own timelines, but usually they're not as detailed as the ones in this book. The combination of the two resources would make for an even more effective learning tool. If you're interested in buying one of these, out of the big 5 or 6 offerings out there, I like the Historical Atlas of the World, by John Haywood. It's not the biggest, or most complete, or the fanciest graphically, but it's one of the best written, visually appealing, and easiest to use. Also, I think it does the best of job of integrating the graphics and maps with the textual presentation. It's also the most reasonably priced and is anywhere from 40% to 80% cheaper than some of the others.If you like timelines, another thing I noticed is that there are now several good websites devoted to this subject. You could also check some of these out if you're interested. I still find it's easier and more convenient to just have a book like this rather than having to download a lot of web pages (unless perhaps you have faster network connection than I do).Overall, a very well done and very useful book on historical chronology, and at a very reasonable price. The price is less than many of the standard histories out there, despite its being a pretty big and thick book itself.

The Timetables of History

As a writer and teacher, this book has been very helpful. It helps make connections between different events in different parts of the world. This has been especially helpful for me when planning units of study for children of all ages. It helps expand the study to a variety of interest areas.The book is also helpful when reading as I often look up the particular time span and find out what else was going on at that time. For example, the year I was born, 1945 was the year that Vitamin A was synthesized, that Carousel played in New York, that Frank Lloyd Wright designed the Guggenheim Museum and that George Orwell wrote the Animal Farm. These connections make the reading so much more interesting and expansive. These connections have been especially helpful for the children. A really handy reference book. I have another copy.

The way we should all have been taught History.

If this book has a vice, it is simply you might forget what you came to find, as your eye catches some fascinating confluence of events hitherto missing from your understanding of the past. I have frequently beeen distracted for long periods wandering the endlessy intriguing pages of this indispensable reference. Have a child who is bored by history, and asking why does it matter? Are you puzzled by a historical event that is often quoted as important but seems irrelevant to you? Are you a writer? Editor? Teacher? A reader who loves to understand the setting and times of a novel or novelist or other writer? This book is for all of you. Like any comprehensive work, there are omissions; gaps and small shortcomings. But if you only have three reference books, they should be a dictionary, a thesaurus and The Timetables of History.

Good book, and helpful for any research.

This book illustrates very clearly how different events affected or started parts of history. It divides it up into sections such as political, religion, music, arts, and daily life. It proceeds to list all of the events that occured at that time period, or as mostly used per year. This book is a very helpful tool for a research project, or if you just want to brush up on your history.