"The Entire History of the World..." Topic

…Distilled Into a Single Gorgeous Chart

"…This "Histomap," created by John B. Sparks, was first printed by Rand McNally in 1931…
This giant, ambitious chart fit neatly with a trend in nonfiction book publishing of the 1920s and 1930s: the "outline," in which large subjects (the history of the world! every school of philosophy! all of modern physics!) were distilled into a form comprehensible to the most uneducated layman.

The 5-foot-long Histomap was sold for $1 USD and folded into a green cover, which featured endorsements from historians and reviewers. The chart was advertised as "clear, vivid, and shorn of elaboration," while at the same time capable of "holding you enthralled" by presenting:

the actual picture of the march of civilization, from the mud huts of the ancients thru the monarchistic glamour of the middle ages to the living panorama of life in present day America.

See here
link

Hope you enjoy!.

Amicalement
Armand

Interesting, but unsurprisingly given the date it is quite Eurocentric. For example, Spain becomes more important for acquisition of South America – but the peoples they displace don't appear on the chart at all. Sucks to be an Aztec or an Inca.

Arguably the Australian Aboriginal peoples also held a large portion of the earth's surface for a very long time.

It does say "History", it ain't history if they don't write it down.

20th Maine raises a great point – I agree that while the aborigines were there for a long time, but there weren't many of them and they sure didn't leave many records – however, in contrast, the Mesoamericas had lots of people, left lots of records and it is hard to even spot them – plus the orange string for China is consistent but seems awfully thin

Our knowledge of Mesoamerican history was very sparse in 1931. Indiana Jones wouldn't even explore the Hovitos temple for another 5 years for pete's sake!

Sucks to be an Aztec or an Inca

Sucked even more for them at the time. :)

Given the date (1931) when, a) frankly very few historians were interested in MesoAmerican History, and b) very little good data really existed on MesoAmercian history existed, I don't get too disjointed about this map.

MesoAmerican history has taken enormous strides in just the last 10 years, and long held assumptions about the history of MesoAmerica have been overturned. It seems the more we learn about MesoAmerican history, the more we learn we simply don't know yet.

The more we learn about Mezo-American history the more awfully gruesome it becomes, fully justifying the words of Marvin Harris, the anthropologist who wrote of it in "Cannibals and Kings" that the Aztecs and Mayan Empire marched under the banner of "Join us and we willeat you."

Thank you Hernando Cortes.

Protein is protein.

Nice map, but I saw the entire history of the world (past, present, and future) on the surface of a pancake I made. However, I didn't feel like taking the time to write it down, so it got drowned in syrup and eaten before it could get cold. Yes, such a loss to all mankind, but I was hungry…. ;-)