I was given one as a kid, and on top of my preexisting fascination with maps, the story of history told by the various maps was absolutely riveting. My interest in history may well date from that time.
The online historical maps reminded me a lot of the RMcN atlas, and if they keep going and build up a collection of those maps, it should be a powerful and engaging tool for teaching history. Animation helps bring it alive, showing the ebb and flow of boundaries (though the online version seems to be relying more on cross-fades than actually redrawing boundaries over time). The portrayal of smooth/incremental change is a more accurate way to teach history than the practice of memorizing dates and events--the milestones chop history into artificial divisions and you lose the sense of complex organic growth that characterizes real human history. It's not like nothing happens between wars and coronations and assassinations, but to read conventional history, you'd never know it.
Two thumbs up, and thanks for the link.
Off Topic » in reply to re: Way cool - thanks, Tom
Rand McNally's "Historical Atlas"
The whole thread (32 posts)
- Middle Eastern history in a nutshell
- Who would have thought the history of conquest and bloodshed could look so pretty?
- Yet despite the varied history, apparently only Muslims get homelands/nations in the Middle East
- Map of Sectarian Conflict in Baghdad
- Way cool - thanks, Tom
- re: Way cool - thanks, Tom
- re: Way cool - thanks, Tom
- re: Way cool - thanks, Tom
- Reminds me of...