The Atlas Collection

Sir Martin writes:

These nine pioneering atlases harness cartography to history, and graphically illustrate economic, social, political, military, diplomatic, and geographic snapshots of history. Each self-contained map tells its own story; taken together they give context and depth of understanding.

Toronto Book Fair, 2006
Toronto Book Fair, 2006

On This Day: 20 March 2003:

“On 20 March 2003 Iraq was invaded by a coalition of forces led by the United States, whose main ally was Britain.  Australia and Polish troops also took part, as well as Iraqi Kurdish militia in the north.  After three weeks of fighting, the Ba’athist government of Saddam Hussein was overthrown.”

Routledge Atlas of American History

Sir Martin’s inspiration:

In the army I learned to stand on parade and to march, to polish my boots and buckles, and to shoot, before going into the Army Intelligence Corps, where, given the Cold War of that time – the Soviet Union was my area of study. It was to lead me in due course to publish one of my twelve historical atlases … A year before his death, Randolph Churchill had asked me to draft for him, as part of a book which he and his son wrote on the Six Day War of 1967, a 5,000-word essay on “The Jews from Moses to Nasser”. To prepare this for him, and to widen my own understanding, I drew several dozen maps of aspects of Jewish history. This stimulated me to prepare more maps, for myself, and for a lecture I gave at Oxford, “The Jews versus Geography”. 

The Recent History Atlas, 1860-1960

First published in 1966, this first of Sir Martin’s historical atlases shows, in 121 maps, the historical development of the world from “The European Empires in 1870” to “American Preparedness Since 1960”. Also included is a decade by decade timeline (and notations of which map shows the event) for Great

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The Holocaust: Maps and Photographs

Published for the Holocaust Educational Trust, this slim atlas chronicles in photographs and maps the scale of the slaughter – six million Jews murdered – the widespread acts of Jewish resistance, the fate of many millions of non-Jews who were also murdered, the often inadequate response of the world outside

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Children’s Illustrated Bible Atlas

Wanting to see the lands of the Bible through the eyes of the young, Martin Gilbert took Natalie, his eleven-year-old daughter, with him to the Holy Land. They travelled together from northern-most Galilee to Mount Sinai. For both of them it was a voyage of discovery. They were struck by

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Atlas Of British Charities

“The aim of this atlas is to provide a picture of the scale and nature of the work of British charities. Individual maps cover the work of forty-eight different charities. In all, four hundred charities are mentioned on the maps: I have listed them in a special index. Every town

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