The Understanding World History series first lays out the sequence of events in each period of history and then explains how these events shaped what happened next. Each title begins with a time line, helping students fix the period of history in their minds while providing them with a broad overview. Titles also include an annotated list of important people in the back matter. Page designs incorporate a parchment-paper background, and many of the illustrations are by artists of the period and often include maps and boxes to highlight particular subjects, such as "The Greek Chorus," in Ancient Greece. This title combines mythology, history, and politics and provides an enlightening perspective on the treatment of women in the cultures of Athens and Sparta. Students with an appetite for the grisly will especially enjoy The Black Death, with its vivid descriptions of the disgusting living conditions and shocking medical treatments used by medieval people to combat the incredibly deadly disease. Artists and philosophers are the focus of The Renaissance, along with scientists like Newton. Also discussed is the tension between religion and humanism. These concise treatments of important historical subjects should help students get a firmer grasp on what happened when, and why we still care.
—Susan Dove Lempke