The Infographic History of the World - Hardcover

D'Efilippo, Valentina; Ball, James

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1770853162 ISBN 13: 9781770853164

Publisher: Firefly Books, 2013

Synopsis

Review of the UK edition:
"The authors have put as much effort into the design as the data and their book is meant to entertain as much as to inform."
-- The Economist

The Infographic History of the World starts at the dawn of time and launches into a 13.8 billion-year journey. Four sections--In the Beginning, Getting Civilized, Nation Building, and The Modern World--present world history as a visual essay of facts, trends and timelines. It is history done in a new way, a beautifully designed collection of insightful and revealing infographics that tell us where we've been and where we're heading.

The book's design cleverly mirrors the content, opening with parchment-like paper stock, primitive typography and no color and progressing to glossy pages, minimalist design and brilliant color.

Seventy-four topics, 100 infographics and 224 pages weave a story of civilization and conquest, of war and peace, of science and invention, as well as some of the big issues of the day.

• When did everything in the universe come into being?
• When did the crusaders set sail?
• Is religion growing or disappearing?
• Which countries are eating all the food, causing all the pollution and taking all the drugs?
• Do more guns equal more gun deaths?
• What are we dying of and how quickly are we changing?
• Will we survive the next millennium?

The Infographic History of the World is as entertaining a reference as is possible. It will inspire and inform from its permanent place on the coffee table. It is for all ages and all interests and perfect for a society hooked on instant information.

About this title

About the Author

Valentina D'Efilippo is a designer with an interest in data visualization, art direction and interactive design. She studied industrial design in Italy and earned a post-graduate degree in London.

James Ball is a multi-award-winning data journalist with The Guardian's investigations team. He was a core journalist on several of the newspaper's data-driven investigations, including its reporting on WikiLeaks' Guantanamo Bay files.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

How to read this book.

This book can be read cover-to-cover, so feel free to start at the dawn of time and go forth from there, or dip in and out if that's more your style. Whichever method works for you, we've chosen to highlight a couple of things here to help you get your bearings.

We've broken down the history of the world into four sections, which correspond (very) roughly to certain phases of history: before humanity, before civilization, before 1900 or thereabouts, and the modern era. The design style progresses throughout: the more colors you see, and the more modern the fonts and style, the nearer the present day you're likely to be.

Also, keep an eye on the silhouettes in the bottom left-hand corner of the book: they evolve throughout, often dressing themselves appropriately.

Most spreads in the book tell the story of a single topic -- but a few go across two or three: if you don't see a title, flick back a page or two, and you'll see one.

Not all infographics were created equal. They all have different levels of complexity, so it's worth keeping these three tips in mind:

1. There's a question for every spread, which pithily summarizes exactly what you're looking at. Use it to instantly get acquainted with a topic.
2. Read the text! What the infographics show is, of course, neatly (and entertainingly) summarized by the text, so find out what's generally going on before jumping into the detail.
3. Use the key. Spreads with more complex infographics have a key that shows you how they've been constructed. A quick glance at the key tells you all you need to know about what the infographic reveals.

For those who want to know more about the sourcing or technical details of each of the graphics, there's an appendix with more details and commentary towards the back.

Finally, remember that there's been a lot of history since the beginning of time, and choosing what to include or leave out has often left us scratching our heads. We often allude to interesting topics and events that we didn't have space to elaborate on, so please have as much fun as we did researching them -- by using the internet and a huge pile of books to find out more about the fascinating nuggets of history that are waiting to be discovered.

Edition details

• Publisher: Firefly Books
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1770853162
• ISBN 13: 9781770853164
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 224