I have finally nerved myself to tackle the edited manuscript of the History of the Medieval World–which is a good thing since I’ve just learned that it needs to be back, with all illustrations and timelines and as many maps as possible, before the end of February.
Which is almost possible. Dealing with the edits is going very quickly–so far the suggested changes are along the lines of, “You’d better explain how Julian got two hundred ships into the Euphrates” and “You’d better pick one spelling for this name and stick with it.” The timelines are a little more complex. I have two commitments I’m trying to keep: to make sure that every place mentioned in the book is also on a map, and to make sure that all major dates and reigns go on timelines at the end of each chapter. These timelines have the dates from the current chapter on the right and the dates from the previous chapter on the left, like this:
Timeline for Chapter 6:
Timeline for Chapter 7:
It’s not always possible, in a world history narrative, to find a natural and intuitive transition from one chapter into another, and the timelines help hold the story together.
So that’s my task for the next few days. More soon.
Sounds like you’re getting there! I wish the timelines could be horizontal, but then I guess you’d have to publish a long picture-book affair. I LOVE timelines. That’s about as close as I get to math.
Thanks so much for putting all the places on maps! I just read 1066 by Howarth, and he describes this typical English village at the beginning and end of the book and it is not on any map in the book! That’s enough to make you crazy!
If only humanity would agree to do things one year at a time.
And may I just say that I LOVE the timelines and the maps!!! I really appreciated those as I was reading the Ancients!!! So, thanks for going to the extra mile.
I’m so excited to read this one. I’ve been teaching from Ancient World since it came out. It looks like we’re getting closer.
I love the maps and time lines in the Ancient World. With all my distance students around the world, I require the recreation of everyone of them in their commonplace books. Most of the youth enjoy this, but all of them enjoy the “story.”