The fourth and last edition of Times Atlas of World History was edited by Geoffrey Barraclough.  It was published by Maplewood in Hammond in 1993.  In 1999 the name of this book was changed with the fifth edition to be Hammond Atlas of World History

A typical question that would lead a person to this book would be something along the lines of "I've read about Babylon and Sumer, but don't really know where they were, in relation to each other and when." 

The format of the book is an over-sized print book.  Its purpose is to give a chronological coverage of world history in maps.  The scope of the book is fairly large.  It includes text beside maps.  The maps include those of kingdoms, battles, and geographic effects of treaties.  The maps are colorful and clear.  This book was the first to introduce new techniques, such as skewing of maps to reflect different perspectives (has been copied by others). 

This book is geared toward the general reader and students.  The dates of coverage of the final edition of this title were from 3500 B.C. to early 1993.  The book was (and is as the new title) generally updated approximately every 5 years.

The first step to using this book is usually the table of contents.  The glossary adds text to some entries, but no page numbers.  The Index of Place Names contains 7,500 entries, but does not include every name on every map.  The glossary includes 100,000 entries with supplemental information about people, events, treaties, etc. 

LCSH: 1. Historical geography -- Maps.