The Political Atlas of the Modern World is a unique reference source which addresses these questions by providing a comparative study of the political systems of all 192 countries of the world.

This well-illustrated volume is just the thing to have on hand while working your way through the pages of Xenophon, Herodotus, and Thucydides. Robert Morkot traces the growth of Greece from a series of often conflicting city-states, each with its own colonial outposts as far from home as Spain and Tunisia, to loosely knit alliances that waged huge conflicts against the Persian empire--and, as in the case of the Peloponnesian War, against each other. The pages devoted to Alexander the Great, which show how the Greek empire came to extend from southern Egypt to the gates of China are particularly interesting.


 

This well-illustrated volume is just the thing to have on hand while working your way through the pages of Xenophon, Herodotus, and Thucydides. Robert Morkot traces the growth of Greece from a series of often conflicting city-states, each with its own colonial outposts as far from home as Spain and Tunisia, to loosely knit alliances that waged huge conflicts against the Persian empire--and, as in the case of the Peloponnesian War, against each other. The pages devoted to Alexander the Great, which show how the Greek empire came to extend from southern Egypt to the gates of China are particularly interesting.

From the Silk Road to the Great Game, Central Asia has long been a region of great strategic, political, and economic importance. Currently the home of large oil reserves, Islamic terrorists, and new democracies, Central Asia is of growing visibility to Americans. In this atlas, Rafis Abazov provides 50 two-color maps, each accompanied by a facing page of explanatory text, that graphically illuminate the region's history tracing back to the 8th-7th centuries B.C. From the spread of Islam to the invasion of the Mongols, the area has been at the crossroads of some of the world's most important developments, all succinctly explained in this book. Students will regard it as a useful reference, and general readers will value it for its clarity and wealth of information.

Matching clear graphics with informative text, Christopher Scarre's atlas gives a fine overview of Roman history from the emergence of the first city-state in the eighth century B.C. to the rise of Christian theocracy a millennium later. The Penguin Historical Atlas of Ancient Rome is especially helpful in showing the growth of the Roman empire through successive centuries of military campaigning from Scotland to Arabia and in delineating the networks of trade, transit, and communication that bound the far-flung outposts to the imperial capital. Scarre notes that many of those networks still survive in one form or another.

From its humble origins as a cluster of rival chiefdoms along the banks of the Nile, ancient Egypt rose to become one of the most advanced civilizations of its time. Noted Egyptologist Bill Manley traces its history from the founding of Memphis around 5000 B.C. Recent archaeological evidence sheds new light on the vast architectural legacy of one of the world's oldest nations. Full-color maps and b&w illus.

The Onion - the hilarious fake news site - released a book a while back called Our Dumb World that ripped on many countries from around the world. They also released a companion audio book, and here it is, in 256 kpbs AAC format.
The first all-new publication from The Onions stable of mad satirists since 1999s Our Dumb Century, this globe-spanning volume raises the bar for topical humor. Known for their savage, irreverent newspaper parody, The Onion staff delight in playing up stereotypes and skewering perceptions, and they have picked an enormous playground in which to do so; this skewed world atlas compiles enough fictional facts to tickle-and probably offend-just about everyone.

Deserts are beautiful places, even when unforgiving of those who do not respect their nature. This is an attractive book, written for the nonspecialist, that portrays that nature with a wealth of simple maps, lovely photographs, and considerable basic introductory information.