History is the study of time and place. If our postmodern culture ignores both, our schools and colleges are especially neglectful of geographical knowledge. Teachers of world history are particularly aware of that neglect. In the right hands, maps, like pictures, are worth thousands of words. Karl J. Schmidt has the right hands. He is both a cartographer and a historian of South Asia. His artfully drawn maps and lucid commentaries tell a history of South Asia that reads like moving pictures. Schmidt’s An Atlas and Survey of South Asian History fills an important gap. The last South Asian atlas intended for students, published in 1959 with maps ending in 1939, has long been out of print. But Schmidt has done far more than update an old approach with maps for the last fifty-five years. He has rethought South Asian history and drawn maps that tell the stories of recent scholarship. Schmidt forsakes the India Office vision ("India under Lord Minto", "India under Dalhousie") for cartographic history of indigenous South Asia, including, for example, a series on the growth of the Delhi Sultanate and a rich array of non-political maps on South Asian economic, social, and cultural history. These are maps for the contemporary classroom and general reader. Clear and easy to read, they are beautifully complemented by Schmidt’s graceful and informative prose. Whether this collection is used as an "illustrated" text to be read from beginning to end or as a reference tool, it is a long overdue resource for teachers and students of South Asian and world history".
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