Blogs > Cliopatria > Resource: 20c Historical Atlas

Dec 16, 2004

Resource: 20c Historical Atlas


by Cliopatria


A very smart student asked me a question I didn't know the answer to (19c Chinese life expectancy), then went and found the answer (under 45 until mid-20c) himself. Better, the whole site, known as the Historical Atlas of the 20th Century, by librarian Matthew White, is a real procrastinator's dream, with all kinds of demographic and political data in map forms. Great teaching materials for modernists.

He's got some interesting alternate histories, as well, including the"what if all the separtists won?" map, the"what if Australia had been colonized by Muslims like Indonesia?" map, and the"20c Middle Earth" map (including the Hobbits' Autonomous Socialist Republic of the Shire).

There's some interesting leftovers from our"turn of the century" manias, as well, very iconoclastic lists of"most important people" and"most overrated phenomena."


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Jonathan Dresner - 12/17/2004

To be completely honest: one of the reasons I wrote this post is so that I'd have a way to track the thing down again. I have the same problems you have, though you should add computer breakdowns to the list of issues: I've lost several iterations of my bookmark files through computer crashes or bad upgrades; and I have, of course, two separate sets of bookmarks at home and at work.

There was, for a time, a movement towards on-line storage of bookmarks and important information, with the intent that it would be a natural dislocated backup and accessible from anywhere. But that raises security issues, not to mention requiring constant connectivity.

Really good gateway sites, indexed lists, resource pages: all of these are necessary, and it would be best if they could be crosslinked to each other..... though enough of that and you spend all your time going from one index to another never finding actual content (looking for on-line degree programs was kind of like that).

Oscar Chamberlain - 12/16/2004

I had actually run across that site some years ago, and then somehow last track of it, despite its quality and range.

Doeas anyone else have the same problem: losing good stuff online through poor bookmarking, excessive bookmarking, just plain forgetfulness, or something else?