1001 Historic Sites You Must See Before You Die by Richard Cavendish (Editor), Koichiro Matsuura, Koichiro Matsuura (Preface by)

Publishers Weekly

In this thick travel guide, Cavendish, a veteran travel writer and columnist for History Today magazine, assigns readers enough must-see agendas to fill several lifetimes. Well-organized by region and graced with thorough historical descriptions of each locale, this volume's impressive range incorporates everything from typical tourist destinations like Westminster Abbey, the Taj Mahal and the Great Wall of China, as well as unusual spots like the A-Bomb Dome in Hiroshima, Guinness Brewery in Dublin, and the Mercedes-Benz Factory in Stuttgart, Germany. What's missing is the information a tourist would need actually to visit these sites: directions, hours of operation, and other handy tips are overlooked. Probably too heavy handed for a casual tourist, this guide would be most useful for the experienced traveler or history buff.
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Michael F. Bemis - Library Journal

This is the latest entry in the publisher's "Must See Before You Die" series, with previous titles having covered such varied topics as movies, gardens, and natural wonders. Hefty but compact, the tome is organized according to five broad geographical regions: the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Oceania. After that, things get dicey, as entries appear to be placed at random. To compensate, an "Index of Historic Sites" appears at the very front, with nations listed alphabetically and each nation including its own alphabetized roster of entries. Human-made structures, e.g., buildings, bridges, monuments, and the like, are emphasized. The sumptuous color photographs are accompanied by three to four paragraphs of text describing the particulars of location and construction and a brief history, often with surprising or ironic tidbits. For instance, the notorious Kilmainham Jail in Dublin, aka "the Irish Bastille," was ordered built in the 1790s by one Sir Edward Newenham. This being the era of debtors' prison, the hapless politician was incarcerated within the walls of his own creation shortly thereafter for not paying his bills. Enlivening the book is a certain literary air: snippets of poetry and quotations from belles-lettres immortalizing an architectural gem are frequently presented as call-outs, as in "Yet I remember...the deep midnight, the Bridge of Sighs, the beauty of woman" (Edgar Allan Poe, The Assignation, 1834), which appears in the entry for this famed span in Venice, Italy.