Compressed, yet exploding, history
The history of religion in 90 seconds.
The imperial history of the Middle East in 90 seconds.
These and more, in exploding color, with appropriately quasi-pseudo-logarithmic time scales, are part of the Maps of War web site. They pull off in three dimensions the kind of info-clarification that Edward Tufte is famed for doing in two.
(Thanks to Cosmic Log for bringing this to our attention.)
NOTE: Related in spirit, if not otherwise, is the History of the Universe in 60 seconds, which, in a fit of post-historical expansion, expanded into book form.