Campbell is perhaps best known as a comparativist who focused on universal themes and motifs in human culture.

He first conceived of the Historical Atlas in the late 1970s as an extension of his works, The Mythic Image and The Masks of God.

Heavily illustrated and annotated, with numerous charts and maps to show both variations and similarities in different cultures' expressions of mythic themes, this series was intended to serve both academic and lay readers.

Published by Alfred van der Marck editions as a single book in 1983, it was rereleased by Harper and Row in 1988, in the wake of Campbell's posthumous fame, brought by the airing of the television series, The Power of Myth.

Campbell left rough text for the last two parts of Way of the Seeded Earth, as well as notes for the final two volumes.