The Best World History Book Ever Written

books:


	• A Short History of the World John M. Roberts Oxford University Press, USA, 1997 - 560 pages average customer review:based on 28 reviews view larger image
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The Best World History Book Ever Written

This book is fantastic. I had read, "The History of the World" by
Roberts (the big hardback). It is jammed full of hilights and notes.
I now have Robert's "The Short History of The World". I was afraid
as it is much smaller book, that he might skim over alot of things
but he does not. He manages beautifully to still in the small book
be concise and clear. This is indeed a book for the layman or laywoman.
I believe high school students would find it fascinating and develop
a need to know about where we came from. Ordinarily when one just
sees a title like, "History of The World", they think it will be very
dull and boring and not easily understandable. That is definitely
not true of this book. I have never had a world history book I couldnt
put down but this one I could not. I do wish there had been
a book like this when I was in high school and college. It is like
a fascinating mystery you cant tear yourself away from.

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From Neanderthals to Nuclear Arms...

A big ignoramus when it comes to history, I found this book a huge help in supplying me with a good general idea of what happened when in the epic story of the world. The Hundred Years War, the Ottoman Empire, the Han Dynasty, the Hittites--why were these important, where do they fit in over the five thousand plus years of recorded history? After spending all my life on this planet, I thought it would be nice to know what happened on it before they plant me inside it. *A Short History of the World* was sufficient unto this purpose. What a mess this place has always been! Now I know just enough stuff about Byzantium and Charlemagne, the Holy Roman Empire and the Franks, to render them more than merely names I know but don't know why.

It doesn't seem fair to criticize this book for not being complete or comprehensive enough, for being stingy on detail or leaving important events or figures unmentioned--after all, it is advertised as a *short* history of the world. And, indeed, it is abridged by the author from a work of about twice the length. If you want more, read the original. Certainly one of the values of this kind of wide-ranging, abbreviated survey is that it whets one's appetite to learn more about those particular characters and/or events that capture your imagination. What is fair to criticize, however, is that this abridgement too often reads awkwardly, as if words, sentences, entire transitions had been "abridged" right out of the text without thought to how hacked up the resulting book would be. More attention ought to have been given to ensure that this abridgment seemed whole in itself and not a chop-job on the original.

For the most part, Roberts, like a proper historian should, leaves his value judgments out of the equation. But there are times his objectivity lapses--and grates. The off-hand assertion, for instance, that Lincoln was the greatest man to hold the American presidency is hardly more than a sentimental grammar school cliché in the absence of any real discussion of the matter. And to blandly repeat the eminently debatable proposition that you can sum up the Reagan presidency as a period when the rich got all the breaks and the poor got poorer is simplicity at its most simple-minded. That's not history, it's propaganda.

On the whole, however, *A Short History of the World* sticks to the facts and lives up to its promise as a workmanlike survey of what mankind's been up to from prehistory to the early 1990s. I'm somewhat less a dimwit for having read it and there's certainly something to be said for that.

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Packed with information and very concise

Roberts has tackled a monumental task in this book--to touch on the major events in world history in just over 500 pages--and he has done so beautifully. While he doesn't (and didn't intend to) include every name, date and place, he leaves no major stone unturned. This is an impressive book and certainly one intended to whet the appetite for further reading in specific areas of interest. If you are looking for a scholarly overview of world history that is compact and readable, look no further. Highly recommended.

An amazing book

Reading this book was an incredible experience for me. Roberts gives a narrative of human history starting with evolution through the end of the 20th century -- and manages to do it in 15 chapters that average a little over 30 pages apiece. The result was that I was able to absorb the broad sweep of history in a little over two weeks.

The main caveat of this book is that its title may be somewhat misleading. Roberts's focus is very much on Western history, although to be fair, in the introduction he a) acknowledges this and b) makes a case to justify it -- so I don't think he's trying to sneak anything past the reader.

So if you can accept that it is quite Western-focused, it really is a great book. I basically felt that I was able to cover all the history I should have learned in school but didn't in a little over 500 pages.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

AN AMAZING JOURNEY FROM THE FIRST APPEARANCE OF MAN TO THE BLOODSHED IN THE FORMER YOUGOSLAVIA AND LATEST CHAPTER IN EXPLORATION OF SPACE. ROBERTS SURVEYS TEH MAJOR EVENTS DEVELOPMENTS AND PERSONALITIES THAT HAVE SHAPED THE CIVILIATIONS FO THE WORLD FORM THE ARTS POLITICS AND RELIGION TO SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL BREAKTHROUGHS.THROUGHOUT THE BRILLIANTLY TELLS THE STORY OF THE GROWING POWER OF HUMANS TO REMAKE THEIR WORLD AND CONTROL THEIR OWN DESTINY. eFFORTLESSLY DRAWING TOGETHER THE GREAT THEMS OD CIVILIZATION WITH DETAILS FROM EVERYDAY LIFE HE BRINGS READERS FACE TO FACE WITH THE ECITING DRAMATIC OFTEN TRAGIC STORY THAT IS THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD

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