Name: A History of the World
ISBN: 9780230755956

Andrew Marr

This book takes readers from the Mayans to Mongolia, from the kingdom of Benin to the court of the Jagiellonian kings of Poland. Traditional histories of this kind have tended to be Euro-centric, telling mankind's story through tales of Greece and Rome and the crowned heads of Europe's oldest monarchies.

A History of the World

Our understanding of world history is changing, as new discoveries are made on all the continents and old prejudices are being challenged. In this truly global journey Andrew Marr revisits some of the traditional epic stories, from classical Greece and Rome to the rise of Napoleon, but surrounds them with less familiar material, from Peru to the Ukraine, China to the Caribbean. He looks at cultures that have failed and vanished, as well as the origins of today's superpowers, and finds surprising echoes and parallels across vast distances and epochs.This is a book about the great change-makers of history and their times, people such as Cleopatra, Genghis Khan, Galileo and Mao, but it is also a book about us. For "the better we understand how rulers lose touch with reality, or why revolutions produce dictators more often than they produce happiness, or why some parts of the world are richer than others, the easier it is to understand our own times."

Reiza H

It's a long long way for me to read this.

I watched the BBC series years ago and when I found out that there is a book about the series, I want to read it. Got the book in 2021, and read it this year.

I like history books and find it daunting to write a history book that covers more than 70.000 years of human history. I mean, it's undoubtedly a long, long time to cover. With so many people, societies, civilizations, tribal chieftains, dictators, presidents, nations, et cetera, scattered on those years of a timeline. 

It's a feat. And yet, Andrew Marr himself acknowledged that "Writing a history of the world is a ridiculous thing to do." Because I bet nobody would ever do justice to cover ALL of our stories. When I said all, I mean not just the narration of great man and woman, of kings and queens, inventors, leaders, entrepreneurs, imperial powers and great nations, but also of serfs, slaves, peasants, ordinary people, and third-world nations. 

History is all about perspective. Which story would we choose to incorporate into the books? Should we tell ourselves that all of the stories inside the book mean all of the important things humanity has ever achieved and done? How do we qualify that the story of Kasparov's chess duel versus Deep Blue means more than, say, de-colonization so that it deserves its own chapter in the book? 

It's a feat and a heavy burden to write a world history that really does justice to all. And I bet nobody would.

For this matter, I thank Andrew Marr for compiling this.

Fabian Kutschera

Listened to the Audible audio book which I can really recommend. I wish the chapter were a little shorter but overall it gives a great overview of historical phases. Especially liked the parts about China & Mongolia