History is a rich, varied and fascinating subject, so it's rare to find the whole lot in one book...until now. "The History of the World in Bite-Sized Chunks" pulls it all together, from the world's earliest civilizations in 3500 BC to the founding of the United Nations in 1945, passing by the likes of Charlemagne, the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean War, to name a few. Here's your chance to introduce yourself to the full spectrum of world history, and discover just how the modern world came to be.
As another reader put it, this is pretty much a "this thing happened, then that thing happened" account. Since it obviously never claims to be anything else, I don't see that as a negative. It's a great lightweight read for those who just want to brush up their facts and figures.
Em resumo, este livro é a prova de que desde que o homem chegou ao mundo andou sempre à batatada. Meio mundo a querer, e conseguir, roubar território a outro meio.
É um livro muito agradável de ler uma vez que tem muitas poucas páginas e com um bom resumo dos momentos essenciais da história do mundo.🌎🏛 Um bom companheiro para lermos em viagens!✈️🚍🚅🚃⛴️⏳️
Bu hızlandırılmış bilgilerin yarısından çoğunu detaylı bir şekilde bilince çok aman aman bir keyif vermedi ancak genel anlamda bir dünya tarihi özeti okumak isteyene, özellikle öğrencilere, bu şekilde tarihi bilgiler keyifli gelebilir.
A tight 192-page portrait of world history from the earliest civilizations through World War II.
I read these chunks of history slowly over the last month when in between other books. Divided into six eras and regions within the eras, it's easy to follow a particular region through the ages with the page number references making for easy navigating. Each topic or notable development is covered in entries of one paragraph up to a page in length, and a series of simple maps show the growth and spread of various civilizations and empires. Of course there is some context and continuity missing considering the brief looks at each period, but there is also enough to get a sense of the ideologies and struggles particular peoples faced. I encountered some glimpses of Eastern and Oceanic history I wasn't that familiar with; these were good synopses to frame those stories and they've given me enough to go on to begin digging deeper.
Quick read even though the first chapter is quite difficult to take in - as well, it is about thousands of years ago and it is heavy about stuff we don't know or have much interest in today. I love how the quick summaries are very detailed however small, and all give a general idea of each period of time at different places around the world. Big problem, after I finished I remembered more or less one paragraph out of the whole book for it wasn’t very memorable at all. Recommend for those interested in history if you need to something as reference but think it could also be nice for geography enthusiasts too, 3 stars.
Edit: Bringing this down to 2.5 stars as compared to other 3 Star books I have rated I definitely enjoyed this less than them. Overall, still very informative!
For doing what it promises, it does a good job. It only tells facts, no comments or analysis. But due to the lack of explanation and because everything is being told so fast, it's easily forgettable. If you just want a quick refreshment of the world history timeline you'll get it but you probably won't remember much after that then.
Hızlı bir dünya tarihi hatırlatması olsun diye satın almıştım ama kaynakçaya bakıldığında çocuklar için dünya tarihi gibi kitaplardan yararlanılmış. Bu nedenle daha çok çocuklara veya lise öğrencilerine yönelik bir tarih okuması amacıyla yazılmış gibi.
History is amazing. World history is amazing. All of history crammed into 170 pages seems insulting to the story of humanity. This book is pure knowledge, but due to the lack of explanation that is essential in understanding the humanities, I'm not sure it'll stick.
Hakikaten de bir nefeste okunacak, okuyucu hiç yormayan bir dil ve anlatım ile herkese hitap eden bir kitap olmuş.
Gerçi yazarın da önsözde bahsettiği gibi kitabın kapsamına alınamayan hadiseler okuru bir hayli üzüyor.
Özellikle bir Türk olarak Kurtuluş Savaşı'ndan hiç bahsedilmeyip Türkiye'nin sanki Osmanlı'nın devamı gibi algılanmasına yol açacak blr anlatım içermesi içerik konusunda bana şüpheci olmam gerektiğini gösterdi.
Yine de genel kültürün artsın diyorsanız, yarın öbür gün bir yarışmaya katılacaksanız kitabı mutlaka okumanızı tavsiye ederim.
I picked this book up at the British Museum Gift Shop as something light to read whilst on the train. This book is fun and somewhat informative, and has reminded me of a number of different peoples and moments in history that I want to read more about in future.
However, this book has a number of significant factual errors. Take the map on page 15 in the paperback version, which mixes up the geographic locations of the Babylonian and Sumerian Empires, or the discussion of the "Barbarian Migrations" on pages 60-61, which includes the Gallic sacking of Rome in 387 BCE with the Visigothic and Vandalic sackings in 410 and 455 CE respectively. What's more, the author's use of terms like "Indian" for the indigenous peoples of the Americas and "Barbarian" for the peoples who migrated to into the Roman Empire and its successor states between the 3rd and 6th centuries CE, is outdated. As an introduction to global history, this book ought to keep to the standards of contemporary historical practice and be as thorough in its fact-checking as possible.
I also found the book's chronological organisation to be somewhat confusing. The author's conclusion of Chapter 3 "The Middle Ages" at 1066, a date which traditionally in European Medieval History is considered to be the end of the Early Middle Ages, seems to be a bit misplaced. Granted, as a European Historian with a strong Romanocentric focus my professional perspective on chronology tends to be far more particularly Romanocentric, let alone Eurocentric, thus I've argued professionally that the European Middle Ages lasted from the Fall of Rome in 476 to the Fall of Constantinople in 1453. When one takes events in the rest of the world into account it makes sense that these chronological delineations should be revised, though I am unconvinced by those delineations chosen by the author of this book.
While this is a good introductory read about global history, I would caution the reader who wants to use this as a launching point for more in-depth historical reading about the topics within. Based on the author's other works, her professional focus seems to be more directly on British history. This focus is reflected in this book.
Got this for birthday from Ana! It’s basically most of what you learn in World History in high school, but they touch on some areas that I did not know. I learned so much from this and I would recommend it to anyone. I think it falters with its length; it could be longer.
Kitabın adından bəlli olduğu kimi dərin tarixi məlumat gözləmirdim, demək olar ki, abituriyent hazırlığı (yəni orta məktəb) zamanı öyrəndiyimiz tarixi müəyyən limitlərlə təqdim edir.
Həmçinin kitabda mərkəzi və ön asiya və qafqaziya haqqında demək olar ki məlumat verilmir. Xüsusilə də Azərbaycanın adı ( baxmayaraq ki, 1ci və 2ci dünya müharibəsinə geniş yer verilib və Azərbaycanın əvəzsiz rolu olub) çəkilmir. Ən azından qadınlara səs hüququnun verilməsi hissəsində AXC-nin adının çəkiləcəyini gözləsəm də, təəssüf ki, yaxın belə düşmür.
Kitabı oxuyarkən müəllifin qərəzli yanaşma tərzi açıq aydın hiss olunur. Amerika və ingiltərəyə qarşı mərhəmətli yanaşsa da, SSRİ, Osmanlı, TC haqqında ağız dolusu nifrətlə danışır. Həmçinin Nadir şahı, Səfəviləri fars adlandıraraq Azərbaycanın varlığından qəti məlumat vermir.
A concise overview on the history of the world from the beginning of civilizations to the end of WWII. It is a good reference on some forgotten facts without bolting myself down to read serious history books, and it provides information on regions that I am not too familiar with.
There are 6 major sections that focus the history of different continents in different eras:
1- From 3500 BC to 800 BC 2- From 800 BC to AD 450 3- From AD 450 to 1066 4- From 1050 to 1700 5- From 1700 to 1900 6- From 1900 to 1945
Such a handy little book that I know I will read it again later. I read it with another Visual Reference Guides on World History (ISBN 978-1-4351-3895-7) that serves as a supplementary material should I want to learn more about facts on any particular event.
Four weeks ago, I bought this book in the British Museum as the idea of squashing 10‘000 years of human history into only 175 pages seemed very ambitious. I was eager to see how many cultures I didn‘t know and how the civilizations I was familiar with were summarized.
All in all, with the obvious challenge of cutting certain information in order to keep the topics „chunk-sized“, Emma Marriott did a very good job in writing as neutral and concise as possible. Even the French Revolution only gets two pages, a refreshing alternative to my school education where we spent months on end with Robespierre & Co. - and eventually left out everything after 1945.
A collection of history "tasters". Nothing is very in-depth (like it says on the tin!) - instead the book offers two-to-four pages on a variety of subjects, including a number of ancient civilizations and empires that I'll admit I've never heard of, which can whet the appetite if you want to read more into the subject. Nothing very in-depth.
Gonca Şenay'ın tavsiyesiyle okuduğum kitabı sevdim. Lakin bazı konularda biraz daha detay ve daha çok harita olsaydı sanırım daha da severdim. Ama o Zaman da 'Bir Nefeste Dünya Tarihi' olmazdı değil mi?
É aquele resumão de véspera de prova. Muito bom pra situar no tempo eventos e personagens da história. Guia rápido de referência. Não esperem detalhes ou os porquês dos acontecimentos. Achei que cumpre bem o papel a que se propõe.
Okay, I'll start by saying that I think this book mostly does exactly what it sets out to do, and I logically know that a short book about the history of the world can't be comprehensive - it would be impossible. That said, I largely enjoyed this and thought it was interesting. It does cover a very broad range of time and space in a very concise manner. The way my brain works, it's a little bit hard to process that much information when the sections are so brief, but the information is certainly in the book and communicated well!
On the other hand, by the end I was feeling a bit of fatigue due to the fact that most of the content is about violent conflict, warfare, annexation, colonialism, etc. And I do understand that war has irrevocably shaped the way the world looks during every era of history, but I wish that a little bit more page time had been dedicated to learning more about the art, architecture, culture, religion etc. for a lot of these countries or empires while they existed, instead of just focusing on their expansion and inevitable downfall through warfare. I guess I need to pick a few of these geographical areas and/or time periods and pick up longer books about them! The other thing that I consider an oversight is the lack of any meaningful section on people who were Indigenous to North America, aside from briefly mentioning them when Europeans started colonizing the continent. I would really have liked to learn more about pre-colonial America, and will likely look for a book that deals more with that topic.
This book delivers what it claims to offer; summing up world history from ancient world to WW2 in a slim book. Although some parts of world history, ie. some civilizations or contexts (why or how some events happened), are left out, more cannot be expected from this sized book. A short account of the rise and fall of civilizations. No analysis, no comments; only quick facts. For people who would like to refresh their general history knowledge, and for those who aren't familiar with some parts of the world history (just as I was with the Oceania part), I would recommend this easy-read. If you want to read history in-depth, but do not know where to start, this book could also give you an idea. I still expect a book to have a bit more literary or scientific value, not just to list facts and figures. However, it's worth spending the few hours (or weeks if you read in-between books like I did) on it.
Very informative. However, it would be greatly improved by the addition of pictures, especially in the first half of the book (focusing mostly on different civilizations). Too bad it did not cover anything after the end of the second world war. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the reading and recommend this book for anyone interested in history but not very much educated in the field.
One of the finest examples of books I’ve read that literally delivers what it says on the tin. Every main cultural aspect of world history is covered here, whether it be in one paragraph, one page or one chapter. If there was a significant moment in continental or regional change and development during the formation of the world we know today, then this book has it covered. Fantastic.