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swaye's review against another edition
2.0
A History of the World in 100 Objects is an amazing concept. However, the execution is severely lacking.
The book's fundamental flaw lies in its failure to recognize that less could have been more. A photograph of each object accompanied by a concise and direct summary would have sufficed. Instead, the prose overshadows the objects, creating a bizarre blend of dry, overly verbose, and cringeworthy language. MacGregor's indulgence in excessive fluff needlessly extends the narrative, making it an incredibly tedious read. The flowery language often attempts to appear trendy or relatable to a younger audience, but it just ends up feeling inauthentic.
By adopting a more succinct and factual approach, this book could easily have included even more historical accounts, possibly expanding to 200 objects without compromising the content's quality. Unfortunately, the book's attempts to interpret the significance of each object often veer into the realm of ridiculous conjecture. While some speculation is acceptable in historical analysis, I found MacGregor's conjectures frustratingly unreliable.
The only redeeming aspect of this book lies in the images of the objects themselves. They offer glimpses of historical treasures that are more captivating and informative than the accompanying prose.
holly_keimig's review against another edition
5.0
50 Book Reading Challenge 2015: A book with more than 500 pages
I enjoyed this SO much! I was daunted by its size and it was not really that easy to carry around. I read the first few hundred pages in the book and then realized it was fall and freaked out a bit (knowing I had to finish it before January). I knew it had been a series of radio specials on the BBC and I found all of the podcasts online for free! They made my work days very enjoyable. I listened to the rest in 15 minute segments and learned so much that I didn't know before. (Also, happily, the podcasts don't leave anything out from the book!) The book is beautiful and contains pictures of each object and so I referenced it while listening when possible or after if necessary. There is some adult content in this (so only for those over 18 I'd say) but it is a very eye-opening look at the world through 100 objects in the British Museum. It was nice to see history through another country's perspective. If I had to pick a favorite object, it would probably the Inca gold llama, but its a hard decision. I highly recommend this one!
Links to the image gallery and the podcasts:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00nrtd2/episodes/downloads
http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/a_history_of_the_world.aspx
I enjoyed this SO much! I was daunted by its size and it was not really that easy to carry around. I read the first few hundred pages in the book and then realized it was fall and freaked out a bit (knowing I had to finish it before January). I knew it had been a series of radio specials on the BBC and I found all of the podcasts online for free! They made my work days very enjoyable. I listened to the rest in 15 minute segments and learned so much that I didn't know before. (Also, happily, the podcasts don't leave anything out from the book!) The book is beautiful and contains pictures of each object and so I referenced it while listening when possible or after if necessary. There is some adult content in this (so only for those over 18 I'd say) but it is a very eye-opening look at the world through 100 objects in the British Museum. It was nice to see history through another country's perspective. If I had to pick a favorite object, it would probably the Inca gold llama, but its a hard decision. I highly recommend this one!
Links to the image gallery and the podcasts:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00nrtd2/episodes/downloads
http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/a_history_of_the_world.aspx
trib's review
5.0
Just beautiful. The collection at the British Museum remains available online, as does the BBC Radio series. If human history is something you enjoy, read this, listen to the radio series, and browse the collection on the web.
smummadi's review against another edition
5.0
Good non Eurocentric view as the 100 objects are distributed in a true world wide distribution .