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3.91 AVERAGE
3.91 AVERAGE
Gombrich intenta facelo tan breve que acaba sendo historia simplona e incorrecta.
My daughter and I have been reading this in chunks for almost a year and finally finished it today - shortly after her eighth birthday. It's perhaps a little advanced for her to fully comprehend but she stuck with it anyway. If you know a 10-year-old who's interested in history, forget the "Horrible Histories" and get this instead!
It covers everything from the dizzying first paragraph about prehistory to the final paragraph, written in Austria in 1936 on an optimistic note, hoping for a bright future. In this edition, there's an afterword written over 50 years later in which he outlines what happened in the years after 1936 and he follows the story through from the rise of Hitler to 1989 and the fall of the soviet union. Very heavy, difficult subjects are tackled head-on with some easily-digestible lessons about human nature in the roots of historical atrocities that are surprisingly easy for a primary school girl to relate to. It is truly a work of genius and I can't praise it enough!
It covers everything from the dizzying first paragraph about prehistory to the final paragraph, written in Austria in 1936 on an optimistic note, hoping for a bright future. In this edition, there's an afterword written over 50 years later in which he outlines what happened in the years after 1936 and he follows the story through from the rise of Hitler to 1989 and the fall of the soviet union. Very heavy, difficult subjects are tackled head-on with some easily-digestible lessons about human nature in the roots of historical atrocities that are surprisingly easy for a primary school girl to relate to. It is truly a work of genius and I can't praise it enough!
hopeful
informative
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
A lovely--though entirely Euro-centric--overview of world history, told in a fairy tale style.
adventurous
funny
informative
lighthearted
fast-paced
Fantastic read. Does an incredible job of taking someone from zero knowledge to a good breadth and understanding of human history from 4000BC to 1945.
It's written in such a way that it's easily digestible with the target audience being children.
The first chapter which I believe was added only in the english edition made me think that I was going to be reading a children's book because of the tone of dialogue to the reader but after the first chapter this was used less and felt less child-like so don't just read the first page and write it off as too immature.
It's evident that Gombrich put his love into this book and I would have loved to have read the extra chapters he had planned for the English translation. I'm looking forward to reading his "The Story of Art" as well as diving a bit deeper into some of the topics in the book, this is a great jumping off point for me as someone who has recently found an interest in history.
It's written in such a way that it's easily digestible with the target audience being children.
The first chapter which I believe was added only in the english edition made me think that I was going to be reading a children's book because of the tone of dialogue to the reader but after the first chapter this was used less and felt less child-like so don't just read the first page and write it off as too immature.
It's evident that Gombrich put his love into this book and I would have loved to have read the extra chapters he had planned for the English translation. I'm looking forward to reading his "The Story of Art" as well as diving a bit deeper into some of the topics in the book, this is a great jumping off point for me as someone who has recently found an interest in history.
Excellent little book to refresh on history of mankind...
informative
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
informative
medium-paced
I love the gentle and curious tone of this book, the perfect metaphors E. H. Gombrich sometimes draws to create a beautiful impression of the time period, and his personal voice which serves to add a layer of warmth and imagination to the storytelling. Of course the book suffers from the inherently reductionistic problem of condensing 5,000 years or so of human history into a little more than 300 pages, but that's okay — every chapter piques one's curiosity just enough for me to read 20 Wikipedia articles, create 30 Anki flashcards, rabbit hole through 5 hours worth of historical lore on the internet, and pair it with a historical film that evening to better immerse in the zeitgeist of the time period. Which, in turn, led to the creation of a Letterboxd account and yet another rabbit hole, this time into niche historical films, so now I'm just as obsessed with my films as with my books. Thanks, Gombrich.
Praise concluded, I must mention my critiques. Despite how much I enjoyed this book — and wanted to enjoy it more — it is sometimes impossible to ignore the overtly Eurocentric worldview through which the events are narrated and the deliberate censorship of certain events that cast Europe in a harsh light, in an attempt to preserve the unsalvageable guise of moral legitimacy. It does sour the experience. Had I been a young European child hearing this story while snuggled warmly into bed, perhaps I would not have felt so strongly, and perhaps I would not have known at all. But I am not Gombrich's intended audience, and it is impossible for me to pass over the same lines so simply, with the innocence of a wide-eyed, European child.
It's not just the problem of disproportionate representation among the strands of history selected for inclusion — I understand this book was published nearly 70 years ago, in Europe, for European audiences, emphasizing events most relevant or relatable to them. That much is forgivable. What is harder to forgive is the way entire chapters of genocide and mass atrocity are glossed over, in a way European viewers might not think twice about, with the half-hearted justification that these events are simply “so shameful to us Europeans that I would rather not say anything more about it.” Of all the troubling lines in this book, this one leaves the greatest distaste in my mouth. To take away the story of a civilization is to take away their place in history; each omission from writing is an act of erasure, perpetuating the injustice of the colonizers by further removing the memory of a people from our collective consciousness. It is an unmistakable failure of the historian, whose duty is to bear witness to the truth of our past.
As one user in the comment section put it (more harshly than I would’ve, but still relatably):
Praise concluded, I must mention my critiques. Despite how much I enjoyed this book — and wanted to enjoy it more — it is sometimes impossible to ignore the overtly Eurocentric worldview through which the events are narrated and the deliberate censorship of certain events that cast Europe in a harsh light, in an attempt to preserve the unsalvageable guise of moral legitimacy. It does sour the experience. Had I been a young European child hearing this story while snuggled warmly into bed, perhaps I would not have felt so strongly, and perhaps I would not have known at all. But I am not Gombrich's intended audience, and it is impossible for me to pass over the same lines so simply, with the innocence of a wide-eyed, European child.
It's not just the problem of disproportionate representation among the strands of history selected for inclusion — I understand this book was published nearly 70 years ago, in Europe, for European audiences, emphasizing events most relevant or relatable to them. That much is forgivable. What is harder to forgive is the way entire chapters of genocide and mass atrocity are glossed over, in a way European viewers might not think twice about, with the half-hearted justification that these events are simply “so shameful to us Europeans that I would rather not say anything more about it.” Of all the troubling lines in this book, this one leaves the greatest distaste in my mouth. To take away the story of a civilization is to take away their place in history; each omission from writing is an act of erasure, perpetuating the injustice of the colonizers by further removing the memory of a people from our collective consciousness. It is an unmistakable failure of the historian, whose duty is to bear witness to the truth of our past.
As one user in the comment section put it (more harshly than I would’ve, but still relatably):
“What I can't forgive him is the utterly Eurocentric, theistic worldview that permeates every page… Want to know what happened to the native peoples of the Americas? ‘There (in Mexico) and in other parts of America, the Spaniards proceeded to exterminate the ancient, cultivated Indian peoples in the most horrendous way. This chapter in the history of mankind is so appalling and so shameful to us Europeans that I would rather not say anything more about it.’ So, not a mention of Manifest Destiny (sorry, Plains Indians!). For the colonial depredations in Africa, just one sentence: ‘as you can imagine, the native inhabitants were often very badly treated if any of them tried shooting at the invading troops with their bows and arrows.’
Is this dude for real? I think there's a whole lot of Congolese (to mention just one example) who had their hands chopped off for ‘infractions’ considerably less severe than shooting at their colonial invaders with bows and arrows. I suppose European behavior in Africa was just so shameful, best just not to mention it. Wouldn't want to upset the kids.
For all I know, kids may lap this kind of thing up. But I doubt it. If this enormously biased, sanitized, middle-Eurocentric view of history were all they were to be exposed to, the world would be in a sorry state indeed.”
TL;DR: A Little History of the World succeeds as a charming, imaginative introduction to European history — and fails as a history of the world. That distinction matters (to some of us more than others). Still, I enjoyed it (for the most part).
informative
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced