Reviews - A History of the World

53 reviews for:

A very difficult book to review. Marr clearly has a passion for history and has obviously done a huge amount of research. I am impressed that this book covers the history of so many areas of the globe, though I note that some reviewers have criticised it for leaning too much towards western history, so possibly I'm showing a bias too. It's well-written and, clearly showing Marr's style throughout, is not at all dry. But...I had difficulty with it. Partially this is because it presents a very traditional style of history - focused on the movers and shakers, the powerful and the wealthy - and that's never been the kind of history that interests me (although Marr does explain in the introduction why this is his where his attention lands, and I can't fault his reasoning). And partially it's because it's a gallop through history. It romps forward at a breakneck pace; I found that for the places and eras with which I was unfamiliar, this meant I had nothing on which to hang the information, and it simply poured in one ear and out the other. And for those periods for which that I did have a little knowledge, it seemed to swoop through them with almost no time to digest and connect what I was learning to previously-acquired information. I mostly did audio, and found myself repeatedly hitting the button to go back a couple of minutes - and sometimes realising that I hadn't taken in anything for a few minutes and resignedly going forward anyway. I can't help but feel that if this had been a series, with more time and detail for each section, I'd have got more out of it. But then would I have read an entire series? Hard to say. So I'm going with 2.5*, rounded up to 3. I do feel that it would benefit from a second go, for me anyway, but given the length of my to-read list, it seems unlikely to get it anytime soon.

kitschbitsch's review against another edition

4.0

As usual when I finish reading a book like this, I am left with a tremendous sense of guilt about being English/European and the devastation visited on people in other countries in the name of colonialism.

That aside this is a very well balanced, interesting and easy to read (but not dumbed down at all) history of the world.

catarina_duarte's review against another edition

5.0

Uma viagem imensamente cativante e enriquecedora pelos diferentes momentos, acontecimentos e personagens que moldaram a História e fizeram o mundo de hoje! Impressionante a forma como o autor consegue transitar entre histórias individuais e colectivas...e muito fascinante a demonstração de como, consoante os tempos, os actos de um só individuo serem capazes de transtornar e moldar a história de uma forma inacreditável e irreversível e ao mesmo tempo como é igualmente ou ainda mais importante a acção das massas! Recomendo vivamente!

ithasturnedherbrain's review against another edition

4.0

This was my first foray into the world of audiobooks. I spend a lot of time at work filing by myself and instead of listening to music I thought it was time to expand my horizons into non-fiction.

I had been meaning to read this book for a while. I started watching the television series it accompanies, but gave up 10 minutes in because I couldn't handle the dramatised version of history. In that sense, the book was much more satisfying. It covers human history from the earliest emigrations from Africa up until the present day, often focussing on less well know cultures and periods in history. It is an excellent antidote to the West-centric version of history we often are often taught in school.

elentarri's review against another edition

3.0

informative medium-paced

This is a general history of the world with a focus on the northern hemisphere (North America, Europe, Asia) - anything south of the equator gets a vague, passing mention [perhaps nothing exciting happened down there? ;) ]. The text is a bit choppy where the author bounces between regions, but the book is easy to read and understand and not particularly convoluted. A decent introductory text to world history.

joshmallalieu's review against another edition

4.25

challenging funny informative inspiring reflective relaxing slow-paced

erperry's review against another edition

2.0

2 in the Goodreads "It was okay" sense. 2-3 in my stars.

I wasn't expecting this to be super detailed, because how do you write a history of the world? I was expecting to learn something. I picked this up to get a general overview of areas of history I know less about - Asia, Africa, Central and South America after colonization....What I got was a History of the West...with History of Other Places When It Is Important for Later History of the West. The little I learned about China and Africa I had already learned skimming a high school textbook last year in preparation for helping freshman with their final exam of stuff taught by someone else. I also found him too apologist in some spots and with weird generalizations. I liked the narrator, though.