Reviews

The Human Web: A Bird's-Eye View of World History by John Robert McNeill, William H. McNeill

ewoo670's review

3.0

Well, technically I didn't finish the whole thing, but I did my last reading for my Global History course today, so I'd say it counts.
This book was a really good overview of the history of humanity, told with an emphasis on globalisation which I liked. There is a lot of information to take in though, and at times it can seem overwhelming. However, if you have an history event you want to get a good overview for, and maybe view it from a different global perspective, this book is likely to have what you're looking for.

mattie's review

3.0

The history of the entire human race in just over 300 pages. Dense and often slow but pretty interesting. I learned a lot about longstanding ecological connections between humanity and the planet: the domestication of wheat, goats, etc etc. It was good at drawing complex connections: alfalfa bacteria meant certain crops could be cultivated which could support certain types of horses which meant raiders could sweep into China from the steppes. Impressively done, alfalfa bacteria!

..... I know I had more to say but I finished this in September so WHO KNOWS what it was.