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A review by thearbiter89
A History of the World in 100 Objects by Neil MacGregor
4.0
An historical account of human civilizations as told through its variegated products - from functional stone axes in the Paleolithic to credit cards in the information age. The one thing not quite clear from that title is that all these objects reside somewhere within the cavernous halls of the British Museum.
Not being a materials-minded person, I was not always enraptured by MacGregor's loving descriptions of the various artifacts he chooses to showcase. But the broad, cross-civilizational scope of this history means that interesting themes and connections can emerge from the narrative. The story of human products suggests that in many cases, ancient civilizations interacted and impacted each other in surprising ways, transmitting ideas and technologies that turn up, like telltale fingerprints, in each other's cultural artifacts, languages, ideas, and fates.
One striking example of this interaction effect - the conversion of Romans to Christianity meant that the demand for Yemeni frankincense collapsed. This led to the decline of pre-Islamic Yemeni wealth and cleared the slate for the eventual domination of the Arabian peninsula by Islam. A story of connectedness told by the story of the cast-bronze hand of a wealthy Yemeni spice merchant, made as an offering to a local god.
And human experience is largely common too. Every culture worships some god or gods and expresses it in their art. Vainglorious kings and puissant emperors emblazon their legacies on tapestries and porcelain artefacts. Curious naturalists gaze at the world and stars with ingenious tools. The story of human history is one that finds resonances and repetitions across cultures, which can make the history a little repetitive but nevertheless emphasizes its cadences.
And I can respect the book's earnest desire to inform the reader that these artifacts are not dead and static relics, belonging to a dragon's hoard of pilfered treasures, but living testaments that still contain as-yet-hidden knowledge, to be gradually revealed as technology improves. Perhaps this is an indirect sort of apologia for the acquisitive tendencies of the British museum - as a repository of artefacts taken from their homes by inquisitive and unheeding agents of empire. As if to say, perhaps these were stolen from you, but here, in the Museum, with the best tools and expertise at our disposal, they will be well-placed to illuminate your own shrouded histories.
But I do wish MacGregor, being the former Director of the Museum, as it were, could have spent a little bit more time talking about the elephant in the room that is the fact that the only reason such a book is possible at all is due to the legacy of acquisitive empire. Rather than sweep it under the carpet, it might have been more instructive to see MacGregor grapple with this issue in a head-on and honest fashion - to defend keeping to the status quo, or perhaps offer a few insights to the Museum's current stances, or even offer a sort of way forward on how to "decolonize" the collection without impacting the march of human knowledge too much. As it is, a few tentative sentences in the foreword and naught thereafter represents a bit of a missed opportunity, borne out of a desire to avoid wading into controversial waters.
I give this: 4 out of 5 Qianlong-inscribed bi
Not being a materials-minded person, I was not always enraptured by MacGregor's loving descriptions of the various artifacts he chooses to showcase. But the broad, cross-civilizational scope of this history means that interesting themes and connections can emerge from the narrative. The story of human products suggests that in many cases, ancient civilizations interacted and impacted each other in surprising ways, transmitting ideas and technologies that turn up, like telltale fingerprints, in each other's cultural artifacts, languages, ideas, and fates.
One striking example of this interaction effect - the conversion of Romans to Christianity meant that the demand for Yemeni frankincense collapsed. This led to the decline of pre-Islamic Yemeni wealth and cleared the slate for the eventual domination of the Arabian peninsula by Islam. A story of connectedness told by the story of the cast-bronze hand of a wealthy Yemeni spice merchant, made as an offering to a local god.
And human experience is largely common too. Every culture worships some god or gods and expresses it in their art. Vainglorious kings and puissant emperors emblazon their legacies on tapestries and porcelain artefacts. Curious naturalists gaze at the world and stars with ingenious tools. The story of human history is one that finds resonances and repetitions across cultures, which can make the history a little repetitive but nevertheless emphasizes its cadences.
And I can respect the book's earnest desire to inform the reader that these artifacts are not dead and static relics, belonging to a dragon's hoard of pilfered treasures, but living testaments that still contain as-yet-hidden knowledge, to be gradually revealed as technology improves. Perhaps this is an indirect sort of apologia for the acquisitive tendencies of the British museum - as a repository of artefacts taken from their homes by inquisitive and unheeding agents of empire. As if to say, perhaps these were stolen from you, but here, in the Museum, with the best tools and expertise at our disposal, they will be well-placed to illuminate your own shrouded histories.
But I do wish MacGregor, being the former Director of the Museum, as it were, could have spent a little bit more time talking about the elephant in the room that is the fact that the only reason such a book is possible at all is due to the legacy of acquisitive empire. Rather than sweep it under the carpet, it might have been more instructive to see MacGregor grapple with this issue in a head-on and honest fashion - to defend keeping to the status quo, or perhaps offer a few insights to the Museum's current stances, or even offer a sort of way forward on how to "decolonize" the collection without impacting the march of human knowledge too much. As it is, a few tentative sentences in the foreword and naught thereafter represents a bit of a missed opportunity, borne out of a desire to avoid wading into controversial waters.
I give this: 4 out of 5 Qianlong-inscribed bi