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A review by penderzz
A History of the World by Andrew Marr
3.0
3.5 stars.
Probably would’ve been four if there weren’t aggravating typos in the kindle edition.
I have some beef with the structure of the book. As great as a chronological approach is, it means that we find ourselves jumping around (some parts of) the globe an awful lot. Not particularly useful when something from 300 pages earlier is referred to that you can just about remember reading. A better layout perhaps would’ve been by theme - religion, war, science, economics? Or by geographical location - though some chapters would be shockingly short or simply wouldn’t exist.
I found the focus on the northern hemisphere quite annoying also. It cannot be a history of the world if South America is ignored, we only encounter Africa in the ancient eras, the slave trade and the scramble for Africa, and the Middle East is only really touched upon in the renaissance and then for Britain and America’s meddling and bombing. In Asia, only India, China and Japan are focused on, usually as a supporting actor to the dramatic sequences played out again by Britain and America. Australia again, touched upon as a colony and not for its rich aboriginal heritage. And to completely brush over exploration and the race to the poles, alongside geopolitical claims of the Arctic is peculiar considering the obsession with Elizabethan explorers of the new world. Of course you cannot ignore world superpowers and the role they have played in history, but from the early chapters I expected to find so much more about everywhere else as their ancient histories were so detailed. To also almost suggest that ancient Egypt left virtually no mark on the world other than one of the most mysterious cultures that fascinates people the world over? I can’t forgive.
The last chapter also feels rushed to me and like it should’ve been in two parts. To cram two world wars, various acts of independence, communist revolutions, the atomic bomb, the dawn of AI, a brief brushing on contraception and the sexual revolution, the threat of terrorism and global warming into a chapter of the same length of those with lost histories seems absurd. Again, this is a chapter that would’ve benefited from a different layout to the whole book, ending each themed chapter with where we find ourselves today, instead of the whole book ending on how we would all die if everyone consumed in the way that North Americans do (which isn’t wrong, but this is the development we end on? Out of all the incredible advances mankind has made?)
Not a bad book, it just could’ve been so much more.
Probably would’ve been four if there weren’t aggravating typos in the kindle edition.
I have some beef with the structure of the book. As great as a chronological approach is, it means that we find ourselves jumping around (some parts of) the globe an awful lot. Not particularly useful when something from 300 pages earlier is referred to that you can just about remember reading. A better layout perhaps would’ve been by theme - religion, war, science, economics? Or by geographical location - though some chapters would be shockingly short or simply wouldn’t exist.
I found the focus on the northern hemisphere quite annoying also. It cannot be a history of the world if South America is ignored, we only encounter Africa in the ancient eras, the slave trade and the scramble for Africa, and the Middle East is only really touched upon in the renaissance and then for Britain and America’s meddling and bombing. In Asia, only India, China and Japan are focused on, usually as a supporting actor to the dramatic sequences played out again by Britain and America. Australia again, touched upon as a colony and not for its rich aboriginal heritage. And to completely brush over exploration and the race to the poles, alongside geopolitical claims of the Arctic is peculiar considering the obsession with Elizabethan explorers of the new world. Of course you cannot ignore world superpowers and the role they have played in history, but from the early chapters I expected to find so much more about everywhere else as their ancient histories were so detailed. To also almost suggest that ancient Egypt left virtually no mark on the world other than one of the most mysterious cultures that fascinates people the world over? I can’t forgive.
The last chapter also feels rushed to me and like it should’ve been in two parts. To cram two world wars, various acts of independence, communist revolutions, the atomic bomb, the dawn of AI, a brief brushing on contraception and the sexual revolution, the threat of terrorism and global warming into a chapter of the same length of those with lost histories seems absurd. Again, this is a chapter that would’ve benefited from a different layout to the whole book, ending each themed chapter with where we find ourselves today, instead of the whole book ending on how we would all die if everyone consumed in the way that North Americans do (which isn’t wrong, but this is the development we end on? Out of all the incredible advances mankind has made?)
Not a bad book, it just could’ve been so much more.