2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
comment on prior review, June 4, 2008
This review is from: Civilization Past & Present, Volume I (to 1650) (11th Edition) (MyHistoryLab Series) (Paperback)
The man who made the review before me was most helpful - it inspired me to buy the book! He is obviously not a historian and is unaware that it is stories/myths/religion which impact a civilization's identity. This book is superbly put to together, and I recommend its companion edition, which is a collection of primary sources. If you read between the lines of the prior review, as I did, you will see how excellent the book really is in its presentation (oh! the absurdity of actually bringing into a textbook the role of archaeologists and textual critics! etc.). Enjoy!
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Beats the newer edition, October 2, 2009
This review is from: Civilization Past & Present, Volume I (to 1650) (11th Edition) (MyHistoryLab Series) (Paperback)
I use this for history class and its mostly the same as the newer edition. However, the author left a lot of information out about the Hebrews since they give rise to Christianity and Islam
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2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Too subjective to be used for objective historical study, October 3, 2007
This review is from: Civilization Past & Present, Volume I (to 1650) (11th Edition) (MyHistoryLab Series) (Paperback)
I bought this book for my world history class this semester, and while I'm only halfway through the book, there is no way it could possibly redeem itself.
Although it does give lots of good information, it rarely includes dates with its facts and its A-sides always get off track by discussing meaningless information that has nothing to do with the readings.
To make matters worse the book is completely obsessed with every cult/religion/sect that pops up in the dates covered - not by telling you the facts (the effect on history, society, etc) but instead by spends page after quoting irrelevant religious scriptures and texts. It even spends time telling bible stories - like the story of Paul getting blinded on the road and treats it like it really happened, God and all! Then it does a flip side and tells stories of might and magic with India's Gods. Want to know about the monkey king of china? It's in here too! In fact, this is a history book and a history of never-never land, (peter pan and pals almost made it, but they saved that for the next edition)
It's also obsessed with writings that are completely meaningless to the period - it wastes several trees worth of paper with excepts from completely unknown novels written by nobodies that had no effect on history whatsoever - the only people that have read these writings to date are the writers, the archeologists who dug it up, and moron who put it in the textbook (not to mention the unfortunate students who have to read the textbooks.) And it wouldn't be that bad if it was in some historical context, like explaining how The Decameron made such an impact on history, maybe tell us what the story was generally about - that much makes sense. But publishing page after page of the book? That's just an attempt to make the book thicker! (Note - The Decameron example is not in the book that I know of, that was just an example of how this book operates.)
If you want an objective lesson in world history, look elsewhere.
If you want to know the history of religions, cults, and sects, along with a few fairy tails, (both divinely inspired and fancy storytelling), this is definitely for you.
*Also, excuse the sarcasm, but this book was a real letdown.
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