Customer Reviews

The Human Story: Our History, From the Stone Age to Today

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

The cover of The Human Story asks, Has there even been a history of the world as readable as this? I cannot answer that. But I can state that reading The Human story was absolutely, completely enjoyable. I was captivated at page one, and did not experience a let down until I reached page 440, the last page of the text.

One might reasonably ask, How can anyone cover world history in 440 pages and do any of it justice? Well, of the sections of history that I was familiar with, I will admit that I got the feeling: My, we certainly covered that quickly. And yet, that is not the impression one has as one reads the book. James C. Davis's brilliance shows in how he skillfully selected and wove together the important details into a fascinating narrative of human history, from pre-historic times to the present. The end result does read like a very entertaining story.

I came away with a much clearer view of the big picture of how humanity has filled the earth. A lot is left out, of course. But what is striking is how much is put in. One reads about China, India, Africa, the great explorers of the world, the great conquerors and adventurers, the world wars, and much more.

If you are looking for a book that gives you a good, refreshing swim in the ocean of the human story, you will not be disappointed by this work.

As a person interested in history, I wondered how it could be crammed into one medium sized volium. After reading about half of it, I found the answer - skip many important facts and topics, run through everything in a shallow manner and you are done.
I did not learn anything new or interesting from this book, but felt frustrated and enraged at the superficial treatment history gets here. Sometimes the book sounds like a story for small children - no names, no background to explain historic developments and almost no dates. Even Gombrich's "little history" which was written for children is much better
The chapter aboout the ancient history of the Jews is based mostly on the Bible, without any reference to archeological or other data. Disgraceful,pretentious inaccurate and boring.

I really enjoyed this book for one major reason - it really helped me put major historical events in context with the global timeline.

Like many people, I have learned history generally in isolated segments. For instance, I learned the European history & Asian history independently.

By going through the years quickly but with subject-related chapters, this book helped me put a lot of it together in my head in a useful way.

This is not the book you would buy if you only want buy one history book. This is a book you buy to bring a lot of bits of knowledge together.

For those who didn't pay any attention in your world history classes and are looking for an overview, this is a great option. I was looking for a book that would introduce me to the people of the past and then allow me, from that intro, to choose what I'm most interested in and then dig deeper (through other books). This book does just that, and it does it at a high enough level that you don't get bogged down or lose interest half way through. I read sections out of the 20-30 odd World History books at Barnes and Noble, and this was one of the few that didn't just list out fact after fact. Another idea, is to purchase the Guide to the Mona Lisa as well and read them together - section by section - from this you'll be able to get a high-level view of art and history.

Before writing this review, I read through what others had already said about the book. It's odd to me that such an innocuous book would have such polarized reviews; readers either seemed to love it or hate it. As you can guess by my rating, I fall into the former category. This book is extremely readable. It's not meant for high school students, and would be a lousy first exposure to world history. The Human Story is geared for adults looking to revisit human history from a very broad perspective. As such, it breezes through time, sometimes glossing over entire centuries, sometimes examining a specific event in greater detail. The more critical reviews seem to equate time spent on an event with the author's perceived historical importance of that event. I don't really believe that was the intent at all. What The Human Story does do well is give readers a sense of what was occurring in different parts of the world at the same time. Far too many history books compartmentalize the developments of individual civilizations, as if while one was ascending, nothing was happening anywhere else. Another thing I liked was that, in addition to touching on some of the more famous key points in history, James C. Davis also spends some time on lesser-known events to those of us that slept through our history classes in high school.

One of the complaints that I noticed about this book was that it was at times too remedial in tone. I think, perhaps, that if you are a serious historian, that may well be true. However, if that's the case, why would you be reading this book? It's meant to be a light read, giving the casual reader a general sense of things without barraging him with endless names and dates. For everything mentioned in the 400 some odd pages, there are many moments in history that are skipped over entirely. Far from being a bad thing, though, The Human Story gives you just enough to whet your appetite.

Are you interested in purchasing this book, but hesitating because of the five (or so) one-star reviews? I just finished reading it, and here's what I think. The one-star reviewers seem to me to have failed to consider the audience that Davis has in mind. He's not writing for graduate students in history, or even history majors or history buffs. He's writing for the sort of person who is fairly bright and aware of what's going on in the world, but a bit embarrassed about his lack of knowledge of history. Such a person has to start somewhere, and this book is an excellent place to start.

I suppose I should also warn, for those who care about such things, that Davis's book is a traditional history: it is somewhat Euro-centric, and it's not revisionist, or post-modern, or PC. If that offends you, don't buy it.

You may also wish to check out David Fromkin's "The Way of the World." It's another sort of "universal history" which has been widely praised, and is perhaps written for a slightly more sophisticated audience. (I haven't read it yet, so I'm just pointing it out, not recommending it.)

This work is disappointing at best. It reminds me of a 9th grade level history book, but with an expanded time horizon. It's hard to believe someone with a degree from the University of Pennsylvania could write something like this. It barely mentions any cultural contributions and completely ignores the effects of climate and the key environmental factors in the development of the different civilizations of time. With the exception of China, the author barely touches on any civilizations not relating to northern European peoples...a tough proposition when most of the early foundations of the civilized world were developed in the Middle East. Almost no mention of the Carthaginians, Phoenicians, Persians, Ottomans, etc. Even the Moorish conquest of Spain in the early 700s A.D., arguably one of the dominant influences in today's Spanish culture, is completely ignored. Indeed, this work focuses mainly on European wars and conquests, with a mainly superficial overview of China. Don't waste your time.

A good overview of history. Well written and very interesting but don't expect too much time spent on any event or period.

I slept through the one world history class that I was required to take in high school so this book was perfect for me. It is written in an entertaining, light-hearted fashion which kept my interest from beginning to end. It would be impossible to describe, in depth, 4000+ years of history, but this book does a great job in giving an overview of the major historical events that shaped our world today in a mere 450 pages. I highly recommend this book to those that are history-illiterate and want to understand how we arrived where we are.

Jim Davis tells the human story in a seemingly impossible amount of pages. The Human Story shows the basic history of mankind starting with homo habilis and covering many topics including even McDonalds. Though it is a history, this book is not like an average text boom. It tells the information as if it were a novel. Overall, I thought that Jim Davis did an exemplary job.