Customer Reviews

A Short History of the World

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book provides a fascinating and readable account -- even, at times, an absorbing and enthralling one -- of the whole history of the world. Obviously in such an effort some sacrifices have to be made. Some of the major political upheavals of history are given short shrift. Barely mentioned are the first Persian empire, the conquests of Alexander, the Crusades, the Hundred Years War, the Thirty Years War. What Blainey gives us instead is a gradually evolving look at the way life was lived: the crops, the farming techniques, the inventions, the technology, the philosophies and religions. The general political trends are there, as a backdrop, but Blainey's considerable narrative gifts are more often on display in his descriptions of social history. (The steam engine and the telegraph, for example, get more play than Napoleon.) He has a particular genius for creating vivid word pictures and making the strange and unfamiliar seem perfectly natural.

He has gone to considerable trouble to bring in areas of the world often missing from such a "global" history: Africa, China, Japan, Indonesia, Australia, and New Zealand. In fact, one of the amazing things about the book is that it DOES include so much material, and yet it never feels rushed. You'll find yourself going from the first fragile boats crossing the Pacific to the first moon landing without breaking a sweat. Only when you look back to the beginning -- which Blainey himself does in a final reflective chapter -- will you realize with a shock how much territory you've covered.

As Geoffrey Blainey put it himself in the introduction, this book is a sinuous long journey which had to be fast, otherwise the destination would never be reached. This is not an encyclopaedia, but a sequence of narrative images designed to catch essential historical developments. The author tried to capture the most influential technological events and evolution of skills rather than listing dates and names. Although the book has a fine literary style, Geoffrey Blainey avoids as much as possible giving interpretation to the facts, and when he does it, he usually points that out. Of course, one can have an opinion by simply selecting the convenient facts, and every history book is open to criticism produced by people with strong opposing views. This book is not about detail, but about more about analysis of trends, patterns and evolution from a historical perspective.

I liked the book because it offers a fresh perspective. This book manages to integrate quietly views that belong to many disciplines in discussing evolutionary trends that occurred over tens, hundreds or thousand of years. As an example, when Geoffrey describes Europe of 19th century he briefly flies over many wars that were fought over that period. Instead he chooses to talk about land usage, evolution of transportation, the role of wood, the impact of deforestation and the fragile balance between the cultivation of land for food and energy, the coal revolution and the nutrition value of the average meal across the continent. When you read that, you realise the environmental disaster of the wood based economy. You understand the gigantic role of oil in the modern world, and most importantly, that the change is around the corner when different form energy will transform the oil based economy. The historical impact of this type of change is incalculable.

The author almost avoids the most talked about events. Perhaps this is why the most boring part is about WWII. I could not read it; it was all known stuff, and after you read all the previous chapters, you feel that WWII really is just a detail, albeit an important one, in the long history. We talk a lot about it because it is closer to us in time. To be honest, I think it was a wise choice, but other readers might have a different view.

The book is divided into three parts: from dawn to the spread of the main religions (Christianity, Buddhism and Islam), the conquest of the planet during Middle Age, reformation, and European scientific revolution and finally, the third stage starting with the American Revolution until today. The book has a natural flow, a way of placing the events so that you can see how they are interrelated to each other. I liked the attention paid to technology and its role in the creation of new worlds. The writing style is at times captivating and you cannot miss the passion when used to paint significant developments, especially when they occurred in the distant past.

The author travels with you around the globe and looks at different civilisations showing differences and similarities. Some civilisations have an easier life because abundance of resources but they pay a hefty price later because they did not have an incentive to evolve. Others have lived in isolation, but somehow flourished and amazingly produced great civilisations. For instance, the Incas did not have horses and they did not know how to make iron, and yet their constructions were magnificent. You read about evolution of each great civilisation and you have this feeling that we are all equal, but with unequal chances. Time is a great leveler: no one has a permanent advantage. The religions occupy an important section in the book and it is an element that has got a long lasting influence in our evolution.

The book provides an interesting historical perspective, generates ideas and it makes you think. I cannot see how you would "speed-read" this book. You would have to stop quite frequently and let your thoughts follow different paths and re-evaluate your position in the subject of history. This is a good book and it is worth the money spent if you are looking for ideas.

Geoffrey Blainey's SHORT HISTORY OF THE WORLD provides a panoramic analysis of the world's people during the last four million years; from before the human race moved out of Africa to explore other continents to modern times. Getting this lengthy history into a single volume and making it accessible to ordinary readers is no mean fete: Blainey's title provides plenty of intriguing insights into not just historical facts, but the sentiments and perceptions of those who lived the times.

This book takes one from that shadowy time after the formation of the human species in Africa and its spread into Eurasia, through its worldwide migrations during the ice ages, and clear up to the late 20th century. It covers lots of ground in its 400-odd pages of text, in short. Perhaps I learned some new things, perhaps not. The problem is that this God's-eye view leaves out almost all the detail that connects us to particular times and places, although Blainey takes care to come down to earth periodically and talk about actual events and people.

I found the writing pedestrian, and was occasionally frustrated at the way the author passed over periods and points that would have been interesting. Of course, that's the way it goes: a history is selective, but a history of the world must be very selective. However, it is perhaps the very general level of facts that kept them from making much of an impression on me. I assume much was said, but most of it seemed so reasonable and high-level that I felt like I knew it already. (Whether I did or not: making a high-level statement is a risky business, and it looks as though Blainey has done his homework.)

The latter part of the twentieth century gets far more than its share of space, of course. But perhaps it deserves it: in some ways, more is happening to the human community each decade these days than happened during each millenium at the dawn of civilization. I'm afraid we do live in interesting times.

I always struggled with history: grammar school, high school, and college. I wish I had this book back then. It is easy to read and makes history enjoyable instead of the slog it was back in my school daze.

Short History Of the World is anything but short, despite its title: well over four hundred pages covers world history for the last four million years, from pre-African roots to modern times. Considering the expanse of time covered, however, Short History Of the World could well be an abbreviated modern history, highlighting the major moments in human events and providing a lively coverage of facts.

This is an odd one volume history book. Usually the best of the genre are compelling reads where the author is polemical, interested in convincing you that his new theory about why history moves in a certain direction is true. This is not such a book. The writing is best described as mediocre, predestrian, trying for variety in word order but failing. Then why did i finish it, i asked myself.

First it was an online book discussion group choice. But there was a interest that the author evoked that keep me reading, it was his choice of what to discuss. And for this reason alone it is an acceptable book to read as a small group. These things that he chooses to discuss, the topics of the sections of a few pages, these objects of interest in the overall view of history. These are what make it a readable, 3 star book and not a miss, a skip it, a bland textbook for high schoolers.

His choices are governed by 3 streams of thought. The first and most minor is geography. Physical geography plays an important role in history that DECREASES as time goes along. Earlier civilizations and cultures are more dependent on the local area for the resources that they need, likewise the rise of the river bases irrigated civilizations are by necessity and history located there. (idea of irrigation giving rise to empires due to requirement of cooperative effort to build and maintain water works). As the physical geography matters less, technology matters more, this is his second and major stream of ideas. The problem is that his linking and explanation is like a machine gun, stattaco, quick firing, without the big picture that something like _connections_ by burke is so very good at. It is as if he sees technology as the major driving force in world history but presents it as a disunifying force popping up in the world like prairie dogs popping up their heads, rather than making us aware of all the tunnels underground and out of view. This piecemeal, this disunity is noticable and greatly detracts for the overall character of the book.

The second stream is religious consciousness, not unrelated to the previous two, but he makes no real effort to unify the 3 ideas in any substantial way. More like he has a high interest level in religious consciousness and introduces it whenever appropriate in the discussion.

So i am back to my initial question of why did i finish a less than perfect book? Because it is an acceptable intro to history with enough continuity to be interesting, with an above average choice of what particulars to discuss. So now i am able to engage in the specifics of the discussion in the book club, to see how other people liked his choice of detail to illustrate the broader movement of human history. The only other recommendation would be to a interested sub-high school student who needed an easier text to be introduced to western history.

The reader of a history book looks for a fresh perspective on history, as well as factual accuracy. Unfortunately, this award winning book fails on both accounts.

Its historical outlook is too similar to "Guns, Germs and Steel", written by Jared Diamond in 1998, but without the depth of analytical insight and original concepts. Regarding factual accuracy, there are several mistakes.

When in Mr. Blainey's book I read Teohtihuacan and Cholula described as Mayan cities I became extremely wary. Teohtihuacan and Cholula were cities belonging to completely different cultures,each to a different one. Furthermore,Teohtihuacan is 2000 miles away from the tropical jungles of the Mayas. Not only Mr. Blainey's facts are incorrect, but his geographical accuracy is misguided.

I am not a history expert, and the least I expect in a history book are the facts to be correct. The other possible merits of the book are overshadowed by this issue. One is left wondering how many more inaccuracies are in the book.

Não me impressionei com o livro...trata-se de uma especie de "fast food" de um livro de história...
E para piorar, o autor, sendo australiano, discorre a história da evolução humana de maneira bastante desiquilibrada....dando uma enfase exagerada e até irritante à Australia e Nova Zelândia, ao mesmo tempo que a America Latina é quase que completamente ignorada ao longo de todo o livro, região do mundo que o autor obviamente desconhece por completo....Eu não recomendo o livro, não acrecenta muita coisa ao já lido em outros livros de história bem melhores....