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A Short History of the World
A Short History of the World
A Short History of the World
Audiobook7 hours

A Short History of the World

Written by Christopher Lascelles

Narrated by Guy Bethell

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

()

About this audiobook

There is an increasing realization that our knowledge of world history-and how it all fits together-is far from perfect. Here, Christopher Lascelles aims to fill the big gaps in our historical knowledge with a book that is easy to follow and assumes little prior knowledge of past events. He doesn't aim to come up with groundbreaking new theories on why things occurred, but rather gives a broad overview of the generally accepted version of events so that non-historians will feel less ignorant when discussing the past.

While this book explores world history from the Big Bang to the present day, it principally covers key people, events, and empires since the dawn of the first civilizations in and around 3500 BC. Epic in scope but refreshingly concise, A Short History of the World is an excellent place to start to bring your historical knowledge up to scratch.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateSep 27, 2016
ISBN9781515981886
A Short History of the World

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Reviews for A Short History of the World

Rating: 4.227678558928572 out of 5 stars
4/5

224 ratings29 reviews

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  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Distorted history. I stopped listening when the first minutes relating to Buddhism was clearly wrong.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    good book.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Connecting the dots though history. This book is absolutely fantastic. I’m going to listen to it again
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    It was entertaining and informative but the author was very opinionated.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Brilliant book. Doesn't go overly in depth about each part of history but gives you enough information for you to expand on with your own research.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Wonderful concise history which made clear and drew together the development of the world. Also lovely soothing voice of narrator.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book started a journey for me to learn more about history.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    I listen to about 10 minutes of this and I don’t know where they get their theory of how the world was created but there’s only one creator that’s God. So you turn me off soon as you start talking about big bang theory. Don’t recommend.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is a decent historical overview. Be aware it is a mainstream center left perspective. In this view, the period of the Moors are painted as amazingly tolerant, while the Christians are barbaric. Ironically, when it comes to modern times Islam is viewed as bad. It’s also lacking in analysis of the Arab slave trade.
    Furthermore, Lascelles also doesn’t credit Christian values as part of Western success either.
    Overall, it’s a fine listing of events, just know the leanings of the author.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    This book is slim on actual facts and long on agenda.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    What a total crock of propaganda, who’s this stupid?
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    lives up to its promise of quickly summarzing the world history. Showing respect to people and cultures, this book effectively gives a quick overview of the history of the world
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A great reference of the major historical events. I had 'won' this book from an early reviewers giveaway but didn't receive it. I finally purchased it myself and read it. As a lover of history, I found this book to be well written and quite interesting. The author was able to connect the dots of history. I like his style, history is not dull and he is able to relay this to the reader. True is indeed stranger than fiction, and Mr. Lascelles easily shows us this with his book.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This is exactly what it claims to be - a short, very readable, history of the world, which I quite enjoyed and can imagine myself continuing to use as a basic reference work for general information. The frequent maps are a much welcome inclusion. I was less enamored with the idea of footnotes in an e-book and would personally have preferred that they were either incorporated into the text or omitted altogether. Obviously, readers looking for more than broad brushstrokes will need to consult other sources. The final chapter asking 'what's next?' was an interesting inclusion, whether you agree or disagree, it's interesting trying to look at the contemporary world through a historical gaze ...
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A Short History of the World delivers as advertised: an “easy-to-read history book” that is “epic in scope but refreshingly short in length”. I found this book was great in that you could pick it up for a short period of time and always come away with having learned something. Also interesting to see how much conflict has shaped the past, as basically all of history’s major events result from one group warring with another.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    What a great book! A clear, concise history told in an engaging manner. You will learn more than you ever supposed from such a short work - and you won't even know you are learning. This would be good book for a student who claims to hate history or for someone who wants an overview.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I enjoyed the book and found the summarized history helpful to see how things fit together. The e version was very well designed with footnotes that linked well and maps that could be enlarged on the iPad. The information was interesting and right about the level I like my history which is give me the overall picture and dont overwhelm me with details. I still chuckle over the 1st half of the book going to the 1700s and the second half going over the last three hundred years. I would have liked a little more of Russian and Chinese history in it. It was a little too brief on that part. And the conclusions that the author drew didn't bother me in the least. Thank you for those.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    When I was in school I was not interested in history but as I’ve gotten older I have a strong desire to understand how things fit together and knowing history is part of that quest. I admire Christopher Lascelles ambition in writing a short history of the world. And it is an ambitious attempt. His book is more inclusive than might be expected because, while it does follow a timeline from ancient to modern, it slips around to bring in non-western history in Asia and the pre-Columbian Americas. There are small font “sidebars” that go into a bit more depth than the summaries of various periods, such as some detail about the rise of Christianity and Islam. There are also easy to navigate footnotes for a bit of clarification now and then. The book is largely just the facts without much analysis although there are broad, brief conclusions at the end of major sections. For instance, at the end of a section on the Western Roman Empire, the author provides a summary of why it fell. Lascelles also makes connections between shifting powers, e.g., who is in power in Northern India after Alexander, and he briefly states what comes next. In areas that I am more knowledgeable, such as Greek and Roman history, the short history is a useful reminder of the highlights, e.g., the major actors and events. Since so much of history is conveyed via movies, plays and musicals that exploit a specific dramatic episode, it’s nice to be able to read a quick summary of the big picture. For areas of history that I am not familiar with, I miss more detail about what is motivating the people involved. Also, because the summaries focus on events and key actors, there is too little about the other social, economic and artistic changes that are going on at the same time. In some cases the text is a straightforward narrative summary told from the author’s point of view, but then about halfway through the book, he brings in quotes from other historians whose sources are footnoted. I gleaned an excellent reading list from these footnotes. Sometimes something or someone is mentioned – the Pope, for instance – before the text discusses the rise of the Catholic Church. So some prior knowledge may be necessary or at least helpful, in order to read the book.I found the book most useful when I was reading areas of history I know something about and least helpful when it was summarizing events and names with which I am not familiar. In those cases I found I needed more explanation to get a better understanding of the history. Nevertheless, A Short History of the World is just the thing for someone who is only interested in the highlights of a comprehensive history of the world, or someone who just wishes to be reminded of the big picture back then.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    In some respects the book does as advertised, provides a historic timeline of major events that have occurred on our planet. Though once you start reading this timeline of events it only makes you hungry for a bigger taste. It's almost like ordering the Pu-Pu Platter of history and being disappointed that you only received one butterfly shrimp but yet got stuck with two fried zucchinis. However I respect that if you really wanted a full in depth history then you might take on reading Wikipedia for the next 10 years to absorb it all. But this isn't why I gave the book just two stars.Rather it's low rating is because it is listed as a history of the world book but rather it falls short in two areas. The first it is really the history of Conflicts of the world. All major events are those related to war. All major inventions are those that change the scales in a war. Even the brief discussion of the Renaissance is in terms of how it impacted future conflicts rather than how it impacted the future of the Arts.The second problem I have with the book is that unlike other reference books this book definitely has an opinion on many events, summing up a bit of history with the author's opinion rather than just leaving the facts on the table for the reader to decide. I felt too often the author was trying to sway the reader's opinion of history.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    It's very difficult to create a book that covers history from the big bang onwards and make it readable rather than just a list of facts but Lascelles manages it.It is awkward at times but it provides a good overview of history, although the very recent history does become a little one-sided. It's not a text book and many terms are therefore not explained as they would be to a student but explanations lead to longer books.For an electronic read however the maps were too small and illegible. A small details but there is no point in maps one can't read. These are available on his website.The only serious criticism of the choices of events contained is that it is a very Western, Mediterranean/Europe-centric based history with not enough about the early days of the rest of the world. This is a book about what happened, not why it happened. There is a very short further reading list on the associated website. I would have preferred a list of two or three books for each time period for those wishing to take their first steps into history books. The timeline available online is well presented and a useful accompaniment.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A Short History of the World is, in fact, reasonably short, and bears a passing resemblance to a history. It covers an extremely long period of time, reaching back all the way to the big bang, and coming up to modern times. It is billed as an accessible way to get the "big picture" quickly, and for the most part it succeeds in this mission. I find that there is a niche available in here somewhere between your 8th grade history book and a 7000 page history of the advances in knitting technology from 1745 to1755. If one is interested in getting the big sweep of events, so as to make sense of other histories that do go into more detail, this could be the book. I found the early sections to be more engaging and to have a bit more personality. At some point it dropped into one darn thing after another, and seemed to lose track of its early promise to allow one to see the interconnections and themes between events. At least, because they come sort of quickly, the reader can often discern those on their own. At the end, it becomes a bit preachy for my taste. But overall I have to say I enjoyed it, which I really didn't expect for such a survey of history, and I would recommend it to someone with a nascent interest in history.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    "A Short History of the World" is indeed quite concise, even if it does include quite a bit of details that sometimes approach trivia, and some sections that quote at length and verbatim from other works.The first chapter, "Early History" according to the index, but actually titled (more accurately) "Pre-History", gives a very fast overview from the Big Bang until 3500 BC, briefly touching on physics, how the solar system and the planet arose, and then gives a quick summary of "Life" leading to the evolution of Man, then spends more time on early human society. The inaccuracies in the Life and Early Evolution are too many to count: you'll be much better off reading a proper Biology book.The bulk of the book narrates History quite effectively. Not surprisingly "Western" history gets most of the attention.Also not surprisingly, as the text gets closer to describing present times, cultural and ideological biases become stronger, and objectiveness becomes thin.Overall, a very useful summary of History, if one keeps in mind the deficiencies of the beginning and the end chapters.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    "A Short History of the World" is indeed quite concise, even if it does include quite a bit of details that sometimes approach trivia, and some sections that quote at length and verbatim from other works.The first chapter, "Early History" according to the index, but actually titled (more accurately) "Pre-History", gives a very fast overview from the Big Bang until 3500 BC, briefly touching on physics, how the solar system and the planet arose, and then gives a quick summary of "Life" leading to the evolution of Man, then spends more time on early human society. The inaccuracies in the Life and Early Evolution are too many to count: you'll be much better off reading a proper Biology book.The bulk of the book narrates History quite effectively. Not surprisingly "Western" history gets most of the attention.Also not surprisingly, as the text gets closer to describing present times, cultural and ideological biases become stronger, and objectiveness becomes thin.Overall, a very useful summary of History, if one keeps in mind the deficiencies of the beginning and the end chapters.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    " A Short History of the World" is a relatively short overview of the history of human civilization. This is it! The view from 30,000 feet (or pick your own ultimate number). I will own that I found it difficult to vett, in terms of accuracy, although there are some footnotes, there are not enough to drill down and see where the author got his facts. That being said, it is very readable and makes connections that I had not previously thought of. An enjoyable romp. It is, in the end, a polemic. He is pointing to man's inhumanity to man. And he ends with highlighting the risk of fighting over limited resources "unless we begin to think in the long term over the short term."
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book on a short history of the world overall was well constructed and read easily. Though I am not a history buff per se I am always interested in how history impacts our lives today and maybe get some insight as to what is in store. Christopher Lascelles related this past in an interesting way and for me shed light on what seems to be constants in our past that will probably dictate our future. The themes seem to be power, war, religion, and economics.As the book moves right along being a short history one can readily see how these play out again and again. Lascelles intersperses maps throughout much of the book to give a visual tie in on how things looked geographically during the period at hand. Though they were helpful as a visual, on my electronic media they were a bit difficult to view as clarity of the type was not that great. Overall as a work giving a fast moving account on such a far reaching subject I would definitely recommend it. I found myself highlighting passages throughout that I had not known even though I am fairly well versed on world history. For those looking for a good overview on the subject without getting too bogged down in detail this would fit the bill. A concise and enjoyable read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Christopher has written a concise overview of world history. I found that he hit on the main topics of history without providing useless facts. He attempts to cover "world" and does it fairly well. I still detect a Euro-centric emphasis on the facts provided. History related to South America, Africa, and indigenous peoples are glazed over. Overall I found this an excellent book and would recommend it. I also concur with his closing comments as related to Diamond's book entitled Collapse.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    It is indeed a short but very concise history of the world the best benefit of this is the timeline process of how the actions in different parts of the world had global effects that expanded as the population, knowledge and desires of man expanded. Some of these actions were catastrophic to societies and others beneficial. It does show how it is indeed a very small world and I can't imagine the pressure this creates for world political leaders. I believe the book shows a climax of individualism prior to World War II, then since we have become a smaller and smaller world where the least event in one corner can have instant global consequences. That being said I believe he was very much touting is on personal beliefs on the environmental conditions of the planet. I could have done with out those opinions and enjoyed the book just a little more.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    If you want to fill in the gaps in your history knowledge then this is great book. It isn't too long and not too detailed, so you get a good overview of everything. As is probably inevitable at such a scale there is a lot about countries and wars and the rulers involved in them.It maybe goes into a little bit more detail on the “western“ world, but does cover all major civilisations. I would recommend it as a book to read from start to end, not just to dip into for reference.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    As I think I know world history pretty well, I read this book not in the pursuit of knowledge, but just to see how someone could wrap their hands around such a large topic and still do it justice. Well, not only did Christopher Lascelles do a good job at this, but I found that I learned quite a bit of things that I did not know. So much for my smug assumption that I knew world history well!I had expected this to be just a narration of kings and queens and battles, but it is so much more than that. The author does pick the high points, but spends a least a few sentences describing the circumstances and significane of the events he narrates. And the writing style is very easy to read...you could read this whole book in a couple of evenings (which is what I did). I wish our schools would require high school students to read something like this, while at the same time picking out particular subjects for details study. It would greatly improve the literacy of all.I do have 2 minor issues with the book. First, unless I somehow am reading this wrong, it says that the D-Day invasions and the invasion of Italy by the Allies both occurred in the summer of 1943...in fact D-Day was in 1944.The other issue I have is around footnotes. The book is littered with one sentence footnotes supplying little extra tidbits of knowledge. It is annoying to constantly have to flip to them, and frankly what is there is interesting enough and short enough to just have been included in the basic text.However, overall I thought this a great book and one I will recommend, particularly to young people who want to get an overview of history.