A Little History of the World (Little Histories) Paperback – Illustrated, October 7, 2008

This book is written in a flowing and easy-to-follow style. It mostly feels like the arture is having a conversation with you. It's clearly intended for kids, but I think it's a good read for adults too. The book gives a surprisingly thorough servey of Europe's history. At time I felt like it could be more interesting with more details, but I guess that's a price that needs to be paid to keep it so short.One thing to note is that the book's title is misleading. This is a history of Eroup - not the world. The arture makes it clear in several places that - writing to Eourpen kids (the book was originally written in German, I believe) - he intended this to be a history of only Eourp, so I'm not sure why it was called a history of the world.

Really fun and factual readLike stated on the title of my review, the book was pleasant and informative. The author begins around the time of the hominids, and descriptively details [their] life without communication, unity, laws, and material. Then he transitions to prehistoric times - that of the Neanderthals. This was the inception of communication (through paintings), language, man-made fire and tools. The periods discussed here are the Ice Age, the Stone Age, and the Bronze Age. In the proceeding chapters the author details the life of primitive civilizations living in Egypt, Mespotamia, Palestine and Israel. This is were religion formed, and historical religious prophets are spoken of such as Moses, David, Solomon and more. Around the time came the Phoenicians and the inception of the alphabet; therefore resulting in intelligible language. Other ancient civilizations are mentioned and expounded on, and same goes with their rulers (and influential figures). For example:Ancient China - the influence of Confucious and ruling of Shih Huang-tiPunics - HannibalRoman Empire - Julius CaesarEtc.After the A.D. point, there was inception of superstition and the Dark Ages. There was Christendom, chivalry, cities and markets, merchants and knights. Throughout early times, the Arab world came to be and had a strong advantage on the world intellectually and powerfully. Then came the new age, with new religions and new wars. Eventually we come to the enlightenment; a time of intellectual triumph in anthropoid history. Revolutions occurred, and so did Napoleon. Seas were crossed and America was founded, late of course, and local inhabitants were brutally slaughtered by the Spaniards. And eventually we get to modern times. The text transitioned fairly well and I enjoyed it much and learned a lot. To me it seemed that the author was of Christian faith, because of what looked like minuscule attempts at times to justify Christian actions. A little caveat for sure but overall there are a lot to learn from this short book on a huge subject.

A concise writing of world history that can be read and understood by anyone. While the book lacks nuance for the sake of easy reading it is important to note, that this book serve as a foundation in which to build a greater understanding of the ancient world.

What exactly makes this book such a pleasure? This is not easy to answer. But I believe it is its minimalism, its boiling down issues to their essence and then choosing words carefully to convey, as well as possible, the author's sentiments. For example, talking about the grandiose plans of the 16th century Catholic Church:"Old St. Peter's ... was too plain for their taste. They planned to build a new church, far bigger and more beautiful than any seen before. But it would cost a lot of money. Where this money came from mattered less to the popes of the day than getting hold of it and completing their wonderful church. And in their desire to please the pope, priests and monks collected money in a way which did not conform with the teachings of the Church. They made the faithful pay for the forgiveness of their sins, and called it 'selling indulgences'." (p. 180)Gombrich follows this with a stirring chapter on Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation. Simple yet beautiful.The book is no encyclopedia--fewer than 300 very thin pages can hardly scrape the surface of the most basic introduction to history. Much detail is left out. Many areas of the world get short shrift. Today's notions of political correctness find no place--it was written in 1935 and Gombrich would not succumb to the PC approach in any event.But every page is full of gems, of insight, of clever turns of phrase. It's perfect for parents to read out loud to their 8-12 year olds, or for their 11-18 year olds to read on their own. It's a perfect introduction to topics that can be studied in greater depth later on.

Mi papa llevaba tiempo buscando este libro y decidi comprarlo por el dia del Padre y llego con marca de agua y huele muy fuerte a cigarro 🥲

Muy interesante y facil de leer.

un libro che parla di storia dagli albori sino ai giorni nostri, raccontata con parole semplici. dimenticate tutte le classiche annotazioni storiche noiosissime piene di nomi e date che si dimenticano dopo la prima lettura, qui si racconta tutto ciò che è più interessante e piacevole da conoscere.

This books is really good, it's a little story of the world that you would read without taking notice, because it's like a story to go to bed! Really easy, but at the same time you will be learning about the events that mark the world. Of course it doesn't cover everything in the history of the world (ufff!) but it gives you a way of telling the things that will make sense (for example, why the king invaded? of course, because he was jealous and needed the money!) then everything fall into pieces.You will find yourself connecting the pieces of history in your mind, because Gombrich tells you the things like from me to you, no hair and no struggeling.This is why this book is also perfect for young gifted child too, because they will be inmersing in the history of the world without them taking notice.And for adults too! Because aduts could totally amplify this foundamentals/foundations with more deeper booksTotally recommend, I would be a book I would read my childrenKind regards

My instructor recommended this book.I really enjoy reading .It is easy to catch points of history. I like this book.