A masterpiece!! - Rated 
The definitive guide to world history. I haven't quite finished it yet (it's taken me a year!) but it gives you an amazing synopsis and helps to put events into perspective. World events that you previously would not have considered as important as others are given greater prominence, and vice versa. It shows that many of the current problems are certainly not new or different. A book every politician (and every other member of the planet for that matter) should read!!
Tour de force - my desert island book - Rated
I recently went on a 6 week bike trip round France. To keep weight low I could only take one book with me and chose the New Penquin History of the World. I made the right choice. The book is the perfect travelling companion, easy to read and highly informative. It has immense scope and covers all its topics in just the right amount of detail. It is structured by themes as well as timeline and this helps give it coherence and allows you to see the linkage between apparently separate events. What is astonishing is the relevance of events far in the past on todays world. Just two examples: The link of Charlemagne having to divide his kingdom equally between his sons and the wars of the 20th century and the beauty pagent which resulted in Russia choosing Eastern Orthodoxy and had repercussions which still reverberate today.
I love this book. If I could only take one book with me to a desert island it would be this. I have ordered a second copy (since mine is now so battered) to give to my son who will start History AS next month. I can think of now better foundation for him to start this course.
The final word one world history - Rated
Anyone fascinated by world history will be delighted with the appearance of a new edition of John Robert's History of the World. His ill health mentioned in the preface made it hard work, and his recent death confirms his prophesy that this will be the final edition of this successful book. Overall Roberts provides a great summation of world history, supplying a sweeping overview with perceptive insights, and avoiding the temptation to become enmeshed in encyclopedic detail. The themes he follows, those of change and continuity, the impetus of history and the relationship between tradition and innovation in human history are well chosen and help to find a context for this daunting subject. Additionally he makes relevant the weight of the past to present events (including a very good job of bringing the book right up to date with post-9/11 events). His overall perspective on history has changed surprisingly little over the years, perhaps because one of his basic philosophies is durable; "the two phenomena of inertia and innovation continue to operate in all historical developments ... we shall always find what happens both more, and less, surprising than we expect". Sounds like a bet both ways, however thinking about recent events it is quite plausable.
The book, it is freely acknowledged by Roberts, comes from a white, middle class western perspecive, however every edition finds him attempting to balance his global coverage further, as well as expanding the text to include more on gender issues and the environment. The thinness of material on non-Western cultures, such as Africa and Latin America is more related to knowledge than bias. He certainly has always argued strongly for the "European Age" since the age of exploration and I think he tends to overemphasise its influence on the world's population as a whole (important as it was). A little more material on imperialism from the subjects perspective might have helped, although don't get the impression that the book is a whitewash.
His prose is enjoyable, although his sentance structure could be improved at times, and the book provides a servicable set of maps althought not always on the right location in the book.
Anyone who reads this book will certainly gain a comprehensive and valuable overview of the forces of the past that manifestly continue to shape the world today, and a fine insight into the way human societies and cultures work.
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