A great overview of a chaotic period of world history
922613
If you love history, you'll love this book.  Provides a great overview of the major historical developments in an evolutionary time.  It covers the major players from kings, popes and emperors to the Mongols, caliphs and rebels.  Baur covers a lot of ground with great detail and manages to make it clear and tell a story.  Really helps tie all the pieces together across Europe, the Middle East, India, China and the far east, with a liberal dose of Mongol horde as well.  The book's progress is easy to follow with timelines and maps that help put each chapter's events into context.  The periods many palace intrigues, crusades, overthrows and related butchery are described in a matter-of-fact fashion that lets the reader imagine what was really happening.

Overall, a very good read for the history lover.
2431856
Have you ever heard of Tolosa, Litva, Etruria, Rusyn or Sabandia? These are some of the kingdoms that the author gives us a history of, from their beginnings to their ends. I'm sure that these names are basically unknown to the average history reader, such as myself, and therein lies the appeal of this book.

 When I read a history book I always hope to learn something new about the subject. In this book I learned an enormous amount about places that once were mighty and well-known, but now are forgotten to just about everyone.

 The author gives the history and the origin of the language of each country, sometimes in mind-numbing detail, but his writing is always interesting, and he knows quite a lot about his subjects. Some of the places about which he writes are somewhat familiar to readers, but as parts of other, more well-known entities. It's astonishing to learn how the boundaries of some countries evolved, and who were the winners and losers in the state-making milieu.

 This work is quite long, and perhaps it should be taken in smaller doses, such as reading about one place, putting the book down to read something else, and then returning to  it. That's the method I adopted, and it worked quite well.
339032
It is obvious, of course, that one cannot contain the history of the world in a 400-page book, so the question is why would one ever try?  But try they have, and Will Pearson and Mangesh Hattikudur have delivered a humorous and fairly enjoyable trip through the history of the world in their 2008 book "The Mental Floss History of the World: An Irreverent Romp through Civilization's Best Bits".

There are several good points about the book.  I thought they did a very good job in breaking history down into the different periods and did their best to keep the reader informed as to what was going on around the world during those times.  Of course, lack of history for some areas certainly prevented them from doing as much as one would have liked, but the fact is they did better than most in providing more than just Western history.  Another plus is the way they included small interesting tidbits along with the overall historical perspective.  These provide most of the humor in the book, and it helps keep it more interesting for the reader as well as help hide all that they are leaving out.

Probably the best thing about the book is the way they were consistent in the presentation in each section.  They open with the "In A Nutshell" section, which briefly describes the most significant events of that period of history.  This is followed by their "What Happened When" section, which provides a timeline for that period of history.  Next they have their "Spinning The Globe" section, which tries its best to give the reader a view of what was going on in each of the regions around the world.  The next section they title "Who's Up, Who's Down" which looks at what fared well during that period and what didn't do so well.  The next section they titled "So Long And Thanks For All The" which looks at what happened during that period which had a lasting positive impact, at least for the most part.  This is followed by the "And Thanks, But No Thanks For" section, which looks at what came from that period which we would rather not have had.  The last of the repeated sections for each period of history is called "By The Numbers" where they throw significant numbers at the reader for that period.

While they did a number of things very well, it was difficult for me to get past all they were leaving out.  As someone who loves history, I would like to see them give the periods of history a more in depth treatment, somewhat along the lines of what Larry Gonick has done with his "Cartoon History of the Universe", which has now turned into "The Cartoon History of the Modern World".  Still, any book which helps people enjoy learning history isn't all bad, and so I give this three stars and it probably deserves right around 3 .  It is certainly a good book for people who want an overview, though there is a lot left out, and they oversimplify a great deal of what took place.
139153
A recap of world history is the backdrop to the interwoven stories of various families. I recommend reading all 3 books!
4095964
This book is an excellent summary of the critical period when the old feudal Europe was swept away, and the modern industrial Europe was born. It begins describing the philosophes of the ancien regime, and ends with the Communist Manifesto. In between, it builds the bridge between the two.
Breunig descibes each of the major European powers (England, Austria, Prussia, Russia, and of course France), how their status quo was disrupted by the French Revolution and Napoleon, then how their reactionary governments tried, ultimately in vain, to stem the tide of revolution that swept Europe in the 1820's through 1850. One fascinating passage describes how the post-Napoleonic European leaders, desperately sick of war, struck a careful balance of power among themselves to ensure a steady, yet fragile, peace. Yet while maintaining this, the sovereigns (or most of them) ruthlessly crushed their internal conflicts, sometimes willingly accepting help from neighbors and formal rivals.
This book is especially interesting to Americans looking to understand the relationships between European countries and the roots of modern Europe.
3438754
I recently picked up a copy of Chinese Warlord Armies 1911-30 from Osprey Books as a reference and it succeeded beyond my wildest dreams.  The warlord period of 20th Century Chinese history is fascinating, though it must have been rather horrible to live through, the overthrow of the last Chinese Empire and the establishment of the Republic, which was unable to maintain order or any sense of control and the country rapidly descended into a period of warlord rule.

The warlords fragmented China in their constant grasping for an ever bigger territories to rule until the Chinese Republic finally got its act together and slowly took China back from the warlord, often by co-opting the warlords who saw the writing on the wall, by allying with the Chinese Communists and accepting aid from the Soviet Union.  Yes, history really is that strange.

This book is little more than an overview of the situation and the chaos of that era where warlords with colorful nicknames such as the `Dogmeat General' and the `Jade Marshal' using armies equipped with whatever weapons they could buy from the world market, steal from their enemies or (occasionally) have built.  Where European, Russian (red and white) and Japanese advisers and mercenaries worked for various sides.  What a model for a wild campaign, fortunes to be made (and lost), allies and enemies to make, deals and betrayals abound.

The book is well written with a variety of colorful anecdotes to leaven the basic facts of the situation but it is, of necessity, only a introduction to the complexities of this era but an interesting read and well illustrated both with Osprey's color plates and a variety of photographs from the era.
2691050
Given the critical importance of the seventh century to the survival and development of the Empire, the number of books covering it is shockingly few. This one goes a long way to redressing the balance by providing an overview of the collapse of the Roman superpower and its transformation into a Byzantine regional power able to punch well above its weight.
Instead of focussing on the world view from Constantinople (where even at the metropolitan centre, literary sources are few) he uses archaeological evidence to build up a regional picture. The origins of Russia, events in the Balkans, the Transcaucasus and relations with the Ummayids and then the Abbasids are all explored to put the Byzantine world in its geopolitical context.
He starts with an analysis of the later Roman Empire of the East, showing how how an essentially healthy state with access to fertile agricultural land (whose resources were necessary to support any state with ambitions) was brought to the brink of collapse by the time of the last Persian war. Its retreat, consolidation, victory and collapse and the dramatic reordering of the Middle Eastern world due to the Islamic irruption, contraction and adaptation are all neatly explored.
The chapters that follow show the resilience and inventiveness of the Empire. Taxation, development of alternative agricultural and consumer commodities (the switch from oil to candles for domestic lighting) and military reorganisation are among those explored. Even the losses could be glossed over, enabling the Constantinoplean view to permeate society without worrying about the heretical East after a collective bout of soul-searching through the Iconoclastic Crisis. After all, if God had allowed a people whose strict adherence to the Second Commandment to prosper at their expense, then perhaps to win his favour back they should adhere more strictly to it themselves, following a religious version of the Stockholm syndrome.
The last chapters highlight the opportunities afforded by a weakened Caliphate after years of being on the back foot and the evolution into the earlier mentioned regional power that Byzantium had become, reaching its apogee under Basil II.
From the perspective of either the beginner or keen student of Byzantium, a flawless read. Lucid, very, very well illustrated with maps and able to bring together all the different pieces to create one of the best pictures of this under explored periods I have read
4321502
As a homeschool mom of several ages, I'm all about anything that visually teaches the progression of history.  We study history in chunks where we focus on ancient history, medieval history, early modern history, then late modern history.  When on Earth? takes a unique look at those specific chunks of history through a series of visually stimulating maps that each focus on things unique to the time period.

For instance, in the ancient history section there are 21 different 2-page spread maps.  The maps each cover a different topic relating to the ancient world - like farming, cities, pharaohs, the Persian Empire, the Great Wall of China, etc.  Throughout the section, each new map also progresses through time so you get a mostly chronological peek into the time period.

Besides the colorful, image-full maps, each spread includes an overview to teach about the particular topic - the events, people, places or artifacts.  Each spread also includes a map key and timeline dates.  So besides history, this book encourages geography, map reading and timelines as well!  (There is a nice timeline to view at the beginning of each of the four time periods, too.)

Our family believes in a young earth view of history and science.  We had to skip over a few pages in the beginning of the book that talk about millions of years and evolution.  We also chose to skip over a page later in the book describing Darwin and his voyages.  There were still many, many maps to learn from in spite of the few we skipped.
2598345
This wonderful book gives a rendition of the world since 1945.  Many events that have been hitherto forgotten, are covered, such as the Yemenite Civil war and the Cyprus emergency.  This is an eminently fair account of almost every major world crises since 1945.  The idea is to present the weakening of the world powers throughout the world, and the rise of new conflicts.  We see the epic encounters of the Great Powers with smaller powers, such as the Vietnam war.  Important conflicts such as that between Israel and the Arab world is given a fair and unbiased explanation.

Smaller conflicts such as the Falklands are also covered, as well as the international system during the cold war.  Anyone interested in Current events or the post war world would do well to pick this book up.

Seth J. Frantzman
4287236
I am not a scholar of the times though now I want to be.  It is amazing how much was happening in the world at that one generation.  And still the author managed to present fully developed characterizations of these people in the midst of all this turmoil. She made them people you can understand and care about even now, hundreds of years later.  Maybe if school aged history books were along this line (humanizing the people and their decisions) the average kid wouldn't dread history quite so much.
675784
This book was very helpful in fleshing out the very detailed history of Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries. This time period is riddled with constant fighting and religious upheaval, and this book was a very helpful guide through all of that. Being a history teacher, this solid reference will remain on my bookshelf for years to come, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone interested in learning about the period of religious wars of Europe.
4798962
Historica is a wonderful, large-format romp through the past 1000 years of world history in 500 pages.  Each page has two or three high-quality illustrations and lively, journalistic-style text. It is a treasure trove for trivia buffs.

The book is broken down into time segments of 100 years from year 1000 to year 1500, 50-year segments 1500 to 1800, 25-year segments from 1800-1900, and 10-year segments from 1900-2000, plus a 2000-2005 segment.

For each time segment, there are four separate streams of four pages each:
  Milestones - politics, rulers, exploration, wars, disasters, etc.
  Science & Technology - invention and discovery
  The Arts - painting, literature, music, dance, architecture, etc.
  Lifestyle - fashion, food, entertainment, leisure, sport, etc.

The format is similar to "Chronicle of the 20th century," but with higher-quality paper and illustrations, and much more interesting articles.  I highly recommend it for anyone interested in browsing through history.
955191
I would say that this title might be the only one out there that tries to explain almost at a scholarly level the "not so easy" developments in Europe and the West in the last 3-4 decades. Bat Ye'or presents a robust material that has its underpinning in theological, historical, social and political events/facts that explains in a way the "madness" that has taken over the Western Hemisphere. To quote Bat Ye'or : How did Christian peoples and states,some with powerful armies and the richest cultures of their times, collapse when faced with the onslaught of jihad and dhimmitude from the seventh to the fifteenth centuries? Now I no longer ask myself this question. The breakdown process that I used to study and documented in old chronicles I have seen taking place in today's Europe......Keeping Christian officials in their positions maintained a semblance of continuity. Behind their foggy screen, Islamization could penetrate within every stratum of the vanquished societies. End Quote
581177
A good read and gives an excellent overview of ancient Rome. The way it was written also can help people who are interested in this time period because it points out rome's contribution to our world. It also gives light to the problems that many world powers face even today.
3455083
The period from the reign of Constantine to the great voyages of discovery--or from the fourth to the fifteenth century--was once seen merely as the long, slow decline and fall of the Roman Empire. Yet, for Europeans, it is also a "supreme story of defeat turned into victory."
Colin McEvedy's pioneering atlas, revised and expanded for this new edition, treats as one unit the Mediterranean, Europe and the nomads' steppeland to the East (the habitat of Huns, Turks and Mongols). Illuminating maps and lively commentaries present the towns and trade routes, the changing population patterns, the boundaries of Christendom (and later Islam) and the ever-shifting political units. The result is a wonderfully eloquent picture, as Dr. McEvedy puts it, "of how old empires fell and new ones rose, and how, in Europe, a new society emerged which had the energy to break free from the geographical, intellectual and technical limitations that defined the medieval world."
4006396
Totally fascinating. Reminds me of Howard Zim's People's History of the United States. Lot's of facts, figure, and dates without being overwelming, with good continuity throughout the various sections.  There is so much about the forces on world history that we don't understand. Would the world have been without widespread Black slavery if there had been no sugar and cotton plantations?  What would Africa and the United States be like now?  Would China have become a major world power in the 19th century if it had not been for the tea and opium trade?  Very thoughtful.  I listened to a books-on-tape version from the local library and want to get copies for friends and family.
2925079
I must admit that I picked this up in an attempt to divert my attentions from continuing studies into the complexities of Afghanistan and Pakistan.  I was surprised to discover how little I understood of the Roman Empire; and more surprisingly, soon found myself drawing numerous analogies between problems of the past and problems of today. Bottom line - this was not only a very enjoyable read, but was also a very useful way to reframe problems of the past in the context of the present - and vice versa.  I highly recommend this book for any serious students of current events searching for greater context.