Eyewitness Companions: World History (Eyewitness Companion Guides) by D.K. Publishing

Eyewitness Companions: World History (Eyewitness Companion Guides) Reviews

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  Sophie Crane

  "World History" is a fascinating book. It tries to give an overview of human history from prehistoric times right up to the present day - and it succeeds admirably. Admittedly it doesnt go into much detail, but it does provide a framework from which to investigate certain historical events more thoroughly. The book is well illustrated with colour pictures and clear headings. Everything is explored in chronological order and as the book's title implies, the history of the world is covered , not just European history , so we can understand that civilisations developed throughout the world at the same time. India,China and the Americas all had agricultural economies and civilisation long before the Bible , for instance,was written, casting doubt on the Middle East somehow being the cradle of civilisation. Many Eurocentric texts would ignore what was happening in these areas, but not this one. This book is a good reference work if you are wanting to understand the chronology of world history and how humanity has developed over the millennia. I would recommend it to any student of history or to anyone wanting to increase their general knowledge.
• 
  Clara

  Gives you a good general understanding of world history and provides you with a foundation to explore the different times and conflicts more in detail later.
• 
  David Nichols

  While this is a physically attractive volume, well-bound and amply illustrated, its everything-plus-the-kitchen-sink approach to its subject makes the actual content of WORLD HISTORY both superficial and a bit dull. Phillip Parker, or perhaps his editors, defined their subject as “the history of everywhere and everything,” which turned the book into a series of very short entries (some just 2-3 paragraphs long) on broad, mainstream historical topics: wars (lots of wars), kings, presidents, inventions. A more productive approach, I think, would have been to follow the lead of William McNeill and other world historians, and organize the book around inter-regional and global connections. Parker's entry on “globalization” depicts this as a very recent phenomenon, but in fact people have been exchanging goods, plants, animals, and ideas from continent to continent for several thousand years. One might include in such a “global history” chapters on the spread of human beings and agriculture, the growth of world religions like Buddhism and Christianity, the development of the Indian-Ocean and Silk-Road trading networks, the navigational revolution and the rise of the “Atlantic World,” the emergence and diffusion of epidemic diseases, and the Columbian Exchange. Parker devotes a few pages to some of these subjects, and his book has some useful entries on East Asian history (too frequently neglected in books like this) and on the challenges of the early 21st century, but overall this book's approach to history is too dated to hold the interest of anyone but the most casual of readers. 3.5 stars.
• 
  Helen Hagon

  This is an excellent attempt to squeeze the whole of human history into a single book. Of course, there are many gaps and some highly significant events are boiled down to the briefest of summaries, but it is an interesting and useful overview and well presented with a good selection of relevant illustrations. Henry VIII, for example, the subject of so many school history lessons, is given only a few words, while Elizabeth I has a single sentence, when the history of this tiny country (Britain) is put into its global context.
  On a sombre note, it was sobering to realise what a huge role war and conflict have played throughout the whole of our past. Perhaps, given the information explosion in our modern world, we all need to read more about history if we are ever to learn from our mistakes.
• 
  HBalikov

  More than "eye candy" but a beautiful and compact world history. It does a little more than just list events. It throws in historical quotes and is an excellent place to decide what era or subject to further immerse oneself.
• 
  Grania

  It's a reference rather than a history. I bought it as a quick travel guide for worldwide histories combined with pictures, but it may have too little detail even for that.
• 
  Mark

  A condensed version of the tedious history books we read as children in elementary school. The entries are often less than a page. Many are a couple of paragraphs highlighting the highs and lows of past and recent history. It's difficult to rate reference works so 3 stars seems fair. This is not a book to get excited about, certainly.
• 
  Francis Shaw

  It's immensely difficult to write a concise world history. Deciding what to include concisely is more art than science and the author does a very good job picking the facts and laying them out in a readable way. There's enough information to send the reader looking for more details in areas they find interesting.
• 
  Frank Steinborn

  Very much focused on chronology and facts, this book provides a good and comprehensive overview of world history. It can be used as a reference guide or a framework from which to start digging deeper.
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  Javier Lardone

  Nothing deep or analytical. Simply a chronological account of human history, with the many wars and bottles, kings and queen, dates and figures that we learned about in high school.i will keep for my children in case they become history nerds like me.
• 
  Burton Li

  What a fantastic read! No matter which culture one comes from, the history education will inevitably be influenced by the region's nationalistic and geo-politic context, hence pays more emphasis on certain parts of the history than the rest.
  
  DK's world history gives its readers a quick and easy to digest chronological overview of the global human history. Opened my eyes to the lessons learnt from many cultures. A must read really, to learn more about what was important for other cultures in the world.
• 
  Rendy Haruman

  Quite a simple historical world history and easy to understand. It is an excellent read that provide global chronology back from prehistoric age to modern world. In between there are some maps that let reader understand the civilization during each age (I wish there were more though). In the index, it provide some interesting lists, such as great rulers, roman emperor, holy roman emperor, great wars, etc. Definitely worth reading !
• 
  Muffin Pam

  Who wouldn't want to read a book that tells the story of the world really fast. Not especially flowing prose but a really basic overview on the highlights and some lowlights as well. Nice photos. It also took only 2 pages to get through 100 years of American history so that was nice. Would have saved me an entire semester of American History in college if we would have used this as our text.
• 
  Nickolai

  One of the best one-volume histories of the world. Systematic and rather comprehensive, mentioning all the major events. One slight drawback for me - no comparison what were happening at the same time in various regions of the world. Instead the author just gives narration of the region' histories.
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  Sportyrod

  Fantastic book. This book is an excellent guide to further reading. The broad range of topics covered were interesting and punchy. I would definitely recommend this book if you want to expand your history trivia or get ideas on what other history topics you want to read about.
• 
  Ahmed Buhassan

  Good book for earlier age
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  Sean Murphy

  Great review of world history. A lot of information packed into one book.