World History

[Protoclown]

Perhaps this belongs in Recommended Reading, but I think it could fit in here as well.

I feel like I'm woefully ignorant where world history is concerned. Unfortunately, I didn't develop an appreciation or interest in history until my later years of high school, and I only took one class on it in college (and that was just US history) because it just didn't fit into my curriculum.

Nowadays I'm finding that I have forgotten sooo much of what I learned in school, because I was bored and didn't pay as much attention as I now wish I had. I also feel like the public school education I received on world history was probably pretty lacking.

Does anyone know of any good history books out there I might purchase? I'm looking for just a general world history book that covers the gamut of pretty much everything, and I'd like to find a book that's actually interesting to read rather than dry and boring like most school text books.

[KevinTheOmnivore]

Wow. This is a pretty tall order, IMO.

Eye Tie and Seth seem pretty fluent in European history, so they may be pretty useful.

Others may be more helpful, but I'm going to think about it and get back to you on that one.

[ranxer]

have you read any howard zinn? i know you asked about world history but his book 'a people's history of the united states' is a good start too.

[Vibecrewangel]

I was thinking Mr. Stereotype, Ror or Seth myself.

[KevinTheOmnivore]

Originally Posted by ranxer

have you read any howard zinn? i know you asked about world history but his book 'a people's history of the united states' is a good start too.

No offense Ranxer, but I wouldn't suggest Zinn to Proto, for a couple of reasons.

1. As you pointed out, he is an American historian. :P

2. While I appreciate his historical perspective, I wouldn't recommend that someone looking for a broad lesson start with Zinn.

See, Proto, you have sort of a Catch-22 here. Any good book with lots of details and info. is probably going to be written through the author's personal lens, thus slanting it slightly.

And if you read a book that's too broad, too general, you'll get nothing out of it. The weird thing about history is you almost have to pick a perspective, and filter out what you believe and don't believe.

[kellychaos]

[quote="KevinTheHerbivore
2. While I appreciate his historical perspective, I wouldn't recommend that someone looking for a broad lesson start with Zinn.

[/quote]

I once took a Western History course in which the instructor said that some of the worlds first historians were more or less bards that were in the hire of the local leaders and sang/wrote these dramatic, epic ballads that were not only skewed but outright lies ... in favor of THAT leader, of course.

[mburbank]

Here was my approach, many years ago when I actually had time.
Purchase any small world history book, a survey overview, a text book, it doesn't matter, get it used and cheap, becuase:

I don't think there are any good world history books. It's too vast a topic. You use the book to keep other things you read in order, to remind yourself of what was happening elsewhere in the orld when something youa re reading about was happening. Then you look for good overviews of chunks of time. It's a life project.

I like Barbara Tuchman. I find all her stuff very readable, but very informative as well.

[Sethomas]

I learned most of what I know by thumbing through encyclopedia in middle school. I was mainly concerned with the middle ages so I focused on that, and I expanded on that whenever something very specific struck my interest in a different era.

For a general survey, I'd mostly have to agree with Max. I'd recommend going to half.com and look for a really cheap college text. Once you get a good feel for what you like, then read a very specific work about it, like a biography or an overview of a war or something. If it's written well enough, the latter book will fill in the historical context of the topic in such a way that you get a wealth of detail spanning a good length of time.

[ItalianStereotype]

world history is indeed too vast a topic to accurately put into one book, or at least one book of decent size. you need to break it down and study particular periods or regions. here are some of my favorites:

Russia and the Russians: a History

Europe: a History

Anchor Atlas of World History (the English translation of DTV-Atlas zur Weltgeschichte) by Hermann Kinder and Werner Hilgemann, translated by Ernest Menze.

Age of Louis XIV by Will and Ariel Durant

Guns, Germs, and Steel: the Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond

The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman

Peter the Great by Robert Massie

Dreadnought by Robert Massie

The Price of Admiralty by John Keegan

The Heike Story by Eiji Yoshikawa

The History of Byzantium by Georg Ostrogorsky

The Cousins' Wars by Kevin Phillips

Stalingrad by Anthony Beevor

Conquest of Mexico by William Hickling Prescott

Commentaries on the Gallic War

The Blood of Kings by Linda Schele

Like Hidden Fire: the Plot to Bring Down the British Empire by Peter Hopkirk

The Rise of the West by William H. McNeill

History of Britain by Simon Schama

History of Warfare by Keegan

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Gibbon

Genghis Khan by R. P. Lister

Germania by Tacitus

The Art of War by Sun Tzu (most modern translations have quite a bit of Chinese military history in them)

Tai Kung's Secret Teachings

Plagues and Peoples by William McNeill

A History of Civilizations by Fernand Braudel

Alexander to Actium by Peter Green

The History of Government by S. E. Finer

The Prince by Macchiavelli

Empire: How Spain Became a World Power 1492-1763

that is all I can think of right now, I will add more later after I have browsed my collection.

[Vibecrewangel]

Have I mentioned you scare me Mr. Stereotype?

[mburbank]

It gets worse. I think you need to balance all of that with literature from each period, so you get some idea of what it felt like to be part of the vhunk of time you're concidering.

I would start with Western Civ. Since that's the world tradition you're a part of. If you are way interested and no anyone going to Reed college (or could make contact with anyone there) they used to teach a two year multi-disciplinary course in humanities that was a model of western education. You could ask for the syllabus.

[FS]

In the matter of books and music I always find it incredibly hard to pick a starting spot, because I want to simultaneously take in the most informative or entertaining there is while also wanting not to miss out on anything. In the end I succeed at neither.

In this case, I think a first step would be to find a very short and systematic (but complete) list of historic events, and then to note down events that you would like to look into more - then, use that as reference to look for good books on the subject.

[AChimp]

Yeah, I'd have to agree with Max. It's best to go with a college textbook on Western civilization to get a good overall idea of history. The textbook I have is pretty good (I don't have it handy right now to type out the name or anything, but I will look for it) and it covered from the Stone Age to the formation of NATO.

[theapportioner]

Anything you are interested in particular? Arnold Toynbee describes a history of civilizational growth and decline in his "A Study of History" volumes. Another monster is the "Columbia History of the World" by Garrity and Gay. Something to watch out for is Eurocentrism.

Personally though, I think your time is better spent picking a few areas that are of interest to you. History is much more than a bunch of big wars and notable treaties, and you lose that when you read the sweeping surveys.

A different historiography: texts by Michel Foucault, such as "A History of Sexuality" or "Madness and Civilization". Heavily influenced by Nietzsche's genealogical approach.

[Jeanette X]

I reccommend The Cartoon History of the Universe series. I own all three of the books, and it was both hilarious and informative.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...e&s=books&st=*

[El Blanco]

May I suggest the informative documentary by Mel rooks?

History of the World Part 1