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[(From Then to Now: A Short History of the World )] [Author: Christopher Moore] [May-2011]
Just 50,000 years ago, our hunter-gatherer ancestors ventured off the African savannah and into the wider world. Now, our technology reaches far out into the cosmos. How did we get to where we are today?With lively text and colorful illustrations, From Then to Now explains how individual societies struggled to find their own paths, despite war, disease, slavery, natural disasters, and the relentless growth of human knowledge. From Hammurabi to Henry Ford, from Incan couriers to the Internet, from the Taj Mahal to the Eiffel Tower, from Marco Polo to Martin Luther King, from Cleopatra to Catherine the Great, from boiled haggis to fried tarantulas – this is no less than the story of humanity. It’s the story of how we grew apart over all those years of migration and division, and how – as we recognize our common heritage and our often mixed ancestry – we can come together.An index, maps, and notes make this a must-have reference, as well as a delight to read and to discuss. From Then to Now is bound to create a generation of history buffs!
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
Unknown Binding
First published March 8, 2011
28 people are currently reading
361 people want to read
About the author
Christopher Moore
25 books11 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
(2)
Christopher Moore has been described as Canada's most versatile writer of history. Twice a winner of the Governor General's Award (and other literary prizes), he writes widely about Canadian history for adults and children. He has also developed historical materials for historic sites, museums, radio, and television, and he speaks frequently to a wide variety of audiences.
He writes a long-running column on history and historians for Canada's History Magazine. A past chair of the Writers' Union of Canada, Christopher Moore lives in Toronto.
(2)
Christopher Moore has been described as Canada's most versatile writer of history. Twice a winner of the Governor General's Award (and other literary prizes), he writes widely about Canadian history for adults and children. He has also developed historical materials for historic sites, museums, radio, and television, and he speaks frequently to a wide variety of audiences.
He writes a long-running column on history and historians for Canada's History Magazine. A past chair of the Writers' Union of Canada, Christopher Moore lives in Toronto.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
November 16, 2011
I have nothing but respect for contemporary historians. A few of them, let us be honest, are rock stars. They have to take something as strange and ephemeral as knowledge (such as it stands) about the past and make it into something relevant and interesting and coherent. These days historians also need to make sure they don't follow in the footsteps of their forefathers and just focus everything on white people. I grant that it was easier to write history when it came down to just a single ethnicity, but talk about restrictive! Then there are the historians for children. They have to not only do all the aforementioned steps, but make history as accurate and simple, without being simplistic, as possible. It would be difficult enough to do all of this if your book was about a person or a country. Now imagine the challenge that comes from writing about the entire history of humankind in a scant 188 pages. With pictures, no less. Leave it up to the Canadians to get it right. Toronto historian Christopher Moore does his best to render an entire world in a single book without putting the whippersnapper young readers to sleep. That he manages it has got to be some kind of miracle right there.
As Moore says in his Preface, "When does a history of the world - even a short history of the world - start? This history starts with people." So it is that we are plunged into the past. From rice farmers in China to The Great Pyramid of Giza. From Cleopatra to Martin Luther. Though he can only provide the barest of overviews, Moore takes care to give history a kind of structure, allowing student readers the chance to find the aspects that interest them the most for future study on their own. The book includes an explanation of BCE and CE vs. BC and AD in an Author's Note, as well as an Index and a map on the endpapers of places named in the text. Very oddly, no Bibliography appears here. Strange indeed.
The endpapers of this book, displaying a map with highlighted locations, pretty much give you a blunt encapsulation of where Moore's attention is going to focus in this text. You can sort of tell that the author is a Canadian right off the bat since L'Anse aux Meadows and Ramah Bay make the cut. The map identifies places that will come up in the text. Folks will undoubtedly object to the areas of the world that seemingly do not warrant a mention, but don't be fooled. Just because a major metropolitan area in Australia doesn't appear on the map that doesn't mean that it has been excised from Moore's history. A cursory examination of the Index yields at least 18 pages where the lands, and the Aborigines, are mentioned.
As for the text itself, Moore has been exceedingly careful. He starts off with the hominids of Africa, gives an overview of how they spread, launches into the Ice Age, goes into the whole hunter/gatherer society thing, and next thing you know you're in the next chapter, "Learning to Farm". He doesn't mince words, this guy. As you read, you realize that Moore's focus is vast. It contains multitudes. He'll mention the gardeners of the Middle East then segue casually into the island of New Guinea, the river valleys of China, Central American valleys, and other parts of Africa. Reading this, kids get the sense of worldwide connections. One culture comes up with this technique and it is found over here in this other culture as well. Moore's focus is wide at the start of the book. He'll give the Greeks and Romans their time in the sun but not before he's discussed "The Golden Empires" of 5000 BCE - 1000 CE and cultures that cultivated laws and gods from the same time period. Europe get a chapter of its own, but its title is "A Peninsula West of Asia" which is a nice change for folks who've heard Asia referred to as "the far east" all these years. As the book progresses more and more attention is paid to Europe and the Americas, but Moore never loses sight of the world itself. The chapter called "Europe's World" covers colonization, but also takes time to mention details like Japans Tokugawa shoguns, etc. By the end we finish with Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., and Gandhi. Then there's an Epilogue where the author discusses how Canada has changed, placing it within the global sphere, which is kind of awesome in and of itself.
The book is riddled with little sidebars here and there that break up the text. These serve the necessary purpose of keeping you from falling asleep mid-read. Not that the text is boring, but some of us fiction junkies need a little visual jolt of stimulation if we are going to continue reading about the past, no matter how well-written it might be. Many of these sidebars are amusing. Some are baffling. I could understand why you would include the story behind the construction of the Taj Mahal, but the final sidebar explaining what haggis is . . . really?
Let's be blunt. If a kid protests that they do not like history, that they will never like history, and that you cannot force them to enjoy this book then they won't. Probably. It's the open-minded child that's going to benefit from reading From Then to Now. That and the kid who loves history (I have seen them and yes, they do indeed exist). Those kids will read this book for pleasure. Then there are the kids doing homework assignments. They're going to walk into libraries nationwide saying, "I'm doing a report on [the Mwene Mutapa empire / Montezuma / the Terracotta Army / take your pick] and I need three books to show my teacher." The children's librarians on duty will carefully find what they can, but eventually they'll discover that they haven't enough books on that subject. In desperation they will pluck From Then to Now off the shelf and page frantically through the Index only to find that YES! This book does cover that particular subject, and it gives enough information that the kid can use it for the report. An ideal use of the title? Maybe not, but it's entirely possible that the kid might page through it later and catch a glimpse of a sidebar with a name like "Fermented Shark" or a picture of an atom bomb and start to read. It could happen.
Speaking of pictures, the art in this book is by the Polish born artist Andrej Krystoforski. I'll admit here and now that I'm not a huge fan of the book jacket. I can see what they're trying to do there, with the multicolored land resembling a human being gazing up at an astronaut. It's not the most enticing cover I've ever laid eyes on, though. It suggests that Krystoforski's style is thick and blunt (never mind that the astronaut is rendered in delicate detail). Inside you can see that Krystoforski's watercolors and gouache make for good full-color detailed interstitial additions. Like the sidebars they break up the text. Unlike the sidebars, they always seem to be in the right place at the right time.
From Then to Now was the proud winner of the Governor General's Award in Children's Text beating out titles that sound like a lot more fun on paper like Kenneth Oppel's Frankenstein prequel This Dark Endeavor and Tim Wynne-Jones's Blink Caution. It was good of the judges to realize how oddly enjoyable this book makes history out to be. One might feel inclined to hand it to a kind along with Larry Gornik's The Cartoon History of the Modern World (though Gornik is definitely not as good at looking beyond American and European borders to the world at large, that's for sure). If you're looking for an overview of world history written in the last ten years that does not consider the term "Manifest Destiny" a positive force for good, Christopher Moore's your man. It's not a reinterpretation of history. It's a necessary reexamination, with our kids the winners. History may be written by the winners, but winners (as we can see here) aren't restricted to a single country.
For ages 10 and up.
As Moore says in his Preface, "When does a history of the world - even a short history of the world - start? This history starts with people." So it is that we are plunged into the past. From rice farmers in China to The Great Pyramid of Giza. From Cleopatra to Martin Luther. Though he can only provide the barest of overviews, Moore takes care to give history a kind of structure, allowing student readers the chance to find the aspects that interest them the most for future study on their own. The book includes an explanation of BCE and CE vs. BC and AD in an Author's Note, as well as an Index and a map on the endpapers of places named in the text. Very oddly, no Bibliography appears here. Strange indeed.
The endpapers of this book, displaying a map with highlighted locations, pretty much give you a blunt encapsulation of where Moore's attention is going to focus in this text. You can sort of tell that the author is a Canadian right off the bat since L'Anse aux Meadows and Ramah Bay make the cut. The map identifies places that will come up in the text. Folks will undoubtedly object to the areas of the world that seemingly do not warrant a mention, but don't be fooled. Just because a major metropolitan area in Australia doesn't appear on the map that doesn't mean that it has been excised from Moore's history. A cursory examination of the Index yields at least 18 pages where the lands, and the Aborigines, are mentioned.
As for the text itself, Moore has been exceedingly careful. He starts off with the hominids of Africa, gives an overview of how they spread, launches into the Ice Age, goes into the whole hunter/gatherer society thing, and next thing you know you're in the next chapter, "Learning to Farm". He doesn't mince words, this guy. As you read, you realize that Moore's focus is vast. It contains multitudes. He'll mention the gardeners of the Middle East then segue casually into the island of New Guinea, the river valleys of China, Central American valleys, and other parts of Africa. Reading this, kids get the sense of worldwide connections. One culture comes up with this technique and it is found over here in this other culture as well. Moore's focus is wide at the start of the book. He'll give the Greeks and Romans their time in the sun but not before he's discussed "The Golden Empires" of 5000 BCE - 1000 CE and cultures that cultivated laws and gods from the same time period. Europe get a chapter of its own, but its title is "A Peninsula West of Asia" which is a nice change for folks who've heard Asia referred to as "the far east" all these years. As the book progresses more and more attention is paid to Europe and the Americas, but Moore never loses sight of the world itself. The chapter called "Europe's World" covers colonization, but also takes time to mention details like Japans Tokugawa shoguns, etc. By the end we finish with Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., and Gandhi. Then there's an Epilogue where the author discusses how Canada has changed, placing it within the global sphere, which is kind of awesome in and of itself.
The book is riddled with little sidebars here and there that break up the text. These serve the necessary purpose of keeping you from falling asleep mid-read. Not that the text is boring, but some of us fiction junkies need a little visual jolt of stimulation if we are going to continue reading about the past, no matter how well-written it might be. Many of these sidebars are amusing. Some are baffling. I could understand why you would include the story behind the construction of the Taj Mahal, but the final sidebar explaining what haggis is . . . really?
Let's be blunt. If a kid protests that they do not like history, that they will never like history, and that you cannot force them to enjoy this book then they won't. Probably. It's the open-minded child that's going to benefit from reading From Then to Now. That and the kid who loves history (I have seen them and yes, they do indeed exist). Those kids will read this book for pleasure. Then there are the kids doing homework assignments. They're going to walk into libraries nationwide saying, "I'm doing a report on [the Mwene Mutapa empire / Montezuma / the Terracotta Army / take your pick] and I need three books to show my teacher." The children's librarians on duty will carefully find what they can, but eventually they'll discover that they haven't enough books on that subject. In desperation they will pluck From Then to Now off the shelf and page frantically through the Index only to find that YES! This book does cover that particular subject, and it gives enough information that the kid can use it for the report. An ideal use of the title? Maybe not, but it's entirely possible that the kid might page through it later and catch a glimpse of a sidebar with a name like "Fermented Shark" or a picture of an atom bomb and start to read. It could happen.
Speaking of pictures, the art in this book is by the Polish born artist Andrej Krystoforski. I'll admit here and now that I'm not a huge fan of the book jacket. I can see what they're trying to do there, with the multicolored land resembling a human being gazing up at an astronaut. It's not the most enticing cover I've ever laid eyes on, though. It suggests that Krystoforski's style is thick and blunt (never mind that the astronaut is rendered in delicate detail). Inside you can see that Krystoforski's watercolors and gouache make for good full-color detailed interstitial additions. Like the sidebars they break up the text. Unlike the sidebars, they always seem to be in the right place at the right time.
From Then to Now was the proud winner of the Governor General's Award in Children's Text beating out titles that sound like a lot more fun on paper like Kenneth Oppel's Frankenstein prequel This Dark Endeavor and Tim Wynne-Jones's Blink Caution. It was good of the judges to realize how oddly enjoyable this book makes history out to be. One might feel inclined to hand it to a kind along with Larry Gornik's The Cartoon History of the Modern World (though Gornik is definitely not as good at looking beyond American and European borders to the world at large, that's for sure). If you're looking for an overview of world history written in the last ten years that does not consider the term "Manifest Destiny" a positive force for good, Christopher Moore's your man. It's not a reinterpretation of history. It's a necessary reexamination, with our kids the winners. History may be written by the winners, but winners (as we can see here) aren't restricted to a single country.
For ages 10 and up.
March 5, 2011
I was glad to win a copy of this book even though when I applied I didn't realise it was for kids or young adults.
Although I'm a long way from being a young adult the book immediately appealed to me. An overview of world history that avoids an overly Euro-centric view and yet doesn't become too PC. Illustrated with watercolour paintings that avoid most of the stereotypes too, I wondered whether it would attract the ipod generation. I needn't have worried. My 12 year old son and 16 year old daughter both asked to read it after I was finished.
Although I'm a long way from being a young adult the book immediately appealed to me. An overview of world history that avoids an overly Euro-centric view and yet doesn't become too PC. Illustrated with watercolour paintings that avoid most of the stereotypes too, I wondered whether it would attract the ipod generation. I needn't have worried. My 12 year old son and 16 year old daughter both asked to read it after I was finished.
January 20, 2025
A great overview of history
Read
October 11, 2011Historian Christopher Moore, in addition to his many print credits, has crafted the popular The Story of Canada for young people with renowned author Janet Lunn. Now, in fewer than 200 pages, Moore takes on the history of the whole world with wonderful results. Moore first places readers (figuratively) beside a flickering fire. Then, in ten chapters, he tells the tale of humankind from the first Homo sapiens in Africa to a time a few decades past the invention of the automobile in America.
A polished storyteller, Moore communicates simply, adding drama and laughter as he relates human actions and interactions from around the globe. Importantly, he highlights Egypt’s Hatshepsut and Vietnam’s Trung sisters, as well as other great female leaders. In several text insets, he humorously acquaints readers with a civilization through its inhabitants’ stomachs, as in a description of Cambodian spider fries. As students read, they will want to discuss Moore’s interesting perspectives. Do they agree, for example, with his positive view of hunting and gathering as “a good life”?
Andrej Krystoforski’s (The Boy Who Loved Bananas) has created bright watercolours to begin each chapter. Smaller ones are splashed throughout the book, although many topics are not illustrated. There are a slim index and a map situating 30 places referred to in the text. From the first to the last page, the words invite solid readers to explore From Then to Now: A Short History of the World and enjoy a story told in a timeless fashion.
Reviewed by lian Goodall in Canadian Children's Book News (Summer 2011, Vol. 34, No. 3)
A polished storyteller, Moore communicates simply, adding drama and laughter as he relates human actions and interactions from around the globe. Importantly, he highlights Egypt’s Hatshepsut and Vietnam’s Trung sisters, as well as other great female leaders. In several text insets, he humorously acquaints readers with a civilization through its inhabitants’ stomachs, as in a description of Cambodian spider fries. As students read, they will want to discuss Moore’s interesting perspectives. Do they agree, for example, with his positive view of hunting and gathering as “a good life”?
Andrej Krystoforski’s (The Boy Who Loved Bananas) has created bright watercolours to begin each chapter. Smaller ones are splashed throughout the book, although many topics are not illustrated. There are a slim index and a map situating 30 places referred to in the text. From the first to the last page, the words invite solid readers to explore From Then to Now: A Short History of the World and enjoy a story told in a timeless fashion.
Reviewed by lian Goodall in Canadian Children's Book News (Summer 2011, Vol. 34, No. 3)
June 11, 2012
Moore has provided us with a very brief history of the human world, beginning with hunters and gatherers, and ending in the present day. He attempts to describe key events that occurred all over the world, but it is mainly Euro- and American-Centric. However, I think that he does a good job of explaining this as Europe followed by the United States were/are world leaders. His level of detail make it possible for the reader to draw a pretty good human timeline, and to pin point key events that triggered major change such as the move to farming, the industrial revolution, wars, and the advancement of knowledge. He finishes by saying that it is our job to protect this earth that we have manipulated for a hundred thousand years if we want the human race to continue to advance.
The level of detail for such a short history book was astonishing. It was like world history in 20 minutes, but I didn’t feel like my brain would explode by the end of it. Moore really made human history interesting again, and this would be a good starting point for anyone wanting to get back into it, or for a student who wants a brief overview. Once the reader finds a section they are interested in, they can find other books to provide more detail on the subject.
I thought the illustrations were nice and fit in well with each section.
I liked how some of the chapters were overlapping in time frame, but each had their distinct theme or subject. Things like religion, ancient Egypt, or the industrial revolution are much more interesting to read on their own then drawing clear lines based on years or decades.
The level of detail for such a short history book was astonishing. It was like world history in 20 minutes, but I didn’t feel like my brain would explode by the end of it. Moore really made human history interesting again, and this would be a good starting point for anyone wanting to get back into it, or for a student who wants a brief overview. Once the reader finds a section they are interested in, they can find other books to provide more detail on the subject.
I thought the illustrations were nice and fit in well with each section.
I liked how some of the chapters were overlapping in time frame, but each had their distinct theme or subject. Things like religion, ancient Egypt, or the industrial revolution are much more interesting to read on their own then drawing clear lines based on years or decades.
December 30, 2014
Moore, Christopher. Illustrated by Andrej Krystoforski. From Then to Now: A Short History of the World. 2011. 188 pp. $25.95. Tundra. 978-0-88776-540-7. An ambitious book that seeks to give a bare bones overview of the history of humanity from humanoids in Africa, through hunter-gatherer societies, to farming and the rise of nations and technologies. The history seeks to be inclusive rather than eurocentric, and covers nations and peoples worldwide. Moore crafts his history in an engaging and easy-to-read narrative form that will appeal to fiction and nonfiction readers alike. Illustrations by Krystoforski recreate famous artifacts, artwork, and photos in impressionistic paintings with a consistent style, which are placed as accents on text pages. This strategy helps the large and otherwise straightforward book avoid appearing like a textbook. Index and world map are included. Notably lacking is bibliography or reading list.
May 8, 2011
I first of all, have to apologize for taking so long reading this book. Though, it is not for any other reason than a very busy time in my life. I love history, but I would not call myself a "history buff". This book was perfect for me, because it was a real "summary" of a people's history. Quick & to the point, with lots of interesting subjects in which I'd like to take some time to read further up on. As my 3 young children advance into middle school, I will look to this book as an introduction to the history of our "human" world, as we know it.
December 18, 2011
At 184 pages, it is indeed a short history of the world. Moore begins with the hunter gatherers of 50,000 years ago and brings readers up to date. What's always interesting with books like these is to see what the author chooses to leave out of the narrative and it's obviously quite a bit. Moore does make a noble effort to include African, east Asian, Middle Eastern, and pre-Columbian history here, but the emphasis is still slanted toward western civilization. Considering the monumental task of trying to write a condensed world history for young people, Moore's effort is an admirable one.
interesting-possibilities
February 21, 2011Non-fiction
From the description: With lively text and colorful illustrations, From Then to Now explains how individual societies struggled to find their own paths, despite war, disease, slavery, natural disasters, and the relentless growth of human knowledge.
From the description: With lively text and colorful illustrations, From Then to Now explains how individual societies struggled to find their own paths, despite war, disease, slavery, natural disasters, and the relentless growth of human knowledge.
April 6, 2013
I loved this book. It was a good summary of our world's history without all the boring detail of how we got from then to now. A lot of pieces of the puzzle were put in place for me. Thank you, Mr. Moore.
Want to read
February 19, 2011This looks awesome. I love "history of the world" type books, and this one begins 50,000 years ago. Should be a very interesting read.
Want to read
November 25, 2011Recommended for Gr 6-11
March 30, 2012
Not sure why the world needed another one of these books...it was shiny.
October 12, 2015
It's not a bad short history, but it's almost too short to be useful.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews