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Millennium
The year 2000 approaches. The chance we have now to look back and take stock will be unrepeatable for another thousand years. Felipe Fernandes-Armesto's Millennium sweeps the past and scans the prospects to present an unprecedented vision of genuinely global history.
Millennium is a new initiative in narrative history, viewing the current millennium as it draws to a close as from the future. The evidence of what this thousand years represents is explored with more intricacy and intimacy than has ever been attempted in a work of this size. With the help of perfectly chosen details, our past history is illuminated over the course of a millennium on the scale of entire civilisations and cultures, revealing the historical initiative as it shifts from one part of the world to another and back again.
With its vivid writing and hundreds of illustrations, Millennium is a classic of popular history: one of the few books which has relevance for the present as well and enduring interest for the future. Critically acclaimed on first publication, it was shortlisted for the Duff Cooper Prize.
Millennium is a new initiative in narrative history, viewing the current millennium as it draws to a close as from the future. The evidence of what this thousand years represents is explored with more intricacy and intimacy than has ever been attempted in a work of this size. With the help of perfectly chosen details, our past history is illuminated over the course of a millennium on the scale of entire civilisations and cultures, revealing the historical initiative as it shifts from one part of the world to another and back again.
With its vivid writing and hundreds of illustrations, Millennium is a classic of popular history: one of the few books which has relevance for the present as well and enduring interest for the future. Critically acclaimed on first publication, it was shortlisted for the Duff Cooper Prize.
859 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1995
34 people are currently reading
984 people want to read
About the author
Felipe Fernández-Armesto
131 books182 followersFelipe Fernández-Armesto is a British professor of history at the University of Notre Dame and author of several popular works, notably on cultural and environmental history.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
June 19, 2019
I cannot be objective in my assessment. When I first read this one, I had previously read his Columbus, a ground-breaking biography, and I then heard Prof Fernandez-Armesto lecture--or rather, entertain and enlighten. I could not believe that such thorough knowledge could be put to such delightful use. I find his writing close to Edward Gibbon, whose under-argument is always the conflict between ideals and action, rhetoric and deeds. Fernandez-Armesto entertains while he instructs, a rare talent. Learning in his writing becomes a delight.
I met the author in a post-doc NEH Institute on Maritime History at Brown University, and truth to tell, I even visited him one Fall semester at his Notre Dame, as well as several Spring semesters in London, where he directs Notre Dame, London. He has often treated my wife and me to various London clubs--the grand, library-like Athenaeum, the modest, theatre-oriented Beefeater--and even my Milan daughter when she came to see a performance at the Bridewell Theatre of a play I translated, G Bruno's "Candelaio." (Couple scenes from it are on Youtube, "Candelaio Final Edit.") After I spoke at Harvard Center for Astrophysics (Google "Giordano Bruno Harvard Video"), Felipe also invited me to speak at Notre Dame, London, and participate in a panel on the History of Science, 2 & 3 April 2014.
I met the author in a post-doc NEH Institute on Maritime History at Brown University, and truth to tell, I even visited him one Fall semester at his Notre Dame, as well as several Spring semesters in London, where he directs Notre Dame, London. He has often treated my wife and me to various London clubs--the grand, library-like Athenaeum, the modest, theatre-oriented Beefeater--and even my Milan daughter when she came to see a performance at the Bridewell Theatre of a play I translated, G Bruno's "Candelaio." (Couple scenes from it are on Youtube, "Candelaio Final Edit.") After I spoke at Harvard Center for Astrophysics (Google "Giordano Bruno Harvard Video"), Felipe also invited me to speak at Notre Dame, London, and participate in a panel on the History of Science, 2 & 3 April 2014.
February 7, 2012
This is a difficult book evaluate, for me at least, it was, by turns, fascinating, infuriating, superficial, insightful, polemical and haphazard, so I am torn between giving it two, three or four stars.
It is, to put it mildly, very difficult to write a history of the world. Fernández-Armesto explicitly disavows a grand framework: “Cosmic explanation -attractive but glib- is eschewed here [...] I have never met a determinist scheme which arises from the evidence or a model of change which does not sit on the subject like an ill-fitting hat [...] I propose that shifts of initiative cannot be understood wholly or primarily in terms of the movement of resources, of quantifiable data, of cyclical conflicts, of patterns or laws, or of the grinding structures of economic change.” Thus, historians like Vito, Hegel, Marx, Spengel, Toynbee and McNeil are all banished. The author prefers to leap fowards and backwards in time and place with the dizzy dexterity of an erudite Cirque du Soleil acrobat and “...speckle the broad canvas with a pointillist technique, picturing the past in significant details rather than bold strokes or heavy impasto.” In this sense, he is closer to the approach favoured by another oxonian scholar, Theodore Zeldin whose France 1848-1945 covers almost a hundred years of history, shuttling back and forth in time and place in order to convey a (very moot) sense of a French sociological personality.
Fernández-Armesto dazzles with an ever-open eye for effect and the possible television multi-part documentary, which CNN obligingly filmed but botched, since its Millenium series while ostensibly based on this book, actually provides an overarching theme for each of the ten centuries it covers in as many episodes -which is precisely the sort of framework the author vowed to keep away from...
In general, the less I knew about a topic, like Russian, Mongol or Chinese medieval history, the more I enjoyed the threads he unravels in the book, but the more he treaded on more familiar ground, the uneasier I felt with his interpretations. Sometimes the acrobatics become too much and his pointillist technique feels merely flashy, like his gratuitious section on a “dynasty” of Irish merchants specializing, among other products in madeira or his delight in informing you that the British short story writer known as Saki´s “collateral ancestor” (an uncle? A cousin twice removed?) was mauled to death by a tiger and that Tipu Sultan, ruler of Mysore comissioned a mechanical automaton simulating this unfortunate event. His treatment of the Portuguese empire and his characterization of the British conquering India as the “last conquistadors” are fascinating, but his characterization of the mayan, aztec and inca empires as “shy and retiring empires”, are baffling unless meant as rather pompous humour.
In general, he argues convincingly that, given enough time, the West´s apparent dominion of the world from, say, the seventeenth to the twentieth century, will eventually prove to be ephemeral, modest and more of a delusion than a reality. From a distant enough perspective, for Fernández-Armesto, the millenium will probably prove to have been dominated by China´s shadow and the growth of Islam.
All in all, a book worth reading for its sheer bravado and excellent show sense, but which must be consumed with a salt cellar at hand and balanced by reading something along the lines of William McNeill´s The Rise of the West: A History of the Human Community.
The Scribner paperback version includes many (unnumbered) illustrations in black and white; interesting though many of them are, unfortunately some seem like mere padding and others have too low a resolution to be helpful.
It is, to put it mildly, very difficult to write a history of the world. Fernández-Armesto explicitly disavows a grand framework: “Cosmic explanation -attractive but glib- is eschewed here [...] I have never met a determinist scheme which arises from the evidence or a model of change which does not sit on the subject like an ill-fitting hat [...] I propose that shifts of initiative cannot be understood wholly or primarily in terms of the movement of resources, of quantifiable data, of cyclical conflicts, of patterns or laws, or of the grinding structures of economic change.” Thus, historians like Vito, Hegel, Marx, Spengel, Toynbee and McNeil are all banished. The author prefers to leap fowards and backwards in time and place with the dizzy dexterity of an erudite Cirque du Soleil acrobat and “...speckle the broad canvas with a pointillist technique, picturing the past in significant details rather than bold strokes or heavy impasto.” In this sense, he is closer to the approach favoured by another oxonian scholar, Theodore Zeldin whose France 1848-1945 covers almost a hundred years of history, shuttling back and forth in time and place in order to convey a (very moot) sense of a French sociological personality.
Fernández-Armesto dazzles with an ever-open eye for effect and the possible television multi-part documentary, which CNN obligingly filmed but botched, since its Millenium series while ostensibly based on this book, actually provides an overarching theme for each of the ten centuries it covers in as many episodes -which is precisely the sort of framework the author vowed to keep away from...
In general, the less I knew about a topic, like Russian, Mongol or Chinese medieval history, the more I enjoyed the threads he unravels in the book, but the more he treaded on more familiar ground, the uneasier I felt with his interpretations. Sometimes the acrobatics become too much and his pointillist technique feels merely flashy, like his gratuitious section on a “dynasty” of Irish merchants specializing, among other products in madeira or his delight in informing you that the British short story writer known as Saki´s “collateral ancestor” (an uncle? A cousin twice removed?) was mauled to death by a tiger and that Tipu Sultan, ruler of Mysore comissioned a mechanical automaton simulating this unfortunate event. His treatment of the Portuguese empire and his characterization of the British conquering India as the “last conquistadors” are fascinating, but his characterization of the mayan, aztec and inca empires as “shy and retiring empires”, are baffling unless meant as rather pompous humour.
In general, he argues convincingly that, given enough time, the West´s apparent dominion of the world from, say, the seventeenth to the twentieth century, will eventually prove to be ephemeral, modest and more of a delusion than a reality. From a distant enough perspective, for Fernández-Armesto, the millenium will probably prove to have been dominated by China´s shadow and the growth of Islam.
All in all, a book worth reading for its sheer bravado and excellent show sense, but which must be consumed with a salt cellar at hand and balanced by reading something along the lines of William McNeill´s The Rise of the West: A History of the Human Community.
The Scribner paperback version includes many (unnumbered) illustrations in black and white; interesting though many of them are, unfortunately some seem like mere padding and others have too low a resolution to be helpful.
March 24, 2024
Lively, engaging, idiosyncratic history of the world from 1000 to 1993, when the author got impatient. It eschews some of the usual set-pieces of course-grained historical narrative, the battles and revolutions and great conferences and so on, in favor of vignettes of less well known places in which the effects of the action played out in everyday life. These vignettes seem to have been chosen mostly because they are places the author has happened to visit, but since the specific locations aren't the point and he appears to be well-travelled, it works just fine.
As in so many books of history before and after, much fuss is made about how this book is taking a more enlightened take than those stodgy, hidebound traditional historians. For the most part, this is achieved by pretending the historical consensus is akin to what you might find in a Victorian elementary school primer, then presenting the historical consensus as if it was something new and a little subversive. In a few instances, a fairly aggressive interpretation is announced, but then qualified into submission over the course of the next few paragraphs.
To the book's credit, we do often see events from a different perspective than usual. A terrific example is the "Scramble for Africa," seen here from the perspective of Africans rather than the usual perch at the Conference of Berlin. It is a laudable and interesting approach, even if the outcome of events necessarily remains the same.
The book is pushing 30. Its predictions of the future are, like all 30-year predictions, in tatters. No shame in that. The 1990s fascination with "The Pacific Rim" feels dated, but that idea comes and goes in waves and will someday seem fresh again I imagine. Our author does not, shall we say, "get the West Coast," and there is a chapter on California that stands out as a bit ludicrous.
But why do I snark? Any attempt at 1000 years of human history would have to take risks, and most would probably err on the side of being turgid. This one is fairly zippy and does a remarkable job of covering the global waterfront. And it has lots of pictures!
As in so many books of history before and after, much fuss is made about how this book is taking a more enlightened take than those stodgy, hidebound traditional historians. For the most part, this is achieved by pretending the historical consensus is akin to what you might find in a Victorian elementary school primer, then presenting the historical consensus as if it was something new and a little subversive. In a few instances, a fairly aggressive interpretation is announced, but then qualified into submission over the course of the next few paragraphs.
To the book's credit, we do often see events from a different perspective than usual. A terrific example is the "Scramble for Africa," seen here from the perspective of Africans rather than the usual perch at the Conference of Berlin. It is a laudable and interesting approach, even if the outcome of events necessarily remains the same.
The book is pushing 30. Its predictions of the future are, like all 30-year predictions, in tatters. No shame in that. The 1990s fascination with "The Pacific Rim" feels dated, but that idea comes and goes in waves and will someday seem fresh again I imagine. Our author does not, shall we say, "get the West Coast," and there is a chapter on California that stands out as a bit ludicrous.
But why do I snark? Any attempt at 1000 years of human history would have to take risks, and most would probably err on the side of being turgid. This one is fairly zippy and does a remarkable job of covering the global waterfront. And it has lots of pictures!
July 18, 2021
Fairly decent history I read around 2000. Armesto is an Oxbridge type from the time when diversity was a political buzzword. I mean the book has a nineties TINA feel of triumphalism but it is still pretty good.
February 1, 2008
Apparently, there are many approaches to creating a world history. Armesto (who got arrrested last summer at the American Historical Association convention for jaywalking and ripping up his ticket in front the police officer) is big intol looking at the conenctions between societies in order to create a master narrative about how cultires interact and disseminate ideas between one another. basically, no one group is isolated; and he explains this with a unique approach, looking at the peripherial regions of societies, whether they be geographic (he does a great thing on California, arguing for it to be included as part of Asia) or sectors of society (Giesha women in shogun Japan responsible for the novel "Tales of Genji), Armesto traces one thousand years. If you are into the "decline of the west" and want to decenter European dominace of world history, you will like this book. I don't even know what that means!
(see Armesto's "The Americas" for a hemispheric view of North and South America. He argeus quite convincingly that the Haitan Revolution--and not the American "Revolution"--was a more defining moment for the Americas. He is really big into the idea of connctions between soceities, the similarities groups share and how ideas are transmitted.)
(see Armesto's "The Americas" for a hemispheric view of North and South America. He argeus quite convincingly that the Haitan Revolution--and not the American "Revolution"--was a more defining moment for the Americas. He is really big into the idea of connctions between soceities, the similarities groups share and how ideas are transmitted.)
July 10, 2008
Closer, actually, to 2-1/2 stars.
I was very impressed by the first book I read from this author, Civilizations, where he argued that a "civilization" was any human society that altered its environment. Which lets him cover quite a wide range of topics. However, that initial conceit kept the book focused.
I couldn't find such a focus in this book. The chapters read like mini-essays that jump from topic to topic, never dealing with any one for any length of time. Many of the ideas he presents are fairly provocative, certainly forcing one to rethink conventional, European-oriented histories, but just when things get interesting, he's off to another country.
I was very impressed by the first book I read from this author, Civilizations, where he argued that a "civilization" was any human society that altered its environment. Which lets him cover quite a wide range of topics. However, that initial conceit kept the book focused.
I couldn't find such a focus in this book. The chapters read like mini-essays that jump from topic to topic, never dealing with any one for any length of time. Many of the ideas he presents are fairly provocative, certainly forcing one to rethink conventional, European-oriented histories, but just when things get interesting, he's off to another country.
May 26, 2009
The book is faultless in writing style and scholarship. Deeply researched and rich in new insights. If it has a flaw it is the deeply anti-american, asian-phobic decline and fall of euro-civilization slant that comes through often. In that aspect it may be the best book out there that sets out the intellectual argument for Euro-antiamericanism.
July 22, 2014
This book had been sitting in my library for about twenty years - too "scared" to start on a 700+ pages history book. I have never learned so much from a history book, not facts - the book assumes you already know all important facts of world history, but the stories of lots of fascinating people in the most diverse parts of the world.
July 16, 2019
This was a very complicated book to read, as despite its premise and approach, it was hard to stay engaged with this book.
Millennium seeks to chronicle the last thousand years throughout the world from an approach from distant museum keepers who come across our world and try to discern why the last thousand years were the ways they were throughout the world cultures, with the historical conflicts that resulted from interactions of differing peoples. Moreover, Millennium chronicles these histories not from the standpoint of well-known figures, but from the undertow influences personal and cultural, that drove the perceptions of one people about another. It is a very unique and formidable concept, as it is the perceptions of oneself (personally and culturally) which define, and goad what one does for the benefit of self (individual and collective) in relation to those considered others. Conversely, in any interaction, one must decide and/or conclude whether one’s own sense of self (again, individual and collective), history and culture will survive, or be amalgamated with, or absorbed by, the incoming culture. This is the current and historic dilemma of Japan, and China now. Fernández-Armesto also provides glimpses of the ‘future’ histories of Eastern Europe, China and the United States as cautionary tales in the Epilogue of the book.
Yet, what adds if not reinforces the challenge to keep reading the book are the illustrations: are they there to teach (some do), or distract (as the book is difficult to keep reading)? Also, for all the facts, and chapter-jumping for reference, one is hard-pressed to keep going with this book. However, the historic recognition of respective (racial and cultural) selves are recognizable nuggets of information to inform and keep the reader engaged. However, Fernández-Armesto alarmingly points out that this same self recognition can explode in more tell-tale wars and (worse) conflicts , as humanity still grapples with the dilemma of ascertaining if it will/can survive, and to what degree does each culture retain and express it uniqueness against the inevitable interaction with anyone different from itself.
Overall, the book is still worth reading, though one has to take one’s time to do so to appreciate Fernández-Armesto’s premise, approach and lesson. However, since the book’s printing in 1995, a lot has changed; it will be interesting to see where the shifts –despite those presented by Fernández-Armesto- will actually lead, and why.
Millennium seeks to chronicle the last thousand years throughout the world from an approach from distant museum keepers who come across our world and try to discern why the last thousand years were the ways they were throughout the world cultures, with the historical conflicts that resulted from interactions of differing peoples. Moreover, Millennium chronicles these histories not from the standpoint of well-known figures, but from the undertow influences personal and cultural, that drove the perceptions of one people about another. It is a very unique and formidable concept, as it is the perceptions of oneself (personally and culturally) which define, and goad what one does for the benefit of self (individual and collective) in relation to those considered others. Conversely, in any interaction, one must decide and/or conclude whether one’s own sense of self (again, individual and collective), history and culture will survive, or be amalgamated with, or absorbed by, the incoming culture. This is the current and historic dilemma of Japan, and China now. Fernández-Armesto also provides glimpses of the ‘future’ histories of Eastern Europe, China and the United States as cautionary tales in the Epilogue of the book.
Yet, what adds if not reinforces the challenge to keep reading the book are the illustrations: are they there to teach (some do), or distract (as the book is difficult to keep reading)? Also, for all the facts, and chapter-jumping for reference, one is hard-pressed to keep going with this book. However, the historic recognition of respective (racial and cultural) selves are recognizable nuggets of information to inform and keep the reader engaged. However, Fernández-Armesto alarmingly points out that this same self recognition can explode in more tell-tale wars and (worse) conflicts , as humanity still grapples with the dilemma of ascertaining if it will/can survive, and to what degree does each culture retain and express it uniqueness against the inevitable interaction with anyone different from itself.
Overall, the book is still worth reading, though one has to take one’s time to do so to appreciate Fernández-Armesto’s premise, approach and lesson. However, since the book’s printing in 1995, a lot has changed; it will be interesting to see where the shifts –despite those presented by Fernández-Armesto- will actually lead, and why.
September 1, 2018
At the end of the book when Armesto is introducing his Epilogue, the future it’s subject, he says therefore; “the strain of preserving academic detachment and stifling moral judgements can be forgotten,” because it involves my predictions of the future not my historical reportage.
But my observation is that he was not all that diligent about detachment in the history part of the book. I don’t think I read a page that he did not express his opinion, often expressed as fact. But having said that, many of his opinions were maybe, even probably, but not surely correct! That hurt his credibility.
Another example; he thought Elvis was a symptom of the low culture in America,. He quoted a wag as saying the Elvis’s death was his best career move! Amazingly he never said that the Beatles were also “low culture!” He must have believed “that culture came with leather patches on their jacket and a British accent!” For that quote, Google “How the Beatles changed Britain,” written in 1991, and then ask why he singled out Elvis but didn’t mention the Beatles in his book published in 1995. Academic detachment?
His view in general is Eurocentric, a bit pompous, with references to impoliteness and personal manners in other cultures! I wish he had not done that! Further evidence of his bias.
He oozes elitism. He went out of his way to use obscure words and to, cleverly, but without necessity, combine nouns into words to be used as adverbs and/or adjectives.
And lastly, he criticized frontiers as being “settled by flotsam of the last.” Some snobbery there! But, also a commentary about those with secure positions who’s situation satisfied them more their striving to build something new, to the detriment of the advantage of growth of the human experience! Flotsam strives to all our benefit!
So, did I learn anything?
Yes I did:
I learned about many cultures and their strengths and weaknesses. And his book illuminates the massive changes that humanity have experienced in the millennium (.333% (1,000/300,000) of Homo Sapiens’ existence); that these changes are happening at an accelerating pace! Eye opening, and portending a challenging future, exampled by the risks associated with artificial intelligence, the potential of genetic changes to the human genome, global warming, the political risk of social networks, etc.
The book is arranged by vignettes, by chapter, that are illustrative of particular histories or cultural descriptions! There are references to philosophies and their effects on governance and causes of war but without descriptions of those wars and their long term effects!
It is a dense history and not as clear a his “Civilizations” book, where he proposes and persuasively argues a clear thesis!. See my review of that book!
I gave it three stars because it is dense and hard to read but without a particularly clear thesis to understand or debate.
History buffs should probably read it though! Maybe??
But my observation is that he was not all that diligent about detachment in the history part of the book. I don’t think I read a page that he did not express his opinion, often expressed as fact. But having said that, many of his opinions were maybe, even probably, but not surely correct! That hurt his credibility.
Another example; he thought Elvis was a symptom of the low culture in America,. He quoted a wag as saying the Elvis’s death was his best career move! Amazingly he never said that the Beatles were also “low culture!” He must have believed “that culture came with leather patches on their jacket and a British accent!” For that quote, Google “How the Beatles changed Britain,” written in 1991, and then ask why he singled out Elvis but didn’t mention the Beatles in his book published in 1995. Academic detachment?
His view in general is Eurocentric, a bit pompous, with references to impoliteness and personal manners in other cultures! I wish he had not done that! Further evidence of his bias.
He oozes elitism. He went out of his way to use obscure words and to, cleverly, but without necessity, combine nouns into words to be used as adverbs and/or adjectives.
And lastly, he criticized frontiers as being “settled by flotsam of the last.” Some snobbery there! But, also a commentary about those with secure positions who’s situation satisfied them more their striving to build something new, to the detriment of the advantage of growth of the human experience! Flotsam strives to all our benefit!
So, did I learn anything?
Yes I did:
I learned about many cultures and their strengths and weaknesses. And his book illuminates the massive changes that humanity have experienced in the millennium (.333% (1,000/300,000) of Homo Sapiens’ existence); that these changes are happening at an accelerating pace! Eye opening, and portending a challenging future, exampled by the risks associated with artificial intelligence, the potential of genetic changes to the human genome, global warming, the political risk of social networks, etc.
The book is arranged by vignettes, by chapter, that are illustrative of particular histories or cultural descriptions! There are references to philosophies and their effects on governance and causes of war but without descriptions of those wars and their long term effects!
It is a dense history and not as clear a his “Civilizations” book, where he proposes and persuasively argues a clear thesis!. See my review of that book!
I gave it three stars because it is dense and hard to read but without a particularly clear thesis to understand or debate.
History buffs should probably read it though! Maybe??
June 20, 2025
Letto nella traduzione italiana. Voluminosa opera con l’ambizione di ripercorrere un millennio di storia con un punto di vista non eurocentrico; obiettivo totalmente raggiunto. Leggere queste pagine ci permette di revisionare la nostra convinzione di un’Europa sempre al centro della Storia e dell’innovazione, nonché che influenza le altre regioni venendo solo marginalmente influenzata a sua volta. Lo studioso sfrutta la chiave di lettura dei movimenti (culturali, economici, sociali, …) per mostrarci altre civiltà nettamente più avanzate di quelle europee sotto molto punti di vista, anche a livello di espansione territoriale (solo che essendo territori lontani da noi, non vengono reputati significativi) e per rivalutare la direzione e l’ampiezza dei flussi di influenza, dimostrando quanto, anche durante l’espansione coloniale delle potenze europee, le influenze subite fossero spesso più profonde di quanto sembri. In pagine densissime di riferimenti e dettagli - spesso anche difficili da elaborare, poiché non inquadrabili nelle nostre conoscenze abituali, a meno di non essere esperti di storia e di culture orientali - si segue lo slittamento dei punti di forza, il montare e sciogliersi di tensioni, ma soprattutto le varie forme che prende il potere, purtroppo quasi sempre distruttive. Questa densità rende la lettura assai lenta e faticosa, anche se l’autore cerca di essere divulgativo, e sovraccarica di informazioni, cosicché alla fine rimane soprattutto un nuovo atteggiamento verso la Storia e uno sguardo più decentrato, entrambi utilissimi. L’altro limite dell’opera, a mio parere, è che vi emerge la posizione piuttosto conservatrice dell’autore (quantomeno ora, ma già in parte nel ‘93), che connota alcune valutazioni e interpretazioni.
December 2, 2017
It’s another history book – what can I say?
However, this one is specifically a history of the time from approximately 1000 C.E. to approximately 2000 C.E. (a few references to back to around 980, and I believe the book was finished around 1997). This seems an unusual time period for a history book (inspired by the approach of the year 2000 at the time), because usually you get the history of a country (say the U.S. or the Roman Empire), or a particular event (World War II or the Crusades), or a century (the 1700’s). Or else a book will attempt to give the history of the world.
The approach is different in another way too. The author has specifically sought out some of the less well-known aspects of history to write about. In most of the chapters, he begins by selecting a cultural artifact of a certain period to describe – a work of art or literature, or a building or ruin of a building or area – and expands the tale of whatever historical element he is elucidating from there. He is mostly less concerned with particular people or incidents, except as they may be indicative of an age or idea and more concerned with large entities of history like empires (the Mayan empire, or certain African empires, or China) or cultures (Eastern vs. Western Christianity, Pacific Rim, etc.).
At the end, he includes his guesses about where these cultures will go in the near future (as seen from 1997 or so).
However, this one is specifically a history of the time from approximately 1000 C.E. to approximately 2000 C.E. (a few references to back to around 980, and I believe the book was finished around 1997). This seems an unusual time period for a history book (inspired by the approach of the year 2000 at the time), because usually you get the history of a country (say the U.S. or the Roman Empire), or a particular event (World War II or the Crusades), or a century (the 1700’s). Or else a book will attempt to give the history of the world.
The approach is different in another way too. The author has specifically sought out some of the less well-known aspects of history to write about. In most of the chapters, he begins by selecting a cultural artifact of a certain period to describe – a work of art or literature, or a building or ruin of a building or area – and expands the tale of whatever historical element he is elucidating from there. He is mostly less concerned with particular people or incidents, except as they may be indicative of an age or idea and more concerned with large entities of history like empires (the Mayan empire, or certain African empires, or China) or cultures (Eastern vs. Western Christianity, Pacific Rim, etc.).
At the end, he includes his guesses about where these cultures will go in the near future (as seen from 1997 or so).
March 28, 2018
I love reading history, and this epic challenges many of the things I've learned over the years by focusing on the big picture. In the big picture, China has been the most successful empire not just for the last 1000 years, but for the last 2000. In the big picture, the Atlantic nations (what we think of as the West) had a short day in the sun, but are being upended by the Pacific nations (Asia, and in Fernandez-Armesto's mind, California). He's a Conservative scholar, and some of his ideas are anathema to me - he's not sympathetic to indigenous peoples replaced by more outward-seeking cultures, for example. But his research is intensive, and his sweeping coverage of history is an interesting way of looking at things. I remain wedded to the lives of individuals in history, but there are always more ways to look at things.
September 5, 2019
Truly a must for your library if you want a World History book. While it is organized somewhat loosely chronologically, it is not tied to a place but can jump from place to place while it investigates a theme. Armesto's knowledge is exceptional and he does an excellent job of avoiding worn-out generalizations. The epilogue felt a bit surprising as there Armesto goes out on a limb and predicts the future, which is unfortunate. At the same time some of his predictions seem to ring true for today, on the other hand this need to predict seems to contradict his understanding of history as conveyed throughout the book.
December 16, 2020
The author, an academician (Oxford and Brown University, is a pedant. As a long-time reader of history, I found this tome to be a very difficult read. It is one of few histories which, for the most part, bored me to distress.
March 9, 2018
I love popular histories. But something about the author's writing style annoyed me.
November 11, 2020
Türkçe örğreniyor iken okuduyorum bu kitabı fakat şimdi Türkçe vazgeçetim olduğumdan bunu de vazgeçtim. İşte oyle.. . .
April 24, 2024
Fascinating, enthralling, and sometimes perplexing, Armesto takes on almost 1,000 years of history around the globe, drawing common themes across cultures and continents. Well worth the time.
September 22, 2020
Laughably scattershot "history" of the past millennium, basically a hagiography of Spain and China, filled with howlers about the likes of the crassness of rock 'n roll and how abortion is one step from eugenics.
August 14, 2012
I ended up reading this during the Olympics and I really wanted to like it. I wanted to learn the history of some of these countries I was watching at the Olympics. However the author made a major mistake of injecting too much of his own opinion. It was clear he is not a fan of the west, he really really loves the east, he likes the Catholic church and went so far as to say they "promote human dignity" , he is a pro-lifer, he reduced the biggest discovery in biology, natural selection to a reason for continued racism in the west and compared the duality of light to Taoism.
Another major problem was the fact that it left out women, it glossed over the atrocities to women over the last millennium.
I originally thought that it was going to be good a non-Eurocentric look at world history but too many problems make me not recommend this book.
Another major problem was the fact that it left out women, it glossed over the atrocities to women over the last millennium.
I originally thought that it was going to be good a non-Eurocentric look at world history but too many problems make me not recommend this book.
September 8, 2013
Meshes together a lot to tell the story of history over the past thousand years. However, in all it is a fairly pessimistic view, with its examples chosen to reinforce that position. One doesn't want Pollyanna, but somehow just briefly perusing this has been enough for me to date, rather than truly "reading" it. I will return to it from time to time, because Fernández-Armesto is an erudite writer that it is fun to encounter from time to time. It has apparently been used as an AP textbook; my own reaction is that it would be quite inappropriate for such a function, unless one was on a bash dead Western white men mission -- which I don't think is necessary for high school AP students. Awareness is one thing, tirade quite another.
January 1, 2017
Took me a while to get through this one. Definitely learned a lot about the non-European part of the world, which was very interesting. Author approaches from big themes and moves from one area of the world to another. Sometimes I lost track of what had happened previously with this approach. Not an easy read, but enjoyed author's ideas on what occurred between 1000 and 2000 that would be noted by an alien species searching through our rubbish. Some of what Americans think would be important did fall within his parameters.
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October 9, 2007picked it up a while ago. got through 40 pages. picking it up again. might have go through it in doses.
kinda dull at moments--surprising given the subject: the last 1,000 years. Not a big reader of non-fiction, but I prefer a more engaging, narrative approach to non-fiction, like Ross King.
to be continued...
kinda dull at moments--surprising given the subject: the last 1,000 years. Not a big reader of non-fiction, but I prefer a more engaging, narrative approach to non-fiction, like Ross King.
to be continued...
May 25, 2016
Stopper på side 100. På mig virker bogen slasket, løs på den dårlige måde. Der fortælles lidt poetisk og med mange detaljer og hurtige vurderinger og uklare sproglige billeder. Det understøtter fornemmelsen af en forfatter, som gerne vil fortælle om alt muligt, men som ikke har en klar plan. Det kan jeg ikke lide her
May 23, 2009
Every wonder how the history of the world for the last 1000 years would look to an extra-terrestrial? Fernandez-Armesto weaves an idiosyncratic and totally entertaining world history from the premise in Millennium.
December 30, 2013
My favorite history book of all time. This professor has a great writing style and his accounting of history is lively and informative. It's been a long time since I read this, I want to re-read, because I don't have a lot to say about it right now.
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March 26, 2010Millennium by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto (1995)
September 6, 2010
Superficial and ideologically driven. Many have enjoyed it but I was unimpressed.
June 22, 2013
Hard to read but amazing lyrical writing. I have spent years reading bits and pieces.
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March 28, 2015Svenska.
"Millenium"
"Millenium"
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews