The No-Nonsense Guide to World History

No-Nonsense Guides

by Chris Brazier

Most people's knowledge of world history is hazy and incomplete at best. This updated No-Nonsense Guide gives a full picture, revealing the hidden histories and communities left out of conventional history books—from the civilizations of Africa, Asia, and Latin America to the history of women. The new final chapter includes material on the financial crisis and the world response to climate change. Chris Brazier is co-editor at New Internationalist . His previous books include The Price of Peace . He is principal writer for UNICEF's The State of the World's Children report.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

169 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

very short for a world history...but absolutely fascinating...

[D'arcy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thinking of what to write for this small review brought some interesting questions to mind. Should history be short? Can one tell any great version of history in this amount of space? Surely I've read single books and essays that are of great length, but those have all been focused on one topic by time, geography, or subject. I do applaud the effort to make history more appealing and digestible to a larger audience, but is a book that covers "all" of the world's history the best way to do it? It's a noble effort, but I don't think ANY book could possible tell any sort of cohesive "world history" because one would always have to account for world-views and theoretical-frameworks, and no book could take in all of this. It's a fun 'plane' book and is good if you want something quick to read, and is somewhat subversive when compared to the old-white-men histories that are more than prominent in schools and stores. Still, there is no time to develop any one idea or topic that this book offers. At best, one could say that it offers a few chronological and anthropocentric snap-shots of the earth and leads to where it is now, with the author's left-leaning (in a good way) slant coming through. It offers some positive mentions to other models of history, but doesn't spend the time to develop them and probably has the reader forgetting them by the next chapter.

[Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most people who have commented on this book feel that it is biased. I agree. In fact, if you look at the other titles in this series you will see that the subject matter for most of them is bound to cause lively discussion or even heated, unfriendly debate - climate change, globalization, animal rights, sexual diversity... However, the authors of these books might want to present the facts and leave some room for the reader to interpret these facts. Being told what to think is somewhat annoying. Apart from this problem, I still found the book useful - I constructed a good, quick little timeline which I am finding helpful. If you enjoy reading historical fiction or biographies or history books, such aids help contextualize material.

[Suwitcha Chandhorn · Rating 4 out of 5]

หนังสือเกี่ยวกับประวัติศาสตร์โลกส่วนใหญ่มักจะไล่เรียงเรื่องราวของประวัติศาสตร์โดยมีอารยธรรมตะวันตกเป็นศูนย์กลาง แต่หนังสือเล่มนี้น่าจะเรียกได้ว่าไม่เน้นในส่วนกระแสหลักเหล่านั้นมากนัก เนื่องจากมีโจทย์ว่าจะใช้แค่ 40,000 คำซึ่งน้อยมากสำหรับประวัติศาสตร์โลกที่ยาวนานหลายพันปี ก็เลยเป็นงานที่ท้าทายยิ่ง หนังสือกล่าวถึงเรื่องราวต่าง ๆ ทั่วโลก โดยเว้นเรื่องของยุโรปไว้ให้หนังสือเล่มอื่น จะกล่าวถึงก็เฉพาะเท่าที่จำเป็น แต่ในขณะเดียวกันก็พูดถึงผลกระทบของการขยายดินแดนอาณานิคมและการเกิดยุคสมัยต่าง ๆ ให้เห็นความสัมพันธ์ได้เข้าใจง่ายดี เป็นหนังสือที่อ่านสนุก แม้ปกจะเหมือนหนังสือเรียนไปหน่อย

จะเก็บหนังสือเล่มนี้ขึ้นหิ้งไว้ เผื่อในอนาคตจะได้หยิบมาทบทวนอีกสักครั้ง

[Andy Grayson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Useless. Ill-informed, immature rant. Absolutely riddled with clumsy rhetoric, misunderstandings and flat out errors. How this utterly painful post-colonial guilt laden under-researched predictable yawn ever got published is a mystery, if a 14 year old handed it in you'd tell them to go away and do it properly.

[Poo1987 Roykaew · Rating 5 out of 5]

A simplified version of world history, but do not recognise it a junk. If I have to provide and suggest a must-read list of the world history, this is certainly the one I would take in account. Unputdownable!

[YZ]

I do love me a very biased book sometimes.

[Judy]

Perfect! an overview - and short.

[Victoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

I good book to tuck into your travel kit - to dip into in those moments waiting for the train or the cappuccino to arrive; and also to learn about the places you are vititing.

[Robert · Rating 1 out of 5]

This condensation of history makes leaps and suppositions based on little more than speculation or the author's opinion. This had the basic tenor of a historical novel.

[Fay · Rating 2 out of 5]

A good, short overview of World History, but the author, Chris Brazier is very biased.

[Merve · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Bir dünya tarihi kitabı ne kadar kısa olmaya çalışırsa o kadar iddialı olur” derken eksik bir cümle kurmuş. Eksik ve iddialı demeliymiş belki de. Kitabın dili akıcı hemen hemen birçok kültüre değinmiş. Ancak önemli olabilecek birçok detayı da gözden kaçırmış gibi. Ya da anlatmamayı tercih etmiş gibi.
Hani bir şeyi anlatmayı seçmek başka bir şeyi anlatmamayı seçmek demektir ya aynı zamanda her ne kadar bütün Dünya Tarihini özetleme çabasına girmiş çok değerli ve akıcı bi üslupla bunu başarmışsa da eksik kalmış. Örneğin Osmanlı imparatorluğunu tek bir kutucuk içinde anlatmayı tercih etmiş olabilir ama onun diğer ülkelerle karmaşık ilişkisini yarım bırakmış gibi. Türkiye Cumhuriyeti’ni anlatmıyor. Belki diğer ülkelerle ilişkisini fazla önemsememiş de olabilir bilemiyorum kendisine sormak isterdim. Belki de bilgisi Çoğumuza öğretilen Batı kaynaklı bilgilerle sınırlıdır. En sinir olduğum ise Feminist tarihe sadece kadınların oy hakkı mücadelesine dair bir kutucuk ayırması. Sınıf mücadeleleri savaşlar sömürgecilik kadar değerli değil mi Kadın hareketi mücadelesi? Tarihe girmez mi? Sanki biraz siyahlara da sempati duyan onların da hakkını savunan egemen orta sınıf beyaz erkek anlatısı mevcut gibi. Batı anlatısı odaklı gibi de aynı zamanda. Yine de bilgi verici. Eleştirel bir bakışla okunmalı.

[Anurag · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finished in just a day. My second favorite non-fiction this year, after A short history of nearly everything.
While history can't be summed up in 150 pages, Brazier did a very good job at it.
Best part, the history isn't euro-centric and isn't written in non-textbooky manner.
India, China, Africa and USA are given plenty of time in book. While its not as entertaining as Gombre's Little history of World, it does the job better.
Recommended only if you've no idea of world history and want to get a bigger picture. If one already knows the basics of history, this isn't gonna add much to it.

[Kadir · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oldukça kısa ve akıcı bir kitap neredeyse hiç ayrıntı yok. Bölümler kısa tutulmuş aralarında ise çok kuvvetli bir bağlantı yok. Hacmin bu kadar az ve konunun bu kadar geniş olduğu bir konuda bunu sağlamak oldukça zor. Tamamıyla Avrupa merkezli değil, Afrika, Avustralya ve Güney Amerika'ya da yer veriyor. Yazar mümkün olduğunca ortada durmaya çalışmış. Son bölümde iklim değişikliği, çevreye oldukça yer ayırmış ve ilerlemenin bir mit olduğu görüşünü savunuyor. Bir kaç hususta isabetli olmadığını düşünsem de kitabı sıkılmadan okudum.

[Paylos Des · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good summarized and condensed history. Good for those who want a basic overview

[Sam Rae · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picked up some interesting facts.

[Evan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Accessible, if excessively simplified, introduction to some important themes.

[Genevieve · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brief and succinct summary of a lot of amazing things in history

[Çağatay Polat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Başlangıç için işe yarayabilir.

[MT · Rating 5 out of 5]

- ก็ถือเป็นcrash courseปศวโลกที่ดีนะ

[duck reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick sketch of world history from primordial slime and microorganisms to political slime, the war in Iraq, and global warming, it's given to sweeping assertions without showing its work, but what do you expect in forty thousand words? Very interesting to see the author's take on gender relations through the ages and the positive and negative effects of religion and industrialisation on human development and the planet at large. Very interesting in particular to see a secular, anticapitalist, environmentialist, anti-oppressive take on these developments.

This history makes an attempt to be inclusive of the histories not usually focused on by mainstream narratives, but doesn't quite manage to shift the Eurocentric/Coloniocentric* balance to a satisfying extent, possibly due to scarcity of information not preserved in mainstream Western histories. Again I'm not sure what it's fair to expect in novella-length, but I must admit I was expecting more than I got. Worryingly the format initially misled me into thinking there was even less focus outside of Europe than there eventually was, as the book covers the entire world through migration to the continents, then follows the traditional Western storyline through Egypt, Greece and Rome to Europe up to the beginning of colonialism, and then backtracks to catch up on what everyone else has been up to in the same time. Working more to flip that structure could have been effective there, I think.

*not a word

[Shubha · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book goes way too fast. I know that's the point, but I was unable to absorb or retain any of it. I guess it's my fault for thinking I could learn all of world history from one short book. :)

[Curtis · Rating 1 out of 5]

..Strictly facts

[Lara · Rating 5 out of 5]

💯

[Mark · Rating 1 out of 5]

Too long for a political tract, too sloppy and biased for a history book.

[Eva · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Howard Zinn-esque review of world history with a focus on injustices and overlooked cultures. From the New Internationalist, a news and longreads magazine started by communists.

[Christopherch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short sharp leftist, feminist view of world history - very entertaining!

[Kh.Nonthawat]

..