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The Columbia History of the World
1972, 6 By 9, 3" thick.
1237 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1972
33 people are currently reading
235 people want to read
About the author
John A. Garraty
149 books7 followersJohn Arthur Garraty was an American historian and biographer. He specialized largely in American political and economic history.
Garraty earned an undergraduate degree from Brooklyn College in 1941 and completed his doctorate at Columbia University in 1948. During World War II, he served in the United States Merchant Marines as a swimming instructor. He taught at Michigan State University for 12 years before joining the Columbia University History Department in 1959. Garraty also served as the president of the Society of American Historians. He retired from teaching at Columbia in 1990.
An author of many textbooks, Garraty's works include the college and high school history textbook The American Nation, later editions of which were co-written with Mark C. Carnes. Among Garraty's other works were many biographies, and Garraty was one of the general editors of the American National Biography, a project which he completed in his retirement.
Garraty earned an undergraduate degree from Brooklyn College in 1941 and completed his doctorate at Columbia University in 1948. During World War II, he served in the United States Merchant Marines as a swimming instructor. He taught at Michigan State University for 12 years before joining the Columbia University History Department in 1959. Garraty also served as the president of the Society of American Historians. He retired from teaching at Columbia in 1990.
An author of many textbooks, Garraty's works include the college and high school history textbook The American Nation, later editions of which were co-written with Mark C. Carnes. Among Garraty's other works were many biographies, and Garraty was one of the general editors of the American National Biography, a project which he completed in his retirement.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
December 5, 2012
I'm done with this book, which I've been reading a chapter at a time for the last several months, and I'd recommend this to anyone who wants to understand the themes and streams of history without getting bogged down in details. The book is divided into very concise chapters which could serve as jump-off points into deeper study of history. Of course, a book of this size has to paint details with a very broad brush, and the minutiae gets swept away. Like Gardner's "Art Through the Ages" or Grout's "A History of Western Music" -- the degree of specificity is lessened due to the scope of the work.
The apocalyptic, doom-telling nature of the last chapter (no spoilers here) is only because this book was written in the late 1960's, before the digital/computerized boom that reawakened people to the idea of prosperity, and the decline of the university, which annulled the feeling of "art for art's sake" which prevailed at the time (and still persists in the academy).
The apocalyptic, doom-telling nature of the last chapter (no spoilers here) is only because this book was written in the late 1960's, before the digital/computerized boom that reawakened people to the idea of prosperity, and the decline of the university, which annulled the feeling of "art for art's sake" which prevailed at the time (and still persists in the academy).
Currently reading
November 4, 2008I've learned that most of history is marked by savge wars.
January 5, 2013
3.5 stars. The Columbia History of the World gives a good overview of most of world history up to 1971. The prose is clear and direct, and this is good springboard with which you can familiarize yourself with the major events in world history before going on to more specialized history books for each period. Despite being written by many different professors (all associated with Columbia University!), the editors have done a good job in streamlining the style.
The main complaint I have is that in many places the text seems to analyze and interpret major historical events without first clearly spelling out to the reader what they are. This makes the book less comfortable to read for people who are completely ignorant of some major periods of history (like I was of most of 18th-19th century European history). For example the results of the Congress of Vienna (1815) and the Treaty of Versailles (1919) are never spelled out plainly. As I was quite familiar with the latter, the book read well in that part, but as I was completely ignorant of the former, the analysis was confusing and felt generally evasive.
The second complaint is the Eurocentrism (or more precisely, the Franco-Germanic-Anglo-American centrism). While this is probably expected and unavoidable as it was written by academics in a Western university, to me a complete history of the world would devote more individual chapters to China, Japan, India, Russia, and the Middle East, instead of quickly going through several centuries of history in a breezy single chapter. While it is true that the events of Europe were very important and often affected the rest of the entire world very deeply (e.g. the French revolution), it would have been interesting to devote 3-4 chapters more to the history of China, for example, just as the history of European states in the 17th-19th centuries take about 10 chapters to cover. By contrast, a millennium of Chinese history is condensed into 3-4 chapters.
Lastly, reading this book over 40 years after its writing adds much to be desired as one reads the final closing chapters. So much has occurred in the last 40 years which makes some of the analysis there seem quite obsolete, especially on topics such as the Cold War. One yearns for chapters dedicated to the fall of the Soviet Union and other communist states, the rise of computer technology and the Information Age (especially the Internet, which adds a completely new dimension to the record of history), the rise of contemporary post-Mao China, 9/11 and the Global War on Terror, etc. Still, this is an excellent resource for history up to the end of the Second World War.
The last chapter by Jacques Barzun, "The State of Culture Today", is more stylized and individual compared to the others. I found that I do not like his style of writing, which though full of intellectual and literary allusions overall seems verbose and not concise enough. The apocalyptic attitude expressed in the essay seems naive and comical today - not because it was completely mistaken, but because despite Barzun's own admission in the beginning that everyone throughout history has always thought the current age to be one of decline, he doesn't really manage to steer away of the same tendency. Many parts come off as him simply being too conservative and dismayed at any change currently happening in society.
The main complaint I have is that in many places the text seems to analyze and interpret major historical events without first clearly spelling out to the reader what they are. This makes the book less comfortable to read for people who are completely ignorant of some major periods of history (like I was of most of 18th-19th century European history). For example the results of the Congress of Vienna (1815) and the Treaty of Versailles (1919) are never spelled out plainly. As I was quite familiar with the latter, the book read well in that part, but as I was completely ignorant of the former, the analysis was confusing and felt generally evasive.
The second complaint is the Eurocentrism (or more precisely, the Franco-Germanic-Anglo-American centrism). While this is probably expected and unavoidable as it was written by academics in a Western university, to me a complete history of the world would devote more individual chapters to China, Japan, India, Russia, and the Middle East, instead of quickly going through several centuries of history in a breezy single chapter. While it is true that the events of Europe were very important and often affected the rest of the entire world very deeply (e.g. the French revolution), it would have been interesting to devote 3-4 chapters more to the history of China, for example, just as the history of European states in the 17th-19th centuries take about 10 chapters to cover. By contrast, a millennium of Chinese history is condensed into 3-4 chapters.
Lastly, reading this book over 40 years after its writing adds much to be desired as one reads the final closing chapters. So much has occurred in the last 40 years which makes some of the analysis there seem quite obsolete, especially on topics such as the Cold War. One yearns for chapters dedicated to the fall of the Soviet Union and other communist states, the rise of computer technology and the Information Age (especially the Internet, which adds a completely new dimension to the record of history), the rise of contemporary post-Mao China, 9/11 and the Global War on Terror, etc. Still, this is an excellent resource for history up to the end of the Second World War.
The last chapter by Jacques Barzun, "The State of Culture Today", is more stylized and individual compared to the others. I found that I do not like his style of writing, which though full of intellectual and literary allusions overall seems verbose and not concise enough. The apocalyptic attitude expressed in the essay seems naive and comical today - not because it was completely mistaken, but because despite Barzun's own admission in the beginning that everyone throughout history has always thought the current age to be one of decline, he doesn't really manage to steer away of the same tendency. Many parts come off as him simply being too conservative and dismayed at any change currently happening in society.
February 24, 2023
“The Columbia History of the World,” edited by John A. Garraty and Peter Gay, is the impressive creation of a great university. The 1,237 pages of this book consist of 101 essays written by 40 scholars. Most of these were history professors at Columbia University. A few had previously been history professors there. These essays take us from the beginning of the universe to 1972, when the book was published.
It is always tempting to write history from an ideological standpoint. The history I was taught before I went to college told me that the United States was always justified in each of its wars. It was not until I went to college that I learned of the crushing of the Philippine Insurrection.
This nationalist indoctrination is the reason I and most Americans supported the War in Vietnam, even though Vietnam was unimportant to America’s security and economy, and President Eisenhower admitted in his memoirs that as many as eighty percent of the Vietnamese supported Ho Chi Minh.
Currently public school history instruction seems to have moved to the opposite extreme, blaming whites for black social pathology and poverty.
The essays in “The Columbia History of the World” are without these kinds of biases.
Each of these essays is self contained, so if you only want to read about the Byzantine Empire, or the history of China, you can. Nevertheless, I recommend reading every essay in sequence. By learning about history we gain a better understanding of current problems, and likely solutions to the problems. Historical knowledge improves our choices on election day.
I recommend this book for high school students and recent high school graduates who intend to major in history in college. This will make it easier for these young people to comprehend college level history courses. It will also help them learn if they really want to major in history, or should choose another major.
I also recommend this book for college graduates who did not study history in college, and who want to learn what they missed.
Finally, I recommend this book for those who did not go to college, and who want to expand their intellectual horizons. In my life I have always learned best on my own.
It is always tempting to write history from an ideological standpoint. The history I was taught before I went to college told me that the United States was always justified in each of its wars. It was not until I went to college that I learned of the crushing of the Philippine Insurrection.
This nationalist indoctrination is the reason I and most Americans supported the War in Vietnam, even though Vietnam was unimportant to America’s security and economy, and President Eisenhower admitted in his memoirs that as many as eighty percent of the Vietnamese supported Ho Chi Minh.
Currently public school history instruction seems to have moved to the opposite extreme, blaming whites for black social pathology and poverty.
The essays in “The Columbia History of the World” are without these kinds of biases.
Each of these essays is self contained, so if you only want to read about the Byzantine Empire, or the history of China, you can. Nevertheless, I recommend reading every essay in sequence. By learning about history we gain a better understanding of current problems, and likely solutions to the problems. Historical knowledge improves our choices on election day.
I recommend this book for high school students and recent high school graduates who intend to major in history in college. This will make it easier for these young people to comprehend college level history courses. It will also help them learn if they really want to major in history, or should choose another major.
I also recommend this book for college graduates who did not study history in college, and who want to learn what they missed.
Finally, I recommend this book for those who did not go to college, and who want to expand their intellectual horizons. In my life I have always learned best on my own.
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April 5, 2025They go off in the last chapter on the general anti-western civilization, pro-universal democracy/anarchism idealology in the last chapter, interesting read. Overall I liked it, some moralizing here and there is to be expected I guess and I wish it would've spotlighted some areas I'm generally less familiar with, like pre colonial subsaharan Africa, Polynesia and Australia and Siberia but I guess there just isn't a ton of recorded history from that time.
October 28, 2019
Most books are rated related to their usefulness and contributions to my research.
Overall, a good book for the researcher and enthusiast.
Read for personal research
- found this book's contents helpful and inspiring - number rating relates to the book's contribution to my needs.
Overall, a good book for the researcher and enthusiast.
Read for personal research
- found this book's contents helpful and inspiring - number rating relates to the book's contribution to my needs.
September 5, 2012
Really great. Beautiful narrative history and a great reference. Last chapter still reads as relevant and topical in the turbulant early 21st century at the end of the turbulent 1960s.
August 25, 2016
"Thou seest the world, Volumnius, and how it goes."
Me, too: it goes voluminous!
Me, too: it goes voluminous!
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews