World History For Dummies

by Peter Haugen

The book that puts the "story" back in history!

Don't know much about history? Don't worry! With this friendly reference, you can bone up on all those facts you missed in history class -- and have a good time in the bargain. From ancient Greece to contemporary America, from relitious controversies to global wars, this is history the way it ought to be -- fresh, memorable, and fun.

(back cover)

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Reference, World History, Education, Historical, The World

382 pages, Paperback

First published March 15, 2001

Reviews

[Yi Lun · Rating 3 out of 5]

3*

I came out of school with a dismal lack of knowledge of history, both of my own country's history and world history. In the last year or so, I have been trying to rectify this and turned to this book as a starting point. Overall, it offers a very comprehensive outline of the main historical events, players and philosophies of different parts of the world and the consequences they have brought into shaping our modern day societies. I learnt a great deal from reading this book.

However, I have decided on giving it three stars for a few reasons. Firstly, it predominantly focuses on Europe and the US; little is mentioned on Africa and when other parts of the globe are mentioned, it is often in relation to the European conquerors who 'discovered' these different places. As a result, the book does not truly reflect its purpose. Secondly, the book is not chronological and jumps from location to location, time period to time period. The author tries to follow themes instead but I often felt a bit lost jumping around so much. It would have made for a much smoother read had the author tried to keep the same events/locations/people lumped together rather than start talking about Alexander the Great at many different unrelated parts of the book.

Nonetheless, if you are looking for a European-focused view of world history, you could learn a lot from this book!

[Silver · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is exactly what it claims to be: a very broad strokes look at all of recorded human history. I marked it to 4 stars however, because of it's really annoying tendency to put (for more on this see chapter x) in nearly every paragraph. There was even a paragraph that put in an aside to tell you for more information see the paragraph right before it. It was really distracting and way over used. I understand that the book is designed for people to read it in any order but there are ways to do that without butting in every paragraph to redirect people. Other than that I thought it was a pretty good attempt at a broad view of world history. I'm not an expert now but I did learn quite a bit I never learned in school.

[Noreen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fills quite a few holes in my knowledge of history. Haugen covers not only Alexander the Great highlights but also the legacy of his generals who founded several empires, Selucid, Ptolemic etc. Same with Genghis Khan. I suspected that Tamerlane and the Mughals of India were tied to Genghis Khan. Nice sections on South America, and European dynamics between 1400 to 1918. Good guide for 50,000 ft view. Thank you Peter Haugen.

[Trey Mustian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don't let the title dissuade you: you definitely don't have to be a dummy to read it! This book offers a great overview of world history . One of its strong points is how the author demonstrates the interconnectedness of seemingly unrelated events and nuanced results of events. The book is written in a very entertaining style and sometimes even references pop culture which is fun. This is a very painless and enjoyable way to get a primer or refresher on world history.

[BabyLunLun · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is quite a fun book as it gave u an overview of the beginning of time till the present. Extra chapters with how weapon, religion , philosophy evolved and help shape history as we have known today. But of course you can't possibly cram all sides of history in one book. Whats fun about it is you can pick up other books from the perspective of other countries to know more details

What I find the most boring is on the last few chapters where you have a brief introduction of a list of historical figures which is boring because most of them pretty much did the same thing.

[Kevin Buckley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book because I wanted to have a better understanding of the time line of history (what was going on in other parts of the world while Athens was starting democracy, etc). This book did an ok job of that. The one thing that drove me crazy was how every other page would,in the middle of a paragraph, ask me to go to a certain page for more on the topic in that particular section. I do know how to use an index.

[Wendel Chamberlin]

Engaging conversational prose keeps the reader's attention. Robust word index allows true reference use. Book organized by major historical threads into six parts and parts into chapters. Frequent cross referencing between parts makes understanding of historical context between major threads easy. A joy to read.

[Derek · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned a lot from this book. It was the number of different civilizations and steppe empires that overwhelmed me, made me realize I was, well and truly, a dummy.

[John Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good summary of world history, chronological, explaining history, the role of religion, role of science, a section on war (that was disappointing), highlighting some people (again, a bit disappointing), and highlight dates and documents. Covering 4.6 billion years of the Earth and 40,000 years of actual history is a big task but this book did a decent job in a quick format. It’s still doesn’t touch, “A Brief History of Humankind” but adds to the various books I’ve read, especially this year and when I was concentrating on the long and complicated history of China.

The author does a more than adequate job in a factual but enjoyable manner. His review of religion was especially crisp and good. It was also interesting to see the upturn and decline of kingdoms – America, Arab counties (inspired by their Islam religion), the Chinese, England, French, Germany (including the Ottoman Empire), India, the Japanese, Mexico, Portuguese, Soviet Union development, Spain, Turkey (Byzantine Empire), the Vikings (Denmark, Norway and Sweden invading Britain, Ireland and France), and Rome, of course.

Good reference, some good information and one book I will keep on the bookshelf.

[Dameon Launert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly educational tour of world history. The author actually goes through history several times according to subject, such as technology or war. He does a good job of weaving long and richly textured (for this sort of book) cause-and-effect chains. Another thing I liked was grouping historical events next to other things happening elsewhere at approximately the same time. The Renaissance was my favorite chapter.

Obviously this is merely a brief overview, and the author admits such, as well as different meanings of historiography words and precise dates for broad trends.

I have a few minor criticisms: while making it accessible, the informal snark was sometimes distracting. The author had a clear Eurocentric and Judeo-Christian bias. Lastly, the book was rather rigidly politically correct, especially when any material veered towards feminism.

[Heather Phelps · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will be the first to admit that History is a weak subject for me, and finally when my boyfriend suggested that, as much as I read, i should just slip in a History book once in a while and maybe I could improve in this area. I usually find history so dry and boring but i actually enjoyed this one a lot and really felt like it helped me understand basic events and concepts. It mapped things out on a global basic level in a way that no teacher ever had for me before. I highly recommend this book and look forward to delving into more specifics (U.S., political history, and WWII).

[Labeba Salameh · Rating 3 out of 5]

لربما يستحق هذا الكتل مني مراجعة مصورة ... لكن كنصيحو=ة لا تشتري كتاب تاريخ لغير مختص سبق ان عمل في الصحافة وتقاعد عسكريا حديثا
لماذا لانك ستجده متحاملا دوما ومزيفا للحقائق و حياديا فقط في اوقات احتضار الانسانية !!!!

[Leew49 · Rating 3 out of 5]

The humor is a little silly at times, but Haugen provides a broad overview of world history--not just Western Civ--in a relatively compact form. Most of the books I looked at when searching for a summary of world history were either too long or too narrowly focused.

[Kevin Demel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't read the whole book but skimmed it. It was a hodgepodge of information and I didn't how to link it all together. I may want to print a time-line and then figure out how I want to learn about it.

[Ricardo1810 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Muy divertido, aprendí mucho.

[Freddie · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is a lack of organization and chronology, but it works very well as a light audiobook for a commute into work - 4/5.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nadita que envidiarle a Sapiens y lo digo yo que precisamente dummie no soy

[Emilie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok very good but could only get like half way through I need to pick it back up in 2026 lolol

[Samah Elhassan · Rating 3 out of 5]

As an amateur in history, I find it difficult to critique the accuracy of information presented in this book. The only part I had a general grasp on prior to reading this was the history of Islam. I found some conflict between what he'd written and what I'd already known from my previous studies, which made me rather cautious about the book, but not outright disheartened .
As to the style, I kind of expected the book to be somewhat easier. How easy can a book written about the history of mankind be? I’m not sure, it’s difficult to tell when you have nothing to compare to.
The book starts in a rather dull matter-of-fact sense, but it picks up the pace around the chapter about the Roman Empire. I also really loved the part where he explains the origin of different sectors of Christianity. That was very enlightening.
The narrative doesn’t go into detail about the events of the twentieth century, let alone the twenty-first, except maybe when the author covered historical figures, a part I wholesomely hated. It would've been way better and less confusing if these characters were simply incorporated into the storyline. Some were, but others were novel additions that were randomly lumped together. The chapter about significant documents and dates made more sense, because it was generally a highlight of aforementioned points.
This might sound like a one-star review , but I gave it three because I’m aware of the difficulty of the subject , and I think the author made a decent attempt at it.

[Zezee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, it’s a good read and I recommend it to others all the time though they may thing it’s dumb to read a book called World History for Dummies, smh. There is much to learn in it. I am peeved about it focusing too much on U.S. and Europe...What I enjoyed the most though are the little sidebars with random facts on history, like the one on Rodrigo de Jerez who was reported to the Spanish Inquisition for smoking tobacco (sucks for him; he spent seven years in prison). That’s before smoking became popular. Those along with the author’s jokes makes a lively read. There’s not a dull moment. Haugen keeps you going till the end. Visit my blog to read more.

[Brad Rousse · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short, simplistic overview of world history. I was a little concerned by Haugen's decision to have warfare and philosophy as different "timelines" and sections of his book, but I see the wisdom of it now. By keeping these separate, Haugen allows the reader who is not as well versed in history to get a bird's eye view for context, then zooming into general themes that flesh out the story.

While I still prefer J.M. Roberts and Andrew Marr's takes, this is a good starting point for anyone who wants to learn more about the history of the world, but is concerned about drowning in a sea of dates and names. I do agree, though: history is subjective, and I think of a few different names and places than the ones he used. Overall, however, a good beginner's summary.

[Ολυμπιάδα · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a nice place to start your journey in history cause the author breaks it down quite a lot, he doesn't take anything for granted. He goes into a lot of details and I believe that even people who know their way around would benefit from it. But there are some parts and whole chapters that get really boring, there are also a few things he keeps repeating and they tired me out. Also it's confusing cause it doesn't have everything in chronological order.

Overall it's not bad. I read it in a history study group with a friend of mine. We used this book as a guide.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love history. But the delivery is sometimes really dull and dry.
Not so with Peter Haugen. This book is not just a chronological list of dates and events.
It looks at essential points in history and puts them into perspective.
Connecting places and people over the centuries. And lots of fun in between.
It's the kind of book you will want to read twice and I am sure you will discover something new every time you pick it up.
I really enjoyed reading it.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book doesn't meet its ambition, and the structure is wonky. But it DOES break some world history down into very chewable bits. If you like true stories, well, here's some good ones. (Not looking at the biggest events in history to satisfy your passion for True Stories is surely missing the forest in the trees.)

[Raudi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excelente material para entender a grosso modo los eventos más importantes de la historia de la humanidad. No hace mucha profundidad en los temas...pero si que recalca bien los eventos más importantes y crea un poderoso nexo entre un tema y otro como "causa-efecto".

[B.]

Of course I will be reading this. I love "for dummies" books and whenever there is a topic or subject that interests me, I see if there is a "for dummies" book on it. It is a great book to introduce you to the subject matter.

[David Lebron · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have almost completed this book. I like the "For Dummies" books and this one, while not the best one that I have read, was pretty good. The way the material is organized is rather quirky, but it did give a decent overview of World History.

[Luba Moshcovich · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actually this is not the world history, the author briefly goes over other continents but this book is mostly about European history and their colonization of the world. I must admit the the book was fairly objective and a good summary of European history.

[Carly · Rating 4 out of 5]

a standard run-down of thousands of years of world history. This book basically gives you short and simple explanations of major historical events. I love this kind of book because I can find something very interesting that I want to learn more about.

[Yasemin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easy to read especially if you are new at history knowledge. I fed up a little bit while i am reading because i could not find deep and detailed information. I was curious about the book, but it does not suit me.