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World History: From the Ancient World to the Information Age

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Discover the events that have shaped our world, from the dawn of prehistoric civilization to the digital age, brought to life with contemporary photographs, maps, paintings, and artifacts that place each event in a wider social and historical context.

With entries on more than 350 of history's most important events, World History looks at turning points throughout the ages and the key thinkers, leaders, ideas, and inventions involved, to chart the story of humanity's journey. Boxes and feature spreads throughout the book introduce and explain technological advances, military campaigns, influencers, and more.

Packaged in a sturdy slipcase perfect for gift-giving.

416 pages, Hardcover

Published October 3, 2017

187 people are currently reading
714 people want to read

About the author

Philip Parker

124 books21 followers

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5 stars
73 (38%)
4 stars
72 (38%)
3 stars
35 (18%)
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5 (2%)
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4 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
Profile Image for V.
1,013 reviews40 followers
February 2, 2019
Tuhle nádhernou publikaci jsem dostala k Vánocům 2017. Dostala jsem se k jejímu čtení sice až téměř o rok později, ale to nevadí. Byl na ni správný čas. Užila jsem si to. Nevěřila jsem, že se dá historie lidstva napasovat do čtyř seti stránek, zvlášť když to není jen čistý text, ale také spousta obrázků a fotografií. Vytváří to nádherný dojem, krásně se to čte. A hlavně je to vzato - dle mého názoru - za správný konec. Publikace se nesoustředí ani tak na data a detaily, jako spíš na příběhovou část. Plus předkládá řadu zajímavostí a souvislostí. Jo, narazila jsem tam na nějaké faktické chyby (zvlášť co se týče středověku a českých zemí :D), ale to nevadí, chápu, že ten, kdo to psal, nebyl odborník na všechno. A konečně jsem si trochu procvičila angličtinu, v téhle publikaci to bylo místy náročnější, ale o to lepší. :)
Profile Image for Անուշ.
13 reviews1 follower
February 1, 2021
Loved it, a fast introduction to world history, a carcass for building deeper knowledge after. ❤️
Profile Image for Pamela.
7 reviews1 follower
February 10, 2024
This is more of a coffee table book, though it's not the size, in that it would be pleasant to pick up and thumb through, but not to read cover to cover.

Each topic is limited by space in the book, so some are covered in great detail while others are quickly glossed over. The writing is very compressed. My daughter's school uses this as a history spine, for which purpose it is inappropriate. Because the book's topics are covered in single pages, the minutia of some events seems on the same level of importance as the grand occurrences.

The book itself comes in a nice cardboard storage cover.
Profile Image for Terry Hinkley.
148 reviews
February 23, 2025
Easy and enjoyable read. Kind of a Coles notes version of history. Loved the photos. Leaves out some facts regarding similar material. For example Che Guevara and his involvement in Cuba and Stephen Biko in South Africa plus a few others. Nicely packaged and attractive cover. Coffee Table Book for sure.
Profile Image for Dávid Ďurčo.
13 reviews
July 13, 2020
Very well structured book with great illustrations and images. Even though it's pretty extensive, you can still remember most of the things after you read it.
Profile Image for Edward Laauwen.
24 reviews10 followers
August 25, 2024
This is, in essence, a book on History from the Western perspective as has been taught in Western schools for the past hundreds of years. The title "World History" therefore is quite misleading as that has come to imply a much more "Global" perspective in recent years.

Sure, mr. Parker mentions what happens in China, the Americas and India, but still very much from the perspective of European History.

Furthermore, no attempt is made to put things into any kind of proper perspective and mr. Parker just drones on-and-on in mentioning people, dates and places completely without any attempt to connect the events.

This book is completely useless for anyone who wants to know about "History" and "Historical Events", useless for anyone who wants to "understand the present by learning about the past" and basically just a waste of time and money.

I really hope this book isn't used by any kind of educational institution as it is "backwards" compared to most of the books on history that have been written in the past 20 years or-so.
Profile Image for MK.
626 reviews3 followers
February 5, 2024
This book introduces historical events, important people, wars, etc. from the Stone Age to the present day.

We have to guess who actually caused the event and why. Most of them have continued under different names: communists, liberals, world unity, international finance, globalists, and so on.
Profile Image for Brooke S. .
33 reviews
August 1, 2024
Surprisingly thorough as an overview covering so much history. Don’t expect too many details for any one event, and my only complaints were that some things were so so barely discussed that they might not as well have been mentioned. That, and sometimes the back and forth with dates between sections would get hard to follow. This is especially true if you’re listening to this in audiobook form.
10 reviews
June 16, 2022
Loved Joan Walker's voice.
Pretty standard history: men, dates, and battles or power transitions. Covers all regions of the world, but tended toward Eurocentric. I'd have preferred more of an idea-driven summary if that is even a thing.
Profile Image for LudmilaM.
1,206 reviews18 followers
January 1, 2024
Great book, doing as much as it could with the little space it had. What I liked was the fact that it acknowledged that every history book has a bias. This book had it too, but not much. Good sum up of history.
17 reviews
February 18, 2024
Finally, a world history book that understands the meaning of the word world! The book is sectioned based on the timeframe and discusses what went on in each continent. It covers a large number of great civilizations that existed, their rise and fall.
55 reviews1 follower
July 4, 2023
Very impressed how concise Parker was in conveying so much history in very little time. Learned a lot.
Profile Image for Brooke Louise .
176 reviews5 followers
February 17, 2024
This book is incredibly informative and really helps make things clearer if you are dissatisfied with any gaps in your knowledge.
Profile Image for Kayson Fakhar.
133 reviews24 followers
August 21, 2020
This book is a comprehensive but shallow history of the world, I mean, that's exactly what you expect it to be. Scratching the surface of the major events and civilizations around the world. But the issue is how to organize these and I see no better way other than what they did here. Using a chronological order but going through stuff one by one, for example, you have events in let's say America from 200 BC to 50 BC then you have events in Asia from 150 BC to let's say 30 BC. You see where am I going? it's hella confusing to track the timeline of events so I guess you need to have a strategy for this. I didn't so I should go through it again keeping this point in mind.
Profile Image for Tim Booker.
84 reviews1 follower
March 12, 2021
This was a really interesting book for me. I know a lot of the events mentioned. It was great to read a book that attempted to put the world history in context to what else was going on at the time. I know people have complained about not enough detail, but I feel like that enhanced the experience for me. Yes, it got a little, "Kennedy was assassinated, now on to the next thing" at times without explaining why some figures were important, but this opened me up to wanting to do deeper dives on a lot of sections of history I hadn't considered before, and I feel like that's the overall greatness of this work.
Profile Image for Tony.
115 reviews
May 13, 2018
Brillianto. I feel more informed.
Profile Image for vivi ivy.
28 reviews
November 16, 2020
Amazing book! Not too detailed if you want to get to know our history a little further. The editing is impeccable. It’s that book you always keep turning back to consult.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews

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