History Day by Day: 366 Voices from the Past

by Peter Furtado

A compelling day-by-day glimpse of highlights from 2,500 years of human history through 366 quotations. History Day by Day presents an original perspective on over two millennia of human history through 366 quotations, one for each day of the year, including leap years. Each quotation, tied to the anniversary of a significant historical event, captures that moment with the immediacy of an eyewitness or the narrative flair of a chronicler. Every day becomes a window to the on March 15, 44 BCE, Julius Caesar falls victim to Brutus and his coconspirators; on May 1, 1851, novelist Charlotte Bront visits London’s Great Exhibition; on June 28, 1919, in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles, broken-spirited German delegates sign the treaty that brings World War I to its fateful conclusion; and on September 11, 2001, people across the globe watch in horror as the Twin Towers topple and change the world forever. History Day by Day embraces a wide range of voices, moods, and mediums, from the powerful to the impoverished, the revolutionary to the reactionary, the joyful to the grief-stricken, and the eyewitness to the diarist. Both engrossing anthology and informative overview of world history, History Day by Day offers readers entertainment and information in equal measure.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

496 pages, Paperback

Published August 6, 2019

Reviews

[Al · Rating 3 out of 5]

If “History Day by Day” sounds like one of those desk page by page calendars you get from well-meaning friends at Christmas, you are not far off. It does highlight one major historical event that took place on a particular day page by page just like those Christmas gifts. But it differs in quality. Rather than events being selected by a publishing company staffer doing research on Wikipedia, author Peter Furtado is a historian who provides primary sources for each entry for (usually) eyewitness accounts of the events along with his own contextual comments. The result is rewarding reading to the everyday history buff, though too brief for scholarly types. It works best as a reference book rather than a book to read in one sitting. And coming from British publishers, it does give a British selection of some events that might not be familiar to Americans such as the November 30th entry for the first international football (soccer) game between England and Scotland. But American historical events are well represented. If anything, the selection may suffer from too much of an Anglo-American bent. Recommended (but note this was originally published under the title “History’s Daybook” by Atlantic Books).

[The Talisman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book features history from a Western standpoint, which is understandable, but lacks in-depth look on some important historical dates which happened to be not on the Western Hemisphere. The book have additional important events that occurred on each date, some are IMO more important than the ones being brought up by the author.

[Miika · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although the book is a bit too heavily focused on the history of the UK, it's certainly interesting.

[Nayem · Rating 3 out of 5]

As other reviewers have said - the book largely focuses on western history. It was a good read but I expected a much more varied set of 'voices'. It does have interesting stories from Africa and Asia, but they just seem to be sprinkled in.

The bits of context provided for each voice were well written but there were times when I would encounter a samey story and just try and get through it to see what the next one was. It gets a little bit tiresome when a good chunk of the book is just describing battles between western parties, especially when you'd (at least I did) expect a book like this to be packed full of diverse and interesting historic moments from around the world.

I don't regret reading it but I do think that it could have been a more enjoyable experience if the content revolved less around Europe and the US - even if some of those stories were interesting in their own right.

[Davidg · Rating 5 out of 5]

A far better than usual Book of Days. Furtado chooses early chroniclers of events, eyewitnesses if possible, to tell their stories. As the events have to be tied to particular days, this relies on written, dated accounts, which means the vast majority are Western in origin. Oral traditions just don’t have fixed dates.

My only quibble is the reliance on official proclamations. For example, 11 September uses George W Bush’s speech that evening, rather than having part of a report and a shorter extract from the speech. Official pronouncements are not as vivid as eyewitness reports.

[Smh624 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book of history lessons for each day of the year. I especially liked reading the original text reporting on an event and then reading the author's additional explanation. I also really liked the 3 item list of other major events on each date. I will miss my daily history lesson.

[Eva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some dates were more interesting than others. I found myself Googling some of the additional events footnoted at the bottom. 3.5 rounded up.

[Amalia Putri · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book presents history from Western. Each event marks on date by date, month by month and year by year. The situation brings me back to the past. Traditional clothes, language, culture and war feels real.

[Kitschyanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 and a half stars ⭐️

Read a page of this every day and finished it on the 31st December. History in bite size pieces, with one event per day and other notable events at the bottom of the page as footnotes.

[Al · Rating 4 out of 5]

Literally a timeless book. I treated this like it was meant to be treated: a page a day! I really enjoyed spending a year with brief histories each morning or evening.