World History: From the Ancient World to the Information Age

by D.K. Publishing

An essential gift for every history buff, this boldly illustrated book maps out the events that have shaped our world - from the dawn of human civilization to the present day.

A comprehensive and accessible guide to the history of human civilisation, World History profiles everything from the emergence of Homo Sapiens to the Greek and Roman empires, through Chinese dynasties, the rise of the Vikings, and the Renaissance, to the Industrial Revolution and World War I and II.

Offering a concise and insightful overview of key historical milestones that have occurred over the course of the last century, the book also covers more recent events such as the rise of ISIS, the Arab Spring, and Brexit and populism in the Western world.

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

416 pages, Hardcover

Published August 6, 2020

About the author

Dorling Kindersley (DK) is a British multinational publishing company specializing in illustrated reference books for adults and children in 62 languages. It is part of Penguin Random House, a consumer publishing company jointly owned by Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA and Pearson PLC. Bertelsmann owns 53% of the company and Pearson owns 47%.

Established in 1974, DK publishes a range of titles in genres including travel (including Eyewitness Travel Guides), arts and crafts, business, history, cooking, gaming, gardening, health and fitness, natural history, parenting, science and reference. They also publish books for children, toddlers and babies, covering such topics as history, the human body, animals and activities, as well as licensed properties such as LEGO, Disney and DeLiSo, licensor of the toy Sophie la Girafe. DK has offices in New York, London, Munich, New Delhi, Toronto and Melbourne.

Source: Wikipedia.

Reviews

[V · Rating 5 out of 5]

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. :)

[Անուշ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it, a fast introduction to world history, a carcass for building deeper knowledge after. ❤️

[Conlan Fercher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yeyah history

[Pamela · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Terry Hinkley · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Dávid Ďurčo · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Edward Laauwen · Rating 1 out of 5]

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.

[MK · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Brooke S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Grover C · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[LudmilaM · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Eshani · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Ryan Lyppens · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very impressed how concise Parker was in conveying so much history in very little time. Learned a lot.

[Brooke Louise · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is incredibly informative and really helps make things clearer if you are dissatisfied with any gaps in your knowledge.

[Kayson Fakhar · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Tim Booker · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Kimhu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great overview of world history

[Tony · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brillianto. I feel more informed.

[vivi ivy · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.