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Figuring Out The Past: The 3,495 Vital Statistics that Explain World History
Librarian's Note: an alternate cover and older edition of this ISBN can be found here.
Discover the world records that define our history and jump headfirst into the past using scientific data that reveals accurate and insightful answers to life’s biggest questions.
What was history's biggest empire? Or the tallest building of the ancient world? What was the plumbing like in medieval Byzantium? The average wage in the Mughal Empire? Where did scientific writing first emerge? What was the bloodiest ever ritual human sacrifice?
We are used to thinking about history in terms of stories. Yet we understand our own world through data: cast arrays of statistics that reveal the workings of our societies.
In Figuring Out the Past, radical historians Peter Turchin and Dan Hoyer dive into the numbers that reveal the true shape of the past, drawing on their own Seshat project, a staggeringly ambitious attempt to log every data point that can be gathered for every society that has ever existed. This book does more than tell the story of humanity: it shows you the big picture, by the numbers.
Discover the world records that define our history and jump headfirst into the past using scientific data that reveals accurate and insightful answers to life’s biggest questions.
What was history's biggest empire? Or the tallest building of the ancient world? What was the plumbing like in medieval Byzantium? The average wage in the Mughal Empire? Where did scientific writing first emerge? What was the bloodiest ever ritual human sacrifice?
We are used to thinking about history in terms of stories. Yet we understand our own world through data: cast arrays of statistics that reveal the workings of our societies.
In Figuring Out the Past, radical historians Peter Turchin and Dan Hoyer dive into the numbers that reveal the true shape of the past, drawing on their own Seshat project, a staggeringly ambitious attempt to log every data point that can be gathered for every society that has ever existed. This book does more than tell the story of humanity: it shows you the big picture, by the numbers.
272 pages, Paperback
First published October 29, 2020
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October 22, 2024I’m aware it's very easy to give a cartload of criticism on this kind of books, and I apologize because that’s exactly what I'm going to do here. But first I would like to express my appreciation for the colossal work behind this book, and behind the data site Seshat, on which the material is based. I learned a lot of new things, especially about cultures that were not or much less known to me, such as the Kushan in Afghanistan; and certainly the comparative tables at the end of the book taught me to put things into perspective, such as the comparaison of population numbers (for instance, I was surprised by the very large population under Tokugawa Japan).
But then the criticism. First, there's the reliability of the data Turchin and Hoyer give: are there enough verified data to find about any culture or civilization? For our industrial societies this already is quite a challenge, although not an impossible task. But for obscure peoples, or cultures from the distant past, that's a different matter. I especially have my reservations about lemma’s like 'life expectancy': how on earth can you give reliable statistic information on this for, let’s say, the ancient Erlitou culture in China? i can't check, because sources are not given by the authors in this book, that would also not be feasible (perhaps I need to take a look at Seshat for that). In their introduction the authors concede that the data may be incomplete and imperfect, but at least they are the most accurate available.
A second set of critical remarks can be given on the categories and characteristics used to 'objectively' screen the different cultures. Notions like 'administration', ‘taxation’, or ‘religious practices’ of course are useful and necessary to be able to compare properly. However, each of these categories clearly cover a very different meaning in different cultures and times: what is understood, for instance, by 'religious practices' in one culture can be interpreted very differently in another, and over time there can also be major shifts in how these practices are perceived. And also the very concise descriptions of the categories sometimes are an issue: in the screening of the Carolingian Empire, for instance, the complex system of feudalism does not come into its own at all.
And then there is the selection of cultures, states and empires Turchin and Hoyer have made for this book. Of course, they just couldn't be exhaustive. But my impression is that the authors are a bit too politically correct and have pursued a very strict geographical distribution, resulting in a very awkward coverage. Mega-imperia such as the ancient Roman Empire or the Chinese Han Empire just stand next to peoples or tribes such as the Mexican Zatopec or the Siberian Sakka, which is very strange, while, for example, the Greek city-states are completely missing (the Hellenistic culture though is included). Maybe I'm looking at this too much with Western eyes, but it's hard to compare apples and oranges.
And so you inevitably come to the most relevant question: what do we learn from this enormous mass of information? The subtitle boldly states: “the 3.495 vital statistics that explain world history”. I guess (and hope) Turchin and Hoyer are not responsible for that subtitle, because that really is absurd. In their introduction Turchin and Hoyer report that the ultimate aim is to arrive at large-scale regularities “It asks how key social and technological innovations spread around the world, and it pinpoints outliers from the general trends”. To be honest, based on this very rudimentary book, I don't see that yet. But maybe I'm dishonoring the authors. Maybe I'd better read the other works by Turchin and related ones to see if they actually arrive(s) at discerning such patterns through the Big Data information.
Perhaps the most justified conclusion is that this still is 'work in progress', and that in that sense we should certainly not pass judgment on this initiative to soon. Finally, of course, there is simply the general formative value of the database, a vast reservoir of knowledge that is constantly being expanded and corrected, and which in the future can become the subject of relevant comparisons and conclusions. To be honest, I’m a bit skeptical, but still, I’m looking forward to see the first real results!
But then the criticism. First, there's the reliability of the data Turchin and Hoyer give: are there enough verified data to find about any culture or civilization? For our industrial societies this already is quite a challenge, although not an impossible task. But for obscure peoples, or cultures from the distant past, that's a different matter. I especially have my reservations about lemma’s like 'life expectancy': how on earth can you give reliable statistic information on this for, let’s say, the ancient Erlitou culture in China? i can't check, because sources are not given by the authors in this book, that would also not be feasible (perhaps I need to take a look at Seshat for that). In their introduction the authors concede that the data may be incomplete and imperfect, but at least they are the most accurate available.
A second set of critical remarks can be given on the categories and characteristics used to 'objectively' screen the different cultures. Notions like 'administration', ‘taxation’, or ‘religious practices’ of course are useful and necessary to be able to compare properly. However, each of these categories clearly cover a very different meaning in different cultures and times: what is understood, for instance, by 'religious practices' in one culture can be interpreted very differently in another, and over time there can also be major shifts in how these practices are perceived. And also the very concise descriptions of the categories sometimes are an issue: in the screening of the Carolingian Empire, for instance, the complex system of feudalism does not come into its own at all.
And then there is the selection of cultures, states and empires Turchin and Hoyer have made for this book. Of course, they just couldn't be exhaustive. But my impression is that the authors are a bit too politically correct and have pursued a very strict geographical distribution, resulting in a very awkward coverage. Mega-imperia such as the ancient Roman Empire or the Chinese Han Empire just stand next to peoples or tribes such as the Mexican Zatopec or the Siberian Sakka, which is very strange, while, for example, the Greek city-states are completely missing (the Hellenistic culture though is included). Maybe I'm looking at this too much with Western eyes, but it's hard to compare apples and oranges.
And so you inevitably come to the most relevant question: what do we learn from this enormous mass of information? The subtitle boldly states: “the 3.495 vital statistics that explain world history”. I guess (and hope) Turchin and Hoyer are not responsible for that subtitle, because that really is absurd. In their introduction Turchin and Hoyer report that the ultimate aim is to arrive at large-scale regularities “It asks how key social and technological innovations spread around the world, and it pinpoints outliers from the general trends”. To be honest, based on this very rudimentary book, I don't see that yet. But maybe I'm dishonoring the authors. Maybe I'd better read the other works by Turchin and related ones to see if they actually arrive(s) at discerning such patterns through the Big Data information.
Perhaps the most justified conclusion is that this still is 'work in progress', and that in that sense we should certainly not pass judgment on this initiative to soon. Finally, of course, there is simply the general formative value of the database, a vast reservoir of knowledge that is constantly being expanded and corrected, and which in the future can become the subject of relevant comparisons and conclusions. To be honest, I’m a bit skeptical, but still, I’m looking forward to see the first real results!
September 5, 2021
For decades Peter Turchin (1957, University of Connecticut) has been a fierce promotor of Cliodynamics, historical research based on Big Data. According to Wiki, “Cliodynamics is a transdisciplinary area of research integrating historical macrosociology, cultural and social evolution, economic history/cliometrics, mathematical modeling of long-term social processes, and the construction and analysis of historical databases.” In addition to Turchin’s impressive list of books, the Seshat database in particular is the fruit of his efforts to push historical studies in a more quantitative direction. This book is a first attempt to put on paper how far this database has come in the meantime. Turchin and Hoyer have selected some 50 cultures and civilizations whose basic data they try to represent, according to a streamlined schedule. It is a creditable attempt that perhaps allows interesting comparisons, but also exposes the limitations of this approach. I have read this with great interest, but I wonder if the effort really pays off. See my review about that in my History account on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show....
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May 9, 2021So, in some ways, this is not a book, really. It's more like the printout of a database. But, it's more interesting to read, than that description makes it sound like.
The database in question is Seshat (http://seshatdatabank.info/seshat-abo...), a joint project by "evolutionary scientists, historians, anthropologists, archaeologists, economists, and other social scientists". Full disclosure: I have been (in a minor way) a monetary monthly supporter of Seshat for years (sort of on the level of being a member of your local public radio station, which I also am, thank you very much). The idea is that, whereas you need a specialist in, say, Mayan archaeology to answer a question like how big their largest city was, anyone who is enough of a specialist to answer that question is probably not investigating issues like population size vs. agricultural system (or whatever). If by some chance they are, they're in any case not going to be enough of an expert on more than one or at most two or three civilizations. To really determine if, say, the development of large population empires is associated with the presence of irrigation, you need scores (or preferably hundreds) of data points, each one of which requires an expert (or three) in that civilization.
So, you have a couple pages here for each of scores of civilizations, from across the last several thousand years, from Ancient Egypt and the Hittites to Antebellum United States of America and the Second British Empire. Did they have coinage? How about irrigation? Famine relief? Human sacrifice? What was the status of gender equality? Asking the exact same questions across so many continents and millennia, provides its own unique perspective.
There are also a bunch of lists, like the largest armies, buildings, or collective rituals in the ancient, medieval, and early modern worlds. The best part, I think, is the maps section, where it shows the spread of things like iron, chariots, agriculture, chariots, human sacrifice, or moralising religion across the continents/centuries. I haven't run the numbers (I don't have access to the Seshat data), but from the maps it sure looks like things spread much more quickly east-west than north-south, so score one for Jared Diamond I guess.
I read it one civilization every morning with my mocha latte at the coffeeshop.
The database in question is Seshat (http://seshatdatabank.info/seshat-abo...), a joint project by "evolutionary scientists, historians, anthropologists, archaeologists, economists, and other social scientists". Full disclosure: I have been (in a minor way) a monetary monthly supporter of Seshat for years (sort of on the level of being a member of your local public radio station, which I also am, thank you very much). The idea is that, whereas you need a specialist in, say, Mayan archaeology to answer a question like how big their largest city was, anyone who is enough of a specialist to answer that question is probably not investigating issues like population size vs. agricultural system (or whatever). If by some chance they are, they're in any case not going to be enough of an expert on more than one or at most two or three civilizations. To really determine if, say, the development of large population empires is associated with the presence of irrigation, you need scores (or preferably hundreds) of data points, each one of which requires an expert (or three) in that civilization.
So, you have a couple pages here for each of scores of civilizations, from across the last several thousand years, from Ancient Egypt and the Hittites to Antebellum United States of America and the Second British Empire. Did they have coinage? How about irrigation? Famine relief? Human sacrifice? What was the status of gender equality? Asking the exact same questions across so many continents and millennia, provides its own unique perspective.
There are also a bunch of lists, like the largest armies, buildings, or collective rituals in the ancient, medieval, and early modern worlds. The best part, I think, is the maps section, where it shows the spread of things like iron, chariots, agriculture, chariots, human sacrifice, or moralising religion across the continents/centuries. I haven't run the numbers (I don't have access to the Seshat data), but from the maps it sure looks like things spread much more quickly east-west than north-south, so score one for Jared Diamond I guess.
I read it one civilization every morning with my mocha latte at the coffeeshop.
August 11, 2022
Любопытная статистика по древним цивилизациям. Неожиданное вместе с очевидным. Такая, объективная, история мне нравится
February 26, 2021
Figuring Out The Past is a reference book. It's sort of entertaining to flip through, but you can't exactly "read" it. Well, you could, but it would be like reading the encyclopedia. You could start with the "A" volume, but you probably wouldn't. You'd probably, instead, find something that interests you, or open a random volume and read that. This book, however, is much, much shorter than the encyclopedia, at 256 pages.
Most of the book, pages 1-213, is society profiles. Each of the 57 societies has about 3 or 4 pages or so. The society description has a brief narrative, then lists such things as territory, people, social scale, institutions, economy, agricultural practices, metallurgy, military equipment, well-being, (in)equalities, and religion. You can compare the Egyptian Mamluk Sultanate to Antebellum U. S. A. and the Hittite Empire! Time-travel novelists might want to imagine being suddenly transported to the Carolingian kingdom and trying to navigate your way there (assuming that you could speak Latin, Frankish, or Old French).
Then there are rankings (pp. 216 - 233), of the 10 most populous societies, 10 largest buildings, 10 most widely attended collective rituals, etc., in different eras.
Finally, there is adoption (p. 237 - 253): when such things as scientific writing, novels, postal service, etc. were first adopted, with some maps with a graphical representation of how some of these things spread. Cavalry started in the Middle East and Central Asia and spread from there; many other things followed that same general pattern, although moralizing religions and writing seemed to be slightly more southern in geographical orientation. Gunpowder, however, clearly started in China and spread from there.
This book immediately refers you to http://seshatdatabank.info/. I haven't investigated fully, but the web site is rather different from this book in terms of layout.
This book is impossible to rank in terms of stars, because what are you comparing it to? War and Peace, or the Encyclopedia Britannica? However, it would be a nice book to have on my shelf to consult in case a question came up, say, about how big Cahokia was, or whether the Ottoman Empire had banking regulations. Enjoy!
Most of the book, pages 1-213, is society profiles. Each of the 57 societies has about 3 or 4 pages or so. The society description has a brief narrative, then lists such things as territory, people, social scale, institutions, economy, agricultural practices, metallurgy, military equipment, well-being, (in)equalities, and religion. You can compare the Egyptian Mamluk Sultanate to Antebellum U. S. A. and the Hittite Empire! Time-travel novelists might want to imagine being suddenly transported to the Carolingian kingdom and trying to navigate your way there (assuming that you could speak Latin, Frankish, or Old French).
Then there are rankings (pp. 216 - 233), of the 10 most populous societies, 10 largest buildings, 10 most widely attended collective rituals, etc., in different eras.
Finally, there is adoption (p. 237 - 253): when such things as scientific writing, novels, postal service, etc. were first adopted, with some maps with a graphical representation of how some of these things spread. Cavalry started in the Middle East and Central Asia and spread from there; many other things followed that same general pattern, although moralizing religions and writing seemed to be slightly more southern in geographical orientation. Gunpowder, however, clearly started in China and spread from there.
This book immediately refers you to http://seshatdatabank.info/. I haven't investigated fully, but the web site is rather different from this book in terms of layout.
This book is impossible to rank in terms of stars, because what are you comparing it to? War and Peace, or the Encyclopedia Britannica? However, it would be a nice book to have on my shelf to consult in case a question came up, say, about how big Cahokia was, or whether the Ottoman Empire had banking regulations. Enjoy!
October 29, 2020
Fascinating and illuminating book. As a reader of "The Economist", I immediately recognized an approach familiar to their "Pocket World in Figures" - but while you probably can estimate the numbers for most of the current statistics, it can be mindblowing to be confronted with the data from a deep past.
It can be especially surprising for people educated in the West - this book masterly demolishes our Eurocentric views. For example in the listing of 10 most populous medieval cities not only there is none from Europe, but there are many which names it is possible that you have never heard. There are also delicious categories like "10 bloodiest human sacrifices in the entire preindustrial era" or "Adoption of state-run libraries by world region". I just wish I could have such a book as a student!
Thanks to the publisher, Perseus Books, PublicAffairs (The Economist), and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.
It can be especially surprising for people educated in the West - this book masterly demolishes our Eurocentric views. For example in the listing of 10 most populous medieval cities not only there is none from Europe, but there are many which names it is possible that you have never heard. There are also delicious categories like "10 bloodiest human sacrifices in the entire preindustrial era" or "Adoption of state-run libraries by world region". I just wish I could have such a book as a student!
Thanks to the publisher, Perseus Books, PublicAffairs (The Economist), and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.
July 24, 2023
Turchin and Daniel Hoyer created this book of data amassed by many into a site Seshat. They thought that life keeps moving and has been going on Planet Earth fot millenia so someone should start collecting data about our world. The data start at 3000 BCE, Ancient Egyptian (Afro-Asiatic) time and continue until now. It is just a book of data but I was reminded again how young the US is compared to some of the ancient cultures. It is interesting and I will go back to it when I am looking for more world data.
December 4, 2020
Figuring Out the Past es un libro muy divertido, es básicamente un almanaque con estadísticas y datos de una muestra de culturas/civilizaciones/estados alrededor del mundo en distintas épocas, desde el 3er milenio antes de la era común hasta el siglo XX. Como tal es un libro de curiosidades, que explota bien la riqueza de la basa de datos del proyecto Sashet, un proyecto muy ambicioso e importante para recolectar información sobre la evolución cultural del mundo. Como tal esto hace al trabajo de divulgación de Turchin y Hoyer uno muy relevante.
Datos como que el Imperio Acadio de Sargon I tuvieran un impuesto a la herencia, que el Imperio Maurya tuviera un impuesto a la prostitución o que el Valle de Oaxaca y el Reino de Roma (8 siglos antes de la era común) desarrollaran la monogamia al mismo tiempo son datos muy curiosos, el libro esta repleto de ellos y como tal tiene gran utilidad si se busca algún ejemplo histórico.
La parte que no me terminó de agradar del libro es justo que su formato es demasiado como un almanaque. Creo que es una oportunidad desperdiciada en esta primera edición que no se aprovechara para contarnos un poco sobre los sitios arqueológicos de donde provienen los datos de Seshat y del libro, darnos una descripción de las fuentes, porque son datos creíbles, como se sostienen algunas de las conjeturas que se mencionan (por ejemplo que no parece que en X sociedad tuvieran acceso al crédito). Es un área de oportunidad para futuras ediciones de este ambicioso proyecto abundar más en este otro tipo detalles.
Dicho la anterior es una lectura recomendable, sobre todo para los que como yo sean un poco nerds y gusten de curiosidades así o deseen tener una fuente de consulta de ejemplos para usar en clase, escribir o por pura curiosidad en una conversación.
Datos como que el Imperio Acadio de Sargon I tuvieran un impuesto a la herencia, que el Imperio Maurya tuviera un impuesto a la prostitución o que el Valle de Oaxaca y el Reino de Roma (8 siglos antes de la era común) desarrollaran la monogamia al mismo tiempo son datos muy curiosos, el libro esta repleto de ellos y como tal tiene gran utilidad si se busca algún ejemplo histórico.
La parte que no me terminó de agradar del libro es justo que su formato es demasiado como un almanaque. Creo que es una oportunidad desperdiciada en esta primera edición que no se aprovechara para contarnos un poco sobre los sitios arqueológicos de donde provienen los datos de Seshat y del libro, darnos una descripción de las fuentes, porque son datos creíbles, como se sostienen algunas de las conjeturas que se mencionan (por ejemplo que no parece que en X sociedad tuvieran acceso al crédito). Es un área de oportunidad para futuras ediciones de este ambicioso proyecto abundar más en este otro tipo detalles.
Dicho la anterior es una lectura recomendable, sobre todo para los que como yo sean un poco nerds y gusten de curiosidades así o deseen tener una fuente de consulta de ejemplos para usar en clase, escribir o por pura curiosidad en una conversación.
January 15, 2025
The info from this book is organised as a database or maybe a stats site. The format of the book is not appropriate since the most used words in the book are: "present", "absent and "no data". Certainly, the info presented is very interesting, but presenting all the data in a table or infographic would be more efficient.
February 27, 2021
I had high expectations when I opened the book; after all, how can you beat “3,495 vital Statistics that Explain World History”?
The book delivers and more on its promises; statistics are aplenty, and they are not only vital but really rare and insightful, e.g. the 10 largest (at global level) fielded armies in the Medieval age (9 of 10 being Asian, the last one South American), or the adoption of monogamy by world region (it arrived in Asia and North Africa way before in Europe!).
In spite of this, I have been disappointed by the way these great data are displayed. In this age of infographics and data visualization, the book is composed of 243 pages of small print tables and lists and only 10 pages of world maps with very poor resolution. I hoped that I could find more on the author’s website (seshatdatabank.info), but to no avail.
All in all, this is an amazing source of data, but totally unreadable or usable by a mere mortal like me.
The book delivers and more on its promises; statistics are aplenty, and they are not only vital but really rare and insightful, e.g. the 10 largest (at global level) fielded armies in the Medieval age (9 of 10 being Asian, the last one South American), or the adoption of monogamy by world region (it arrived in Asia and North Africa way before in Europe!).
In spite of this, I have been disappointed by the way these great data are displayed. In this age of infographics and data visualization, the book is composed of 243 pages of small print tables and lists and only 10 pages of world maps with very poor resolution. I hoped that I could find more on the author’s website (seshatdatabank.info), but to no avail.
All in all, this is an amazing source of data, but totally unreadable or usable by a mere mortal like me.
March 3, 2021
Agreed across the board with those who have gone before me regarding this version a reference book you don't really read. It is fascinating to course thorough, and it's full of interesting data, but in the end, the format leaves you wanting. In this world of data visualization, even a spreadsheet you can filter or pivot on is more handy than this. The few charts and tables at the end are nice, but being able to mix the data they show to look for relationships or just to simply compare contrasting stories would be far more compelling.
Some of this, of course, isn't the book's fault. In our time, books just fall short as lists when compared to software models and views of data, unless they're accompanied by analysis and theories or conclusions. I suggest Ages of Discord, another Turchin book, that contains his analysis of all of this "polities data."
In the end, still glad to have the reference, and I suspect its usefulness will be lasting.
Some of this, of course, isn't the book's fault. In our time, books just fall short as lists when compared to software models and views of data, unless they're accompanied by analysis and theories or conclusions. I suggest Ages of Discord, another Turchin book, that contains his analysis of all of this "polities data."
In the end, still glad to have the reference, and I suspect its usefulness will be lasting.
December 19, 2021
Really helpful guidebook for teachers. The first half features a chronological listing of civilizations and their key details. Then it is followed by rankings, such as "10 largest buildings by total area: medieval" (number one: Angkor Wat). Finally there are maps, such as "Spread of human sacrifice, 5000 BCE to 1800 CE." This doesn't replace a textbook, but it can lend depth and visuals to a lesson, or suggest more places to look.
Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to review a temporary digital ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.
Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to review a temporary digital ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.
January 26, 2021
It's not a book to read in one go. But it is fascinating information about states and emppires from history, and figures of various social figures. I found the comparison of gender equality most interesting. But it gave me interesting knowledge about lots of things.
April 1, 2023
This was a good idea but it needed something to tie it together, which the introduction suggested would be the case - a chance to compare societies and identify trends. Instead there was the same list of features for each, which was mostly lists of words rather than the titular 'figures'.
Obviously this was intended as reference but for a lot of the ancient societies there was no data available, and a lot of entries would have been better with more detail. What does 'social mobility - some crafts' mean? Was it common, possible, meritocratic or a patron-based system? Similarly, the maps at the back were interesting but basically told the same story, civilisation advanced in the Middle East and spread outwards for most technologies.
The problem with this was that despite the brief paragraph at the start of each 'polity' it wasn't clear how one civilisation interacted with others to build up a picture of society at a given time. It wasn't clear either whether a service or law was applied to the full extent of the empire or just the main administrative centre where I presume most records were obtained.
Even as a reference work, I'm not sure how often someone would wonder whether there was a banking system in place in the Hittite Empire, or the alimony system in place in Byzantium - it could just have been provided as a database to access online (which it may well be) or had someone to link the societies together and highlight trends or outliers. At least it covered all sorts of polities from around the globe rather than just the big ones.
Obviously this was intended as reference but for a lot of the ancient societies there was no data available, and a lot of entries would have been better with more detail. What does 'social mobility - some crafts' mean? Was it common, possible, meritocratic or a patron-based system? Similarly, the maps at the back were interesting but basically told the same story, civilisation advanced in the Middle East and spread outwards for most technologies.
The problem with this was that despite the brief paragraph at the start of each 'polity' it wasn't clear how one civilisation interacted with others to build up a picture of society at a given time. It wasn't clear either whether a service or law was applied to the full extent of the empire or just the main administrative centre where I presume most records were obtained.
Even as a reference work, I'm not sure how often someone would wonder whether there was a banking system in place in the Hittite Empire, or the alimony system in place in Byzantium - it could just have been provided as a database to access online (which it may well be) or had someone to link the societies together and highlight trends or outliers. At least it covered all sorts of polities from around the globe rather than just the big ones.
December 30, 2022
Had to rate this book one star because Goodreads will not let me rate it zero stars.
As a world history knowledge seeker, I found the idea/premise of the book to be fascinating.
Unfortunately, the follow through/execution was TERRIBLE. I learned NOTHING while reading this book, and even feel less intelligent than when I started. I found myself doubting the “facts” presented and performing my own additional research to discount information that was presented as “fact”.
If you love world history, do not waste your time with this book
As a world history knowledge seeker, I found the idea/premise of the book to be fascinating.
Unfortunately, the follow through/execution was TERRIBLE. I learned NOTHING while reading this book, and even feel less intelligent than when I started. I found myself doubting the “facts” presented and performing my own additional research to discount information that was presented as “fact”.
If you love world history, do not waste your time with this book
June 23, 2023
Actual Rating 4.5/5
What a fascinating book - you get to compare, period by period what each civilization was up to.
It goes into details of social structure, religion, admin, geography everything!!!
I am especially impressed by the work of the historians on this. Thank you for preserving a part of the legacy of the human race.
What a fascinating book - you get to compare, period by period what each civilization was up to.
It goes into details of social structure, religion, admin, geography everything!!!
I am especially impressed by the work of the historians on this. Thank you for preserving a part of the legacy of the human race.
May 19, 2021
Horrible Book. I have struggle to finish this book. Horrible story telling, no synchronization. Just some facts and data, this book could be written beautifully. I guess i could write better book than this one.
February 6, 2025
I like this kind of book for late in the evening when I can read a bit before I go to bed. It seems to clear the cobwebs of the mind while providing fact none of us would consider possible, but were just that.
January 30, 2021
A useful reference book. Has lots of info you can’t Google.
Want to read
April 3, 2021Note: I accessed a digital review copy of this book through Edelweiss.
May 21, 2022
Interesting comparison of civilisation
It’s good to know when a technology was adopted or perhaps what was the longevity in a region and then you can attempt to figure out why.
It’s good to know when a technology was adopted or perhaps what was the longevity in a region and then you can attempt to figure out why.
April 20, 2024
Plain raw data printed and binded.
Alias wtf broooo minimal dikasih gambar apa kek.
Alias wtf broooo minimal dikasih gambar apa kek.
September 7, 2024
Is more a catalog than a book
February 20, 2025
Interessant, maar leest als een appendix. Eerder leuk om door heen te bladeren. Had ook een website kunnen zijn.
November 19, 2020
Mad I wasted my time and money on this.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews