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World History: A New Perspective
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944 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1999
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 9, 2022
Okuduğum en iyi özet dünya tarihi kitabı.
January 17, 2021
“World History” is a colossal topic to tackle in one book; but Clive Ponting did a brilliant job. It is a chronological history of the world. It covers from the first moments of the humans in this world until the end of 20th Century.
Many people consider the human history starts with the Ancient Greeks, continued by the Romans, then together with the rise of Christianity come the European Kingdoms and Dynasties, and with the climactic points of Age of Exploration, Renaissance and Reformation in Europe an economical and cultural domination the Europeans until the rise of United States in the early 20th Century and the world as we know it now. This book criticizes such World History view and brings a new perspective. It tries to see the world as a whole, and challenges many assumptions we have regarding the Europeans being the “first” in many things in culture and technology. It argues Asia —China in particular— had progressed economically, culturally and technologically a lot sooner than Europe, and the Europe caught up only later in the 2nd millennium.
It was impressing to see how much the history of Mesoamerica, India, China and Japan is covered in detail. I enjoyed in particular the part it explains how much the world of Islam shaped the world by making it possible for different cultures —from the steppes of Asia to the Iberian Peninsula— to be able to interact with each other, which makes it possible from people all around the world learn from each other and progress. This is indeed one of the new perspectives this book introduces.
I recommend this book for people who would like to get new perspectives on the world history, especially who would like to step away from the Eurocentric view for a while. It is a long read; but I enjoyed it slowly by extending the reading over a long period of time.
https://serkanolgun.me/2021/01/17/review-book-world-history.html
Many people consider the human history starts with the Ancient Greeks, continued by the Romans, then together with the rise of Christianity come the European Kingdoms and Dynasties, and with the climactic points of Age of Exploration, Renaissance and Reformation in Europe an economical and cultural domination the Europeans until the rise of United States in the early 20th Century and the world as we know it now. This book criticizes such World History view and brings a new perspective. It tries to see the world as a whole, and challenges many assumptions we have regarding the Europeans being the “first” in many things in culture and technology. It argues Asia —China in particular— had progressed economically, culturally and technologically a lot sooner than Europe, and the Europe caught up only later in the 2nd millennium.
It was impressing to see how much the history of Mesoamerica, India, China and Japan is covered in detail. I enjoyed in particular the part it explains how much the world of Islam shaped the world by making it possible for different cultures —from the steppes of Asia to the Iberian Peninsula— to be able to interact with each other, which makes it possible from people all around the world learn from each other and progress. This is indeed one of the new perspectives this book introduces.
I recommend this book for people who would like to get new perspectives on the world history, especially who would like to step away from the Eurocentric view for a while. It is a long read; but I enjoyed it slowly by extending the reading over a long period of time.
https://serkanolgun.me/2021/01/17/review-book-world-history.html
October 17, 2017
A fantastic world history... for those of us who had still not had our silly Euro-centricism knocked out of us.
I read this nearly 20 years ago now (wow, time flies) when I was even more foolish than I am today and, I am sorry to say, this was my first 'real' world history (of the 15 or so that I have actually read). Now, now I can see that the second millennium was fundamentally Islamic, not Christian, so I have learnt, but back then... back then this book KNOCKED MY FUCKING SOCKS OFF.
The patheticness of the pre-Opium Wars European traders was embarassing, our primativness revealing, and our post-climatic decline appropriate. Clive Ponting's "A World History" (the correct title) can be your Genesis, too. A classic.
I read this nearly 20 years ago now (wow, time flies) when I was even more foolish than I am today and, I am sorry to say, this was my first 'real' world history (of the 15 or so that I have actually read). Now, now I can see that the second millennium was fundamentally Islamic, not Christian, so I have learnt, but back then... back then this book KNOCKED MY FUCKING SOCKS OFF.
The patheticness of the pre-Opium Wars European traders was embarassing, our primativness revealing, and our post-climatic decline appropriate. Clive Ponting's "A World History" (the correct title) can be your Genesis, too. A classic.
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April 12, 2023DNF / On Hiatus
I had high hopes for this due to Ponting's stated intentions to present a non-Eurocentric and ecologically-minded history of the world that looks at the broad trends rather than than getting bogged down in national (western) histories. When the subject is the broader world trends, it really is fantastic. However, disappointingly, Ponting has eschewed Eurocentrism for Eurasiacentrism, much in the tradition of William H. McNeill. While it's impossible to write a history of the world without Eurasia necessarily being the prime 'mover' of events, like most global histories the Americas, Oceania, and especially Africa are relegated to brief afterthoughts and proper overviews of the various cultures and civilisations there are seriously lacking. Ponting also gets bogged down in splitting up the narrative into regional / national wikipedia-style summaries, which is exactly what he claimed to avoid. The result is they this feels like a textbook even though it isn't one, and falls short of its intended goals.
I had high hopes for this due to Ponting's stated intentions to present a non-Eurocentric and ecologically-minded history of the world that looks at the broad trends rather than than getting bogged down in national (western) histories. When the subject is the broader world trends, it really is fantastic. However, disappointingly, Ponting has eschewed Eurocentrism for Eurasiacentrism, much in the tradition of William H. McNeill. While it's impossible to write a history of the world without Eurasia necessarily being the prime 'mover' of events, like most global histories the Americas, Oceania, and especially Africa are relegated to brief afterthoughts and proper overviews of the various cultures and civilisations there are seriously lacking. Ponting also gets bogged down in splitting up the narrative into regional / national wikipedia-style summaries, which is exactly what he claimed to avoid. The result is they this feels like a textbook even though it isn't one, and falls short of its intended goals.
August 18, 2019
This took me a while to read because it was dense but I found that it had a lot of good information on things you don't usually find in a general history book. What also made me read it slowly was the way it was organized. it took some getting used too.
June 30, 2019
Very good
February 7, 2026
Batı merkezli tarih anlatısına meydan okuması hasebiyle değerli bir eser.
December 9, 2022
Kitabın olayı tarihe doğunun bakış açısıyla bakmak olsa da çevirisini hiç beğenmedim.
Birebir çevireyim derken çok uzun ve karmaşık yapmışlar.
Birebir çevireyim derken çok uzun ve karmaşık yapmışlar.
January 14, 2013
It's very very easy to follow
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews