J. M. Roberts (1)Rezensionen

1/29/23

People on ludes should not drive.

John asked for it, John got it: Caveat Lector.

Much like Robert’s excellent History of the World (which I think is a bit better). From the jacket: “For his ability to grasp and communicate the full sweep of the past, Roberts … must rank as the leading historical mind of his generation.” “A monumental work of synthesis … outstanding factual accuracy and solid judgments.” “His gifts of compression and clear exposition are outstanding.”

The first third covers ancient civilization to 1500, the next third from 1500 – 1900, then the 20th c. Emphasis is on the latter part in the first two sections, and on modern history generally, though the treatment of late Roman times to 1500 helped me much better understand that period.

It also gave me a handle on many other fuzzy items – the position of Emperor, relationship between Emperor and Pope, the French Revolution and aftermath, 19th c. French history in general, the confusing German tapestry before unification, how unification came about, and similar for Italy. It also shed light I hadn’t had on the Balkans, Eastern Europe generally, Russia (especially post-Ivans), Byzantium, and the long, complicated decline of the Ottoman Empire.

Intense compression necessarily involves omission, and some things would benefit from more coverage. How Switzerland came about isn’t explained, unless it was so brief I missed it. Germany’s unification is brief but a good synopsis; that of Italy is too brief to be clear. But these are minor quibbles considering the book’s scope. His coverage of European imperialism, its entanglements and effects on other societies and the results, is excellent (and often depressing). Another quibble (or more) – the few maps aren’t great, and they’re often only tangentially related to the narrative (similar for the occasional timeline). Lists of place-names appear which are probably familiar to knowledgeable Europeans, but not to me. More and better maps, closely tied to the text, would be a big improvement. Roberts’ books are so good that Penguin owes them this.

His perspectives on American Independence and growth (tantalizingly brief) are useful antidotes to American mythology and narrow vision. Without ill will, he recognizes the American presidency as the (18th c.) British-like constitutional monarchy it essentially is; he’s sober about the relatively minor grievances used to justify revolution, and (as typically) that a radical elite inflamed opinion towards violence; that Americans would have lost without French and Spanish help (also crediting American generalship, when British blunders are a better explanation); and that the U.S. wouldn’t have expanded westward so quickly without British naval protection. He doesn’t dwell on it, but doesn’t romanticize the ruthless illegitimacy of this expansion, including gross abuse of American Indians and the naked land grab called the Mexican War (with the evils of slavery and the Spanish-American War in the longer list). But America's a sideshow here.

Roberts makes a good case that WWI was never inevitable, but the final lead-up is so compressed it’s a bit misleading. He suggests Russia told Serbia to comply with Austrian demands, Serbia largely did, but Austria’s quick invasion was intended regardless. Russia actually sent Serbia mixed signals, and invasion seems unlikely had Serbia completely complied. Had Russia been as clear as Roberts suggests, war might have been averted. But the world wars have been covered so thoroughly elsewhere that this isn’t a big problem.

Roberts’ focus is political, economic, social and cultural; he provides very little military history. His approach to WWII is similar to WWI, although Hitler’s rise is given very little space while the war itself gets more coverage. He provides another interesting perspective on the US, suggesting Truman’s 1947 decision to contain the USSR by providing aid to Greece and Turkey (reversing traditional American isolationism) “may well be thought the most important [decision] in American diplomacy since the Louisiana Purchase.”

A couple other of many interesting tidbits: both the US and USSR supported the creation of Israel (for Russia this was anti-British rather than pro-Israeli). Of course Russian support was short-lived, and in the 1973 Yom Kippur war it’s thought they provided Egypt with nuclear weapons, prompting American forces to go on worldwide alert, essentially ending the war. I always wondered how David beat Goliath again, when this time Goliath had a large quantity of good Soviet weapons. This explanation is more plausible than the Israeli myths.

What Roberts does best is draw out patterns from a mass of detail and make reasoned judgments about these patterns, and he does it very well. All in all, a rip-roaring ride through the fascinating and often hideous past.

Roberts is a master of the broad brush, managing to make world history a page-turner and 1200 pages seem like 300 (or so). Because the subject’s so large, it always feels like you’re moving at high speed and observing from high above. There’s little room for detail, but that’s the nature of world history. The beauty of it is that Roberts makes connections and observations of patterns, and we’re able to do the same, which wouldn’t be possible in a history of smaller scope with more detail (of course, we need both). One particularly valuable example is the context in which he places the American Revolution and subsequent US expansion. At the time, the revolution was a relatively small matter and Europe was focused on more important things. After the war, Britain controlled the seas and also controlled the territory north of the new nation. With a weak power (Spain) controlling much of the areas south and west, and with France checked by Britain in North America, the US was able to expand in an essentially invisible bubble of protection created by Britain. It was in Britain’s interests to let this weak little English-speaking upstart expand rather than allowing another European power to fill the relative void of North America (it doesn’t make it right, but one of the European powers would have done it if the US hadn’t). A little deflating for our national mythology, but isn’t that one of the purposes of history done well?

Imagine you're sitting by the fireplace with a stuffy historian, but you think, "Well, he's a scholar in his field, so I'm going to listen. Plus, I have to be here, since my class is forcing me to 'listen' to him."

He starts talking, nay, rambling, jumping from year to year, with run-on sentences, unclear subjects... Your confused look betrays you. He pauses momentarily to look down over his glasses and pipe and says, "I presume you already understand everything there is to know about world history, yes?" and without waiting for your answer, he continues his overview, emphasizing his contempt for Europe and America and for every past historical position ever taken. You discreetly pull out your phone and google everything he's saying, just so you can keep up. You feel like this fireplace chat (class) will never end.

That's what this book is like.

How do you cover the history of the world in 1100 pages or so? By being very careful in what you cover of course.

The previous editions of J. M. Roberts's book had been around since 1976 (for the first edition) and had long be considered one of the better one volume histories out there. For the 6th edition Odd Arne Westad rewrites the first and last parts of the book (prehistory had changed a lot in the last decades and adding the collapse of USSR and its aftermath could not have been done earlier) and revised the rest. The result is an uptodate book (or mostly uptodate - things keep changing with new discoveries).

You will not find a list of battles here or a list of all the rulers of a country or an empire. You won't find the list of political entries in certain territories listed anywhere. The book starts with an introduction which is important - it tells you how the authors built the book and explain what you are about to read. It is all about influence - an empire existing for 300 years and leaving no traces in the history or culture of the area (or outside of it); a ruler who was there for 10 years and conquered everyone will get more space than that empire.

The book is not a political history or a cultural history; neither it is the history of the English speaking world. If one believes their country to be considered the best in the world, they will get disappointed - while some countries have outsized influence, they are not the only ones covered and they are not just praised (looking at the British) and Americans may be a bit disappointed that until the very last section, USA is pretty much ignored - and even there, it is its foreign influence that matters so it is not that prominent.

It sounds almost disjointed in parts, it feels like it omits too much and covers weird things in detail but it all adds up to a narrative history that works. It has a lot of maps but I wish that there were a lot more (and even an Atlas to accompany it - with maps of the different areas in different times). It also can make you laugh in places - for example when the Portuguese and the Spanish split the known world between each other, the Pope agreed, all was going well and then a Portuguese ship swings too wide on the way back from Asia to work around some winds and hits land - and Brazil's history is changed forever. The way it is written is almost like an old joke - with a pun line and all. The serious and the curious coexist and the analysis added allows for connections to be seen where they are almost hidden.

It is not easy to summarize a history that usually takes 200 pages in a page (or less). Things need to be missed, priorities need to be set. And somehow it works here. It made me read more about a lot of times and places (and people and cultures) but it is a great overview. And thinking on what it covered, all the places and battles and people it actually covered, you wonder how exactly that happened on this number of pages. It is a dense text, it requires attention and the more you know about the history of the places and times you are reading about, the more you will see in these sections. I suspect I will be returning to this book over and over.

It is a narrative history - it flows as one story, parts relies on what you already read about before. While different sections can be read on their own, you will miss a lot if you do not keep what was already said in mind. The important comparisons and connections are spelled out but the details are not.

If you are looking for a one volume history of the world and you can read dense texts, this is a marvelous choice - although it requires a lot of patience and focus.

Besproken in het artikel van D.C.J. van Peype “Maçonnieke mythe, legende en geschiedenis” in
Thoth, Meestertijdschrift (1975),pp.43-59 :
“Voor een beter begrip van de historische en sociologische factoren die bijdragen tot de mystificaties aangaande de Vrijmetselarij, ben ik erkentelijk aan de eerder genoemde auteur J.M.Roberts, die in zijn boek een hoofdstuk wijdt aan wat hij noemt ‘de gouden eeuw van de mystificatie’. Hij is van oordeel, dat hier drie elementen een grote rol hebben gespeeld : de opkomst van de gedachtenwereld van de Verlichting, de groei van het zg. verlichte despotisme en het toenemen van het irrationalisme in de cultuur.” (p.54)

Besproken door E.P.Kwaadgras in Thoth, (1994) no.6, p233 :
“Roberts mag als verplichte lectuur gelden voor wie de anti-maçonnieke tradities wil leren begrijpen. Ook Mellor [Alec Mellor : Nos frères séparés, les franc-maçons, Tours,Parijs, 1961] is de moeite waard ; nuttig is ook nog steeds : Arthur Singer, ‘Der Kampf Roms gegen dieFreimaurerei.Geschichtliche Studien.’ Leipzig, 1925. Singer was Grootbibliothecaris van de Symbolische Grootloge van Hongarije.”

Besproken in AMT, maart (2000), p.18 :
“Een aantal keren herdrukt nadien, ook in andere uitvoeringen dan het exemplaar van de Orde….
Het klassieke meesterwerk. Indien U ook maar enigszins geïnteresseerd bent in de vraag waarom de Vrijmetselarij telkens weer in de geschiedenis, onder zeer uiteenlopende omstandigheden, het zwarte schaap moet zijn of de zondebok, dan moet U dit boek eens lezen…Er is heel veel inzicht in menselijk gedrag in dit boek, veel kennis van de Europese geschiedenis, met name van de Franse revolutie, en veel inzicht ook in de aard van onze broederschap, die achter gesloten deuren haar allusieve, maar ook zo elusieve spel speelt.”

Besproken in A.Q.C. 85 (1972), 1973, pp.372-377 door Harry Carr:
“The work is to be welcomed, perhaps, because it is an approach to a particular aspect of Craft study which has not generated much attention hitherto. Indeed, the novelty of the subject is a matter of some real concern to the author, who is at great pain – in his Preface and in Chapter I – to justify the undertaking, which he does, but not very succesfully…Chapter II..The author’s search for an explanation of the steady growth of the Craft during the first two or three decades of the existence of Grand Lodge, leads him to some strange and exaggerated findings…In his final Chapter, ‘Conclusions’, the author argues that what the secret societies were actually doing was far less important than what people believed about them. This is an argument quite in harmony with the book, but it would be difficult to prove, or even to support it properly…The whole work is a massive study on a comparatively unkwown theme and the author has made generous use of sources virtually unknown to the English reader, who may perhaps be forgiven if some of them leave a lingering doubt in his mind as to their reliability…The book shows occasional signs of having been compiled in a hurry… The major criticism, from the point of view of regular Freemasonry, as understood by the three Mother Grand Lodges, England, Ireland and Scotland, plus more than a hundred regular Grand Lodges all over the world, is the author’s total failure to distinguish between the regular Craft and the many peculiar Orders which attached themselves to it.
It is not an easy book to read and Mr.Roberts makes no concessions to his readers. After reading it, Frenchmen, Germans and Italians, wether they are Freemasons or not, may well be disturbed by the frightening picture they have glimsed of the supposed plots and conspiracies of a bygone age. Its effects are still to be felt in European public opinion relating to the Freemasons. One direct result is that members of the Craft in those countries today are still rather careful to conceal their membership, or at best to shun publicity and avoid discussion whenever possible.”

"In spreading revolutionary principles the French often put a rod in the pickle for their own backs."

That is an actual sentence from this book. I have no idea what it means. I have also just passed the third time the author has referred to something from history as being "scotched in the egg". I know what a scotched egg is, I could probably even cook one, but I have no idea what the writer is talking about or why he is so proud of coming up with that phrase that he keeps using it.

I am 2/3s of the way through this book and honestly can think of no reason that I persist other than just stubbornness. At first I just thought that maybe it had been a while since I read a book at this reading level, but that was too generous of me. The author uses weird sentence structures and contrived language in such a way that I have to reread almost every sentence and then analyse it, "is he using a that as a noun or an adjective? What was the verb". Every sentence is a puzzle to be solved. There's a spot in there where I'm not sure, but I think he used "outstanding" as a noun.

Even a few commas in the right places would make things so much easier, but instead he spent all his punctuation money on $10 words. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for using words that are specific and add to the meaning of the thought. However, this guy uses words in an almost nonsensical way. My guess is he's just showing off. And I am left thinking "I know what the words mean, I just don't know what they mean the way he wrote them".

This was an excellent history book. I felt fully entertained, educated, and better upon reading how J.M Roberts has organized the world and its doings. Although I was already versed in historical details before picking up the book, there were many little tidbits and even large sections that I did not consider or think or previously and I feel I have enlargened my world view by reading the book. Overall, a spectacular book. This is well written, researched, and the impetus is strong upon reading. I recommend this to all who are interested in history, it will serve you well.

Full rank: 5 stars.

History of the world in about 1200 pages. That's some achievement. Although this size means you rarely take the foot off the gas and things keep passing by so quickly. My only small gripe is with the chapter concerning WW2 that had a small amount of moralizing in it, but that is to be expected. Otherwise a fantastic overview and really good job by the authors for sticking to history and not passing judgement on who was good or bad.

This book is definitely a dense read, but I found it worth the time and energy it took to see it through to the end. Roberts did a good job of highlighting the main themes of the history of Europe without getting bogged down in too many details. That said, I think the complaint about this type of book is always going to be the lack of detail about a great many things that the reader might find interesting or important. I'm glad I read this one, but I think it will be a good long while before I pick up a survey type book again.

I got through a large chunk of this before I temporarily gave up. It is insanely thorough and I think very well done. But, it's a lot. I envy those who can get through this monstrous book without any problems - my hat goes off to you.

This is a thumping big book in every sense. As John Roberts points out however the twentieth century provides the historian with unprecedented amounts of information, as well as life experiences to attempt to synthesise. The result here is a synthesis by an experienced historian who has lived through a fair proportion of the century described, thus providing a book which commands attention.
The elephant in the room really is Hobsbawm's "Age of Extremes" - published five years before this book, and unmentioned. Along with Martin Gilbert's three volume chronicle these are the major single author syntheses of the century. Like Hobsbawm's book, this is an interpretive rather than narrative effort. Although Roberts doesn't quite have the elegance of some of Hobsbawm's terminology and weaving together of conceptual frameworks, he captures most of the major themes of the century effectively. In common they identify the explosion in population, barbaric interludes, peak and decline of European international influence and diminishing role of peasants as key themes. Roberts fixates more strongly on the importance of European values and power and its continuities. Although he doesn't shirk from the negatives of imperialism he is probably more willing than most contemporary historians to see its positives.
That said this isn't an overly Eurocentric book. Despite seeing events in Europe as key there is good coverage of China, Japan, India and to a lesser extent Latin America and Africa. Women, the environment, medical advances, space exploration (perhaps the change which will have the most lasting impact) and information technology receive good consideration. In thinking about the development of mass society, surely a key trend, Roberts is a little weak on popular culture (especially television and the cinema) and sports and leisure. This is surprising in a sense as these were well covered in the excellent TV series "The People's Century" to which Roberts was an advisor.
Robert's writing style can be a bit dense at times with extended sentences sometimes needing a couple of reads. That said this book is a solid and reliable synthesis of the major trends, changes and continuities of the century that would suit any student of the century.

Anyone fascinated by world history will be delighted with the appearance of a new edition of John Robert's History of the World. His ill health mentioned in the preface made it hard work, and his recent death confirms his prophesy that this will be the final edition of this successful book. Overall Roberts provides a great summation of world history, supplying a sweeping overview with perceptive insights, and avoiding the temptation to become enmeshed in encyclopedic detail. The themes he follows, those of change and continuity, the impetus of history and the relationship between tradition and innovation in human history are well chosen and help to find a context for this daunting subject. Additionally he makes relevant the weight of the past to present events (including a very good job of bringing the book right up to date with post-9/11 events). His overall perspective on history has changed surprisingly little over the years, perhaps because one of his basic philosophies is durable; "the two phenomena of inertia and innovation continue to operate in all historical developments ... we shall always find what happens both more, and less, surprising than we expect". Sounds like a bet both ways, however thinking about recent events it is quite plausable.
The book, it is freely acknowledged by Roberts, comes from a white, middle class western perspecive, however every edition finds him attempting to balance his global coverage further, as well as expanding the text to include more on gender issues and the environment. The thinness of material on non-Western cultures, such as Africa and Latin America is more related to knowledge than bias. He certainly has always argued strongly for the "European Age" since the age of exploration and I think he tends to overemphasise its influence on the world's population as a whole (important as it was). A little more material on imperialism from the subjects perspective might have helped, although don't get the impression that the book is a whitewash.
His prose is enjoyable, although his sentance structure could be improved at times, and the book provides a servicable set of maps.
Anyone who reads this book will certainly gain a comprehensive and valuable overview of the forces of the past that manifestly continue to shape the world today, and a fine insight into the way human societies and cultures work.

History, western civilisation

I have a copy of this tome on my shelves and decided a couple weeks ago to reread it. (Mine is the 1993 Oxford University Press Edition.) It's comprehensive, covering human prehistory to the 1990s. In summary, much of human events can be seen as one group of people trying to steal stuff from another group of people, killing a lot of them and exploiting the rest. Then, over time and distance, the pattern repeats with conqueror become conquered and so on. (Yeah, you probably already knew that, but this gives names and dates.)

It's not light reading. Literally. The hardcover edition I have has over 950 pages and the sucker is heavy. Trying to read it in bed can be a challenge. The prose tends to the verbose, and punctuation and word choice make it a tougher slog than it needs to be. At times, the narrator almost sounds like Yoda... Obscure, the words at times and commas it has few to clarify meaning that is intended. (That kind of stuff.) And there are a few typos. It could use another round of copy editing.

Still, as a single volume of history, it's a great informative source. It will stay on my shelf and I may reread it again.

Excellent book for someone with an interest in a broad overview of Modern European (mostly) history. The book has some fantastic illustrations, maps, and photographs from various historical periods. The breadth of coverage is quite incredible, though as you'd expect, the depth will suffer. To be fair, it's impossible to compress so much history in a single book without leaving something out. It would take volumes to fully address all of the important aspects mentioned in this book. Overall, Roberts does a brilliant job of providing an extensive overview of modern history from a bird's eye view. Definitely a worth-while read and looks great.

Not a traditional history text. More a new-historian type book - humanity before events and outstanding figures. A liberal outlook. Nothing inherently wrong with that except for a predisposition to critique accomplishments and emphasizing how much we need to do instead of how much has been accomplished.

Very full detailed account that for the most part does allow the reader to access the salient points across the globe with notable recognition of the rise of China and the other so-called BRICS. Unsurprisingly much stronger on the already well covered first 50 or so years and built on that with references to the post-WW2 to Fall of Soviet Union, but then it falters. Not so secure in its judgement of what the 'Politics' of the last couple of decades, inc. rise of Fundamentalism are leading to and on things like Global Warming/Climate Change it was decidedly undecided (a good thing in my view). Well worth reading - - you will need several sittings if like me you need to go back and re-read pieces the author uses as seams running through his narrative of the Century.

An authoritative boldly illustrated concentrated "history" of the humans in this planet. The fascinating story is told in its epic forms, from the hominid homeland traced in the Olduvai Gorge to the fall of the USSR, changes in China and the Bosnian conflict. However unpredictable and startling the events appear, "surprises always turn out to have histories". [578]

Though sometimes amusing, it is always disturbing when intelligent people seriously talk nonsense.

This is the opening sentence of J.M. Roberts' The Myhology of the Secret Societies. He then goes on to point out an impressive array of nonsense spouted by generally intelligent people. As the title suggests, it is not so much an investigation into the secret societies themselves as into what people have believed about secret societies.

It is a historical investigation of where the idea (and the fear) of a world-encompassing conspiracy comes from. Because the history of this myth is tied up with the history of the secret societies themselves, however, the book offers a very interesting overview of their development and interaction, especially in the latter half of the 1700s and up to the middle of the 1800s. It is an attempt to deal academically with a subject which has been left to conspiracy theorists for so long that it has itself become tainted. And it deals with this by focusing on the origins of those theories themselves, and thereby isolates the historical germ from the myth, at the same time discussing the particular historical situations which spawned both.

It traces the origins of Freemasonry (the movement from "operative" Freemasonry (where the Masons were still guilds of masons) to the "speculative" (where they were not), for example), shows how Scottish Freemasonry was invented in France (oh, yes), and became increasingly nuttier as time went on (while English Freemasonry, according to Roberts, remained fairly sedate and respectable).

It also shows how other societies (like the Illuminati and Carbonari) made use of the Freemasonry framework, to the extent of taking over some lodges from within. And how the revelation of this is at the heart of the general paranoia which surrounds secret societies. It then shows how the fear of a political secret society becomes one of the primary inspirations of those who finally create them in response to state oppression. It investigates quite closely the causes of the Illuminati panic and the claim that Freemasons orchestrated the French Revolution.

I picked up this book primarily to get a clearer idea of what Freemasonry is all about, and what separates it from societies like the Illuminati and the Carbonari. And it worked: what used to be a dark muddle of vaguely related societies or organisations is now a slightly lighter muddle of vaguely related societies and organisations. And the muddle at this point is not solely down to my brain.

It turns out that the people who have been fascinated by secret societies and wanted to join them have tended to want to join all of them at once. Or sometimes one after the other. The suggestion of secret knowledge is a powerful one, and the simple fact that one secret society failed to reveal anything astonishing did not necessarily discourage those who were drawn by the promise. And people who have wanted to found a secret society, for one reason or another, have drawn on the knowledge of earlier ones.

Roberts' conclusion, however, is that the only power of secret societies have been in the legends they created; in terms of direct influence, they have been either uninterested or incompetent.

The central concern of Roberts is the structure of conspiracy theory, and what aspects of the Mason legend (and the others) make the conspiracy so powerful. He lifts out the belief in secret superiors (who direct those below them without giving them full access to the reasons for the actions they undertake), the idea of inner secrets (the true knowledge or plan), as well as the precedent of the Illuminati attempt to infiltrate and take over Freemason lodges in order to further their Enlightenment agenda (very sinister, that Enlightenment agenda).

More startlingly, he shows the continuity between the conspiracy theories which fear Masons and Illuminati and Carbonari, and those who include an anti-semitic twist. If that is not enough, reading this book in the lead-up to Brivik's trial in Oslo made it very clear to me how potent the thought structures of the conspiracy mindset can still be.

This is, I think, the non-fiction equivalent to Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum. Both should be read by anyone who at any time figured the Illuminati might be running the world, or that that Dan Brown might be on to something. And of course by all you other, sensible people.

Now that I am home so much (with a bad back) I decided to start reading some non-fiction again as a second book. And why not pick up a history of the whole world and all time (that humans were on earth)? This book, the fifth edition from 2007 tries to cover everything in 1188 pages. The first edition was published in 1976, and for this edition the last part was written by Odd Arne Westad because the main author J.M. Roberts died in 2003.
The book is divided into eight parts, each covering a major period of history. The parts cover the time before history, the first civilizations, classical mediterranean, diverging traditions, the making of the European age, the great acceleration, the end of the European’s world and the latest age. The narrative is about major events in history, covering peoples very generally. While this enables the coverage of thousands of years in a little over a thousand pages, this is sometimes very frustrating. In some parts Roberts seems to go out of his way to not mention any names, presumably to not confuse his readers. Yet when I read about the German Emperor drowned in the course of the Third Crusade, how difficult or distracting is it to just say that it is Frederick Barbarossa so I can related this part in the book to other books I have read about the period. And when discussing religions it is weird that Shinto is called a sect, and all other religions are that, religions. Like the author admits in his preface, the book is very Euro-centric, covering mostly Europe and the parts of the world that now have European culture (the Americas, Australia). The Middle East and Asia become more important later on. But it is too bad that not much is mentioned about the Americas, Africa and Asia before the Europeans arrived. His reason for this is that none of the civilizations there were major, and none survived. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t interesting. The weirdest example of this is the picture on the cover of the book, of the Easter Island statues, yet Easter Island is never mentioned in the book.
This review does sound a bit negative now, and I don’t feel that way about the book. Covering such a large span of time and such a big area is difficult, and Roberts and Westad did a great job.

This book renewed my interest in World History, all the way back to antiquity. The pages have enough blank margin for personal annotations. Is there an addendum, or will I have to obtain a newer edition? Probably, one day. Again, as I have said before, this may be useful for parents to brush up on and use to help school age children with homework.½

This book should be consumed by any and everyone interested in history.No wait... by EVERYONE in the Whole Wide World! You need to get it into your system. The knowledge and understand reflected by Mr. Roberts is essential for understanding life on Earth. I'm not kidding. Mr Roberts has been called a "master of the broad brush stroke" and indeed he is! He is a genius at finding the important bits of history and connecting them in a way that is easy to understand without trivializing the realities. He understands history and relates his knowledge to you like some kindly uncle telling you a bedtime story. Hardly a date is mentioned. History is not just a collection of dates to be memorized. You cannot understand history without considering the people in it. Mr Roberts frequently shows how people of the past thought about (and dealt with) life, the world and humanity's place in it and how different their way was from what we think and feel now.

I have two editions of this opus. I was NOT impressed by the illustrated edition which I tried to read some years back. The pictures were too distracting. This edition, however, rolls on majestically like a mighty river continuously bringing nuggets of nutrients to fertilize the brain.

I find it to be perfect summer reading, far superior to any of the novels I've come across so far this summer.

Knap overzicht, een hele krachttoer maar wat zwaar op de hand. De universele blik is tot op het eind volgehouden, maar Europa overheerst; dat is meteen de rode draad en de slotconclusie van het boek.