The objectives of D'Efilippo and Ball in writing The Infographic History of the World were to use advanced techniques of graphical data to succinctly summarise and present the entire history of the world. Just a tad ambitious.

The book is certainly a graphical feast, but I think in the end it becomes self-defeating. Towards the end I just wanted to scan the text to pick up the cogent facts and move on; not at all what the authors had in mind, I'm sure. The complexity of some of the diagrams is bewildering and sometimes far too much information is included, at the expense of clarity. It seemed to me also that the authors often chose what they thought would be a cool graphical shape for the subject under discussion and then shoe-horned their data to conform to that shape. In my view the best graphical design uses the form that best represents the data, not the other way round.

I also wished for a somewhat less glib and smart-arse commentary. I feel that the authors were conflicted over their need to inform and the need to entertain but, to be true to their objective, they should have erred on the side of information, which they do not do. The book is also far too UK-centric; the frequent use of "we" to refer to the UK seems somewhat out of place in a supposed history of the world.

Still there is some very interesting information here, and some of the graphical devices used are excellent. I think overall this is not a book to read cover-to-cover, but rather something to dip into occasionally for a bit of arcane trivia and some idle amusement. ( )

A fun, entertaining look at world history through infographics. Infographics are quite popular these days, and looking at history through these data-filled illustrations and graphs reach a whole new audience used to looking at data in such a graphical format. Pretty good coverage and neat throughout. This seems to be written by Brits, as there is more emphasis on the British than the Americans.

4.5 out of 5 stars. ( )

This should have been really interesting. The commentary really detracted from the diagrams and the diagrams seemed ill-chosen. ( )

Corny. The writing is corny. The visual metaphors are corny. For too many of the infographics, there were long explanations and ancillary diagrams for how to read them. This arbitrary icon means this, that arbitrary icon means that, this icon represents some arbitrary number of items, like 29 of whatever unit. Right, I'm going to add up multiples of small primes in my head. There's no rhyme or reason other than what fits on the page (and not even then, many of the graphics bleed off the edge) and what's cute. ( )

Ouvrage assez décevant.

L'infographie a pour objet de rendre compréhensibles et lisibles des données. Comprendre, d'un coup d'oeil, par une approche visuelle, des informations parfois complexes et toujours denses. Cela permet aussi à l'auteur de l'infographie de donner une approche originale d'un fait de société ou d'un évènement historique, politique, culturel. Mettre en perspective, comparer, relativiser. Le danger est évident pour une telle approche.

Par le dessin, le schéma on peut également tordre la vérité, influencer la perception des lecteurs pour mettre en avant une thèse, une théorie, un concept, une idéologie.

Cela demande donc une grande honnêteté intellectuelle de la part de l'auteur de l'infographie et par exemple de donner ses sources. Par ailleurs, la mode de l'infographie, la multiplication des dessins, des couleurs, des graphes dans une lutte incessante de celui qui sera le plus original oubliant la finalité ne font qu'embrouiller la lecture et rendre encore plus compliqué les informations de bases.

Tout ne peut pas se résumer en un graphe.

Les auteurs de cette histoire du monde en infographie sont tombé dans tous ces pièges, La première moitié du livre raconte l'histoire du monde et bien souvent les infographies n'apportent pas grand chose à une meilleure compréhension de l'évolution du monde. Beaucoup d'autres ouvrages d'histoire ont réussi à rendre bien plus claire toutes ces informations. La seconde partie consacrée au monde moderne s'oriente plus vers des faits de société ou culturels et là encore les auteurs proposent des graphes qui sont difficiles à la lecture pour suivre les démonstrations des auteurs.

Il y a néanmoins des pages très intéressantes et originales mais qui ne relèvent pas la qualité globale de ce livre. ( )