| A Little History of the World | 
 enlarge | Author: E. H. Gombrich
Publisher: Yale University Press
Category: Book
List Price: £14.99
Buy New: £7.60
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Avg. Customer Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 8381
Media: Hardcover
Edition: Rep Tra
Reading Level: Young Adult
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 8.6 x 5.8 x 1.2
ISBN: 0300108834
Dewey Decimal Number: 909
EAN: 9780300108835
ASIN: 0300108834
Publication Date: September 22, 2005
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: Cutomer Satisfaction comes first. Please note : Ships on the same Day From our any warehouses Overseas/U.K & reaches you within 4-14 Days
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 If only.... March 9, 2007
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
...there was one book you could turn to which would take you through the entirety of human history in an entertaining as well as educational manner. Well guess what: there is, and 'A Little History..' is it. Don't be dissuaded by the fact that this is nominally a children's book. Unless you have devoted years to the study of history, you will finish this book a more knowledgeable person than when you started.
And for those who are put off by the size of the text, the audio version is available and beautifully read by the author's grandson.
For all ages August 17, 2006
19 out of 20 found this review helpful
I read this to see if it would be a suitable present for some friend's children, and wound up keeping it myself! You'd have to be one whiz at history not to learn a great deal from this book, it was great to have so many names that rang a vague bell finally put in context in such a concise and entertaining way. An excellent read, and one of the best-presented books in terms of binding and typography I've seen in a while.
The reviewer below who worried about the 'unrestrained paean to Marxism' clearly didn't read Gombrich's thoughtful and honest afterword, where he reviews his own opinions from over 50 years back and concludes that he was mistaken about the Soviet Union (to which he only devotes literally five lines which are not particularily opinionated) and too hard on industrialization. He also corrects his younger self on his orignal, parochial view of the Treaty of Versailles. I honour his candour in keeping the original lines in. In any case the idea that this book, with or without the afterword, is propaganda for ANY ideology is frankly absurd, and I would hate to see any reasonable person avoid the "Little History" from that mistaken impression.
Of course anyone will quarrel with the presentation of parts of history on which have an opinion-- personally I think he was rather too hard on Elizabeth I and rather too easy on the Chinese empire and the Aztecs! But that's the consequence of Gombrich's vivid storybook style, I think, and the fact that he has to deal with very complex situations in a couple of lines. I was especially impressed with the steady grace with which he handles potentially explosive religious issues. On the whole I don't think any but the most committed idealogue, left or right, would have a serious issue with their children reading this book. His view of history is probably best summed up with this:
"Now let's take a last look at these people dressed in skins, as they paddle their boats made of hollowed-out tree turnks towards their villages of huts... Do you think much has changed since then? Ther were people just like us. Often unkind to one another. Often cruel and deceitful. Sadly, so are we. But even then a mother might sacrifice her life for her child and friends might die for each other. And how could it be otherwise?"
Now to pick up another copy for those kids...
 A true fairy tale of many thousand years January 23, 2006
4 out of 20 found this review helpful
This is -short as a fairy tale- the humanistic and graecophil way to look at the history of mankind, a product of generous sensibility.Of course, the middle-european perspective does not leave the author in his "Little History of the world", this propably being one reason why it took this in many countries best-selling text so long to get translated into the English language. The translation is often too simply drawn from German. So, for instance when on page 204 "Just think what (...) such a way of life must have cost" arises from "Bedenke nur was solch Lebenswandel gekostet haben muß." Many might find, that it is more important to write a history of the world based on the advances in technology.
But the humaine perspectives implies that the author has neither big knowledge nor concern on mathematics and technologies in general. The text is not only therefore a book intended for young readers and as such a brilliant and excellent overview altogether.
Breezy, enlighted and entertaining November 11, 2005
23 out of 29 found this review helpful
I am prompted to write this after having read the last reviewer's comments. Andrew Roberts is very insular and his political creed would shame Atilla the Hun, so he really is best ignored on this sort of thing. Read it before you read him.
 Marxist history? October 31, 2005
7 out of 37 found this review helpful
Amidst all of the positive reviews, I have seen some negative ones as well. Andrew Roberts in the Financial times wrote:"The post-1848 parts are an unrestrained paean to Marxism-Leninism. It is a tragedy that a writer as impressive as Gombrich, with the gift of being able to communicate with children, should have prostituted his talents in the service of so foul a creed." Personally, I'm sticking to Gombrich's great classic THE STORY OF ART, which is supposedly the bestselling art history book of all time ...
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