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So If I'm interested in picking up a good survey of World History, what would be a good one to check out?
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True, but I find the historical predictions given within to be a bit preposterous. I mean - Jews in Space? That'll be the day.
Seriously, folks. Looking for a good book, or even series of books. I'm sure there's some good legitimate recommendations floating around here somewhere.
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Guns Germans and Steel isn't so much a history as trying to answer the question of disparity between cultures (why is Western civilization dominate) but in the process gives a pretty good explenation.
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I've read Guns, Germs and Steel. Wonderful book. Looking for something more broad, giving me a nice scope.
I had a VERY deficient High School history education, due in part to me moving around. I never got taught World Civ, my American History I class only went up to the beginning of Reconstruction due to my teacher going on wild tangents, and my American History II class started with World War II.
Following a transfer of schools, I was transferred into the MIDDLE of a 20th Century World History class just as they began teaching about World War II.
So, to sum up, I missed everything up to the American Revolution, and then I missed the First World War. Twice.
So I have major gaps here.
I'm trying to catch up
Of course, I'm also currently starting to read a 9-volume History of Philosophy series, and I've had a multi-CD set on the History of Rome being sent to me to listen to on my drive from Jersey to Atlanta.
I'd like to have a good overview in my mind, you know, for context.
And so I can know what the hell I'm talking about.
It looks funny, but it's quite a nice overview to start. It's very intelligent, thorough, and gives a launching pad for what you want to study more intensely. I'm not kidding - I have them all, and I love them.
[ March 21, 2005, 04:20 PM: Message edited by: Lady Jane ]
Posts: 1163 | Registered: Jan 2005
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Does 'world history' mean the whole thing? These days, us historians refer to 'world history' as a comparative history of various civilizations (with some environmental stuff like in _Guns, Germs and Steel_ thrown in).
Or do you mean Western civ?
If the first, _Story of Mankind_ is solid but dated and kind of archaic. One of my advisors wrote The Human Web, which is kind of unique and very compact but also interesting. His dad wrote this, which is somewhat dated but still a masterpiece, and is one of the earliest 'world' histories in the style I was talking about.
If we're just talking about Western civ, this is fun, but is designed for (very) long plane rides and summer vacations. This and this are textbooks I've seen used; my impression is that the first is slightly better.
Hobbes, _Guns, Germans and Steel_, as per your first post, sounds like a survey of the world between 1914 and 1945. Posts: 794 | Registered: Aug 2000
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I'd look at "A World History" by William H McNeill. It is a pretty brief overview of the important happenings in history. I read it during a couple World Civilization survey classes in college.
I found it especially helpful at giving me a foundation for when and, more importantly, why things have happened - it doesn't have a terribly large amount of detail, which isn't necessarily a drawback for an overview book.
Posts: 14 | Registered: Feb 2005
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Hm, I'm not sure if a single "survey" book is really the way to go. That might be a bit brief. I don't have many survey book suggestions, but the European History class I didn't take (AP covered it ) uses the two books Perspectives From the Past part one and the same but part two. My roomate says they're faily inclusive and easy-reading, but obviously they're textbooks. I'm not sure you're going to find anything any smaller than that that goes into any degree of detail.
One thing I was thinking about doing was assembling wikipedia articles into a list which which summed up history, and thus allowed you to go into however much detail you liked.
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If you need some good books on trade, and it's effects on various cultures, there is a book called Salt that seems very good..salt was more expensive than gold for most of history,until about 120 years ago, and that book has some wonderful tales about the wars that were waged to control sources of it,and the trade routes that carried it.
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Teshi, that sounds like a good idea but a lot of work. Also, wiki articles vary in accuracy and completeness, and even existence for many subjects.
Salt sounds interesting.
H.G. Wells wrote several surveys of history, including The Outline Of History (1920), A Short History Of The World (1922), and The Pocket History Of The World (1941). Of these three I have the last. I have always been meaning to read it but never have, just skimmed it or looked stuff up. It hits the highlights (of Western history, anyway) and it's readable.
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) uses the two books 
