The Penguin History of the World: Sixth Edition Paperback – Illustrated, September 30, 2014

Let me begin by saying what this book, The History of the World, is not. It is not a chronological compilation of the who, what, when, and where of history. Nor is it a series of engaging glimpses of events and stories collected from world history. If it were I would have found it far less enjoyable. Rather this book addresses the what and to some degree the why of human history - from the earliest hominids into the Arab Spring of our own time.Roberts and Westad have provided well grounded observations for the major events in human history - especially the central transformations. Some examples of these observations: " The most striking fact of China's history is that it has gone on for so long. For 3500 years there has been a Chinese people using a Chinese language...". From the chapter titled - Europe's Assault on the World: " There was a major change in world history after 1500 and it was quite without precedent. Never before had one culture spread over the entire globe". From the chapter titled - Our Own Time: " It is therefore likely that the contradiction between economic growth and abject poverty will remain the key issue in Latin America's development for years to come."As Westad mentions in his preface to this edition: "It is often said, that history is not what it used to be". As time progresses we gather additional information from anthropology, genetics, linguistics, archaeology as well as other historical perspectives that refine our understanding. Wasn't it only two decades ago that we believed Neanderthals and Homo sapiens could not interbreed?Bottom line: For the person who enjoys reading and understanding history, this very current `1200 page overview' of the History of the World - published this year by two renowned historians is quite a find.

The book has a wide scope, reasonable level of detail, and an engaging style. It is a perfect basis from which to go exploring the story of humanity. While reading it I often found myself "branching off" to other sources (books, internet) for more details, and then coming back to it. For example I read in parallel Bertrand Russell's "History of Western Philosophy" to get more details about the ideas of each period.

Naturally, if you wish to write a book that covers the whole of world history you are bound to be selective, but I believe the author's selections are a little too arbitrary in certain periods. The coverage of the Assyrian, Elamite and Persian civilizations are almost non-existent. The coverage of Indian civilizations leaves much to be desired. These are only some examples, many important topics are either left out or insufficiently covered.Readability is also an issue. The language is not an easy one. It's quite academic which is not in itself a bad thing as long as clarity is not sacrificed, however, the language is not really clear. Expect long, meandering paragraphs, a more unfamiliar and academic lexicon that you might be comfortable with and don't expect to be dazzled by the beauty of the language. There are occasions where the authors paints a beautiful picture, but they are few and far between.The style of presentation is not narrative but more expository, so if you are more familiar with being presented history as if a story is being read to you, which I believe is more natural, be prepared to be disappointed. I myself don't mind that objective, third person, detached point of view.Other things to remember, the book, like unfortunately many books of history, gives much more credit than it is objectively due, to religion or more accurately to "western" Abrahamic religions. There are quite a few places when this is obvious, but to give you only one example; quite early in the book you'll see Judaism being kind of implicitly credited as the first monotheistic religion of the world:" The religious innovations of Akhnaton and the growing assertiveness of the cult of Marduk have both been seen as responses to such a challenge. Yet only the Hebrews and those who came to share their beliefs were able to push the process home, at some point before the seventh century BC transcending polytheism and localism to arrive at a coherent and uncompromising monotheism."This is of course downright inaccurate. Zoroastrianism is the first monotheistic religion of the world, unless you take monotheism to be something very particular. However, despite the fact that the author mentions Zoroastrianism later on in the book, he decides to forgo any clarification and this information stick to the mind and if you are not aware of the history of Zoroastrianism then you might end up believing that Judaism was the first monotheistic religion. Regrettably, there are more instances like this. My advice to you, if you see anything related to religion, take it with a grain of slat, unless you are certain of its truth.Other than these, I'd say it's a very good book. You'd hardly find anything better that covers so much of human history, with such level of accuracy and breadth, in only one volume.

When I bought this book I thought it would give me a brief rundown of some of the more significant events in human history, period. I didn't expect that it would be so well-written and thoughtful. This book not only discusses important historical events and their contexts, as you would expect from any good history book, but also goes into what I would term the philosophy of history, seeing things from different viewpoints, discussing their possible meanings, admitting when there is insufficient evidence to determine something. I am finding it a very informative and interesting read. So much information and philosophy packed into such a small space. I highly recommend it to people who love to read history.

This book is thorough. It spans from our ancestor in the trees of Africa to the present day. It fills in so many gaps that I had in my understanding of world history. It took me close to a year to get through it all. The pages and chapters are long and the material requires much thought. I was pleased the authors were clear about the lack of data for the far distant past. I found the discussions at the beginning of each chapter to be very thought provoking as well. I am very glad I stuck with it to the end.