When you are ambitious enough to write a history book encompassing everything from 200,000 years ago until the present day, you must determine what to include and what to leave out. The author of "The History Book" concentrated on events that had the most impact on the development (or demise) of different civilizations throughout the world.
I can't say enough about how the book was composed. Each section of the book lays out a timeline of dates and events covered during that period. Each event is then covered in a sub-section, which bullet points things that happened in history before and after the event being discussed. To achieve greater understanding with a minimum of words, diagrams are provided which detail how the event came to pass (using early humans as an example: "Foraging lifestyles rely on hunting/gathering" led to "Humans develop an intimate knowledge of animal and plant species" led to "Beliefs and practices emphasizing connectedness and communication start to develop" resulting in "The first examples of art, such as the cave paintings of Altamira, appear").
The book is an easy read, giving just enough information to understand without overloading you with every little fact. Sub-sections are usually no more than a few pages, enabling the reader to be able to set the book down and easily pick it back up at a later time. The author also does a good job staying in the middle and not choosing sides during discussions on religion and political systems.
I alternate between my Kindle Fire and Paperwhite. It was impossible to read the timelines on the Paperwhite; even though the Fire is only slightly bigger, it was enough to overcome the fine print, and I found I enjoyed the colored pictures and diagrams on the Fire as opposed to the black-and-white displays on the Paperwhite.
Basically, this is a good reference book that will give you an interesting overview on major events in history.
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Popular Highlights in this book
“The value of history is that it teaches us what man has done and thus what man is.”Highlighted by 300 Kindle readers- The first writing was not invented until quite late in the human story—about 5,000 years ago.Highlighted by 264 Kindle readers
- Mesopotamia, which means “between two rivers,” lies between the Euphrates and the Tigris, and it is considered to be the first human civilization ever.Highlighted by 199 Kindle readers
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From the Publisher
The History Book
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| Customer Reviews |
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| Price | $14.69 | $19.60 | $19.93 | $24.48 |
| Ebook Available | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Pages | 352 | 336 | 336 | 336 |
About the author
"The History Book" Easy-to-Read Overview of Many Foundations to Modern Society Presented in an Aesthetically Pleasing Format
It would be misleading to state that this book is anything more than an abbreviated over view of history, so I will refrain from hyberbole. DK specializes in beautiful, eye-catching illustrations and publication layout design that is visually stunning and adept at gaining reader interest - whether young or old. The History Book is a splendid visual reference that works best for readers capable of reading at, say, at least the seventh grade (middle school) level and older. Although it is shown to have 352 pages of content, the well-organized and illustrated layout results in a publication that has somewhat less content than most books of such length --- that is not a criticism, though, because the artistic layout is much appreciated by me and, I trust, by most readers. To help you come to grips with what I am trying to explain, I am attaching some screen shots I snapped. Unlike one other DK book I reviewed, this reference has a layout and presentation that works quite well when viewing from my free Kindle app on my desktop computer and on my Mini iPad. I do wish more material had been included, but the material that is provided is good reading and well-prepared. Four stars out of five.
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on October 12, 2016
- Reviewed in the United States on December 2, 2018
- Reviewed in the United States on May 12, 2021
- Reviewed in the United States on May 14, 2021
- Reviewed in the United States on January 11, 2017
- Reviewed in the United States on November 10, 2016
Top reviews from other countries
- The shoes are good,but they are not for working outside because they are not waterproof.Reviewed in Germany on January 22, 2025
Good quality
- Rick ClarkReviewed in Canada on April 28, 2024
Perfect read for the armchair historian.
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