World History for Dummies |
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| Title: | World History for Dummies |
| Author: | Peter Haugen |
| Publisher: | IDG Books |
| Type: | Book / Paperback |
| Publication Date: | 15 March, 2001 |
| ISBN / ISBN-13: | 0764552422 / 9780764552427 |
| List Price: | $19.99 |
| You Save: | $19.98 |
| Amazon Price: | $0.01 (via Amazon marketplace seller) |
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Editorial Review / Publisher's Information:
Product Description
If history scares you or bores you silly, that's probably because a teacher once required you to memorize a bunch of dates – when things like the Magna Carta and the Versailles Treaty were signed, for example. Admittedly, dates are a big part of history, but only because historical events happened in a certain order. If Columbus hadn't sailed the ocean blue in fourteen hundred and ninety-two, the Mayflower Pilgrims might not have looked west for a place to practice their Puritan religion almost 130 years later. The eventual outcome? No day-after-Thanksgiving mob scenes at the mall. So you may be asking, "How can a 330-page book cover the complete history of the world?" The short answer is that it can't. To cover thousands of years in one book would be impossible. What is possible is a skimming of the surface of world history, which is what you'll find in World History For Dummies. This book provides a fun and friendly overview of the history of the world, providing glimpses into the major players and events that have made the world what it is today. Because the history of the world is such a grand topic, a comprehensive list of what you'll find in World History For Dummies would be almost as long as the book itself. So here are a few highlights to pique your interest: Discover how to look at history from the historian's perspective Becoming civilized: The invention of writing and art Scientific developments that revolutionized the world Building empires: From Rome to Russia War and peace (no, not the Tolstoy novel) The development of the world's religions Overviews of the essential historical documents that you must know – from the Bible to the Bill of Rights Anyone with at least a passing interest in history can find value in World History For Dummies – whether you're a student or a teacher in need of a broad historical overview, a history buff looking for new fascinating areas of interest, or if you just want to be the best darned Trivial Pursuit player in your neighborhood!
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Customer Reviews:
• Good Review..a Little Too Pc
13 November, 2007
As a lover of History, I got this book to help ensure that if I had any obvious holes in my general World History knowledge, that I could find them out and patch them up.
I'm still going through the book, but I feel I have enough information thus far to give a decent review. It looks to have most of the essentials of a nice little Western Civ/World History survey class. Which is pretty much what I was looking for. One must understand that cramming the HISTORY OF THE ENTIRE WORLD into a single volume book is daunting, and if the book is a "For Dummies" book, it's impossible. But, all things considered, the author did a fine job. I recommend this book, but I'd get it used and cheaper (I paid $5 for my like-new copy, shipping included, right here on Amazon).
My complaints? Not many. The only thing I can complain about is what is very common in, shall we say, Liberal Arts books these days. That, of course, is revisionist (the dreaded) "PC" history.
Look, I understand that decades ago Americans were taught a very rose-tinted version of American and World History. No one denies this. As a matter of fact, show me a society back then that gave an entirely unbiased historical account of their country and I'll eat my hat.
My problem, however, is that for the past decade or two there has been a movement to counter this in such a radical way that historians now present most European/Christian/(White people in general) very negatively, in relation to other peoples of the world. Again, I understand and sympathize that you are trying to counter earlier viewpoints. The problem is that children today are ONLY getting this radical backlash.
Ignore the PC rhetoric and just use the book for what it is: a survey.
- Amazon Customer Review
• Chaotic
05 December, 2007
I couldn't go past 100 pages. What I read was written in a very disorganized way. It keeps going back and forward in time which makes it very difficult to follow. Then it will go through hundreds of years in a paragraph while devoting a lot more text to explain random details. Overall, I found it pretty messy and hard to read.
- Amazon Customer Review
• Good, But Flawed
01 February, 2009
It's a very interesting read, good style and decent enough coverage of the topic. As good as most of the Dummies series. That said, a few flaws:
- It focuses very heavily on military forces and religion. You'd expect that to a degree, as it tends to be the moving and shaking forces of history. But I'd like to have seen some other aspects addressed a little more in depth. Language and language development. Musical development. Literature. Etc.
- The references to other chapters ARE very annoying. You end up taking little side ventures and searching new chapters for where it's located. About halfway through the book I just came to ignore those suggestions.
- Coverage is spotty. You're left to assume that cultures didn't progress or contribute to world events for large gaps of time. I may be wrong, but I don't remember the Australian continent even mentioned.
- The organization doesn't always make sense. He will describe the progress of civilization across multiple cultures in the same timeframe for a chapter or two, then make a departure and cover it topically. Or focus on Europe and get back to Asian cultures afterward.
Still, condensing all of known history to a couple hundred pages is NOT an easy task - one might say impossible. I thoroughly enjoyed the read; just think it could use a bit more tweaking.
- Amazon Customer Review
• This Is Not A Computer/tech Book
01 May, 2008
Amazon has listed "World History for Dummies" as a computer/tech book. This is obviously a mistake. It is a history book.
- Amazon Customer Review
• Better This Than Typical High School Text
29 January, 2010
This book is as accurate/more accurate than the majority of high school texts we looked at, it's cheap, it's small, you can underline and write in it, it becomes yours so at the end of the course (even if self taught) you have something to take with you.
I participated in a detailed review of potential high school world history texts and found the new versions to be flawed in five ways:
A) they are too big, like 800 pages huge encyclopedia size
B) they can't be written in
C) they have to be turned in at the end of the year
D) they are very expensive, and SURPRISE
E) they are in error in too many details about the history of western civilization.
After going thru these big guys, I had gone out and purchased myself this "World History for Dummies" (WHDummies) to compare. Wow, what a comparative pleasure.
It is written in a communications first style, so the style is focussed on the end result - what does the reader understand !! The big text book approach is to baffle you with sheeps' wool, take ten pages to communicate 4 paragraphs worth of information, charge $125 and intimidate the reader in the process.
How much of the information presented will you remember 3 months later?
By contrast, WHDummies has made a real effort to make the reading easy with highlights, a few cartoons even, some hey 'remember this?' type of notes, etc. And it's actually doggoned accurate.
Any person who read this WHDummies though and made personal notes would have a credible understanding of world history. I wish our schools used this for regular world history, not the AP course, but the regular one and would let the student take the marked up book with him. Accurate, readable.
what more do you need? compared to the options out there - well, this wins!
- Amazon Customer Review
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