The World: A Family History of Humanity

Wonderful book on social history of the world.Book came promptly and even better was the price.Highly recommend for political and history buffs.

The book was delivered on time and well packaged! In fact book was even better than described and I am extremely pleased with this vender and would recommend them to everyone interested in getting quality books at a great price! Thank you for a pleasant transaction!

This world history's unique approach and the author's skill as a writer carries the reader through 1,262 pages. I read it all and it is worthwhile. I just emailed these comments to one of the contacts listed on the author's web site, a good summary of the book's shortcomings: Sir, a magnum opus such as your book, The World: A Family History of Humanity, deserves good editing, indexing, and fact checking. I refer to the First American edition published by Knopf, ISBN 9780525659532 (hardcover). I read your book over several months, finishing it in early August. There were more than a hundred clear copy-editing errors; I do not list any here. There were also places where a good editor could improve your choice of terms or your writing, without changing your preferred writing style. The index lacks needed entries. For example, there is no index entry for Pearl Harbor (page 1044, index page 1292). While the index does contain many place names, the bias--somewhat justified--of the index is toward indexing persons, due to the personal and family focus of your history. However normal standards of indexing should be observed even if it means expending more pages. I saw enough clear factual errors to make me nervous: Pearl Harbor was attacked on 7 December 1941, not 8 December (page 1044). In the Korean War, McArthur did not counterattack with a million American troops. About 327 thousand of his troops were Americans, most were South Koreans, and of course there were contingents from more than 20 other countries (page 1086). Donald Trump was elected President in 2016 not 2019 (page 1246). That error should have been caught by any reviewer familiar with the quadrennial election cycle in the USA. A book as magnificent as this one deserves to be polished and perfected with better editing, indexing, and fact checking. I still recommend buying this book.

Montefiore is a great communicator and a lover of history who is able to transmit that love to the readers. What I most appreciated about this wonderful book is that you learn about the role, many times informal but nevertheless powerful and influential, that female powerful figures played in history behind their formal powerfully husbands, brothers, lovers, or sons nominated as kings, emperors, etc. This in a way that feels realistic and not contrived meaning Montefiore achieves balance between previous historical books and sources focusing more on the male figures and his own additions on how female and family life contributed to historical decisions, without denying or deriding the male protagonists of history, something unfortunately common in recent so called progressist history books where authors less cultivated and less factual than Montefiori, more political motivated and less factually motivated, all the sudden say history was only made by women in exactly the same untrue way that former misogynism authors said it was only made by men. Montefiori gives us the full view: It was made by both! Likewise in the East versus West dichotomy he remains factual not going from previous West all perfect to now East all perfect view. He is balanced and makes history by adding rather than subtracting! Great book

Not finished with the 1262 pages* [not including bibliography] of what I am finding to be fascinating reading. This is not the usual fact filled but dry/boring history book. The author includes interesting and sometimes titillating insight into the personalities of rulers and their family members from the BCs to the present day. Historical country names along with current names as well as practices and beliefs provide meaningful context to historical and present events. If you are interested in stories of intrigue, love, greed, betrayal, conquest, tragedy and triumph buy this book! *What I did not like about the Kindle version is that all footnotes were placed at the end of each chapter so did not provide immediate important context for events and relationships under discussion. Consequently, I now have the hard copy book.

Simon Sebag Montefiore's massive book contains an incredible amount of information. The World certainly appears to be very well researched. This is reflected in the book's extensive details. However, the author's writing is average, and the readability is below average. I do have mixed feelings about giving The World a rating of three stars. While Dr. Montefiore can certainly write well, there were far too many long-winded sentences (which should have been addressed by better editing). What's more, the readability is impacted by quoting other sources. On a positive note, the book contains a tremendous amount of information. Overall, it was quite an effort to get through the book. Three stars seems to be a reasonable rating. The book does use page-specific notes. This is a bit unorthodox, but it seemed to work well for the book. The World does not include a bibliography (which I believe was extremely long). The bibliography was available online, and I'm sure it would have been a great resource--perhaps even enough to warrant a rating of four stars. Unfortunately, the bibliography doesn't appear to be available (Dr. Montefiore's personal website seems to have incorporated into a publisher's website).

Excelente libro y lego en excelentes condiciones, llegó antes de lo esperado, muy contento con mi compra!

The greatest ride through world history. It's not just the depth of detail, but the panache in the presentation. Read the footnotes too; they are truly the cherry on top.

Eigentlich ist es ja Quatsch, nur mal eben die Geschichte der ganzen Welt in einem Buch zu erklären. Aber wenn das so vergnüglich und so kenntnisreich geschieht, macht es nur Spaß! Der Autor hat sich vorgenommen, die Menschheitsgeschichte aus der Sicht der Familien und das heißt natürlich häufig aus der besser dokumentierten Sicht der Herrscherfamilien zu erklären. Im Ergebnis mag man das Buch gar nicht mehr aus der Hand legen. Unentwegt gibt es Gift und Mordschlag, untreue Frauen und Männer, unfähige und brillante Herrscher und das wird eben nicht eurozentrisch sondern für alle Kontinente beschreiben. Zwischendurch, wenn es passt, beschreibt er auch die Geschichte seiner eigenen sephardischen Familie, wie sie aus Spanien vertrieben wurde. Oder, dass in weiten Teilen der Welt die DNA einen gemeinsamen Vorfahren aufweist. Vermutlich Dschingis Khan, der eben nicht nur Krieger anführte sondern auch sonst gut beschäftigt war....

I would've wanted to give more stars but the binding is aweful, I opened it up, carefully as I' d read that pages fall out.. and lo and behold, crack, the binding is coming undone. Shame, now I' m in a dilemma.. to send it back or not. I want to read it but it's falling apart.

This is a massive book and would require some attention to reading it in it’s entirety. It is especially of interest if one is an academic. It is also rewarding giving the detail if offers to the general public. It’s historically enlightening and would be a welcome reading. Don’t be dissuaded by its size. Happy reading! Historically enlightening!