The History Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained

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.

Any person who wants to know the world history must read this. It succeeds in achieving its goal in the book title. It succinctly tells what we human beings have done throughout their time, across various places on the globe. You can even get more, if you read it along with a timetable of history (I have a book like this), or prepare your own one when reading it (which is what I did). You can visualise more on what really happened across the world at any point of history, and it’s subsequent impact.

Good read it's just that in reading all the way to the end thru the index and glossary Etc I realized that the numbers of the pages totally erratic in the beginning

I'm not a history major, nor am i someone who wants to dive deep in history of a particular period. But i've had so many questions, and lots of dots that I didn't know how to connects. This book was the answer. Concise and on point, this book helped me pretty much connect all the dots. Absolutely the best history books for those who are mostly interested in the big picture. I've purchased 4 more books in the series (Sociology, Psychology, Philosophy, and religions book). They're all awesome books and are helping me fill all my knowledge gaps.

Bought this for my son who will be using it for grade 10 history next school year. What a beautiful book! Also, it arrived in perfect condition, which doesn’t always happen when you buy books on here…can’t wait to start reading it with him!

I love these DK history books. They're easy reads of what adults should have learned long ago or refreshers on what we'd forgotten not long after we tested on the units in school. I've read several of them, gaining information, understanding and occasional insights with pieces of info that make sense of areas I never quite understood.

Good as a quick reference book; but does not read easily. A lot of repeating of the same fact several times. Also, beware of personal interpretation of the authors, that are a reflection of popular media reporting at the time for representation of what they state took place, which is usually a liberal view of the situation.

Excelente herramienta de apoyo para estudio. Bien gráfico con fotos y muy dinámico para leerlo.

I like this series book a loot. It is well written .

Ich habe vor langer Zeit mal Geschichte studiert und kenne mich daher in der Thematik sicher gut aus, trotzdem habe ich mit diesem tollen Buch einiges dazu gelernt. Vor allem ist das History Book hervorragend, um sich einen Überblick von der Frühgeschichte bis zur Neuzeit zu verschaffen. Zusammenhänge werden deutlich und man wird angeregt, sich mit einzelnen historischen Epochen näher zu beschäftigen. Das Buch stammt aus einem Verlag, der bekannt ist für seine reich illustrierten Reiseführer ist. Und genau das ist auch dieses Buch, ein Reiseführer durch die Geschichte. Sehr flüssig geschrieben, mit Fotos, Illustrationen und Zitaten aufgelockert. Gerade für Menschen, die sich erstmals mit der Historie befassen willen, ideal. Für deutsche Leser mit Schulenglisch-Kenntnissen ist das Buch sehr gut verständlich und gut geeignet, um die Sprachkenntnisse wieder zu üben. Wegen der farbigen Fotos und der großformatigen Illustrationen ist das Buch am besten auf einem Tablet mit der Kindle-App zu lesen. Und für den Preis ist das Buch ein echtes Schnäppchen.

Excellent research aid. Easy to read. Arrived intact as advertised.

Wonderfully delivered by Amazon! This is a really well made book and contains almost all small and big historical events. Loads of pictures and very informative as well. Very helpful for anyone wishing to know history.

The publisher DK has earned my trust over many purchases from children’s educational books to cookery etc and this book is another extremely well-laid-out, highly informative yet user-friendly book. As a quality introduction / overview of history it is excellent. As with any book on such a broad topic the secret is in the editing and this book offers a good summary of main historic events without becoming bogged down in excessive detail. As an introduction to history or a basic grounding in ‘how we got to where we are’ I highly recommend it. I bought it for myself to fill some gaps in my now rusty knowledge of history and I’m thoroughly enjoying it - it’s so well formatted into. Ite-sized chapters that enjoyment is easy. I’m middle-aged but it’s be similarly approachable and engaging for younger readers from about 11yrs up. My two teenage sons have commented favourably about it too.