The Mental Floss History of the World

An Irreverent Romp Through Civilization's Best Bits

De: Steve Wiegand, Erik Sass

Narrado por: Johny Heller

About 60,000 years ago, the first Homo sapiens were just beginning their move across the grasslands and up the ladder of civilization. Everything since then, as they say, is history. Just in case you were sleeping in class that day, the geniuses at mental_floss magazine have put together a hilarious (and historically accurate) primer on everything you need to know---and that means the good stuff.

Twelve core chapters of world history tackle everything from civilization's baby steps in the Fertile Crescent to the Not-Really-That-Dark-Unless-You-Lived-in-Europe Ages to A World United by Terror and TV. From the Golden Haemorhoids of the Philistines (punishment from above) to the likely namesake of the cartoon elephant Babar (a Mongol prince) to the most pressing language translation issues facing the menus of today ("carp" vs. "crap"), all of history's most interesting bits have finally been handpicked and roasted to perfection.

©2008 Mental Floss LLC (P)2008 Tantor

Some lessons, some laughter, fun book

This isn't a heavy-duty history-class survey but a refreshing zip tying together many of the events and actions we learned in history classes. It focuses on East as well as West, on Africa, China, Japan and South America as well as Europe and what would become the U.S. The approach covers blocks of centuries. It's neither as silly as the cover suggests, nor as dry as "world history" implies.

I didn't know anything about "Mental Floss" works (still don't) but the sections are leavened with humor and insight, brisk detail and factoids. When I studied history decades ago, classes focused on subsections of history: Western Europe, U.S., English social history, Ancient Mesopotamia, etc. I never got a good sense of how these sections were linked in time. I could not have told you what was going on in much of the rest of the world when Jesus walked, or where the Visigoths, Vandals and Saxons came from.

I recommend this with a smile. Now I'm going to go back to re-reading heavier history with a new perspective....!

Fun jaunt through history

This is a well written and fantastically performed humorous recap of world history. I listen to it at least once a year for some time now.

Quick Romp Review

This book was lively and moved along with a lot of humor and information. It was free of a "right" or "wrong" theme and moved through the phases of various cultures and religions with no biasis.

Just the Thing!

Very entertaining combination of dates and memorable details. I really enjoyed the travel-in-time experiences and listened to some "times" over and over. The authors did a great job of presenting world events sequentially over time and geography.

Historical overdrive

This is an extremely interesting book, but it would be better to read it, rather than listen to it rush by. There are hundreds of facts and episodes, condensed and only slightly analyzed. If you were reading it, it would be possible to pause and let some description sink in; there's no time for that in the audio version.
Two minor irritants. One is the interjection of cutesy statements, in an effort to live up to the title of the book, and to (mistakenly) make it lighter and more interesting. They don't, and are only annoying.

The other is the pronunciation of the word nuclear. The reader persists in saying "nicular", instead - a dreadful mis-pronunciation.

Better viewed than heard - fascinating but ...

Listening to this book instead of reading doesn't allow you to refer back to previous pages. The order, scope, and sequence of the narrative clearly invites you to correlate each section with the ones before it. If I had read this instead, the margins and flyleaves would have been full of notes. Hopefully, the written edition would also come with some sort of visible timeline chart that would help keep you on track.

History as a snack!

What a great and fun way to keep learning. I love trivia and bites of learning. I will get the next one as soon as it hits the lists. Very entertaining and a bit of tongue and cheek to keep it light.

Good, but not good enough

I found the format somewhat confusing, seeming to jump from topic to topic, then revisiting a topic mentioned earlier, etc. That might not be a problem with the print version, but when read from front to back, it is (for me, at least).

The reader is also somewhat problematic. He has plenty of 'melody' to his voice, but a great many idiosyncratic pronunciations, which I find jarring. For instance, 'paraBOla' rather than the usual 'paRAbola'. Also, there are several malapropisms, which could be the fault of the authors, or a misreading by the reader. For instance, 'neuron' when it should be 'neutron' or 'climactic' when it should be 'climatic'. Still, it is worth listening to just for fun.

This was just great!

Some people are very critical and demanding of their entertainment. Perhaps I am not, or maybe this book really was great!

I love the delivery of the narrator and his sarcasm.

Who knows how accurate the historical estimations are? All I know is that it is more than I know, or had the time to research.

It was purely for mental enjoyment and entertainment. If it was all true, then I am smarter then when I first pushed play. If not, then my friends at parties now think I am an idiot for all of the tid-bits I have spewed! Either way, I'm happy with the audiobook!

World History: A Saga in Satire

I really enjoyed it. World history is a weighty and mostly serious subject made sardonic. I liked it! A sort-of satirical flyby through the ages. A dry witted primer on world history, highlighting the events, individuals, societies and civilizations of particular interest and of perhaps greatest impact. The sarcastic take on much of human endeavor was very funny. I am fairly easily amused and found myself frequently laughing out loud. I enjoyed and appreciated the narrator’s take. He did well in his delivery and I felt that he conveyed the authors wit quite nicely. A well told saga in satire!