A Short History of the World

By: Christopher Lascelles

Narrated by: Guy Bethell

There is an increasing realization that our knowledge of world history - and how it all fits together - is far from perfect. Here, Christopher Lascelles aims to fill the big gaps in our historical knowledge with a book that is easy to follow and assumes little prior knowledge of past events. He doesn't aim to come up with groundbreaking new theories on why things occurred but rather gives a broad overview of the generally accepted version of events so that nonhistorians will feel less ignorant when discussing the past.

While this book explores world history from the big bang to the present day, it principally covers key people, events, and empires since the dawn of the first civilizations in and around 3500 BC. Epic in scope but refreshingly concise, A Short History of the World is an excellent place to start to bring your historical knowledge up to scratch.

©2011 Christopher Lascelles (P)2016 Tantor

Critic reviews

"A clearly written, remarkably comprehensive guide to the greatest story on Earth - man's journey from the earliest times to the modern day. Highly recommended." (Dan Jones, author of The Plantagenets: The Kings Who Made England)

"All of history in a little over seven hours? Christopher Lascelles's gem of compression, elegantly read by Guy Bethell in what sounds like the voice of Father Time himself, is like a fresh coat of paint in a badly lit room." ( AudioFile)

The world's war history gets highlighted

When wars are highlighted, the book becomes depressing. Some will say that this is reality, but there was also an under emphasizing of thought movements that shaped the issues. What of cultural forces, revolutionizing technologies and the advancements in trade. This is a good book for a historical overview, but its subjects are unbalanced.

Informative, but a little out of date

There were some fact in here that have since become debunked, but there is still a lot in here that it's worth the breezy read. I would only recommend this book if you're someone who already has an interest in big history an has consumed other books on this topic already.

excellent review

excellent review parts i have questions but overall i enjoyed the book i do recommend it

My new bedtime story

This book is absolutely perfect for falling asleep. It's interesting enough to keep coming back, but it doesn't say anything new, so you can check out any time and won't miss much. Narrator had a soothing voice very appropriate for content of the book. I'll listen to this again from the beginning tonight!

Concise history

Overall, quite good. I wanted a bite sized version and got that. Could have done w/o the global warming commentary at the end, but that movement is where we are in our short segment of history.