Millennium: A History of the Last Thousand Years

even if they are in AP history, as evidenced by the previous 3 reviewers. For anyone else who wants a comprehensive yet readable overview of world history (and this really is WORLD history), this is an excellent starting place. And this is not a dry retelling of events. There are not a lot of details and footnotes. What the author does is transmit a wisdom and worldview (for example, that at the start of the previous millennium, Europe was a mere "promontory of Asia") for which he clearly has a gift and which I had not found in most other writers. Yet he manages to enhance our perceptions of other cultures without disparaging our own. This is an illuminating history book.

Felipe Fernandez-Armesto is a national treasure of the British isles. He is one historian-thinker who emerges as non-partisan and straight-forward. While I thoroughly enjoy the works of Paul Johnson and have praised Daniel Boorstin to the skies, there is something magisterial about the author's works. The level of scholarship combines with his always intriguing conclusions and suppositions. What I like best about this trio is their apparent affinity for describing long arches of history which is not an easy task.Throughout the book the author asks us to project ourselves 10,000 years in the future and imagine what a galactic museum would display as a representation of the past millenium. He eschews such names as "Industrial Revolution" or "Protestant Reformation" or "Dark Ages" because these are not truly (to him) historical events but the name given to a series of happenings. He makes the argument that influences from one civilization to another tend to ebb and flow and it is only in hindsight that one can see the writing on the wall. He has high praise for the Chinese Empire, it's culture and traditions. He demonstrates (as does Boorstin in THE DISCOVERERS) that the emergence of Western Europe as a dominating force was something totally unforseen, particularly considering the dominance of China and the Muslim world. Although it conquered the globe, to Fernandez this was only a temporary blot in the (apparent) onward march of the Pacific Rim. What is amazing (and controversial) is his assertion that despite the overwhelming pervasiveness of the United States in almost every measurable category, the pendelum has begun to swing back. He demonstrates his thesis not through battles and politics but through the everyday lives of the people since these reflect the true cultural inputs. The writing is beautiful - even poetic - and the illustrations that accompany the text are an added bonus. This book is a labor of love. I am not at all certain I agree with all of the author's assumptions but then what kind of historian would he be if I did?

This is a very good book to read. "Millennium: A History of the Last Thousand Years," is richly detailed and superbly written. Moreover, prize-winning author Felipe Fernández-Armesto is both a "ferociously intelligent scholar" and an immensely successful "popular historian." To this end, this book is rare because you may never look at history the same after reading it. Fernández-Armesto looks at the millennium from an imaginary distance and creates spectacular unifying themes. In order to do so, he breaks the 1,000 years into five basic sections; Part One - The Springs of Initiative;Some Civilizations a Thousand Years Ago; Part Two - The Springs Uncoiled;The Reach of Conquest; Part Three - The Atlantic Crisis;The Redistribution of World Resources; Part Four - The Twist of Initiative;The Decline of Confidence and the Erosion of Empires; and Part Five - The Pacific Challenge;Oriental Resilience and Western Culture. The narrative explores and creatively explains the historical importance of Christendom, Islam, China, Imperialism, Colonization, Industrialization, Commerce, Militant tendencies, and Technology. The text also has dozens of wonderful pictures and drawings to enhance the narrative. The author covers a lot of ground but in doing so he has created an enduring book. Bert Ruiz

I highly recommend this book to anyone who has a deep love of history. In clear witty prose the author disects the history of the last thousand years. Special attention is paid to the Islamic and Chinese cultures; not in a faux pc "multi-cultural" sense, but as important forces in world history and rivals of the West. A great deal of rubbish has been written in the guise of world history: this book demonstrates that an author doesn't have to be a fool to tackle such a task.

The last few years have seen a flood of millennium-related books, ranging from the prophets of Y2K doom (or astronomical doom) to those of a new Eden. Admidst the more numerous books of a hysterical nature there have been a few more serious books that have attempted to put the events and changes of the last millenium in historical perspective, and to try and show how today's world evolved from its past. I am an amateur reader of history, and the one conceptual difficulty I always have in reading history is seeing how events in different parts of the globe relate to one another in time. This is one area where "Millenium" excels. The author's command of history, and his abilty to smoothly move the narration through place and time creates, for the reader, a unified picture of the changes of a thousand years. No small trick.As Fernandez-Armesto says in his preface, his aim is to "see the millennium from an imaginary distence...with unifying themes" and "to savor the differences from place to place and from time to time..." And so he does, with impressive skill. The resultant book is both scholarly and fascinating; on nearly every page you can find some previously unknown gem of art or history or technology. You may not agree with the author's pronouncements for the future (as found in the epilogue) or his moral positions regarding present-day Western democracies, or even his economic analyses, but you cannot help but be impressed by his mastery of history, and you may find yourself swayed by the historical evidence he provides. A gem of a book, not to be missed.