The Columbia History of the World

The Columbia History of the World one of the few history books (like those of Nicholas Starling) that has impressed me because of its scholarly and "appropriately-detached" approach to certain emotional issues in world history. It does not impose upon the reader traditional biases and subjectivity but rather, it gives the facts as they happened, presents the common perceptions attendant to them, and allows the reader to form his own judgement and draw his own conclusions. There is no also no overbearing ethno-centrism, no unnecessary prejudices, no "good guys" or "bad guys" -- just a clear-flowing, unadulterated presentation of the last thousands of years of human history. I am not an expert of history nor do I claim to be. I am simply a history buff who finds thrill in world history as if it were a David Morrell or Robert Ludlum novel. I have read about four general world history texts (Gombrich, Roberts, Davis, Garraty) and I must say that Columbia will be my all-time favorite.

I had tried to choose my "generic" world histories with the following criteria: - non eurocentric (covering more than Greek & Roman history) - comprehensive (serious attempt to include ancient history) - about a 1000 pages (long enough to get some "meat", but still one book) - authoritative (from an established university; not some quack with an agenda) Garraty's book serves this purpose valiantly. Excellent, detailed summaries with dates supplement the broad narratives in the chapters. An excellent beginning for the journey of understanding our heritage.

Covers an amazing amount of material from the time the earth first started coallescing from space dust all the way through to the 1970's (the edition I have was published then, I'm not sure if it's been updated). The structure is perfect for categorizing political and cultural events to capture the essence of what was happening at a given point in time. It's designed to jump in and out of chapters (very good index, chapter headings, timlines, short sections). Each chapter is written by experts on that time, so you get the sense that you're always hearing from an expert, although each chapter "reads" a little differently.I've been taking it with me traveling for the last 15 years to Japan, Russia, Greece, Italy, Germany. It's a great way to read about what was happening as I've travelled to historical sites.