Name: A little history of the world
ISBN: 9780300108835

A little history of the world

In 1935, with a doctorate in art history and no prospect of a job, the 26-year-old Ernst Gombrich was invited by a publishing acquaintance to attempt a history of the world for younger readers. Amazingly, he completed the task in an intense six weeks, and Eine kurze Weltgeschichte für junge Leser was published in Vienna to immediate success, and is now available in seventeen languages across the world. Toward the end of his long life, Gombrich embarked upon a revision and, at last, an English translation. A Little History of the World presents his lively and involving history to English-language readers for the first time. Superbly designed and freshly illustrated, this is a book to be savored and collected. In forty concise chapters, Gombrich tells the story of man from the stone age to the atomic bomb. In between emerges a colorful picture of wars and conquests, grand works of art, and the spread and limitations of science. This is a text dominated not by dates and facts, but by the sweep of mankind’s experience across the centuries, a guide to humanity’s achievements and an acute witness to its frailties. The product of a generous and humane sensibility, this timeless account makes intelligible the full span of human history.

What Hacker News says

ybbondMay 2023

A Little History of the World by Ernst Gombrich, is the best history book that also cover religion that I ever read.

It covers the surface od reasonings, dark history, the problems

thread

mullsorkDec 2016

These are the ones I read this year that I really loved:

Genghis Khan https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/93426.Genghis_Khan_and_t...

Mistakes were made (but not by me) https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/522525.Mistakes_Were_Mad...

Sapiens - a brief history of humankind https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23692271-sapiens

A little history of the world https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61505.A_Little_History_o...

That last one I just finished and look forward to re-reading real soon. It's written by a German and from a European point of view.

A few other good ones but not top of my list of recommendations:

The church of fear - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17201748-the-church-of-f...

A brief history of time - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3869.A_Brief_History_of_...

Looks who's back - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17289087-look-who-s-back

thread

cjuSep 2013

A book idea : "A Little History of the World" by Ernst Gombrich, the author of "The Story of Art". The book is aimed at children ("für junge Leser" in original title) but not too much and may let him discover new topic of interest (History in general or a specific period/civilisation).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Little_History_of_the_World

thread

motxiloDec 2011

"A little history of the world" by E.H. Gombrich. I've never been too enthusiastic about History in general, but I couldn't put this book down until finished.

thread

DananjayaDec 2010

"A Little History Of The World" by E.H Gombrich http://www.amazon.com/Little-History-World-H-Gombrich/dp/030...

From a long time I wanted to dig deeper in to the subject of human history starting from the undocumented prehistoric era. But the plethora of information available in the internet often bewilders me and I find my self thinking where to start. This book--mind you first printed in 1936--describes the story of humans from the stone age to atomic age in 40 concise chapters. It's like a reading a fiction (a good one..). This is the most comprehensive span of the human history and the most colorful and vivid account of it.. (at least comparing the history books I've read..)

thread

ErrantXMay 2010

Heh, my fault - I simplified it a little forgetting this is HN :D

To answer your point - the answer is yes, and no.

Ultimately it is next to impossible to be sure (assuming we can take the critical rather than the religious view of the history) when/where/how Judaism appeared.

At the time pretty much every country had their own God or gods and considered them superior to the others (though, ironically, appear to have been accepting of the other gods - just considered them inferior). General thinking simply says that at that time one particular country believed in one God - they were imprisoned for the Babylonians for a long while but the religion survived very devoutly.

I'm not sure what the common thinking is about why Judaism survived beyond that and grew to be so important.

Then, yes, Judaism influenced or started pretty much all of the modern religions.

EDIT: I find the birth of religions a fascinating subject, but I'm still churning through the birth/development of Christianity so not back to Judaism yet. All my knowledge above comes from a wonderful book called "A Little History of the World" which touches on the subject briefly.

thread