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dithorba's review against another edition
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.0
I think this book is okay. It certainly is ambitious but there are a number of assessments that make it clear the author has a mostly workable laymen understanding of many historical periods, and uttterly underdeveloped in others.
It also quotes and takes for granted the conclusion of Jared Diamond (my beloathed) so that is an immediate -1 star.
It also quotes and takes for granted the conclusion of Jared Diamond (my beloathed) so that is an immediate -1 star.
bb2328's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
An important read for anyone wanting to understand the arcs of history.
rachelwalexander's review
3.0
For being a history of "the world," this was told almost entirely from a western perspective, with almost more pages devoted to the nuances of the French Revolution than to the entirety of China over 10,000+ years of human history. As with nearly everything focused on class analysis, I found discussions about the role of race frustratingly lacking or shallow. So with those caveats, this is a solid and comprehensive leftist history of Europe and to some degree the U.S.
misterfix's review against another edition
Although this is a fantastic book I decided to shelve it as a reference book vs a book I want to read at present.
cook_memorial_public_library's review against another edition
4.0
A 2017 staff favorite recommended by Rob. Check our catalog: https://encore.cooklib.org/iii/encore/search/C__Speople%27s%20history%20of%20the%20world%20harman__Orightresult__U?lang=eng&suite=gold
drbird's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
2.0
I’m a fan of history from the people’s perspective. Just wished those people weren’t mostly European. Seems like a chunk of history is missing and that this is basically a world history that Europeans would construct. It’s one thing to say that the West comes to dominate global events after the Colombian Exchange but this book just straight up can’t find a way to discuss India, countries of Africa, or China or the Mongols with anything more than a few pages of lip service.