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girgir81's review against another edition
2.0
Moderately interesting. A bit disappointing at the same time.
I had expected a few more “recent history” stories, a lot more female-led decisions and a few more cheerful decisions.
It was concise and fast though, summarizing each decision quite well.
After finishing the book and reflecting on its content, I found it very depressing with around 80% of the decisions involving war, apartheid, racism and just plain ugly greed. The remaining measly 20% celebrated whatever scientific discoveries and technological advancements the human race could muster.
I am sure there have been a lot more “positive” decisions made along the way and perhaps it would have been a good choice to have 2 editions of this book categorized under “distant history” and “recent history”?
Anyway, below is a list of the decisions i enjoyed reading about the most:
- Inventing the internet
- Steve Jobs’ return to apple
- Inventing the Gutenberg printing press
- Rosa Parks refusing to stand up
I had expected a few more “recent history” stories, a lot more female-led decisions and a few more cheerful decisions.
It was concise and fast though, summarizing each decision quite well.
After finishing the book and reflecting on its content, I found it very depressing with around 80% of the decisions involving war, apartheid, racism and just plain ugly greed. The remaining measly 20% celebrated whatever scientific discoveries and technological advancements the human race could muster.
I am sure there have been a lot more “positive” decisions made along the way and perhaps it would have been a good choice to have 2 editions of this book categorized under “distant history” and “recent history”?
Anyway, below is a list of the decisions i enjoyed reading about the most:
- Inventing the internet
- Steve Jobs’ return to apple
- Inventing the Gutenberg printing press
- Rosa Parks refusing to stand up
brigitakrista's review against another edition
4.0
It’s an insightful book that’s great for beginners who are interested in history, such as myself. It provides a general overview of the timeline of ancient and modern history, despite its biases on European and American history. I don’t think this is the bible for history; the entries made here should provoke the reader to do more digging and research with other sources.
The writing and analysis of the early decisions are splendid and detailed, but once you get to the middle and end of the book, the writing gets sloppier and the analysis becomes more shallow and brief. Also, some decisions don’t seem to be that great, considering the early-established parameter of large, impactful consequences. How is Apple/Steve Jobs included in this when the consequences aren’t that grand compared to other modern business decisions? (Nestlé, which helps change how babies eat and consume nutrition, comes to mind.)
If you’re looking for a simple, uncomplicated introductory book to history, this book is for you.
The writing and analysis of the early decisions are splendid and detailed, but once you get to the middle and end of the book, the writing gets sloppier and the analysis becomes more shallow and brief. Also, some decisions don’t seem to be that great, considering the early-established parameter of large, impactful consequences. How is Apple/Steve Jobs included in this when the consequences aren’t that grand compared to other modern business decisions? (Nestlé, which helps change how babies eat and consume nutrition, comes to mind.)
If you’re looking for a simple, uncomplicated introductory book to history, this book is for you.
emma_m's review
4.0
This book was pretty great for helping you learn things about history and get a broad over view. It was good for reading in small chunks and gave me a few topics to look into in more detail. There was a large focus on things that happened in european countries like france and england despite there being other topics that may have been more influential that could have been covered.
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