استفدت منه كثيرا ممتع جدا

A very short history of roughly 2 billion years, and a very recent history covering events upto a century ago, this is a sufficiently detailed attempt at capturing the salient moments in human history in 400 odd pages.

The fact that it is written by the father of science fiction, HG Wells, heightens the reader's awareness of how absurd several human actions in the last few centuries have been, a realization heightened by the privilege of hindsight.

It's interesting to observe that a book almost 100 years old, written after the most devastating war of that time, holds lessons learnt by first hand experience, on nationalism and globalism that would come in handy today to prevent history from repeating itself.

اسم الكتاب : موجز تاريخ العالم
الكاتب : هربرت جورج ويلز
التصنيف : تاريخ
عدد الصفحات : ٤٢٩
تقييمي : ٣،٥/٥

نبذة عن الكتاب :
كان من الأنسب تسمية الكتاب ( موجز تاريخ اوروبا ) و ذلك نظرا الى ان الكاتب صب تركيزه في التاريخ الاوروبي مع بعض النظر باستحياء لتاريخ الامم الاخرى ، الكتاب ليس كما يوحي اسمه فلا مجال سرد تاريخ العالم حتى و ان كان موجز في كتاب واحد من القطع المتوسطة و ذات خطوط كبيرة الحجم ، فحتى تاريخ اوروبا الذي نال نصيب الاسد في هذا الكتاب لم يغطي جميع الاحداث و التغيرات و الشخصيات و الاختراعات و غيرها من مجالات الحياة ، فاغلب الاحداث تقتصر في تاريخ الحروب الاوروبية و الفتوحات كما سماها الكاتب ، في المجمل الكتاب ممتع و سلس قد يكون مقدمة لدراسة التاريخ بشكل اشمل .
#القراءة_إكسير_العقل

first published in 1922. It is a condensed version of his earlier work, The Outline of History (1920), designed to make history more accessible to a broader audience.

Wells wrote the book as a response to the destruction of World War I, hoping a global historical perspective would promote peace and understanding.

“Father of Science Fiction” – Along with Jules Verne and Mary Shelley, Wells is considered one of the founders of modern sci-fi.

Note:

Prehistoric Human Evolution:

The Paleolithic Age (Old Stone Age) and the first tools.
The Neolithic Age (New Stone Age) and the Agricultural Revolution.

Early Civilizations

The rise of river valley civilizations (Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus Valley, and China).
The development of writing, governance, and early cities.
The Bronze Age and the spread of trade and empires.

Classical Antiquity

The Persian, Greek, and Roman civilizations.
The birth of philosophy, democracy, and major world religions.
The decline of the Roman Empire and the rise of Christianity.

The Middle Ages (Medieval Period)

The fragmentation of Europe and the rise of feudalism.
The expansion of Islam and the Crusades.
The Mongol invasions and the growth of trade networks.

The Renaissance and the Age of Exploration

The revival of science, art, and humanism in Europe.
The Age of Discovery and European colonial expansion.

The Modern Era

The Reformation and the Scientific Revolution.
The Enlightenment and the rise of democratic ideas.
The Industrial Revolution and its impact on society.

World wars.

كم هو جميل أن تتصفح ذاكرة الأرض !

One may be tempted to consider a history book first published in 1922 and republished in 1944 irrelevant in 2018, yet nothing could be further from the truth.

HG Wells' charming and well paced style, honed by his lifetime of writing fantastical fiction, hits a sweet spot between that of a twinkly eyed scholar, a raging polemicist and good old fashioned Victorian adventurer.

An inspiring and exciting book which provides a neat overview of ancient history (about half the book is dedicated to the rise of civilisations in the years BC) and sets the stage nicely for the dawning of our "modern" era (i.e. from about the 16th century onwards).

The text contains just enough moral and political observations to make it an interesting body of work for those interested in political writing (HG Wells falls firmly into the liberal Fabian school of British socialism), but not so many to make it useless to someone interested in reading a serious and objective history. What work of history isn't a work of political writing anyway?

I would recommend this very strongly to the casual reader, wishing to engross themselves in an epic macrohistory of world events, but finds the academic depth and endless lengths of most publications in this field daunting and off-putting.

Book Review by Cari Mayhew. Rating 7/10.

Best known for his classic fiction, HG Wells also wrote a non-fiction book summarising the history of the world, going from the history of the solar system, right up to the date the book was published in 1922.

As I hoped, the book often reads like a novel, with 67 distinct sections, each like a mini story. In order to fit the history of the whole world into one book, by nature the storytelling ranges from nice and rapid, to a little too rapid. I found it rather like a catalog of numerous interesting little nuggets of information. Despite covering events from all over the world, the topics often flow seamlessly from one topic to the next. Due to so many overlapping topics, this history of the world isn't told in a linear purely chronological pattern, but has to go backwards a little, now and again.

At various times throughout, the stories are gripping and Wells successfully brings history to life. I particularly liked the various sections on religious leaders. Appropriately, Wells tackles religion as would any unbiased historian-become storyteller. I also enjoyed the beginning, where Wells paints a crystal clear picture of our solar system and the vast empty space that our dramas are within. His description of our galaxy sounds nothing short of beautiful.

The book was meant to be predominantly factual, but Wells did include a substantial amount of speculation and opinion. This does not distract from the storyline, but adds value in generating the concepts of the time periods.

It covers progress and prosperity as much as carnage and decimation, and provides good explanations of everything it covers. (Although it would benefit from more illustrations). At times it feels detail heavy but also gives the reader a feel for each age - the book is not limited to which country went to war with which country and when, but also examines changes in ways of thinking through the ages. Including the Ancient Greek philosophers, Arabian progress in maths and science, the advent of experimental science, and the development of political and social ideas in Wells’ time.

I was reassured to learn that despite not studying the history of the world in its entirety in school, I was already familiar with much of the book’s content. Having said that, there were also topics where I really felt I was learning something. I read Wells’ opinion on why the Roman Empire fell, and how the industrial revolution was not merely a revolution in machinery, but rather a revolution in how people conducted their everyday lives. There were also some important figures from history described that were never mentioned in my school days, particularly Charlemagne and Roger Bacon.
Towards the end of the book, Wells correctly predicts another war like that of the Great War.

However his final message was one of faith and hope in humanity’s progress.
With such a huge scope, Wells must have struggled with deciding what topics to include and what to exclude. I thought he ought to have included a touch more detail on Ancient Egypt, and on the causes of the Great War (World War 1). As a British person myself I would have liked to have seen more on British history.

Likewise, if the book were written now rather than 1922 I began to speculate on what he would and wouldn’t have included. I imagine there would certainly be a section on World War 2, rockets into space, the internet, and 9/11. He would have provided an excellently conducted section on how humans are destroying the planet.

One of the beauties of this book has to be its availability. If you type “short history of the world” into Google, the free PDF of this book takes up much of the first 2 pages of results. If you’re sketchy on world history, this book will fill in the main blanks, and is worth a read if this is your aim, especially if you wish to do so quickly. The fact that it’s split up into so many succinct sections also means that you can pick up and put down the book as often as opportunity allows. It also works well as reference book, as it does not need to be read from cover to cover in order to look up one particular event or time period.

In summary, this book would be a welcome addition to bookshelf (or ebook library) of the general non-fiction fan or historian.

Check out more of my reviews on www.bookblogbycari.com

الحضارة ليست حكراً على أمة معنية
أهم نقطة بالكتاب هي ذكر حضارات بشكل منسق وبالاعوام

এই বইটাকে দুই ভাগে ভাগ করা যায়। প্রথমদিকে লেখক পৃথিবীর সৃষ্টি, প্রাণের সৃষ্টি এগুলো নিয়ে একটু আলোচনা করেছেন। এরপর থেকে ধীরে ধীরে মানুষের আবির্ভাব ও বর্তমান অবস্থায় আসাকে তুলে ধরেছেন।
নামই সংক্ষিপ্ত ইতিহাস তাই বিস্তৃত আলোচনা পাওয়া যাবে না এখানে। কিন্তু পড়তে ভালো লাগে।

অনুবাদ বেশ চলনসই।

A brief, but informative speed run through the world’s history. I was annoyed with the first several chapters of the book though, with theories/interpretations that felt a bit too anthropomorphised (also why does he hate reptiles?). Other than that, it was quite a captivating read.

A short history of the world by the man who wrote The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds. I'll not spoil it for you by telling you how it ends. It starts with the birth of the planet, moves on to the emergence of life, then the more complex lifeforms like plants and fishies on up to the dinosaurs. Mentions many climactic upheavals, but no giant meteor. Then mammals and protohumans and Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons until finally Homo Sapiens Sapiens. About 4.5 billions years are covered in about 100 pages. Then recorded history starts.

And a short history it is. Centuries and entire empires are covered in a few paragraphs, but some eras get a great deal more attention. The 6th century B.C. is particularly covered in depth. But everything must keep moving, and the whole world comes under view. The Chinese and Indian civilizations are not forgotten. Brevity keeps any one person or group from getting too much ink, and we blur on ahead to the present time, 1922.

It's really a great book that hits all the highlights of world history without going into much detail about any of them. It is what it claims to be, a short history, and Wells often mentions that there is not enough time to speak more on any one subject. It is a layman's history and really easy to read, everything rendered down to its simplest form. Wells covers the Earth from beginning to end, or at least until 1922, and he gives us a nice polemic on how the world is on the precipice of true greatness due to the inevitability of Socialism and all its attached wonders. This edition is lengthened by H.G. Wells' son G.P. Wells, who brings the work up to the current time, 1964.

One of the best history books I've ever read.

This was an interesting read - more like a journalistic piece than a history book. The early part of the book was the most interesting and at least slightly objective. The latter part descends into propaganda for Well's own views on the future of the post WWI world and he may be the only socialist that sees the USA as an exemplar. That at least was in interesting perspective.