Timelines of pivotal events help punctuate the narrative structure of this history-in-brief, an engaging, admirably thorough...
A 272-page “back story to the chronicle of humanity.”
Former Guinness Encyclopaedia editor-in-chief Crofton (Walking the Border: A Journey Between Scotland and England, 2014, etc.) and prolific historian Black (History/Exeter Univ.; The Holocaust: History and Memory, 2016, etc.) collaborate on a cheeky concept that surprises with its distilled but generally comprehensive treatment of a vast subject, from the Big Bang to the possible end of the universe. With few exceptions, and some unavoidable biases, this little book delivers on its promise thanks to carefully thought-out summaries by the authors. While the brush strokes are necessarily broad, the book manages to convey a great deal of information in under 300 pages. Though little of this will be new to avid readers of science and history, the book is valuable for its concision in exploring an enormous range of topics. After setting the table with cosmic origins and the emergence of life on Earth, the authors focus on the rise of modern humans and the development of language, writing, technologies (in the most extensive sense), civilization, and cultures. War, religion, the arts, philosophy, economics, law, and the birth of cities and empires each get their due, as do revolutions in the social contract, politics, agriculture, electronics, and information. The contemporary issues of globalization, terrorism, environmental degradation, genocide, genetic engineering, exponential population growth, and gender equality also are condensed to their basic components, all while avoiding the reductive quality of some capsule histories. Scant attention is paid to space travel, as it is more or less in a state of stasis. To close, the authors look ahead with some rather vague future predictions, and they extend the customary grace note of hope.
Timelines of pivotal events help punctuate the narrative structure of this history-in-brief, an engaging, admirably thorough introduction for new readers of history with short attention spans.Pub Date: July 4, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-68177-436-7
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Pegasus
Review Posted Online: May 7, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2017
Unsurprising but perfectly competent and seamlessly of a piece with her Living History (2003). And will Hillary run? The...
Former Secretary of State Clinton tells—well, if not all, at least what she and her “book team” think we ought to know.
If this memoir of diplomatic service lacks the preening self-regard of Henry Kissinger’s and the technocratic certainty of Dean Acheson’s, it has all the requisite evenhandedness: Readers have the sense that there’s not a sentence in it that hasn’t been vetted, measured and adjusted for maximal blandness. The news that has thus far made the rounds has concerned the author’s revelation that the Clintons were cash-strapped on leaving the White House, probably since there’s not enough hanging rope about Benghazi for anyone to get worked up about. (On that current hot-button topic, the index says, mildly, “See Libya.”) The requisite encomia are there, of course: “Losing these fearless public servants in the line of duty was a crushing blow.” So are the crises and Clinton’s careful qualifying: Her memories of the Benghazi affair, she writes, are a blend of her own experience and information gathered in the course of the investigations that followed, “especially the work of the independent review board charged with determining the facts and pulling no punches.” When controversy appears, it is similarly cushioned: Tinhorn dictators are valuable allies, and everyone along the way is described with the usual honorifics and flattering descriptions: “Benazir [Bhutto] wore a shalwar kameez, the national dress of Pakistan, a long, flowing tunic over loose pants that was both practical and attractive, and she covered her hair with lovely scarves.” In short, this is a standard-issue political memoir, with its nods to “adorable students,” “important partners,” the “rich history and culture” of every nation on the planet, and the difficulty of eating and exercising sensibly while logging thousands of hours in flight and in conference rooms.
Unsurprising but perfectly competent and seamlessly of a piece with her Living History (2003). And will Hillary run? The guiding metaphor of the book is the relay race, and there’s a sense that if the torch is handed to her, well….Pub Date: June 10, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4767-5144-3
Page Count: 656
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: June 13, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Despite the whopping length, there's not a wasted word in this superb, swiftly moving narrative, which brings new and...
A great, troubled, and, it seems, overlooked president receives his due from the Pulitzer-winning historian/biographer McCullough (Truman, 1992, etc.).
John Adams, to gauge by the letters and diaries from which McCullough liberally quotes, did not exactly go out of his way to assume a leadership role in the tumultuous years of the American Revolution, though he was always “ambitious to excel.” Neither, however, did he shy from what he perceived to be a divinely inspired historical necessity; he took considerable personal risks in spreading the American colonists’ rebellion across his native Massachusetts. Adams gained an admirable reputation for fearlessness and for devotion not only to his cause but also to his beloved wife Abigail. After the Revolution, though he was quick to yield to the rebellion's military leader, George Washington, part of the reason that the New England states enjoyed influence in a government dominated by Virginians was the force of Adams's character. His lifelong nemesis, who tested that character in many ways, was also one of his greatest friends: Thomas Jefferson, who differed from Adams in almost every important respect. McCullough depicts Jefferson as lazy, a spendthrift, always in debt and always in trouble, whereas Adams never rested and never spent a penny without good reason, a holdover from the comparative poverty of his youth. Despite their sometimes vicious political battles (in a bafflingly complex environment that McCullough carefully deconstructs), the two shared a love of books, learning, and revolutionary idealism, and it is one of those wonderful symmetries of history that both died on the same day, the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. While McCullough never misses an episode in Adams's long and often troubled life, he includes enough biographical material on Jefferson that this can be considered two biographies for the price of one—which explains some of its portliness.
Despite the whopping length, there's not a wasted word in this superb, swiftly moving narrative, which brings new and overdue honor to a Founding Father.Pub Date: May 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-684-81363-7
Page Count: 736
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2001
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