# History book recommendation?



## chongjasmine (Sep 8, 2014)

Can someone recommend me a history book, that covers world history, from the ancient past to the present moment?
I prefer the book to be not too dry, but to be interesting, instead.
I will really like to read up on world history, especially the ancient civilizations.


----------



## Boaz (Sep 14, 2014)

chongjasmine,  The first three authors I'll list are scholars attempting to present history in a novice friendly and non-traditional scholarly form.

Thomas Cahill has a series of books he calls _The Hinges of History_.  The first book, _How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland's Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe _made the NY Times bestseller list.

Tom Holland's _Rubicon_, details the  last century of the Roman Republic.  I found it easier to make connections between the social issues, the political parties, and the martial issues than reading Plutarch, Suetonius, and Tacitus.

Victor Davis Hanson has written numerous books on ancient Greece.  _A War Like No Other_ details the titanic struggle that was the Peloponnesian War.

_A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous Fourteenth Century_ by Barbara Tuchman was enjoyable.  Tuchman is an amateur historian and tries to tell a story rather than connect the dots.  The second half of the book focuses on the life of a fascinating man, Eguerrand deCoucy.


----------



## AnyaKimlin (Sep 14, 2014)

Antonia Fraser The Lives of the Kings and Queens of England (starts in 1066 and goes right up to QE2 only covers the UK though) .
Colin Renfrew and Paul Bahn Archaeology: Theories, Methods and Practices (for a text book it is very easy to read)
The Oxford Encyclopedia of World History


----------



## Michael Colton (Sep 14, 2014)

I have not kept up on survey texts for more recent eras, but from Ancient to Renaissance I would recommend Susan Bauer's three books: _The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome_, _The History of the Medieval World: From the Conversion of Constantine to the First Crusade_, and _The History of the Renaissance World: From the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Conquest of Constantinople__._


----------



## J-Sun (Sep 15, 2014)

Not sure, but I think the OP was asking for one volume that covered the whole enchilada, like _History of the World_ by J.M. Roberts. I can't vouch for it, not having read it, but it might fit the bill.


----------



## Michael Colton (Sep 15, 2014)

J-Sun said:


> Not sure, but I think the OP was asking for one volume that covered the whole enchilada, like _History of the World_ by J.M. Roberts. I can't vouch for it, not having read it, but it might fit the bill.



Oh, I missed that bit. In that case I do not have any recommendations. The only academic books that cover that huge of a span are such broad surveys they are not particularly useful except as infodumps.


----------



## Brian G Turner (Sep 15, 2014)

For a general but concise history of the world, with plenty of illustrations and maps, it's hard to go wrong with one of the Times editions:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0007619006/?tag=brite-21


----------

