The World: A Family History by Amazonundefined

Price last update: 11/03/2024

Description

The World by Simon Sebag Montefiore is a fresh and original history of humanity, unlike any previous world history: it uses family, the one thing all humans have in common, to tell the story. It is genuinely global, spanning all eras and all continents, from the perspective of places as diverse as Haiti, Congo and Cambodia as well as Europe, China and America. Starting with the first footsteps of a family walking along a beach 950,000 years ago, Montefiore steers us through an interconnected world via palace intrigues, love affairs and family lives, linking grand themes of war, migration, plague, religion, medicine and technology to the people at the heart of the human drama. It features a cast of extraordinary span and diversity: as well as rulers and conquerors there are priests, charlatans, artists, scientists, doctors, tycoons, gangsters, lovers, husbands, wives and children. From Alexander the Great, Attila, Genghis Khan to Ivan the Terrible and Hitler, from Socrates, Michelangelo, Shakespeare to Mozart, Balzac, Newton and Tim Berners-Lee. There is Hongwu who started as a beggar and founded the Ming dynasty; Ewuare the Leopard-King of Benin; King Henry of Haiti; Kamehameha conqueror of Hawaii; Zenobia, Arab empress who defied Rome, Lady Murasaki first female novelist, Sayyida al-Hurra, Moroccan pirate-queen; Indira Gandhi, Margaret Thatcher and Barack Obama. Here are the Caesars, Medicis and Incas, Ottomans and Mughals, Bonapartes, Habsburgs and Zulus, Rothschilds, Rockefellers and Krupps, Churchills, Kennedys, Castros, Nehrus, Pahlavis and Kenyattas, Saudis, Kims and Assads. All the way up to Putin and Zelensky, all human life is here. A dazzling achievement as spellbinding as fiction, The World is both a celebration and an indictment that takes the human story, from caves to drones, in a single narrative by a master storyteller.
Recenzja
A history of the world from the Neanderthals to Trump. It's a rollicking tale, a kaleidoscope of savagery, sex, cruelty and chaos. By focusing on family, Montefiore provides an intimacy usually lacking in global histories. [It] has personality and a soul. It's also outrageously funny . . . an enormously entertaining book -- Gerard DeGroot
THE TIMES
A delightful world history, told through influential families. A moreish chronicle. The device of weaving together the past using the most enduring and essential unit of human relations is inspired . . . [it] allows the author to cover every continent and era, and to give women and even children a voice and presence that they tend to be denied in more conventional histories. Despite the book's formidable length, there is never a dull moment . . . this book is a triumph and a delight, an epic that entertains, informs and appals in enjoyably equal measure
THE ECONOMIST
Magnificent . . . magisterial . . . [a] real-life
Game of Thrones.
Dip into this book anywhere and the minutiae of history leap off the page . . . Dip too into the author's copious footnotes and there are gems to be mined. Often sassy, always entertaining . . . To my mind what it gives above all is perspective from which comes understanding and not a little wisdom -- Tony Rennell
DAILY MAIL, Book of the Week
For any reader with the stomach for bloodshed and megalomaniac ambition, for anyone with a taste for Ptolemaic depravities or who would simply like to spend some quality time with China's imperial eunuchs, Montefiore's 'World' . . . will deliver it and more in spades. The author's major achievement is to make us see the world through a different lens - to make the unfamiliar familiar and, more important, the familiar unfamiliar. There is hardly a dull paragraph -- David Crane
THE SPECTATOR
An incredible undertaking. Montefiore finds enduring resonances and offers new perspectives . . . Because these are family stories, he adeptly eschews traditionally male histories to find greater texture and diversity. A remarkable achievement
OBSERVER
A history of pretty much everything everywhere from the evolution of Homo sapiens to Putin's invasion of Ukraine. Dip into any page and you'll find history rushing by in prose that combines clarity, liveliness and even deadpan humour with intriguing asides a speciality . . . a staggering achievement -- James Walton
DAILY TELEGRAPH
Succeeds in scintillating fashion . . . an epic rich in detail . . . on each page, you'll find an interesting idea, a witty observation or a footnote containing an anecdote emblematic of a wider point. Montefiore pays attention to the lives of women and children and to places slighted by Western historians. This is an extraordinary work of wisdom and vivid storytelling -- Victor Sebestyen
LITERARY REVIEW
[A] rollicking, globetrotting truly global history spanning almost every continent . . . [A] thrilling tapestry. Only a highly skilled storyteller could so deftly grip attention across more than six millennia . . . packed with lavish and pullulating detail.
The World
is wildly entertaining . . . certainly enriching . . . [and] bracingly profane -- David Armitage
TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT
This is not just an undoubted book of the year but of many years . . . a treasure trove of marvellous stories, brilliantly researched and absorbingly told, fascinating characters who leap off the pages -- Tony Rennell
DAILY MAIL, Books of the Year
Don't be put off by the doorstopper length: this is a riveting page-turner. The author brings his cast of dynastic titans, rogues and psychopaths to life with pithy, witty pen portraits, ladling on the sex and violence. An epic that both entertains and informs
THE ECONOMIST, Best Books of 2022
A monumental survey of dynastic rule: how to get it, how to keep it, how to squander it . . . Montefiore energetically fulfills his promise to write a 'genuine world history, not unbalanced by excessive focus on Britain and Europe.' In zesty sentences and lively vignettes, he captures the widening global circuits of people, commerce, and culture
NEW YORKER
A tour de force - hugely ambitious, erudite and filled with surprises - that puts the family and families back into the heart of history -- PETER FRANKOPANTerrific. Monumental . . . full of fun . . . a rollicking read. Montefiore is very good at finding the little incidental details which bring things to life -- Robbie Millen
TIMES RADIO
Masterful and truly staggering
BBC HISTORY REVEALED
The World
is almost narcotic to read -- Tanya Gold
JEWISH CHRONICLE
A staggering achievement. Montefiore has given us a tremendous gift: a pulsingly readable world history through the millennia and from one end of the globe to the other -- SIMON SCHAMAOne extraordinary story follows another, all of them extraordinarily well told. It is hard to stop turning the pages . . . One of the commonest criticisms of world histories such as Jared Diamond's
Guns Germs & Steel
or Yuval Noah Harari's
Sapiens
is that they are all about the vast impersonal forces . . . Montefiore's family-centred alternative is the perfect antidote, revelling in the peculiarities and downright perversities of its all-too-human cast . . . Montefiore's vignettes are fascinating . . . There's no doubting that family is the central institution of human history and Montefiore's overview of its most recent five millennia is entertaining and consistently interesting -- Ian Morris
FINANCIAL TIMES
Published On: 2022-12-03
Succession
meets
Game of Thrones
-- Sarah Vine
MAIL PLUS
It contains a vast breadth of knowledge about the world, acquired from a lifetime of reading, and all told through the stories of some of the most influential families in history
GEOGRAPHICAL
Compelling, moving, epic and diverse, Montefiore's wonderful storytelling prowess and the wide research pulls off this unparalleled world history in a single narrative with unforgettable style. All the drama of humankind is here from cavemen to Putin and Zelensky -- OLIVETTE OTELEOne word for Montefiore's book: magisterial -- BEN OKRIThere is a certain satisfaction in holding, and reading a bulky tome. Simon Sebag Montefiore's The World: A Family History requires strong wrists, but is well worth the physical effort. It is a most readable and fascinating history of humanity from the perspective of that most enduring of institutions: the family. There is pleasure and learning on every one -- Alexander McCall Smith
NEW STATESMAN
In this work of astonishing scope and erudition, Montefiore interweaves the stories of the servants, courtiers and kings, pioneers, preachers and philosophers who have made history. A brilliant synthesis that will impart fresh insight to even the most learned readers -- HENRY KISSINGERAn incredible piece of work . . . it's incredibly easy to read, written so eloquently. Delightful -- Sangita Myska
LBC
Magnificent -- Antonia Fraser
THE TIMES
You're in for quite a ride:
The World
pulsates with hundreds of human stories that Montefiore brings to life in vivid convincing fashion. Combining literary flair with keen insight into human psychology, he can evoke a person with a few choice words.Among the many strengths of
The World
is its truly global perspective. This is an unabashedly multicultural history that refuses to privilege any particular perspective, be it geographic, cultural or ethnic -- Douglas Smith
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Excellent . . . I was captivated from the first page . . . The most cinematic achievement is one of global connectiveness -- Hamilton Wende
SUNDAY TIMES (South Africa)
Montefiore's most ambitious work yet. It is erudite but never boring . . . There is also a great deal of humour . . . If more politicians and policymakers spent time studying history, they might avoid making the sort of lamentable mistakes that Bush and Blair made in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The World
would be a good place to start -- David Soskin
REACTION
Do not be daunted by its length. The narrative is pacy and there is not a page wasted. The author has produced a masterclass in style and structure -- Richard Foreman
ASPECTS OF HISTORY, Books of the Year
An epic global history that is cleverly and thrillingly told -- Saul David
ASPECTS OF HISTORY, Books of the Year
Written with lashings of elan, I raced through it . . . This special book should please any lover of history -- Oliver Webb-Carter
ASPECTS OF HISTORY, Books of the Year
A brilliant book, and its examination of our species' experiences through the prism of the family is truly inspired -- General David PetraeusHighly recommended . . . Only a historian of Montefiore's calibre could pull off such an outstanding and wide-ranging work as this multi-layered and riveting study combining world history, geography and the evolution of humankind while exploring the world's greatest dynasties . . . So many interesting facts alongside captivating biographical stories. Montefiore is a master storyteller -- Elizabeth Fitzherbert
THE LADY
Important and mesmerizing -- Michael Beschloss, author of PRESIDENTS OF WAR
Opis z tylnej okładki książki
The World by Simon Sebag Montefiore is a fresh and original history of humanity, unlike any previous world history: it uses family, the one thing all humans have in common, to tell the story. It is genuinely global, spanning all eras and all continents, from the perspective of places as diverse as Haiti, Congo and Cambodia as well as Europe, China and America. Starting with the first footsteps of a family walking along a beach 950,000 years ago, Montefiore steers us through an interconnected world via palace intrigues, love affairs and family lives, linking grand themes of war, migration, plague, religion, medicine and technology to the people at the heart of the human drama. It features a cast of extraordinary span and diversity: as well as rulers and conquerors there are priests, charlatans, artists, scientists, doctors, tycoons, gangsters, lovers, husbands, wives and children. From Alexander the Great, Attila, Genghis Khan to Ivan the Terrible and Hitler, from Socrates, Michelangelo, Shakespeare to Mozart, Balzac, Newton and Tim Berners-Lee. There is Hongwu who started as a beggar and founded the Ming dynasty; Ewuare the Leopard-King of Benin; King Henry of Haiti; Kamehameha conqueror of Hawaii; Zenobia, Arab empress who defied Rome, Lady Murasaki first female novelist, Sayyida al-Hurra, Moroccan pirate-queen; Indira Gandhi, Margaret Thatcher and Barack Obama. Here are the Caesars, Medicis and Incas, Ottomans and Mughals, Bonapartes, Habsburgs and Zulus, Rothschilds, Rockefellers and Krupps, Churchills, Kennedys, Castros, Nehrus, Pahlavis and Kenyattas, Saudis, Kims and Assads. All the way up to Putin and Zelensky, all human life is here. A dazzling achievement as spellbinding as fiction, The World is both a celebration and an indictment that takes the human story, from caves to drones, in a single narrative by a master storyteller.
O autorze
Simon Sebag Montefiore
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