Rating: 
Summary: Well done survey of historical
Review: As far as general surveys of world history go, this book is excellent. Roberts doesn't deluge you in events, dates, places, names, nor does he overindulge in anecdotes or generalizations. Rather he lays out the major trends and happenings in history, examining the important events, causes, and consequences of each.He does a good job of tying the history together, which helps enormously in making it interesting. It's long enough to not have to gloss over many important developments without being (too) imposing. And the style is intelligently readable, neither too scholarly nor too chatty. If you're interested in how the world came to be what it is today, and want to give yourself a comprehensive overview of history, this is a great book to read. Chances are you'll become fascinated with some era or event and want to learn even more about it. The first and worst of its minor problems is that this book won't help you learn more. There are no references, citations, recommended readings, or bibliography. Roberts didn't research all of history himself; I'm certain he knows of many, many great resources, and it would have been helpful for him share them with us. The 2000 multivolume edition supposedly fixes this, but it's quite expensive. Roberts' stated overall theme is the shaping of the modern world through history, and the book is paced accordingly. About half of it is dedicated to the years 1700 onward, which may or may not suit your interests. If you're inclined towards classical and medieval history as I am, you'll probably want to find good surveys of those periods. The modern section is detailed enough as to make one redundant. I especially would have like more descriptions of social and cultural life; those included are relatively minimal. The grand trends, major transformations, and sweeping changes of history are well-covered. The details of everyday life, though, are often glossed over; there is often relatively little sense given of what a culture at a particular time was actually like. Roberts makes no bones about his focus on the West. He is not Eurocentric in any moral or judgmental sense, but he does give relatively little space to societies (early African, Native American to name a few) which had little impact on shaping the modern world. If you're mainly interested in them, this book is probably not for you. For an general introduction to world history, though, this book is excellent. It gives a good overview of, well, what humankind has done in the last 6000 years. It ties together all those tidbits you learned -- about Egypt, Rome, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution -- into a coherent fabric of world history. And it does so readably, without being dry or assuming an attention span of 15 minutes.
Rating:
Summary: Well done survey of historical
Review: As far as general surveys of world history go, this book is excellent. Roberts doesn't deluge you in events, dates, places, names, nor does he overindulge in anecdotes or generalizations. Rather he lays out the major trends and happenings in history, examining the important events, causes, and consequences of each. He does a good job of tying the history together, which helps enormously in making it interesting. It's long enough to not have to gloss over many important developments without being (too) imposing. And the style is intelligently readable, neither too scholarly nor too chatty. If you're interested in how the world came to be what it is today, and want to give yourself a comprehensive overview of history, this is a great book to read. Chances are you'll become fascinated with some era or event and want to learn even more about it. The first and worst of its minor problems is that this book won't help you learn more. There are no references, citations, recommended readings, or bibliography. Roberts didn't research all of history himself; I'm certain he knows of many, many great resources, and it would have been helpful for him share them with us. The 2000 multivolume edition supposedly fixes this, but it's quite expensive. Roberts' stated overall theme is the shaping of the modern world through history, and the book is paced accordingly. About half of it is dedicated to the years 1700 onward, which may or may not suit your interests. If you're inclined towards classical and medieval history as I am, you'll probably want to find good surveys of those periods. The modern section is detailed enough as to make one redundant. I especially would have like more descriptions of social and cultural life; those included are relatively minimal. The grand trends, major transformations, and sweeping changes of history are well-covered. The details of everyday life, though, are often glossed over; there is often relatively little sense given of what a culture at a particular time was actually like. Roberts makes no bones about his focus on the West. He is not Eurocentric in any moral or judgmental sense, but he does give relatively little space to societies (early African, Native American to name a few) which had little impact on shaping the modern world. If you're mainly interested in them, this book is probably not for you. For an general introduction to world history, though, this book is excellent. It gives a good overview of, well, what humankind has done in the last 6000 years. It ties together all those tidbits you learned -- about Egypt, Rome, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution -- into a coherent fabric of world history. And it does so readably, without being dry or assuming an attention span of 15 minutes.
Rating: 
Summary: SOLID SINGLE TOME
Review: Complaints first: I wish the author would have done a better job of chapter and topic placement (See History of the Modern World). It's very hard to jump right in on a topic you're interested in and the indexing is very clumsy and not very accurate. I found myself trying in vain to search out mundane figures such as Caterine the Great with little success. Praise Second: If you're the type of person who is going to read this like a novel, your apt to find this book fascinating. The writing is lively and with good insight. Roberts does a good job of avoiding flat facts and dates, which is the bane of a lot of history books. Bottom Line: If your a actual student looking for history nuggets to quilt into your term paper, forget it. If you simply want a good narrative, this book is about as good as it gets.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent summary and presentation.
Review: Excellent summary and presentation. Rich language. Excellent chronology
Rating:
Summary: History of the World, but from Western Perspective
Review: I found the book an excellent overview of wold history. Precise, concise and rather insightful about things that have ramifications even today. However the book has a tone of Eurocentricism. The chapters on Islam, Indian, Chinese civilizations as well as that of ancient American are rather superficial if we compare it with the details of the European history the book mentions. There are some misjudgements and misrepresentations about Oriental civilizations such as the ones in Central Asia and there are minor references to the Great Central Asian and Islamic scientist of the Medieval Period. Further Islam section touches in a limited scale to the political, social and economic organization of Islamic civilization and its impact on the current organization of Islamic world. The same can be said of chapters other than European and Western history....I wished that the book balanced more.... Nevertheless if you are aware of all these deficiencies and can make them up by your own reading the book is an excellent foundation of world history, a coherent narration. In order to digest it wholly I recommend everyone to read it twice....
Rating:
Summary: If you want to understand the world, please read it.
Review: I have learned more from this book than from any other book I have ever read. That's saying quite a lot, but it's true -- it is thrilling to get the "big" picture in one place. Although the book is quite long, if you read just one chapter a night, you will find yourself absolutely enlightened in a couple of months. Plus, you'll be much better at Jeopardy!
Rating:
Summary: Almost anthropology
Review: I really enjoyed the first 95% of this book. J.M. Roberts sets a great stage for the big sweeping moves of history and helps you understand how environment, pre-history and culture all helped to shape the actions of whole peoples. (An excellent companion read to this book is Eric Wolfe's Europe and the People Without History, which gets away from Robert's Eurocentrism.) I have to say, I didn't like his analysis of the 20th century, nor his political slant. It may not be his fault: a chapter or so on a segment of the past for which we have so much information doesn't do anything justice and leaves a lot unsaid. Perhaps Roberts should have capped it with WW1. Regardless, the first majority of the book is well worth it.
Rating:
Summary: Almost anthropology
Review: I really enjoyed the first 95% of this book. J.M. Roberts sets a great stage for the big sweeping moves of history and helps you understand how environment, pre-history and culture all helped to shape the actions of whole peoples. (An excellent companion read to this book is Eric Wolfe's Europe and the People Without History, which gets away from Robert's Eurocentrism.) I have to say, I didn't like his analysis of the 20th century, nor his political slant. It may not be his fault: a chapter or so on a segment of the past for which we have so much information doesn't do anything justice and leaves a lot unsaid. Perhaps Roberts should have capped it with WW1. Regardless, the first majority of the book is well worth it.
Rating:
Summary: Text book history
Review: If you like histoy this is the book for you.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent primer
Review: If you're like me and have a apalling lack of historical perspective, then this is the place to start. It's not a boring set of dates and events, Roberts' aim appears to be as much to show why things happened as what things happened. If you read this entire book, twice, then you will have a wonderful base upon which to build out a deep understanding of world history. If you're the type that tends to wait until things comes out on video, though, I recommend forgetting about this book - it's pretty darn hard work.
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