Rating: 
Summary: A delightful work of exposition and interpretation
Review: This is how history should be written. It takes a perspective as wide as can possibly be - from the birth of the universe and pre-history to the present - and manages to make sense of the whole, in just 220 pages. What is most impressive is Professor Fromkin's unobtrusive insistence that history - contrary to the charlatans of the post-structuralist school, and the increasing specialisation of history as a discipline - has a meaning and a narrative, coupled with his treatment of non-western societies. That is true multiculturalism, as opposed to the know-nothing version, so shamefully promulgated in some academies, that decries the very notion of civilisation. The book nicely refers to scholars and to stories in the press (e.g. of fossil finds) that the critical newspaper reader might have seen, and draws them into a thrilling narrative.My one main criticism of a splendid book is that, for such a fine writer and skilled historian, Professor Fromkin is surprisingly idiosyncratic in his use of punctuation, and I find this obtrusive. He uses commas, colons and semi-colons almost indiscriminately, rather than with care and accuracy. The publisher's editor should have picked this up; perhaps he will, for a paperback edition.
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