Rating: 
Summary: Great Book
Review: A good text, clearly written. I enjoy browsing it as well as reading it carefully. Of course, there's much the author doesn't know and thus leaves out - his treatment of China and Japan leaves much to be desired - but I think a certain amount of bias, blindspots, etc is inevitable in any single book of this kind. They stick out like sore thumbs to readers with special interests, who naturally single them out. Even an encyclopedia written by many people is far from bias free. I'd only say that this is one of the best written in the English language today. (Another would be William H. McNeill's The Rise of the West.) Roberts sets down what he knows best, and naturally what any one person knows best is limited by his own worldview, upbringing, education, etc.All books of this kind have similar weaknesses. One without such faults would have to be almost infinite in size.
Rating: 
Summary: Should be on every History buff's reading list
Review: Every fan of history should read this book, but it is a bit perplexing. I don't know whether this should be one of the first books a fan of history should read or whether one should wait until the reader has some familiarity with history before tackling it. The author does a good job of trying to break down history into trends and economic forces. He provides an analysis of the changes and motivations of various civilizations and gives an overview of the currents of history. This argues for a beginner to read it to gain an understanding of the general reasons why things happened. On the other hand, the author spends next to no time on specifics. William Shakespeare is barely mentioned. The index does not even list Thomas Edison. In fact, it is difficult to find the names of many famous historical individuals and events. (I am not being critical because the book would greatly increase in size if the author tried to incorporate more facts into the text.) He appears to assume that the reader has some knowledge of them. This would argue that a more experienced student should read the book. In any event, at some point, anyone interested in history should read it.
The author, primarily using economic facts and inferences believes that the European based civilization has been the predominant influence on world wide culture. This is certainly a defensible position. Consequently, most of the book focuses on how European ideas developed and came to influence other cultures. Other events which had a more local focus are not totally ignored, but they are given much less space. The book specifically mentions that not much focus is placed on places and events which did not produce cultural aspects which affected the world. It is correct to say that many parts of the world are not covered in depth.
I greatly enjoyed the book. Although it is not perfect, it was an attempt to tie everything in history together and show how the world developed to its current condition. I liked the focus on economics and on general cultural attitudes. This made it more of a causes and effects book then one providing a series of incidents. For me, this made the book quite entertaining. I frankly, would have preferred a few more specifics about events, but I would recommend this to anyone. For anyone who enjoys reading history with an eye to developing insight into why things happened (and why they are still happening), this book is indispensable.
Rating:
Summary: Should be on every History buff's reading list
Review: Every fan of history should read this book, but it is a bit perplexing. I don't know whether this should be one of the first books a fan of history should read or whether one should wait until the reader has some familiarity with history before tackling it. The author does a good job of trying to break down history into trends and economic forces. He provides an analysis of the changes and motivations of various civilizations and gives an overview of the currents of history. This argues for a beginner to read it to gain an understanding of the general reasons why things happened. On the other hand, the author spends next to no time on specifics. William Shakespeare is barely mentioned. The index does not even list Thomas Edison. In fact, it is difficult to find the names of many famous historical individuals and events. (I am not being critical because the book would greatly increase in size if the author tried to incorporate more facts into the text.) He appears to assume that the reader has some knowledge of them. This would argue that a more experienced student should read the book. In any event, at some point, anyone interested in history should read it.
The author, primarily using economic facts and inferences believes that the European based civilization has been the predominant influence on world wide culture. This is certainly a defensible position. Consequently, most of the book focuses on how European ideas developed and came to influence other cultures. Other events which had a more local focus are not totally ignored, but they are given much less space. The book specifically mentions that not much focus is placed on places and events which did not produce cultural aspects which affected the world. It is correct to say that many parts of the world are not covered in depth.
I greatly enjoyed the book. Although it is not perfect, it was an attempt to tie everything in history together and show how the world developed to its current condition. I liked the focus on economics and on general cultural attitudes. This made it more of a causes and effects book then one providing a series of incidents. For me, this made the book quite entertaining. I frankly, would have preferred a few more specifics about events, but I would recommend this to anyone. For anyone who enjoys reading history with an eye to developing insight into why things happened (and why they are still happening), this book is indispensable.
Rating: 
Summary: Misleading title
Review: Had this book been called "World History From a European point of view", I would have given it five stars. Its very well written. But the title is misleading. This book is European History and how it was affected by world events. So many pages are dedicated to the fall of Byzantium, it sounds almost as if the author is trying to defend why the Christians 'lost' the Eastern kingdom to Islam. While almost a good chapter is spent on the intricate branches of Christianity, Lord Buddha is mentioned in the passing. While the entire Indian and Chinese civilations are summarized in about 10 pages, about a 100 are spent on some obscure Frankish kings. History of the World?? I don't think so. Disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: curious!
Review: Haha. I pulled up this page because I was ready to write a withering review of Roberts' book, but I see that others - a Chinaman named Wang e.g. - have beaten me to it, for a different reason: namely that the author is 'Eurocentric'. (It has never occurred to these weak minds that he is Eurocentric because the world was Eurocentric, because Europe was the center of the world. If China had been the most powerful entity on Earth, there'd be malcontents grumbling about "Chinocentric" views.) My reason was to lambast the author for kowtowing to leftist protocol -- from apologizing for being a "white, European male" to putting Indo-European in a set of quotes on every occasion and of course denying a white race exists, which is to say that I and the author do not exist. But here is a Chinaman saying he is Euro-biased! Amazing. One wonders how far an author must go to please these congenital whiners. I can only suggest that we travel back in time so that we can let China or Africa become the mistress of the world, so they can invent books, then invent a company called 'Penguin', then invent computers and a company called 'Amazon', so they can write a "History of The World" which is Afrcocentric so that I and the author, biased white males that we are, can be the plaintiffs: that after all is the desire of every leftist and third-worlder.
That said, I give this five stars by default, as I will not join a bunch of non-European malcontents in the hysterical leftist chorus for 'fairness'. The author humiliates himself enough in this book.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting, but quite a challenge
Review: I found this book quite interesting. It covered everything from the dawn of civilization to the fall of communism, and gave an excellent analysis. I also found this book quite a challenge. I don't consider myself to be of inferior intelligence, and am a graduate of a highly ranked university, but on many occasions I found myself using a dictionary in order to understand some of the vocabulary in the book. This book is not for the faint of heart, nor the high school dropout. However, for those people with a desire for historical knowledge and the willingness to take up a challenge, this book is well worth the time.
Rating:
Summary: Very good reference
Review: I initially listened to this book on tape, and then decided I wanted to have it lying around as a reference. Roberts, I understand, is an Oxford professor. I don't really know enough history to judge to what degree his views are colored by a Western European perspective, but it was very helpful to me, particularly in his early coverage of areas whose history I didn't know that well -- Arabia and the Far East. I finished the book feeling I had a considerably more solid understanding of things like why Russia is like it is, and what actually happened between Sumeria and modern Iraq... what the world looked like to a person from the Middle East in various periods of history. In the preface, he states as one of the primary criteria of a good historian is his or her ability to write from an unbiased perspective. He doesn't lie about the brutality of the Spanish conquistadores, but he also doesn't present a falsely idyllic or nostalgic picture of the Aztecs. And he doesn't villainize anybody... reasons for successes are always sought in climate, geography, circumstances -- not in the inherent superiority of one people over another. Throughout all of Part I, he calls Europe, the 'barbarians', and I don't think uses the word 'England' until well into Part II (of III). I don't think, therefore, that it can be claimed that at least England gets more attention than its due. The ancient near East, 15th-20th C. Europe, ancient Rome, and Arabia prior to the fall of the Ottomans get more press than do ancient China and India, though these are both given two extensive chapters each. They get more than Egypt. He certainly favors those places which carry 'civilizations' more than those which don't. His perspective seems to be that civilization is what's interesting, and he follows its centers around. Very little is said, therefore, about early Sub-Saharan Africa. Almost nothing is said about the North America prior to the coming of the Europeans. And virtually nothing is said about Western Europe north of Greece and Italy until Charlemagne or so. Perhaps that's just because his subject is history, not archeology, and history by definition needs to be written down. What I liked best about the book were his little insights into the mindset of people at various points in history. For example, he effectively conveys that a 12th Century European wouldn't know what you were talking about if you spoke in terms of 'nations' the way we understand them. He describes nicely the difference between the mentality of the Russian tzarism vs. Western European kingdoms at the same point in history. I wish he'd done more of these flashes into the mindsets of various peoples and times, actually. And I suppose I would have been interested in more detail about how ordinary people lived. Kings and generals got a lot more discussion than the peasants and artisans. I'm thinking, for example, that one of the most revealing 'histories' I read about the settlement of the American West was simply a collection of diaries written by women in the wagon trains. I felt in this way (or even by reading Black Elk Speaks) that I sank much more fully into the place and time than by reading about Custer or Louis and Clark (though these too are interesting). So if I were to venture a criticism, it would be that it's a little bit traditionally male in its focus more on externals -- governments and battles -- than on the internal minds and experiences of ordinary people.
Rating:
Summary: Indispensible Resource
Review: I read an earlier edition of this book and enjoyed it so much, and have referred to it so often, that it's falling apart and I'm now replacing it with the Robers' hardback version, "History of the World." The Eurocentric view is entirely justifiable, in my view, as being much more balanced and appropriate for a book of this scope. History didn't start in the New World. Nor in the Old World, for that matter, and Roberts starts with the dawn of humanity. Very readable and, equally important, an excellent and comprehensive index!
Rating:
Summary: Great Read, Great Reference
Review: I read this book cover to cover five years ago and have been using it ever since as a reference book. It's a great read if you like an urbane, erudite "Oxford (or is it Cambridge?) don" style, and Roberts is careful about stating grand theories as though they were incontrovertible fact. All in all, a wonderful comprehensive world history. I'm buying a second copy for my 19 year old nephew who is studying history.
Rating:
Summary: hard to improve upon
Review: I read this history of the world with great pleasure and with increasing admiration for mr.Roberts. Don't feel daunted by its size, a book like this makes for excellent piece-meal reading.
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