The Earth and Its Peoples a Global History: A Global History

Rating:
Summary: Ack!
Review: For an AP world high school class textbook, the chapters are supersaturated with information, with no distinction as to what is important and what isn't thus when outlining chapters one is forced to have outlines almost as long as the chapter since there is no distinction of importance in the information. Each chapter is very long and there is continual jumping from time and culture. In addition, much of the writing is stretched out when it shouldn't be. It is not concise or pithy but pretentiously blown out. In short, it is boring, unclear, nonlinear, disorganized, too long. Get anything else but this.

Rating:
Summary: A commendable attempt at the impossible
Review: I think it is nearly impossible to write a textbook on world history with the perfect combination of objectivity, factual accuracy and accessibility to students. While this book does a good job with the first two criteria, it fails significantly in its presentation. While this was not much of a problem for me since I like history in general, the dry writing style employed in this book will turn off many students taking introductory classes and who may not be the biggest fans of history. Unfortunately, in a country where people are desperately lacking knowledge and understanding of cultures in other parts of the world, this textbook seems to be the best in the market for now. Hopefully, a newer edition will be an improvement.

Rating:
Summary: This Book Destroyed My Love of World History
Review: Never has so much been used to say so little. The textbook "The Earth and Its Peoples: A Global History (Second Edition)" is used by AP World History classes at my high school and is without a doubt, the most poorly written and disorganized jumble of mismatched facts that I have ever had the displeasure of reading in a classroom textbook.

The text itself is not in chronological order and will often jump back and forth between several centuries in a single paragraph. The text gives little detail on important events in human history, instead giving a slew of information on boring and too often irrelevant topics. There is little flow and almost no connections made. While I do not question the accuracy of the information, I do seriously doubt the organizational writing skills of authors and historians responsible for this mess, as well as their knowledge of key world events and of this subject as a whole.

Outlining the chapters is a regular assignment for class, and is nearly impossible to do without directly copying the text word for word and painting bullet points next to it. Trying to clean up the disorganized mess that the authors have created for this, and turn it into some kind of clear and logical layout is like putting together a 5000 piece jigsaw puzzle of the sky on a clear day. We are encouraged higher level thinking in this course, but from the book's point of view, this is highly hypocritical. Most of the 'facts' are vague, broad-based ideas and seem all too often to repeat themselves.

There was a time, long ago, when I actually took a liking to history. But after reading this text, I quickly forgot what it was. If you are considering using this book in your classes, don't. Use any other book at all. There is no conceivable way that any book could be a more poorly-written butchered outline of World History. I encourage all other users to write reviews as well, to dissuade future purchases. No human, no matter how evil, deserves to suffer this torture.

Rating:
Summary: Worst History Book
Review: This book is probably the worst history text imaginable. I have to read and study from it for my AP World History class, and it is absolutely the worst text possible. It includes too many details sometimes, not enough at other times, and never really makes the strong connections necessary to understand history. It fails to leave any sort of impact on the reader at all, and skims over important information. It is also an extremely boring text. So much so that I am considering burning this book when the course is complete. Except then I wouldn't be able to return it to my teacher and I would be fined. But, if I were in a college class and was required to buy this book, I would burn it at the end of the semester. No joke.

Rating:
Summary: Drier than the Gobi
Review: This was the worst textbook I have ever been forced to read. The writing is boring, the ideas are disorganized, the vocabulary is unnecissarily complicated, and it's priorities are confused. I advise any prospective AP World history teachers to avoid this book like the plague, and I plan to purchase a copy soley for the joy of burning it. I feel confident in saying that the rest of my history class would chip in for the cost, so that they might watch it burn as well. While the book does deliver the major events of history, it does it in the worst possible manner. It should be discontinued and exiled to a dusty shelf far, far in the back of the reference section of libraries.