The Mental Floss History Of The World

The Mental Floss

History of the World

An Irreverent Romp Through Civilization's Best Bits

By Erik Sass and Steve Weigand
With Will Pearson and Mangesh Hattikudur

I'm kind of a history buff, so this book was right up my alley. I loved it! Sass and Weigand present about 4.4 billion years of the history of the world in a highly readable and fun 400 pages. I was sorry to see it end, but I guess since it's a history book it had to eventually.

Each chapter presents an epoch in history from the beginning of the human race in Africa, through the classical period, the middle ages, all the way up to the present day, and they're all laid out the same way: Each chapter starts with an overview of that particular period of time, followed by a chronology of important events, a look around the world, a "Who's up, who's down" look at the high and low points of the period, and ends with a section on numbers. For example,

• 125,000 - estimated world population 100,000 BC
• 1-10 million - estimated world population 10,000 BC
• 100 million - estimated world population 3,000 BC
• 300 million - estimated world population 1,000 BC

I don't know about you, but I can't even imagine a time when there were only 125,000 people in the entire world! The whole book is filled with surprising facts like that. For example, about the time Salem, Massachusetts was founded by the English, Galileo was forced to recant his theory that the Earth revolves around the sun. For some reason, I always thought that Galileo thing happened much earlier than the settlement of the New World.

In any case, this is a fascinating book that really ties together world history in a meaningful and entertaining way. I recommend for anyone who has even a passing interest in history.

tags: book review