Best overviews of world history/US history for history-averse reader?

Kitty Pryde

i luv you giant bear statue
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 7, 2008
Messages
9,090
Reaction score
2,165
Location
Lost Angeles
I have to take a test and I am realizing my history is beyond terrible. Aside from WWII in Europe, I know very little about most things. Can anyone suggest a general history book written in an exciting way? I found "Don't Know Much About History" which is very well reviewed. And the Larry Gonick "History of the Universe" and "History of the US" comic books--that guy is awesome.

Know any others? Thanks!
 

Kitty Pryde

i luv you giant bear statue
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 7, 2008
Messages
9,090
Reaction score
2,165
Location
Lost Angeles
Any ideas? Don't Know Much About History proved to be far too long. I picked up The No-Nonsense Guide To World History which looks like a winner--all of human history in 40000 words, what could go wrong? :D
 

Scribe4264

Sockpuppet
Banned
Richard Paolinelli Sock
Joined
Jan 22, 2011
Messages
186
Reaction score
9
Any ideas? Don't Know Much About History proved to be far too long. I picked up The No-Nonsense Guide To World History which looks like a winner--all of human history in 40000 words, what could go wrong? :D

Are you looking for a general "all of the world history in one book: or are you looking for something specific?

For example, if you wanted to examine the time period around our nation's founding, David McCullough's books - 1776 and John Adams - will leave you with a greater appreciation and understanding of the people who lived during that time and the events as they unfolded.

I just got through the late Shelby Foote's three-volume Civil War, A Narrative (all 3,000+ pages) and find myself a lot more informed about that entire era from the lead up, to the war and the aftermath.
 

Kitty Pryde

i luv you giant bear statue
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 7, 2008
Messages
9,090
Reaction score
2,165
Location
Lost Angeles
Looking for general history or general us history. I actually have a good memory for how people lived and how historic cultures worked, just not History Test Facts. Like for instance I know a ton about ww2 era in England and Germany and Poland, but I am very hazy on the reason for everyone starting the war and what years and such.
 

Scribe4264

Sockpuppet
Banned
Richard Paolinelli Sock
Joined
Jan 22, 2011
Messages
186
Reaction score
9
Looking for general history or general us history. I actually have a good memory for how people lived and how historic cultures worked, just not History Test Facts. Like for instance I know a ton about ww2 era in England and Germany and Poland, but I am very hazy on the reason for everyone starting the war and what years and such.

The trigger for WW2 can be one of several things, depending on how far you want to go. Its easy to say Hitler's invasion of neighboring countries started WW2, but you could look back to the end of WWI and say that was the trigger for the sequel.

US President Wilson was pretty ill by the end of WWI and unable to broker an end to the first war that would have been a lot less harsh on Germany than what was actually done. That helped set the stage for a Hitler to come along after 20 years of decline. (Notice, that mistake was not repeated with Germany and Japan at the end of WW2.)

Or you could say WW2 was caused by the same incident that started WW1 - the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914 - since the second war seemed to be in some cases a carry over of hostility left over from the first war.

I guess what I am saying - and I apologize for being a little long-winded - is that it is going to be hard to get a real appreciation and full understanding of our history (this country and the entire world) from one general book.

Hope this helps and I apologize if I got on my soapbox a little. History is one of those subjects I really got into in school and still do to this day.
 

Lucas

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 17, 2012
Messages
244
Reaction score
8
I have to take a test and I am realizing my history is beyond terrible. Aside from WWII in Europe, I know very little about most things. Can anyone suggest a general history book written in an exciting way? I found "Don't Know Much About History" which is very well reviewed. And the Larry Gonick "History of the Universe" and "History of the US" comic books--that guy is awesome.

Know any others? Thanks!

An Austrian-Jewish guy named Gollisch wrote a world history book for kids in the 1950s. It is pretty good, and it has pictures too.
 

Kitty Pryde

i luv you giant bear statue
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 7, 2008
Messages
9,090
Reaction score
2,165
Location
Lost Angeles
Check out the Dorling Kindersley books. Aimed at bright kids, but full of useful information.

http://us.dk.com/nf/Browse/BrowseStdPage/0,,231654,00.html

Thanks! I will look for one of those.

An Austrian-Jewish guy named Gollisch wrote a world history book for kids in the 1950s. It is pretty good, and it has pictures too.

Thanks! Is that Gombrich, A Little History of the World? I thought about that one, but it's from 1936, and it seems like we see much of history so much differently now from how we did then (like having a far more negative view of colonizing and oppressing and forcing religion on various indigenous peoples etc.). I figured it would not be much help to me for that reason.