Thoughts?
Looking for good paperbacks on history from prehistoric to today (could be in one volume or several).
>>8026852
Stop being a faggot and read this
>>8026854
>Wells
Why would I want to read a nonhistorians history?
>>8026877
Are you an idiot? Historian is just a fancy word for writer. Like novelist.
>>8026890
I'll check it out. I understand I was being unfair in my dismissal of Wells as a writer of history.
>>8026852
The Story of Civilization, by Will and Ariel Durant.
>>8026852
Arnold J. Toynbee: A Study of History
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Study_of_History
>>8026852
Been chipping away at this for a few months. Prehistory was fucking exhausting, and although Roberts apparently responded to criticism of earlier editions being too euro-centric by going out of his way to include more Eastern History, but I just can't bring myself to care about it. Given the subject matter you're basically giving yourself a general primer for more easily contextualizing later broader/deeper studies, so if you're not interested in later Chinese history, you probably will be bored learning about the region's foundations.
With that said the chapters are fairly well divided, graphics are included in useful contexts but aren't overdone, and overall I would (so far) consider this a good intro text. But man is it boring. I literally plowed through a 12 volume, 3000+ page primary source Greek history faster and with greater ease than this, given how difficult it is to really immerse yourself in a narrative that repeatedly yet necessarily picks up and drops narrower, more specific narratives to maintain an at least vaguely holistic picture of any given era. In short, it skips around, which combined with its huge scale and consequent lack of real characterization and story-telling, makes it informative but not fun.
>>8027054
This user is correct
