A History of the World in 100 Objects

An informative, smart history of the world written around 100 objects from the British Museum. Great idea, and well executed. Easy to dip in and out of. I got smarter and enjoyed myself at the same time. Recommended.

Very interesting, well-written big book -- 707 pages. It is based on the eponymous British Museum / BBC program of only objects selected from the Museum's own highly diverse collection -- not objects culled from the world. You will find only one or two pictures of a single object, which means, of course, that the volume is not profusely illustrated. You must be interested in reading prose -- there are no bullets or call outs. However, it is not as intellectual as you might think.

I bought this book after listening to the podcast of the same name. (You can visit the British Museum's web site or iTunes to find it). This is a fascinating romp through history. The descriptions are thought provoking and really take you back to the period in your mind. I have read a few of the descriptions and they match what I had listened to, so I can say that the text is quite enjoyable. I bought the book mainly because as I listened to the author describe the objects, I kept wanting to see them. The book includes a photograph of every object. It is a terrific little collection and I quite enjoyed it.

Great coffee table book. I would definately suggest only reading two or three items at a time since it is hard to retain all the historical information. All the items follow a similar pattern in how they are described.

This wonderful book will appeal to nerds and dilettantes alike. Totally absorbing. A perfect holiday or fireside read, it allows you to dip into it for short sharp snippets of entertaining information.

We read the entire book with great interest and decided to dedicate 3 days in London just to follow up and see the 100 items. We even bought it again, on Kindle, to walk with it from room to room. We copied the list of contents and marked what we wanted to see most.
However: We could not locate the pieces. The attendants in several rooms and at the info-computers could not help either; we suspected they stonewalled a little..
The use of this book would be fabulous if it indicated the inventory number or room where to find all; then it would be something the other great museums could and should imitate.
Bravo! Thank you! Director MacGregor.
Hilary & Roland Langen, Miami

Excellent perspectives on the history of humankind through the ages. Amazing how the author builds on the objects themselves to enlighten the reader about the context in which the artifacts were made. He deftly makes the importance of each object crystal clear in layman's terms. Easy to segment reading since each chapter is 4-5 pages long, allowing one to read the book over time in a leisurely way.

The book is extremely well written but not concise -- think of it as musings over the evolution of human civilization rather than as a history book. It is broken down into short 100 chapters making it ideal to as a relaxing read before bedtime. Only wish I would have thought to gotten the videos.

Ordered this book for my husband for Christmas in November from another company. Still wasn't here in January. the store wrote the company was no longer doing business with them. Reordered from Muffin lord and the book seemed to magically appear. Great, fast service. Will look for that name when I order again. Judy

This book should have been a beautiful coffee table took. True, it is a good value, I suppose, for the money, but I do love books for their esthetics as well as their contents. They missed the mark here for what could have been a truly gorgeous volume.

In this age of tweets and soundbytes, it's almost hard to believe (yet refreshing) that someone would have the poise to write a volume like this.

My only complaint is the quality of the paper and the binding, which aren't top notch. But for the price, I can't complain. I hope it was worth the author's while.

"A History of the World in 100 Objects" began with a BBC Radio 4 program that described 100 striking objects housed in the British Museum in London. I encountered the "100 Objects" while visiting the museum in the summer of 2010, and I was delighted to learn several months later that the original radio scripts were being adapted into a book.

The result, as author Neil MacGregor reminds us, is simply "a" history of the world rather than "the" history. Each chapter tells the story of a unique object or set of objects, ranging from a hand axe and chopping tools that are more than a million years old through the modern credit card and a solar-powered lamp and charger. Some of the objects are famous, some are obscure, but each inspires its own intriguing story. Chapter by brief chapter, the book carefully and clearly describes each object, places it in its historical context, and explains what it meant (or may have meant) to the people who created, used or admired it.

The UK edition of the book is quite elegant--nearly 700 pages of high-quality paper with numerous striking color photographs showing each object from multiple vantage points. It makes a fine gift for friends and family who appreciate art, or history, or both, and it deserves pride of place on any bookshelf.

As an aside, for those interested in the original BBC Channel 4 Radio program that inspired the book, you can download each of the 100 original broadcasts on iTunes. They make a marvelous companion to the book.

It is Neil MacGregor's passion for sharing his enthusiasm and knowledge that makes this book such an enjoyable read. I heard a few of the programmes when he presented 'A History of the World...' on Radio 4 and was surprised at how interesting he could make a discussion of objects that we couldn't see. The same thing applies to the book. Although there are small black and white pictures of each of the objects and a few colour plates of some of them, mostly we have to use our imagination based on MacGregor's descriptions. This doesn't detract from the interest though because in reality the objects are merely jumping off points for MacGregor to discuss the various cultures that have arisen and faded during humanity's reign over the world.

Each bite-size piece focuses on one period of time in one place but they are grouped into time periods and themes which show the different cultures which shared the planet and how they interacted, or didn't, with each other. For me, this was a novel and very effective way of looking at world history. Like most Brits, I expect, my knowledge of British and European history far outweighs my knowledge of the history of the rest of the world. MacGregor uses themes such as The Rise of World Faiths and The First Global Economy to show the differences and similarities of what was happening across the world at roughly similar times, and to show how trade and commerce influenced almost every part of the world by disseminating ideas and values along with goods.

At times I felt I wanted to know more about a particular subject and found that a little frustrating, but this book could be seen in some respects as a taster to inspire the reader to look for more extensive histories of the cultures and periods that most interested him/her. Enjoyable, educational and inspiring - what more could you ask from a history?

PS The title of the review refers neither to Mr MacGregor nor myself thankfully - but to George Smith, first man to decipher the Flood Tablet - Chapter 16.

This sumptuously illustrated book by Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum, is an excellent example of why history is so much fun to study, at least if you do it the right way. The right way is to examine artifacts, learn their stories, and then learn how those stories fit into and affect the overall story.

All of the objects discussed here are to be found in the vast treasure trove of the British Museum. There are twenty parts, reflecting this book's origin in a series of programs broadcast by BBC radio. Arranged roughly chronologically, the objects range from Egyptian mummies to a Chinese lacquer cup to a chronometer from HMS Beagle all the way up to the last objects, a credit card and a solar powered lamp. The objects range across the human world, with examples from each continent and from varied cultures. Each object is illustrated and its significance explained, with a series of maps at the end to help readers better grasp context. It all makes for a fascinating volume that deserves to be kept at one's side for prolonged and thorough study.

All too often history is taught as a series of battles or as lists of dynasties or administrations. In this work MacGregor and his colleagues allow their readers to perceive history's true depth and beauty.

****
"Dr MacGregor all along modestly emphasized collegiality and collectivity in the making of the radio series, but ... Only he could have persuaded a galaxy of talking heads, ... crafted this very particular, idiosyncratic and tendentious, inevitably, but also transcendently humane, history." --Paul Cartledge, AG leventis professor, Cambridge University
*

The history of the world isn't one of separate civilizations - we're all linked, we all interact, and always have done, remarked the Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen. This work would be a great place to start, by picking out 100 objects from the British Museum, to tell "a" history of the world. Day by day a new treasure unearths, each one loaded with meaning. MacGregor and his museum colleagues to choose 100 objects "that had to range in date from the beginning of human history around two million years ago and come right up to the present day. The objects had to cover the whole world, as far as possible equally. All this is probably just nit-picking, but amazingly interesting.

Neil MacGregor relates the history of the world by reference to 100 objects that can be just found in the British Museum, which he is director. Gloriously unfamiliar objects such as the sphinx of Tarharqo: 680 BC, and Tang Tomb figurines: AD 728, were brought alive and placed in their historical and cultural milieu in an amusing and often exciting way. There are several underlying themes, most important of which McG stated on the first exhibit, the mummy of Horned-jitef, an Egyptian priest from the Temple of Karnak, who reminds the world of our common heritage. A map of the heavens on the inner coffin lid, as habitual in the Egyptian belief, was meant to guide the Egyptian through the after life.

That mankind has always tried to express itself artistically is one of the lessons we take from McG efforts. Mostly, the powerful have tried to dishonestly apply art for political propaganda, as was well illustrated by a Turkish coin with the head of Alexander the Great, or the bronze statue of the emperor Augustus, which was discovered in the Sudan. MacGregor comments sarcastically, "A thoughtful alien handling the banknotes of China and the United States today, might well assume that one was ruled by Mao and the other by George Washington." While AG leventis professor, Paul Cartledge believes that the book arising from Radio 4's popular history series is a valuable artifact in itself.

Another intellectual lesson in our global culture, is that events that we think at the epicenter to history might not be just the same in the estimation of our grandchildren or their children. MacGregor delights in the fact that among his objects, "Canonical events - the making of the Roman Empire, the Mongol destruction of Baghdad, the European Renaissance, the Napoleonic wars, the bombing of Hiroshima, ..." are not central stage. If there is an evident bias in his selections, it is for the losers in history's great struggles; McG's enjoys to make champions of underdogs whose societies were eclipsed centuries ago, and thereby coaches us to think of our own real place in the history of global civilization.

Creating a history of the world as conveyed through only 100 objects is no small task. Neil MacGregor set out to communicate how history, culture, language, and business have been impacted by 100 objects, and he has, for the most part, succeeded. With items ranging from an early writing tablet from Iraq to a credit card, and a shadow puppet from Indonesia to the Sutton Hoo helmet, MacGregor has a vast array of objects which are able to convey so much of what makes us human. As the Director of the British Museum, MacGregor has a wealth of knowledge, and that, I believe, is the only downfall of this book. With maps, an extensive bibliography, and over 600 pages of information, it is a bit overwhelming for the average reader. Because it is broken down by object, it is possible to jump from object to object, and thus from era to era, but it is a bit challenging to read through the book from cover to cover without feeling a bit overwhelmed.
Each item is highlighted in a single photograph, and while the images are beautiful, the paper on which the book is printed is not glossy as I had anticipated, and therefore, leaves the images occasionally looking dull or lackluster. While the history that is interwoven is fascinating, and MacGregor provides a wealth of information to readers, this is not a visual history - this is a text-heavy book. There is so much information and overall this book is vast in its expanse. I recommend it, but not for people trying to connect to history visually. (shelfishness.blog.com)

This book is great because it allows you to place yourself in the historical narrative. This book details the evolution of humanity in such a way that the reader sees themselves as being a thread connecting with the narrative. You feel like you are a part of this wonderful historical journey by reading this book. This book is written by an erudite scholar who has clearly studied the British Museum collection thoroughly for years. The author has wonderful insights into what it means to be human. I especially enjoyed the chapter on early cities and states. I never put it together that a lot of successful tv series center around a certain city, because the city defines the narrative of human interactions. I also enjoyed the insight that social networking sights are so successful because the average number of friends on Facebook, 350, is the average number that early civilizations had to deal with on a daily basis. Our brains evolved to process only a few hundred people in our "in-group" and our brains are not adapted to process the billions of people who currently live in the world. This helped me feel a connection to the objects in the book. I really enjoyed that the pieces featured are from a multitude of important and obscure religions, cultures and civilizations. This book really fills in some gaps about the mystery of humankind. Highly recommended.

As enriching as this book is approachable, I have enjoyed every moment as I take the time to read a chapter per day in this, my first year of retirement. I reflect on each chapter throughout the day (a chapter is typically three to four pages long), and am impressed how this history pulls together gaps of time and knowledge for me that renders a more comprehensive and complete understanding. The history of Eastern civilization is given equal footing to Western civilization. My fantasy would be to rent a small flat close to the British Museum and be able to visit it daily to examine first-hand the respective objects in each chapter. That would be a dream come true!

I first saw this book and its author, Neil MacGregor, featured on The Colbert Report, and my inner museum-happy kid went nuts. I had to get ahold of a copy. The writing is a joy to read and it evokes a beautiful mental picture of the objects being described, more than one could understand from a glance at a photograph (though there are plenty of those). I love how carefully the author selected the objects that he felt could best tell human history from 2 million years ago to today. He includes some of the more flashy, historical objects of grandeur we are used to, such as statues and sarcophagi, but frequently reaches for the objects that give a much different (and no less important) view of society, such as pestles, sandle labels, and credit cards.

It is an imaginative history book - in the introduction, the author explains how so many of these objects were taken from societies that had no written records, and who have long been forgotten, so in many cases, we can only imagine and hypothesize the full significance of the objects. And, he does this beautifully; it is a difficult line to walk because it can be easy to confuse fact with our own colored perceptions. He consults experts and descendants of these cultures where he can, and often makes conjectures of his own, but admits the holes in our knowledge. I appreciate this in a book; he allows the freedom to make theories, but reminds us of what we know, and more importantly, don't know.

I'd recommend this read to anyone who wants to gain a deep appreciation of where we, as humans, came from, what signifies our humanity, and perhaps where we are headed.

A confession: I love history so may have been unduly influenced with this choice. Yet, it holds amazing business lessons specifically how the best innovations served real needs. From the Olduvai Handaxe to the Early Writing Tablet to Korean Roof Tile to the Ming Banknote right up to the modern Credit Card, these incredible stories from our history offer practical instruction. Let me put this way – wouldn’t you like to know the answers to the following to amaze and amuse your colleagues … When were cows domesticated and why do we feed their milk to our children? Where were the first cities and what made them succeed? Who invented math-or came up with money? All kidding aside, the book reveals “who we are by looking at what we have made”.

MacGregor’s book is incredibly informative without being overwhelming. Each object, beautifully photographed, merits a few pages of background and explanation. Suitable for browsing or reading straight through. It is a massive tome, though, so you may need something to prop it up against while reading!

This is the text of 100 fifteen-minutes talks originally given on BBC Radio Four, and it is an absolute delight. Each object (they are all in the British Museum of which the author is the Director) gives clues to the cultural and/or political world in which it was produced. They come from every continent, and range in time from around two million years ago to 2010.

To give a flavour of MacGregor's treatment, here is how he deals with Object No 30, a bronze bell made between 500 and 400 BC and found in Shanxi Province, China. We learn not only about the importance of sets of bells at ceremonial occasions and even before battles, but of the importance of music, which Confucius considered as "playing a central part in the education of the individual - and indeed in the shaping of the state." Music reflects diversity and harmony: each bell, like each individual, has an assigned place in the whole. There is then a verbal description of the bell, of its great size ("about the size of a beer barrel", much larger than any bells that were cast in Europe before the Middle Ages), of the way it was decorated, of how it was played (not with a clapper, but by being struck from outside with a long wooden pole in a particular way), of the way the different sizes were standardized. For good measure, MacGregor begins the piece by seeing some significance in a part of the ceremony accompanying the hand-over of Hong Kong in 1997, when the British played The Last Post on a bugle ("a solo instrument connected with war and conflict"), while the Chinese played a piece on a set of ancient bells ("a group of instruments playing in harmony"). He thinks the choice of music was "on both sides, entirely characteristic."

MacGregor frequently brings out how interconnected our world is, either by how the materials of an object came from different countries, or by how it has travelled, or by how it was influenced by ideas that came from far away.

Each object is described in about five pages, and this is an ideal bed-side book, to read about a couple of objects each night.

But while the text merits five stars, the black-and-white illustrations at the head of each piece in the Penguin paperback edition are an absolute disgrace: small and so indistinct that the details described in the text are quite invisible. Only 28 of the 100 objects are in addition illustrated with fine colour plates. Perhaps the publishers thought that as the original radio talks were entirely verbal, these little black-and-white pictures were scarcely needed and were an additional bonus.

However, there is a superb website, which not only illustrates each object in colour, but allows you to zoom in on details, some of which have additional commentaries:

[...]

This book never ceases to surprise, enlighten and illuminate. At first it describes basic technological milestones achieved by our ancestors, then it narrates the formation and organization of early societies and polities. It then discusses the evolution of and interactions between civilizations. The prose is based on objects from the British Museum, and they are arranged in rough chronological order and grouped by themes. It thus gives the reader a sense of how humanity matures through time. It is in short quite an extraordinary achievement. Five stars.

Written by the director of the British Museum, the book constitutes a wonderful tour without the aggravation and expense of getting there. This covers the time period from mummies to credit cards and geography from Canterbury to Borneo. Each short text is accompanied by a color picture and an insert by an established expert in the field. There are items as famous as the Elgin Marbles and Rosetta Stone and a very interesting selection of banknotes, maps, cups and various paraphernalia showing life styles and scientific development as well as history.