The Columbia History of the World Author:John A. Garraty, Peter Gay The Columbia History of the World one of the few history books (like those of Nicholas Starling) that has impressed me because of its scholarly and "appropriately-detached" approach to certain emotional issues in world history. It does not impose upon the reader traditional biases and subjectivity but rather, it gives the facts as they... more » happened, presents the common perceptions attendant to them, and allows the reader to form his own judgment and draw his own conclusions.
There is no also no overbearing ethno-centrism, no unnecessary prejudices, no "good guys" or "bad guys" -- just a clear-flowing, unadulterated presentation of the last thousands of years of human history. I am not an expert of history nor do I claim to be. I am simply a history buff who finds thrill in world history as if it were a David Morrell or Robert Ludlum novel. I have read about four general world history texts (Gombrich, Roberts, Davis, Garraty) and I must say that Columbia will be my all-time favorite.
This book covers an amazing amount of material from the time the earth first started coalescing from space dust all the way through to the 1970's. The structure is perfect for categorizing political and cultural events to capture the essence of what was happening at a given point in time. It's designed to jump in and out of chapters (very good index, chapter headings, timelines, short sections). Each chapter is written by experts on that time, so you get the sense that you're always hearing from an expert, although each chapter "reads" a little differently.
The chapters are edited for a style approaching uniformity, yet often the writing reaches to eloquence, which must have flowed from the original author; Jacques Barzun's concluding chapter, "The State of Culture Today," is worthy of being read as a free-standing essay. And while most of the chapters have this free-standing, "encyclopedic" quality - making it a useful reference even if you haven't read it through -, they also allude to and ultimately complement each other so that continuous, if not seamless, reading of the book is possible to do with a good deal of pleasure.« less