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A Little History Of The WorldEditions
ReviewWritten when he was a graduate student in Vienna in 1935, this was in fact the first book by the man who later wrote the bestselling Story Of Art. Although suppressed in Austria and Germany, after the war it was widely translated but not into English. Once he was living among the English, Gombrich found that their view of history was too Anglocentric for what he had written. Late in life, however, and particularly with the events in Europe during the late 1980s, he felt that his book could be usefully published in English. But he wanted to translate it himself and to make various alterations and additions. He was doing this when he died in 2001. A Little History Of The World is a beguiling children¹s book, which would benefit most from being read aloud. It starts from earliest prehistory, ŒOnce upon a timeŠ¹ and proceeds in short chapters by way of Ancient Egypt, Babylon, Greece, Rome, Christianity and so forth. But is is thematic rather than clumpily structured according to civilizations. So for example the chapter on medieval Europe is entitled ŒEmperors in the Age of Chivalry¹; there is a chapter on the European wars of Religion, another on the rise of Japan, and then again on the Enlightenment. Gombrich is not afraid of giving dates and facts, but he introduces them with immense charm, as friends rather than enemies. This is a glorious book, intended to introduce children (of perhaps 10-13?) to the pleasure of studying history. There will be challenging moments for a child, but Gombrich does not condescend, indeed by presuming that they can read his book he shows respect, and this will carry any intelligent child along. There is a poignant conclusion when he talks about the terrible events of the 20th century and the history that he lived through, and it is true that he does not inveigh against the iniquities of Soviet Russia but then the book was written in 1935. However, it is emphatically NOT a Marxist-Leninist tract as one critic has bafflingly asserted. It is a magnificent introduction to history that I, for one, wish I had been able to read as a child. It will surely become a classic. - review by Johnny de Falbe |
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