The World: A Family History

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The World: A Family History

The World: A Family History

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At heart, though, my objection to The World: A Family History is more substantial than these points. I would describe SSM’s approach to the work as being, essentially, salacious tabloid. It is a conglomeration of gory violence; sexual activity, particularly favouring slightly eccentric varieties, and rape; excessive alcohol and drug-usage; and general scatology. (It is something of a paradox, then, that he describes Martin Luther as “fixated on faeces and sex”, the “faecal fulminator”.) I should mention that Montefiore also enjoys describing the appearance of misshapen or disfigured individuals. And there are many times when trivial information is included amongst the omission of significant historical events. Thus a whole paragraph is dedicated to details of “Haroun’s wedding to his double first cousin Zubaida (which) was said to have been the greatest party of all time” in 1782. Regardless of my personal reading experience, it would be a crime not to mention the extraordinary and out-of-this-world research behind this book. Spanning millennia and continents, it covers the history of the world as we know it from the perspective of prominent families, some more well-known than others, but all of them fascinating nonetheless. I was mesmerised by this comprehensive look at world history and ultimately saddened to realise that, throughout the years, conflict, death and the suffering of millions of humans usually begin with the greed of a few. This is world history on the most grand and intimate scale – spanning centuries, continents and cultures, and linking grand themes of war, migration, plague, religion, medicine and technology to the people at the centre of the human drama. Even with the length of this book, the history of the world is sometimes a pretty basic overview. I did like that families are a big part of the narrative. Any section that piques your interest should be followed up by finding other books that go in depth.

Succession meets Game of Thrones.”— The Spectator•“The author brings his cast of dynastic titans, rogues and psychopaths to life…An epic that both entertains and informs.”— The Economist, Best Books of the Year I should mention, though, that Montefiore has provided an extensive reading list online, a resource which is vastly under-utilised by authors of history books; many would greatly benefit from the possibility of providing online many more photographs, illustrations and maps than are practicably available in a bound book. The book is written in a curious mixture of styles. There is the tabloid argot (“Philadelphos supposedly kept nine paramours, of whom the star was a badass chariot-racing Greek beauty Belistiche.”). And there is a prolific use of genital vocabulary which would never have seen light of day in tabloid publications. But there is also a slightly exhibitionist use of rare words. “Bertie, the twenty-five-year-old pinguid Prince of Wales”, for example. And the Arab world is “fissiparous”. At times, this becomes intrusive and obfuscatory. One chapter contains “frizelate” or various forms of it, in several instances. Neither my collection of dictionaries, nor ChatGPT, recognise this word, although it would seem, from the context, to have some sort of sexual connotation. Montefiore’s novel approach is based on the argument that the family is the essential unit of human existence – even in the age of the iPhone, artificial intelligence, robotics and space travel. He uses the stories of multiple families over dozens of generations, living on every continent and in every era, to tell the human story. From the master storyteller and internationally bestselling author - the story of humanity from prehistory to the present day, told through the one thing all humans have in common: family.This book is one of the worst books ever written by a very respected historian. The problem starts quite at the beginning with the title: The World. It is NOT a world history, but the history of the elites and various famous families which ruled the many parts of the world. Thus, if you think that you will find some information or data or anything which describes the everyday life of such and such a group of people who were the common people, you will wait in vain. I thought this was a good book. But it had so much information in it that eventually I seem to have forgotten what I read. What I found really interesting though was how in the same chapter the author switched from events in one area of the world, like Rome, to another, like China. I loved reading how the different empires interacted and it was so interesting to read what events took place at around the same time. I did not enjoy the book itself, but I believe it will add context and depth to future, far more limited, narrations of specific historical events and people. I admire the effort expended to create this vast panorama of mankind. The book achieved it's purpose for me, but significant effort and perseverance were required for me to complete it. Seriously good fun... the Soviet march on Berlin, nightmarish drinking games at Stalin's countryhouse, the magnificence of the Bolshoi, interrogations, snow, sex and exile... lust adultery and romance. Eminently readable and strangely affecting." Sunday Telegraph

SSM’s evident enjoyment of salacious details – of who chopped the largest number of enemy penises off, or who laid the largest number of concubines or other people’s wives (or husbands) – occasionally obscures other interesting aspects. I enjoyed all the sex and depravity for sure, but I’d have welcomed a bit more on the more boring things they did too. For example, after quite a detailed account of bedroom cavortings in Empress Wei’s court around 85 B.C., a throwaway phrase mentions that these oversexed charmers had also doubled the scale of China’s cultural artefacts and activity. It’s true the book is called a “Family History” and not a “cultural history”, but the mountain of genitalia surely gives a slightly incomplete picture of the ancient world.

In this epic, ever-surprising book, Montefiore chronicles the world’s great dynasties across human history through palace intrigues, love affairs, and family lives, linking grand themes of war, migration, plague, religion, and technology to the people at the heart of the human drama. Aan het einde van die dunne dikbedrukte 1.400 pagina's overheerste bij mij dankbaarheid. Ik leef in een zeldzaam vreedzaam tijdperk. What I liked most was the choice to jump between concurrent stories. While it may be confusing to some, for me it helped put things in chronological context. I think it’s easy to forget when things happened in relation to each other. I also found the book easy to read, despite the conversational tone getting a little too chummy at times for my taste. The author included information about many women, who are often left out of histories written by men. Visibility was also given to sexual minorities, who have of course existed forever (sometimes with more acceptance than experienced today) despite the beliefs of some modern bigots. Some of the ancient history that was new to me sent me down research rabbit holes. Another aspect of this is his custom of blithely suggesting he is the only historian to have recognised or understood some particular matter. “Western history writing often…” or “This is much neglected by historians” he laments, without naming the errant scholars. Ongoing Covid restrictions, reduced air and freight capacity, high volumes and winter weather conditions are all impacting transportation and local delivery across the globe.

One word for Montefiore’s book: magisterial.”— Ben Okri, Booker Prize–winning author of The Famished Road The book can read a bit tedious especially when I hit points in history I knew more about, but the earliest times and the more current I found to be the most interesting. The earliest because I didn't know much of those histories and the current, because it was interesting to look at modern times from the lens of history. Familiedynastieën wilden maar 1 ding: de macht in de familie houden en bij voorkeur uitbreiden. Veroveringen waren nodig om kinderen macht te geven. En als het niet met het zwaard lukte, dan was een huwelijk ook een goede optie. Vrouwen waren daarbij machtiger dan wij denken. A delightfulworldhistory, told through influential families. . . .Thedevice of weaving togetherthe past usingthemost enduring and essential unit of human relations is inspired. It lets readers empathize with people who helped shape historical events and were shaped bythem. . . .Themethod also allowstheauthor to cover every continent and era, and to give women and even children a voice and presence thatthey tend to be denied in more conventional histories. . . . Despitethebook’s formidable length,there is never a dull moment.Thestory moves at pace across terrible battles, court intrigues, personal triumphs and disasters, lurid sexual practices and hideous tortures. . . .Theauthor tellsthese stories with verve and palpable relish fortheunbridled sex and inventive violence that run throughthem. His character sketches are pithy and witty. . . .Thefootnotes, often short essays inthemselves, havetheacid drollery of Edward Gibbon. . . . Overall this book is a triumph and a delight, an epic that entertains, informs and appalls in enjoyably equal measure.” — TheEconomistMr. Montefiore's conclusions are spot on. Any government, political idea only lasts a limited time. Change is inevitable. Families are the most important thing we as humans can achieve. Around 950,000 years ago, a family of five walked along the beach and left behind the oldest family footprints ever discovered. For award-winning historian Simon Sebag Montefiore, these poignant, familiar fossils serve as an inspiration for a new kind of world history, one that is genuinely global, spans all eras and all continents, and focuses on the family ties that connect every one of us.

I wish this had been shorter. I don't think that could have been possible. I feel like I missed a lot, my mind would glaze over if I read it for too long, and since I borrowed it from the library and I had a limited time to read it I had to push myself and read more in one sitting that I would have liked to. Gripping. Montefiore’s characters snare our sympathy and we follow them avidly. This intricate at times disturbing, always absorbing novel entertains and disturbs and seethes with moral complexity. Characters real+fictitious ring strikingly true.It is to a large extent Tolstoyan …..” The AustralianTL;DR - The World, A Family History is a trule global perspective with great writing style. However, the book is a bit too ambitious which risks flooding the reader with so much info it becomes overwhelming. Reading this book without any prior knowledge of Irish History one would come away with the conclusion that the most significant thing that happened in Ireland in the 1840s (or any other time between the late 17th and late 20th centuries) was that an aristocratic lady called Eliza Lynch changed her name to Lola Montez and seduced the mad King of Bavaria. Interestingly, he describes an earlier visitor to a Central European Court, Edward Kelly as being an "Earless Irish Necromancer" though he was born in Gloucester and little is known of his ancestry. Unsurprisingly, power has often adhered to families as megalomaniacs who are stunned by their mortality seek to evade it by resort to dynasty. So a family focus is logical in those instances; however, there are as many, or more, instances where power passes outside the family. So it is questionable whether there really is a family-focus. One interesting aspect to the family-focus, however, comes in his extending biographical details to notable individuals’ childhood and their un-notable forebears. This is the sort of thing that one finds in a biography, but not so often in a wide-ranging history. I must say, though, that, having read the whole book, I gained little sense of “the capacity for joy and kindness” or “ the faces of love and the devotion of family.” Somewhat off-putting was the number of times Montefiore’s own family popped unexpectedly into view. As part of this trend, we are told of his own schoolboy interview of Margaret Thatcher, and her apparent reaction to his cheek by determining never again to be subjected to such an interview. There is a little vain self-aggrandisement to this. I have mixed feelings about this type of History as it pays so little attention to the great majority of people who have ever lived, though the figures at the top who make the important decisions are often fascinating figures in their own right and a lot of social/economic history can be deathly dull and of little interest to the regular reader.



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