1001 events that shaped the world

Here is a little secrete of mine. During my schooling, I scored 98 in social studies.  (until my friend quips in to say that he scored 101; yes the total marks were for 200; and I just scored 49%).   History and Geography books used to be very dry accounts of people, place, and events and I always wondered why all these happened.  Be it the printing of the book, or the context of the text, lack of pictures (most of them were hand drawing or black and white faded images) and appeared more like a law book.  There was no sufficient material for me to think that I am proud of this country's history.

These days, having been exposed to a lot of new age books and popular historian authors, History is really a fascinating subject for me.  It made me pick several books on history accounts and I really did read them all.

The recent pick being 1001 events that shaped the world. A voluminous, encyclopedia kind of book, it has sequence of events narrated starting with BC and until recent '80s.  With a One Page - One Event concept, its really easy reading and a great compilation. Unlike other history books, there is nothing to memorize here. Almost every page has a suitable picture. Where photographs are not available, the oil paintings and art pictures are presented. But mind you, most of the oil pictures had nudity, violence, massacres, murders - not really disturbing but unless you make up your mind that this is our history and this was how the pictures were drawn.  One odd finding was that Gandhi's death was in colour photo - I am wondering if it was taken from the movie. The Index that appears at the beginning of the book is another wonderful listing countrywise.

I recommend this book to nourish your general knowledge. Its expensive. But its not just a coffee table kind; it truly has the essentials.

Tags: Books, History