A History of the World in 100 Objects

Fantastic resource for anyone who loves history, culture and/or museums. Even though the title reads *A* history, it could've been called *The* history, given the sheer breadth of the themes and civilizations this book covers. Loving and serious attention is paid to each object, with at least one

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gorgeous photograph per item, and to the stories about the past it evokes. This is geared toward a popular audience rather than a scholarly one (as was the original BBC radio series), so the essays aren't long ones, but they're cogent and full of illuminating quotes from scholars and other experts. The only problem I have is that now I want to visit the British Museum and thus have to figure out what to leave out of my luggage so I can fit this book in it.

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This is a book about common humanity. Each object is accompanied by a commentary, all of around equal length, that places the object in context, describes its features and explains what it reveals about the society in which it was made, and about humanity in general. The commentaries manage the

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difficult task of being simultaneously elucidating, fascinating and filled with factual detail. In a way, the level of detail might appear to make the book hard-going, but attentive reading is rewarding here and, having read the book chronologically, it is perfectly possible to return to a few favorite objects and re-read to learn even more. The objects themselves are almost always both intrinsically interesting, and revealing in context. The BBC site that accompanies the book is an excellent supplement to it.

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Magnificent! MacGregor gives his personal history of mankind using as his touchpoints one hundred objects selected from the collections of the British Museum in London (of which he is the Director). The objects are presented in chronological order and each receives a short essay (mostly around 3 or

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4 pages) putting the object in context and using it to illustrate some wider observation about the state of mankind’s development at that point in history.

Of course, in any work built up in this way there are many disagreemetns. That is what makes it fun! For me, the selection is heavy on art and religion and light on technology. Perhaps this is an artificial constraint applied by the vast but finite resources of the Museum. The essays are light but erudite and call on many experts and commentators with special interests to provide a very lively debate on what these objects mean. For some objects here we do not know who made them or what they were for and the mystery of the past is never far away in the whole collection. There is something to learn on every page.

The many illustrations are of a very high quality and clarity highlighting the object as a whole and focusing on telling details. Each picture merits closer and repeated examination. This brings another point home. Based on today’s technology this book cannot work in an e-book environment - Kindle, e-Reader, iBook, whatever. It is the marriage of the high quality illustrations with the text that draws the reader in to see beyond the mundane and into a special world of detail and interlocking thought and focus. A mention also for the superb binding and heavy paper, making this large 650+ page book easy to handle and read in extended chunks.

This is a book that must remain an individual object of its own and perhaps become part of some future inventory. Definitely worth very second of effort required to enjoy it.

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Absolutely fascinating. The length may seem daunting but one can always just dip in for an object or two and then resume daily life. At first I thought- for anthropologists only, since many of the earliest items are about the dawn of civilization, as it were. But as one progresses through the book,

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delighted by MacGregor's lively comments, there is art, history, politics, religion- the whole catastrophe of human habitation. Besides the usual suspects (Elgin Marbles/Rosetta Stone), there are some marvelous eye openers: the Ife head from what is now Nigeria as well as a brass plaque from Benin clearly show the achievements of a well-evolved African culture. My personal favorite was the tughra(calligrahpic monogram)of Suleiman the Magnificent.

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This is an absolutely fascinating (and beautiful!) book. Really - it is public archaeology at its best.

Most interesting and very well done. I did not know that all of the 100 objects were to be found in the British Museum, but that enhances the background to each piece since the curators have done so much work. JPH

The genesis of this book sprung from a radio program on the BBC in which the British Museum attempted to tell the history of the world in 100 objects. The book is the fruition of the radio program. I think the book did a pretty good job of covering items from all periods all over the planet and

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some objects were extremely fascinating. Some favorites included the Mummy of Hornedjitef, Head of Augustus, Hoxne Pepper Pot, Lothair Crystal, The Lewis Chessmen, and the Mechanical Galleon to name a few. The objects were for the most part, things everyday people used. Coins, maps, pipes, pottery, and items of religious significance were all included in the book. I now have a burning desire to go to the museum to see the items in person. The topic of whether the British Museum should even own these world treasures was briefly glossed over in the section on the Elgin Marbles. For more information on this controversial topic pick up the excellent Loot: The Battle Over the Treasures of the Ancient World by Sharon Waxman.

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I so like this book! Not only does one travel in time, one also travels around the entire world, and learns so much. (if one only could remember as well!!!) Well written, accessible and clever at the same time, but never ever pretentious, just so interesting you do not like to put it down.

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Wonderful pictures. It does not make me want to move to London, it makes me want to move to British Museum. For anybody who likes travel and history, this is a must. For anybody who likes knowledge- I can only encourage you to either buy the book, or the DVDs, as this originally was a BBC series. My version has a downside- I have the hardback - and bragging, with autograph of the author- and it is too heavy to schlepp around.

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This is a hefty tome. It informs and excites one about 100 objects selected by the Director of the British Museum , Neil MacGregor from the British Museum . The book had its origins as a series of BBC radio talk.. So the style is verbal, oral spoken and hence colloquial. it is not scholarly as one

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might have expected from academic writing nor does it enter into interpretive debate . there are world maps showing the origins of each item and so this is a virtual tour of world history seen throug objects and treasures that have survived either through love or random circumstances. makes one appreciate the fragility of life,, what people consider important at the time and what becomes important over time. the inclusion of objects on this specific 100 list is a personal choice of MacGregor and what came to be acquired by the BM. on past visits I have seen some of these items like the golden mechanical miniature galleon or the Hoxne pepper pot. But if you have not seen all 100 this book can be your guide to the BM . not all objects are beautiful but each has a different story to tell and throw light on the human condition, For example, the solar powered lamp and charger tells us about the possible future solutions and bring the human story to thr present. The book is arranged chronologically , and is well and copiously illustrated. There is a beginner scholar bibliography and an index. A stunning book well worth the £30 purchase price . On its way to being a favourite,

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A beautifully designed and illustrated, endlessly fascinating tour of human civilization from its beginning to now through artifacts from all over the world. Insightful, completely engaging, and filled with many surprises.

This is a nice big thick book with lots of juicy wonderful pictures.

THe author, a curator of the British museum, has the airs of a fascinating and scholarly tour guide, and shows pieces diverse - from the oldest known tools to a modern credit card and a solar lamp. Some are ornate and expensive

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(the model mechanical ship is astonishing), and some are broken fragments, or tools left behind as little fragments, which reveal some little fragments of the lives of those before us.

The book also has a nice geographic depth - objects from every continent are here. Europe, the Middle East, and East Asia get a generous share, but so do the Middle East, Polynesia, both North and South America, Africa, (with some of the oldest objects (stone hand axe) to the newest (throne built from machine-guns)). Each gets a little essay on its importance and symbolic value.

A wonderful book, and hopefully one where you'll stop looking at the colorful pictures long enough to read the placards and listen to the tour guide.

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Fantastic resource for anyone who loves history, culture and/or museums. Even though the title reads *A* history, it could've been called *The* history, given the sheer breadth of the themes and civilizations this book covers. Loving and serious attention is paid to each object, with at least one

Show More

gorgeous photograph per item, and to the stories about the past it evokes. This is geared toward a popular audience rather than a scholarly one (as was the original BBC radio series), so the essays aren't long ones, but they're cogent and full of illuminating quotes from scholars and other experts. The only problem I have is that now I want to visit the British Museum and thus have to figure out what to leave out of my luggage so I can fit this book in it.

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The objects are from the British Museum and I'm picking this book up and reading them at random. They're interesting little slices of history, many of regions I know nothing about. Very pleasant.

Wow, this book took awhile for me to get through. So much interesting information that I had to read only a few sections per sitting if I had any hope of retaining what I read. I found the objects to be very interesting, the photography beautifully executed and the writing to be very concise and

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accessible. I caught myself thinking "you can't know that! you're just guessing!" more than a few times as the author tried to speculate with what felt like a lot of imagination, about some of the objects. Overall, though, this is a great book and one that I will refer back to again and again over time.

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Brilliant!

The book of the radio series. Both excellent. A choice of a 100 objects from around the world from the collection of the British Museum. Each one put into it's context in a few pages. Inevitably a little eurocentric but at least it attemps global coverage. Scholarship made accessible. Well done.

Something to know: The audio version is the BBC Radio 4 series, the book, which came later, is almost, but not quite, a transcription of the series.

One would think that discussions of 100 objects from the British Museum, some obscure, some very well known, would be just my thing. The book, at

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least, includes excellent photographs, while the radio show allows the listener to enjoy a variety of accents. But there the enjoyment stops. What unspeakable twaddle the celebrities, e.g., Michael Palin, the Archbishop of Canterbury, David Attenborough, utter to satisfy the script! I like speculations about our human ancestors, I would probably happily read a whole novel about how the reindeer sculpture on the mastodon tusk came to be. But, oh, the fatuous utterances of the Archbishop of Canterbury about the religious meaning of that artifact! I can not stand them. So I abandoned the book entirely.

I'll mention one odd bit, the understanding of how long ago humans reached the North American continent has varied widely in the past 70 years. A book on Carbon 14 published around 1960, [Carbon-14, and Other Science Methods That Date the Past] places early humans as far back as 30,000 years ago, based on radio-carbon evidence. This book, published around the year 2000, gives an estimate of 13,000 years ago. A book published more recently, [Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past], agrees much better with the earlier book.

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Finished this last night. What a remarkable, lovely book. I can't recommend it highly enough. I feel as though it's a curator/archivist's love letter to the world. I learned quite a bit, and will definitely go back to it from time to time, but more importantly came away from it with a profound

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sense of the deep interconnectedness of people across space and time.

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LOVED the BBC podcast, and can't wait to see how my imagination matches the images!

A great nightstand book. Can't sleep, there are many short chapters but be careful this book can become addictive.