A Little History of the World
by E.M. Gombrich
It's about time. I keep looking over
books for something that will
fit the strong desires of so many of us for a history book that
tells
the **story** of history without changing the facts to please a bias
or due to ignorance of the truth.
We humans have an inborn love of stories. We get together over the
dinner table and tell the story of our day. We gather at holidays
and
recount stories from our family histories.
God is the great storyteller and we are the characters in his drama.
Jesus told simple stories in the form of parables in order to relate
profound truths to His children. All children love a good story told
to them by a loving parent, children of all ages from the smallest
to
the most grown up of us. And the best stories of all are true
stories. Whether they actually happened in real life or are true in
the more broad sense of conveying truth about life, we crave and
need
to be fed by true stories.
So we homeschooling moms who are on a perpetual quest for the best
for
our children are constantly on the lookout for a good book to share
with our families. Unfortunately a story well-told that doesn't
contain truth can be a dangerous thing. In the midst of the
enjoyment
we can be swayed or misled into believing a lie, or half-truth, or
an
error. When my children (of all ages from adult to elementary age)
come home from a movie and I ask them how it was they almost
invariably say it was either "good" or "bad." I ask them what made
it
good or bad and usually what they mean is good = entertaining and
bad
= boring or not well made. If they say a movie (or book) was "good"
they know the next question from me will be, "was it morally good or
merely entertaining, or best of all, both?" An entertaining story
that is immoral is probably the most dangerous of all worlds.
But I digress. What I'm writing about is a little gem of a book
called A Little History of the World by E.H. Gombrich.
Although I enjoy the story format of popular histories for kids such
as Story of the World and A Child's History of the World, I can't
abide the errors and biases (probably unknowing but very common)
embedded in the entertaining story format.
But A Little History of the World doesn't fall to those
errors, in
fact it goes beyond that to giving one of the most balanced
presentations of difficult subjects such as the Crusades,
Inquisitions
and Reformation that I've found in a secular history book for young
people. This book is a charmingly told story-format overview
of world history from the beginnings to World War II. It makes
a good read-aloud or an independent read for
middle school through adults and also comes in a pleasing audio CD
format for history buffs of all ages!
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A Little History of the World
by E.M. Gombrich
$25.00
hardcover
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