A lovely, lively historical survey that takes in Neanderthals,
Hohenzollerns and just about everything in between. In 1935,
Viennese publisher Walter Neurath approached Gombrich, who would go
on to write the canonical, bestselling Story of Art, to translate a
history textbook for young readers. Gombrich volunteered that he
could do better than the authors, and Neurath accepted the
challenge, provided that a completed manuscript was on his desk in
six weeks. This book, available in English for the first time, is
the happy result. Gombrich is an engaging narrator whose
explanations are charming if sometimes vague. (Take the
kid-friendly definition of truffles: "Truffles," he says, "are a
very rare and special sort of mushroom." End of lesson.) Among the
subjects covered are Julius Caesar (who, Gombrich exults, was able
to dictate two letters simultaneously without getting confused),
Charlemagne, the American Civil War, Karl Marx, the Paris Commune
and Kaiser Wilhelm. As he does, he offers mostly gentle but pointed
moralizing about the past, observing, for instance, that the
Spanish conquest of Mexico required courage and cunning but was "so
appalling, and so shaming to us Europeans that I would rather not
say anything more about it," and urging his young readers to
consider that perhaps not all factory owners were as vile as Marx
portrayed them to be, even though the good owners "against their
conscience and their natural instincts, often found themselves
treating their workers in the same way"-which is to say, badly.
Conversational, sometimes playful-not the sort of book that would
survive vetting by school-system censors these days, but a fine
conception and summarizing of the world's checkered past for young
and old. (Kirkus Reviews)
A new book by Sir Ernst Gombrich, author of the international
bestsellers The Story of Art and Art & Illusion (among others),
and Director of the Warburg Institute of the University of London
1959-1976, is clearly an event. In 1935, with a doctorate and no
job, the 25 year-old Gombrich was invited by Walter Neurath (later
founder of Thames and IIudson) to attempt a history of the world
for younger readers. Written in an intense six weeks, Eine Kurze
Weltgeshichte fur Junge Leser was first published in Vienna the
same year. An immediate success, it has since been translated into
seventeen languages, tailored for the different markets. The
original German edition was reissued in 1985 with an Epilogue
bringing the story to the present, and Gombrich further revised it
shortly before his death, aged 92, in 2001. The Little History, as
it came to be known, has never been published in English until now.
In forty chapters, Gombrich tells the story of man from the stone
age to the atomic bomb. There emerges a colourful picture of wars
and conquests, grand works of art, the spread and limitations of
science, tribes evolving towards society. mankind's experience
across the centuries, a guide to man's achievements and an acute
witness to his frailties. What has made the Little History an
international success? The key is its tone - completely clear,
straightforward, relaxed, unpompous, humane - Gombrich makes
immediate contact with the curious of all ages. It is the product
of a pan-European sensibility, and is wholly free of nationalistic
preoccupations. The broad sweep of mankind's history seems freshly
intelligible when told in this profoundly generous spirit. The
first English edition of this classic book is being produced by
Yale to reflect its status as a timeless work to be collected and
savoured: fine design and setting, printed on a high quality of
paper, cloth binding, ribbon marker, and newly commissioned
illustrations.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
