Author: John Bowle
Publisher: 5th June 2022 by Sapere Books
Pages: 429 pages
How I Read It: ARC book
Genre: nonfiction, history
My Rating: 3 cups
Synopsis:
How have societies, cultures and traditions from across the globe shaped our conception of who we are as human beings in the modern world?
Many who love history become fascinated with certain aspects of the past, be that Tudor England, Renaissance Italy or the American Civil War. John Bowle encourages us to look beyond our own interests and to examine the entirety of world history, from Ming China to pre-Columbian America, medieval Africa to Mughal India. Bowle’s book allows the reader to reassess the past, revealing aspects of humanity’s journey which we might previously have overlooked but which undoubtedly have impacted the world we live in today.
In this study covering over six thousand years of history, from our archaic origins through to the twentieth century, Bowle demonstrates civilizations that have risen and fallen, how religions and scientific ideas have shaped the way we think, how trade and language have allowed disparate communities to work together, and how our overlapping histories continue to form us.
Written in accessible and entertaining language Man Through the Ages should be an essential refresher of the global history of mankind.
My Thoughts
I was intrigued to read this book because as Santayana reputedly said, ‘those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it’. I have a great passion for history. To consider that this book had originally been published in 1966 (some sections even supposedly four years prior under a different title) it is amazing to appreciate the foresight and understanding exhibited by the author.
John Bowle was born in 1905 in England. He was a history master, lecturer, professor at a range of notable colleges from 1947 onwards. He wrote many historical books on not just history but Western politics and opinions and was editor of the 1971 Encyclopaedia of World History. He knew his stuff! I appreciated how the author opened my eyes to look beyond what was familiar:
‘The debt of our own civilization to Greece, Israel and Rome is widely appreciated, but few Europeans who are not experts understand the debt of Cambodia, Thailand, Burma and Indonesia to southern India, or of the Japanese to China.’
Whilst on the one hand this is a thorough and illuminating citation in so many respects, it is however, purely academic and not truly accessible for all readers. I have a great fascination for history, not only for interest's sake but also as a key to understanding how it has shaped our present world. Unfortunately, however, this book took a great deal of effort to delve through and find the gems I was hoping to discover.
It is a brave undertaking for any person to try and write a history of the world. Yet it is very clear from the outset that this book - academic in nature- highlights how even still today, we are in danger of not learning from lessons of the past:
‘The danger is all the more urgent since, although never in history has political change been so fast, it has lagged behind the technological developments that have dragged mankind after them and created so urgently the need for world order as the alternative to catastrophe.’
This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.
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