ESL here. The lack of leisure has always made it difficult for me to enjoy my interest of world history. Roughly a year ago I followed the advice of many and picked the Penguin History of the World. I have finished nearly 1000 pages, and I find this book fascinating albeit frustrating on three levels:
- It seems this book can be sometimes unnecessarily verbose, indirect, and even "vague" in its writing… In many instances, the book won't name names when it absolutely helps with understanding history with the right amount of googling.
- There is something about its writing style… Maybe I should refer to them as literary devices which frequently appear in old-school English writing? Such as Anastrophe, Chiasmus, and even the usage of slangs? I am fond of English, it's just that literary devices make it even more difficult to understand when I am fairly ignorant of history already.
- This is just my personal unpopular opinion, but I disagree with the book's stance that all civilizations/cultures are equally valuable. In books, I prefer facts and statistics over conclusions.
So could you guys reccomend a world history book that is less fancy, more down-to-earth in its writing style, but still on-par with Penguin History in its academic rigor (not sure if Penguin history is counted as historically accurate though) and content length, preferably written before 2000? Thanks in advance.
by Zimber-monk-6233