counting this towards my reading goal because I read basically cover to cover and that's a lot of pages

counting this towards my reading goal because I read basically cover to cover and that's a lot of pages

This is one of the better History books I have read. The author uses clear language and doesn't try to sound smart by throwing in all the higher level jargon. The book contains great insights into world history and great details that I never knew before. Well done.

It is a textbook for a world history class. I read this after taking a Coursera class that covered the 2nd volume. Like the 2nd volume this one takes a non-Western world view, so you will see a lot more about China, India and the Middle East with not as much about Europe. That was good because I wanted to learn more about some of the other areas of the world. It starts with the first humans and covers until about the year 1000 AD.

*I read this textbook for class

This textbook does a great job at bringing up to speed almost all of human history (at least the parts they thought were important enough to be mentioned) for the reader. However, doing this makes them lack in many respects. One thing they didn't do so well on is spacing out the information dump. There is a LOT of information to take in when reading this textbook and almost every sentence contains a new detail and little-to-no expansion on anything prior. Therefore, when reading, it is imperative to have yourself completely focused and to avoid distractions. We had to answer questions based on the readings and I found myself having to refer to the textbook many times for some questions. Now, I wouldn't consider this an undergraduate-level textbook. I could definitely see this being used in an AP World History class or an IB class. The questions - at least for the digital version - were up to undergraduate level and the questions themselves were much harder than the textbook itself. Would I recommend this to anyone who wants to read a textbook and come up to speed with world history? Yes and no. Yes to those who will test themselves on what they read and No to those who will just be reading through it. I am sure there are better materials out there you can read to get a firmer grasp of early human history.

uh not entirely sure how to rate textbooks but this one was ok.
My biggest issue is just the lack of like non-European information. It is heavily focused on European actions and other continents do not get even half as much attention. China might be the one that gets the most, but even that is just a page or two compared to like the 10 pages Western powers get every chapter. I don't think any country south of the US border even got mentioned unless it was about the rise of colonialism or a dictatorship. And that was just one sentence and not ever elaborated on. Yeah the West were some of the strongest powers, but the face that so many colonial holdings got like no information about them is just sad.