Sunday, May 08, 2011

Atlas of Empires by Peter Davidson, published by New Holland

Reviewed by Auckland writer and commentator Gordon McLauchlan

For two generations or more, H G Wells’s A Short History of the World, a Penguin paperback, was the must-read for anyone who aspired to a complete education and a background knowledge of humanity. It was, until recently, on the list of required reading compiled by American intellectual Will Durant, but I haven’t seen it (except my own copy) for a number of years now.

          The most impressive record of human history recently published is Peter Watson’s prodigious Ideas, a History of Thought and Invention from Fire to Freud which, if read and digested well, would in itself produce a roundly well educated person. But it requires a huge amount of time and concentration

So what I admire most about the Atlas of Empires is its succinct and perceptive account of history from the earliest days of settlement and civilisation in Mesopotamia about eight millennia ago to the European Union. It is an ideal introduction to the human story.

The book is beautifully and meaningfully illustrated, the maps placing the narrative in detailed geographical context.

It is about ‘empires’ in the broadest sense, about ascendant cultures which have deeply influenced the world around them, and contributed towards the spread of knowledge and understanding.

This doesn’t mean they have often, if at all, been benign and well intentioned. They have rather been driven by the lust for wealth and power of individuals or sovereign groups. But without this desire to grow from nations to empires we would probably still be living in fishing and farming villages.

I haven’t seen any introduction to world history and how the modern world came about as useful as this among recent publications, so it is to be welcomed.  

No comments: