Summary
Simon Sebag Montefiore: The World: A Family History
The master of storytelling and author of international bestsellers brings us the story of the human race from prehistory to the present, told through what is common to all mankind: through families.
We start from the footprints of a family that walked the coast 950,000 years ago, and from there Montefiore takes us on an exciting epic journey through the families that shaped our world: the Caesars, the Medici and Zulus, Ottoman and Mughal lineages, Bonapartes, Habsburgs and Incas, Rockefellers and Krupps, Churchill, Kennedy, Castro, Nehru, Pahlavi and Kenyatta families, Saudis, Kims and Assads.
A rich list of characters creates the living heart of the story. Some were famous – or infamous – leaders, from Alexander the Great, Attila, Mansa Musa, Ivan the Terrible and Genghis Khan to Hitler, Margaret Thatcher, Obama and Putin. Others were creators, from Socrates, Michelangelo and Shakespeare to Newton, Mozart, Balzac, Freud and Bowie.
Some are less well known: Hungwu, the beggar and later founder of the Ming dynasty; Kamehameha, conqueror of Hawaii; Zenobia, the empress who defied Rome; Henri, King of Haiti; Mrs. Murasaki, first writer; Sayida el Hura, Moroccan pirate queen. Here are not only kings and queens, but also prophets, swindlers, actors, gangsters, artists, scientists, doctors, magnates, lovers, wives, husbands and children.
This is world history on a grand scale; it spans centuries, continents and cultures and connects them through wars, migrations, diseases, religion, medicine and technology to the people at the center of humanity's drama. Enchanting as a novel, this book evokes the human race in an unprecedented way and all its joys and sorrows, loves, inventions and cruelties, in one story that will forever push the boundaries of what history can achieve.
Share your experience and help other readers choose.
Vrhunska knjiga, sjajno
Biblos Newsletter
New titles, special copies and quiet recommendations from the antiquarian bookshop.
