Eine kurze Weltgeschichte für junge Leser, Von der Renaissance bis heute (ungekürzt)

Geschrieben von Ernst H. Gombrich

Erzählt von Christoph Waltz

Ernst H. Gombrich, einem der herausragendsten Gelehrten des 20. Jahrhunderts, gelang, was heute unglaublich erscheint: auf wenigem Raum die Geschichte der Menschheit prägnant und überzeugend zu schildern. Eine bis heute nicht erreichte und schon gar nicht überholte Leistung dieses großen Mannes. In seiner ebenso leichten wie bildreichen Sprache veranschaulicht er Entwicklungen und Zeitenwenden und charakterisiert Persönlichkeiten und Auseinandersetzungen so lebendig, dass seine Schilderungen den Hörer das große und komplexe Geschehen in einem Zug erfassen lassen.

• Sprache: Deutsch
• Herausgeber: Argon Verlag
• Erscheinungsdatum: 23. Aug. 2012
• ISBN: 9783866100992

Rezensionen für Eine kurze Weltgeschichte für junge Leser, Von der Renaissance bis heute (ungekürzt)

[jbd1 · Bewertung: 4 von 5 Sternen]

For what this is, a readable short history of the world, it does very nicely. There are of course things that would be written or emphasized very differently if anyone tried to do such a thing now, but no matter. The little chapter headcaps are a delight, too.

[markwhiting-479218 · Bewertung: 5 von 5 Sternen]

This is a really lovely little book of the history of the world. It's concise, well written and suitable for anyone of any age.

[vguy_6 · Bewertung: 5 von 5 Sternen]

Lovely book. Written for children but a delight for adults too, even those (like me) who fancy they know their history. Some lyrical visual passages that make one elated at the thought of being part of this great narrative, a scope that suggests that history does make some kind of sense. Enjoyed the familiar bits (Roman Empire) as well as the less familiar (Holy Roman Empire). Got bit frustrated with his sub-Marxian picture of the Industrial Revolution as all bad news, but then forgave him when his Afterword apologised and adjusted the viewpoint.

[britt84 · Bewertung: 3 von 5 Sternen]

I'm a bit torn about this one...I did enjoy reading it. It gives a nice bit of history in short chapters and accessible language. It's meant for kids, and Gombrich uses a colloquial style, writing as if he's talking to you - it really feels like there's a nice uncle or grandfather telling you cool stories. I can very much understand why this book was once a very popular work as an introductory history text for children.My problem with the book is twofold though:Firstly, it is very much a book of it's time. I guess you can't really blame an author for writing in a way that is in keeping with the ideas in his own era, but reading the book nowadays some parts make you cringe. Gombrich writes very much from the point of view that Western Europe is the civilized world and Christianity the 'right' religion. Other peoples are described as primitive and he often breaths a sigh of relief that we weren't born in places with such barbaric culture. I think nowadays historians try to be more objective and more accepting of other cultures, keeping in mind that no culture is 'right' or 'wrong', they're just different.Secondly, tying into his way of writing about other countries and cultures, the book is not really a history of the 'world'- it's a history of (mainly Western) Europe and Christianity, with some chapters about the ancient middle east (as the seat of our culture and Christianity) and a chapter about China. North and South America, Africa and Asia are really only mentioned as far as their relation to Europe is concerned. Australia apparently doesn't exist at all. I understand that Gombrich was aiming for a brief introductory text, but leaving most of the world out as if nothing important ever happened there is terribly eurocentric.Though I did enjoy the book, and like said, I understand that it was popular at the time of publication, I feel like it's too outdated to still be relevant in this day and age. I would certainly not give it to my children as a history book, since I do not wish my children to be exposed to such cultural bias. It is a pity though, in a way it would be nice if somebody were to rewrite this book, in the same style, but with a more modern approach.One final remark: I found it very interesting to read the last chapter - this was added in 1989, and discusses a bit of very recent history and the future. It is interesting at this moment to see the positivity with which Gombrich viewed the world, and I do remember this sense of optimism from the nineties: the economy would only get better, more countries would profit from greater wealth, hunger and disease would be eradicated and increasing international relations would bring people across the world closer together and end wars... At that time, with the Soviet Union collapsing and large economic growth and scientific progress, this was how many people felt. I can only regret that, in our current time, the predictions seem to have been false and there is much less reason to be optimistic.

[zhoud2005 · Bewertung: 5 von 5 Sternen]

Easy to understand and fun to read.

[joeydag · Bewertung: 4 von 5 Sternen]

A wonderful introduction to a western oriented world history written for an older preteen audience. The last chapter is very interesting in that the author added this chapter for the English translation and it is 50 years more up to date and is focused changes that took place during the author's lifetime. Those events include WWII, holocaust, atomic bombs, etc.

[leandrod-2 · Bewertung: 4 von 5 Sternen]

Very pleasant. Perhaps more optimistic than events warrant, but very pleasant indeed.

[kottenbrookk · Bewertung: 3 von 5 Sternen]

This work of literary nonfiction has been enjoyed by children all over the world for years, but its limited perspective and questionable accuracy make it a better source of entertainment than of information for today’s young readers. Originally published in Austria in 1935, A Little History seeks to provide a child-friendly introduction to the whole of human history, from the cavemen to the contemporary age. It reads like a kind grandfather telling a child a very long story. The author does not attempt to be objective; he often gives opinions and makes judgments that give context to his subjects and refers to himself and to the reader. The book reads like a product of another time, though it was recently updated. While Gombrich speaks respectfully about all cultures and religions, his affinity for Christianity and Judaism are apparent. In spite of the fact that the history of the world concerns people of many races, Gombrich only mentions skin color when describing cruel or barbaric groups. That the book does not focus on Britain or the U.S.A. is refreshing, but it still neglects Asia, Africa, and South America. Finally, no sources or references are provided, which calls into question the accuracy of much of the book. While A Little History is entertaining, as a source of information it does not hold up to the standards placed on history texts today and is best valued for its own historical significance. Additional Purchase. Grades 5-10.

[seth_g · Bewertung: 5 von 5 Sternen]

So much to be said about this wonderful writer and this wonderful book, meant to be read aloud to young people. But for now, this tidbit, which stopped me cold:

"And having grown tired of his empire, along with its sun that never set, Charles V installed his brother Ferdinand as ruler of Austria and emperor of Germany, and gave Spain and the Netherlands to his son Philip. He then withdrew, in 1556, an old and broken man, to the Spanish monastery of San Geronimo de Yuste. It is said that he spent his time there repairing and regulating all the clocks. He wanted them to chime at the same time. When he didn't succeed, he is reported to have said, 'How did I ever presume to try to unite all the peoples of my empire when I cannot, even once, persuade a few clocks to chime together.' He died lonely and embittered. And as for the clocks of his former empire, whenever they struck the hour, their chimes were further and further apart."

[janglen_2 · Bewertung: 4 von 5 Sternen]

This is a great overview of history. The focus is on Europe but realistically to ask for whole world coverage would be asking for a book three times the size. This is readable and never gets bogged down in detail, so it provides an excellent starting point for anyone trying to get to grips with the events of the past.

[whitrichardson_1 · Bewertung: 5 von 5 Sternen]

I loved this little history book. Great introduction to world history for young adults and old. I'm saving my copy for my future children.

[satyridae · Bewertung: 2 von 5 Sternen]

I can't recommend this much beyond the halfway point. Gombrich does a creditable job right up to the birth of Christ, but in my opinion the wheels fall off this book after the event.

It's totally Eurocentric, Christian-slanted history. Very moving illustration of the old saw that history is written by the victors. There's some lip service done regarding the genocides the Europeans were responsible for- but it's cursory at best. And sure, it's a history book for kids, so one wouldn't wish to dwell on the ugliness. And it's also a book written long, long ago (though allegedly updated).

For what it is, it's more than a little interesting. For what it isn't, it's not worth picking up.

[exitfish · Bewertung: 4 von 5 Sternen]

a broad and clear western civ refresher. covering 5000 years in 350 pages gives a great overview. some of it, since it's written for a young audience, overly simplifies and distorts (the parts on the middle ages makes the period seem like a playful renaissance fair). but other than these minor quibbles, it's incredibly terrific and i can't stress enough the amazing clarity and curiosity in the prose. the final chapter, written years after the rest of the book was finished and catches the history up to world war 2 and the atomic age, is staggering.

[riida_3 · Bewertung: 5 von 5 Sternen]

i picked this up yesterday morning from my shelf on a whim. more than 30 hours later, i'm still reading and could not bring myself to put it down! a simple re-telling of the history of the world, or rather, largely of the western world, it is none the less marvelous and stirring. the last chapter, specially, where the author recounts history as he himself has experienced. its history written for children, but should be required reading for adults.memorable quotes:"the history of the world is, sadly, not a pretty poem. it offers little variety, and it is nearly always the unpleasant things that are repeated, over and over again."

[yarkan_1 · Bewertung: 3 von 5 Sternen]

A pleasant over view of things. Now I see that the French Revolution didn't really help things much.He said something about Japan being the best student of the world after the Meiji Restoration.

[eglinton_1 · Bewertung: 3 von 5 Sternen]

Charming and readable, thanks to a personal tone, and bold woodcut-style illustrative blocks. The genesis of the work is impressive too: Gombrich knocked it off in a few weeks in his 20s with youthful scholarly hubris. He remains humble, when treating of grand themes and people, but the work feels ultimately unreliable, most of all in its Eurocentrism. This may be forgivable in a book conceived almost a century ago, but still rankles a little for a work appointing itself a history of the world. Africa, the Americas are ignored, ancient Asian civilisations are admitted as colourful noises off. All of which leaves lots of the colour commentary as pure Sellers and Yeatman: "The Merovingian kings were not much good at ruling. They had flowing hair and long beards and they did nothing but sit one their thrones and parrot the words their advisers had taught them."

[edgeworth_1 · Bewertung: 4 von 5 Sternen]

I've been getting more interested in history lately, and what I've really wanted to read is a history book that covers the entire world - focusing not on one period of time, or one geographic area, but on the entire history of the entire world. That would obviously be a daunting book both to write and to read, and wouldn't be able to go into much depth, but even a basic analysis would do much to address the hodge-podge absorption of historical knowledge that I (and, I assume, most people) currently have.A lot of what we know about history we obtain from popular culture, associating it with a certain set of visual motifs (fashion, architecture, manners of speech etc.) The 1890s I associate with London in Victorian England; the 1870s and 1880s with the American West; the early 1800s with the Napoleonic Wars and Australian early settlement, and so on. The further back, the less I know, and the more likely I am to associate a period in time with one particular piece of art or popular culture; the early 1700s, for example, is Pirates of the Caribbean, the early 1600s the plays of Shakespeare, then there's that whole vague medieval era of knights and castles...My point is we (or at least I) tend to associate certain time periods with certain places, and history books that focus on only one region reinforce that view. 1812, for example, was the time of Napoleon and the teething problems of American independency, but I have only a dim idea of what was occurring at the same time in Asia and Africa and India and so on. What I want is a book that slowly takes us through the ages and shows us how all these different people related to each other at the time; the shifting stages of human relationships. Any decent historian, of course, knows that history isn't about memorising dates, but rather about the way human society works and how we interact with each other. The precise date of a war is not remotely as important as why it was fought, who was fighting in it, and what people thought about it at the time.I'm now four paragraphs in and I haven't mentioned the book. Gombrich's "Little History of the World" is not precisely the book I'm looking for, but it's a good start. It covers the entire sweep of human history from paleolithic times to World War I (it was originally written in 1935) and, being aimed at children, it's extremely readable. This recent edition has been by far the best selling book at my store over the last few months, so I figured it was worth a look.Gombrich has an amicable, conversational style of writing, as though he were holding a child on his knee and telling them a story - and he is telling a story, because he quite clearly states in the opening chapter that that's all history is. I was lucky enough to have an excellent history teacher in high school who was well aware of what really matters in history, rather than pushing the antiquated John Howard style of teaching, but Gombrich must have been quite the pioneer back in the early 30s. He regularly stops to point out that history is not merely a long flow of empires and political shifts, but that human society can also be greatly altered by shifts in opinion, and that it is a fallacy to assume that people hundreds or thousands of years ago were effectively the same as us:If you could talk to a gentlemen from the time of the Turkish siege, there would be many things about him that would surprise you... but nothing could prepare you for the shock you would have if he were to begin to air his views. All children should be thrashed. Young girls (no more than children) should be married (and to men they barely know). A peasant's lot is to toil and not complain. Beggars and tramps should be whipped and put into chains in the marketplace for everyone to mock. Thieves should be hanged and murderers publicly chopped into pieces. Witches and the other harmful sorcerers that infest the country should be burnt. People of different beliefs should be persecuted, treated as outcasts or thrown into dark dungeons... And you would hear these opinions not only from the mouth of some coarse or uncouth fellow, but from the most intelligent and pious people in all walks of life and from all nations.Gombrich then explains the Enlightenment, which is something I had never heard of until I went to university. I consider myself to be a fairly well educated person, but Gombrich's tale of history fleshed out my knowledge of many things which even now, 22 years old and university-educated, I was only vaguely aware of, including Alexander the Great, Hannibal's crossing of the Alps, and the Protestant Reformation. How wonderful it would be if our primary school students were given a broader historical education instead of being fed nationalist clap-trap about Simpson's donkey. Even high school history in this country - though it admirably teaches students about evaluating sources and taking a broader view of history than just names and dates - focuses almost entirely on the 20th century.The book is not without its flaws; obviously it can only give a basic outline of human history, and it's also extremely Euro-centric. That's a term that usually means Western-centric, but even North America gets short shrift here, with only a few pages dedicated to the American Revolution and Civil War. But as I already pointed out, this is a better education than most young children get, at least in Australia. And more importanly, Gombrich's grandfatherly voice does an excellent job of instilling a sense of wonder and imagination about the course of human history. A Little History of the World is only intended as a starting point for a historical education, but it fulfills that purpose very well, whether you're starting aged 10 or 50.

[timothyl33 · Bewertung: 5 von 5 Sternen]

Deceptive in its small size, this book however, packs a big punch. To be able to put so much history in such a simple and charming manner with its narrative style, makes this something to treasure for people of all ages.

[waitingtoderail · Bewertung: 3 von 5 Sternen]

A good idea executed with mediocrity. This is a general history of the world written for children, but it is entirely too Eurocentric - Eastern cultures are primarily discussed only in how they related to European powers, Native Americans are discussed only briefly - and when he gets to how they interacted with Europeans he says that it is "so shameful to Europeans" that he doesn't even want to talk about it, and Africa is hardly mentioned at all. A better version of this is waiting to happen.

[wouterzzzzz · Bewertung: 3 von 5 Sternen]

 A history book for children, but very interesting for adults too. Especially if you don't know much about the world's history, this is a good starting point. It is biased towards Europe, so don't be offended if there's not much in there about Asia for example. Read this book first, before, for example, "Guns, Germs, and Steel" (and not the other way around).

[reedist · Bewertung: 5 von 5 Sternen]

This is my favourite book of the last year - I'm pushing 50, my children are 6 and 8, and we all enjoyed it enormously – we couldn't wait to get to the end of each day and read the next chapter. It's intelligent Central European humanism, treating the reader as an equal and engaged partner. The title clearly sets out that it isn't comprehensive, but it is an excellent and very original introduction to some of the stories that are our past. Clifford Harper's black and white illustrations (looking like drawn woodcuts) are simple, yet often intensely moving, maybe in part because they have a flavour of the past about them.

[woodge_1 · Bewertung: 5 von 5 Sternen]

This popular book has been around for many years in over a dozen languages but it has only recently been translated to English. (The reason why is explained in the preface.) Mr. Gombrich originally published this book in Vienna in 1936. It is written for a younger audience which results in a clear, engaging narrative. There are 40 short chapters which include sections on: Ancient Greece and Egypt, the Roman Empire, Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Jesus, Mohammed, the Middle Ages, the Crusades, Charlemagne, Martin Luther, Napoleon, and so forth up to World War I. Then in the final chapter, the author talks about his experiences during World War II and his hopes for peace. It is a fascinating book, covers a lot of ground, and made many areas of history much clearer for me to understand. I highly recommend it to anyone curious about world history.

[yufufi · Bewertung: 1 von 5 Sternen]

As another reviewer said this is not a book of facts. There are many misleading statements in the book; the author is definitely not trying to be objective. For instance the Ottoman Empire is barely mentioned in the book which is weird given that they were a major player in the world history between 14th and 19th centuries. If you want to read a book about history of the world I'd recommend looking for another one.

[mantooth_1 · Bewertung: 3 von 5 Sternen]

Overview of history written for children that does an excellent job of putting time periods in perspective. Don't read expecting an in depth review of history, this is not a book of facts but a book that will likely encourage an adult reader to spend the time to delve deeper into areas that are a bit cloudy.

[duck2ducks · Bewertung: 4 von 5 Sternen]

Never cared much for history growing up, but have developed an increasing interest in the last couple years. This book - originally published in 1936, translated into various languages thereafter, but unavailable in English until 2005 - is a wonderful place to start. The premise the author received from the publisher was to write a history of the world that even a child could understand, and this book does exactly that. Chapters range in length from about 4 pages to about 8, and are told in a warm, friendly, avuncular style reminiscent of The Hobbit or the Narnia books. I'd never thought I'd read a history book quite so pleasurable, and now that I've finished I really do want to read more history - both as a whole, like this, and on selected topics and periods. If you've ever had a passing interest in history, but have never found it to keep your attention...? Give this one a try.

[dancook_1 · Bewertung: 5 von 5 Sternen]

A judicious, sensitive and non-triumphal telling of the whole history of the world, as much a delight to adults as children.

[soylentgreen23 · Bewertung: 4 von 5 Sternen]

When Gombrich first composed his little history, he had in mind that generation's children. That his work should remain so fresh today, and so enjoyable by adults, says many things, but above all the message is this: read this erudite, accessible history, and you shall be rewarded with a renewed faith in people.