E H Gombrich s bestselling history of the world for young readers tells the story of mankind from the Stone Age to the atomic bomb focusing not on small detail but on the sweep of human experience the extent of human achievement and the depth of its frailty The product of a generous and humane sensibility this timeless account makes intelligible the full span of human history In forty concise chapters Gombrich tells the story of man from the stone age to the atomic bomb In between emerges a colorful picture of wars and conquests grand works of art and the spread and limitations of science This is a text dominated not by dates and facts but by the sweep of mankind s experience across the centuries a guide to humanity s achievements and an acute witness to its frailties In 1935 with a doctorate in art history and no prospect of a job the 26 year old Ernst Gombrich was invited by a publishing acquaintance to attempt a history of the world for younger readers Amazingly he completed the task in an intense six weeks and Eine kurze Weltgeschichte fur junge Leser was published in Vienna to immediate success and is now available in seventeen languages across the world Toward the end of his long life Gombrich embarked upon a revision and at last an English translation A Little History of the World presents his lively and involving history to English language readers for the first time Superbly designed and freshly illustrated this is a book to be savored and collected In forty concise chapters Gombrich tells the story of man from the stone age to the atomic bomb In between emerges a colorful picture of wars and conquests grand works of art and the spread and limitations of science This is a text dominated not by dates and facts but by the sweep of mankind s experience across the centuries a guide to humanity s achievements and an acute witness to its frailties The product of a generous and humane sensibility this timeless account makes in - from Amzon