While the subtitle of the book is “Perfectly Organized World History in 3 Hours,” in reality, it’s challenging to completely organize world history in just one book. This is because the world we live in has accumulated a long history, and understanding the history of a single region alone takes a considerable amount of time.
However, if you at least skim through this book, you can encounter the basic content of “world history.”
“A book covering essential content episode by episode”
- “Why is the Arab palace Alhambra in Spain?”
- “Were the Aryans the people who created the caste system?”
- “Did the Ming Dynasty start the Age of Exploration?”
- “Was Quiote created by Quiotin?”
In this book, world history is covered through episodes. Particularly, it takes the form of summarizing essential content in episodes.
Since it covers the overall content of world history, it gives off a feeling of lightly browsing rather than delving deeply.
“From ancient times to modern times…”
While the narrative is centered around episodes, it’s also divided somewhat by era. It starts with facts from ancient times and continues through to modern history.
Not only Korean history but also the history of Europe, including Britain, is introduced. It covers histories relatively familiar to us, such as the history depicted in Shakespeare’s tragedy “Antony and Cleopatra,” and even includes Chinese history.
“Religion and History”
Religion is also addressed, discussing the story of Muhammad, who founded Islam, and introducing the Crusades between Islam and Christianity.
During the medieval period, the power of kings was stronger than that of emperors. This aspect is well illustrated in the “Humiliation of Canossa,” where the emperor kneeled before the pope.
This papal authority gradually declined as it transitioned into the Renaissance period, which is well demonstrated in the “Avignon Papacy” incident, where the papacy was forcibly moved to Avignon in southern France.
Upon reading the book, I couldn’t help but think that historical facts such as the Balfour Declaration and Martin Luther’s Reformation would have naturally occurred within the larger context, even if Martin Luther himself hadn’t existed.
“9th – 12th Century: The Migration of the Vikings and Normans”
The Vikings who emerged from the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe are synonymous with “strength” and “cruelty.” Thanks to them, there are many movies and novels based on Vikings.
In the 11th century, England was also subject to Viking occupation. The book interestingly covers the tumultuous warriors from Northern Europe that stirred up all of Europe. The countries on the Scandinavian Peninsula are currently Norway, Sweden, and Finland. However, it’s said that Vikings only came from Finland among these countries.
“A Book Covering Significant Stories from Around the World”
The book covers significant stories from around the world. It’s not easy to study and remember everything that happened worldwide. However, even knowing a few stories that had a significant impact on world history would be helpful.
In that sense, this book is somewhat similar to another Japanese author, Saito Takashi’s book “The 5 Forces that Move World History.” The book “The 5 Forces that Move World History” explores how five important themes influenced world history.
- Saito Takashi’s “The 5 Forces that Move World History”: “The Five Forces Shaping World History” by Saito Takashi
Since it unfolds history in episode-centered form, it’s a book that can be approached not too heavily, and interestingly.
“Simple and Clear World History: Perfectly Organized World History in 3 Hours”
- Author: Kazuyuki Thruma (Supervised), translated by Hwang Sun-hee
- Publication Date: February 1, 2011
- ISBN13: 9788984454378
- Yes24: http://app.ac/VtwTl4M43