An encyclopedic, unwieldy and yet mesmerizing survey of humanity as told through millennia of rulers and their blood-drenched empires. It's a towering work of imagination, somehow successful as it teeters beneath the awesome weight of names, dates and interpretations ... The sections are composed of chapters and sub-headed paragraphs that come together, mosaic-like, to illuminate who we are and why we behave as we do ... Anecdotes guide us through the historical jungles as Montefiore approaches familiar figures and events from the past century. The scale of his project is more than ambitious; it frames the story of humanity as a ceaseless struggle between the powerful and powerless. He expands on the theme of the Romantic poet's sonnet, underscoring the tumult inherent as tribes battle for control ... The World may be a daunting doorstop, but it offers invaluable precedents as we navigate our own uncertain present.
Heavier on masters than on plot ... Offers a monumental survey of dynastic rule: how to get it, how to keep it, how to squander it ... The World has the heft and character of a dictionary; it’s divided into twenty-three 'acts,' each labelled by world-population figures and subdivided into sections headed by family names. Montefiore energetically fulfills his promise to write a 'genuine world history, not unbalanced by excessive focus on Britain and Europe.' In zesty sentences and lively vignettes, he captures the widening global circuits of people, commerce, and culture ... It’s largely up to the reader, though, to make meaning out of these portraits, especially when it comes to the conceit at the book’s center.
Tells the story of humanity through families, be they large or small, powerful or weak, rich or poor. It is a book for people who want to read about people. There’s little attention paid to impersonal forces ... Pulsates with the hundreds of human stories Mr. Montefiore brings to life in vivid, convincing fashion ... [An] ambitious project ... [A] truly global perspective ... The relentless chronological march of Mr. Montefiore’s book is leavened, and given an aspect of suspense, by his habit of picking up the family stories of significant individuals long before they take center stage .
A rollicking tale, a kaleidoscope of savagery, sex, cruelty and chaos ... Histories of the world usually disappoint; the breadth of the subject makes fascinating detail unaffordable. Devoid of drama, they read like a computer manual. This book, however, has personality and a soul. It’s also outrageously funny ... It’s dizzying but delightful. Montefiore has the confidence to speed past topics that bore him ... By focusing on family, Montefiore provides an intimacy usually lacking in global histories ... This book is more than just a cornucopia of violence. It’s also brimming with sex, much of it incestuous ... It’s impossible to exaggerate the bizarre behaviour that power inspires. That’s what makes history fun, and this is an enormously entertaining book.
Weighing in at 1,300 pages, this rollicking, globetrotting 'biography of many people rather than one person' spans the Akkadian empire and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It is almost unpickupable: whether you find it unputdownable may depend on your appetite for narrative and yearning for a thesis, as well as an iron stomach and sheer Sitzfleisch to match the author’s own ... A pandemic book. It might be the most ambitious product so far of that unsettling moment ... Ideas are not the book’s strong suit ... Still wildly entertaining ... As family history, at least, The World is not enough.
It is a huge subject; but then this is a doorstopper of a book, running to a numbing 1,262-plus pages ... While there is hardly a dull paragraph here, there is surely a limit to what readers can take, and 1,000-plus pages of self-indulgent storytelling might just have reached it.
Necessarily selective ... Throughout his world history, Montefiore provides insights and gems of wisdom ... Montefiore’s assessments of historical figures are mostly unflattering and often surprising ... Montefiore’s historical insights are worth pondering.
[A] sweeping chronicle ... Setting a whirlwind pace, Montefiore skillfully guides readers through the tumult with elegant prose and evocative character sketches. It’s a bravura performance.
A panoramic, abundantly populated, richly detailed history of the world through the stories of families across place and time ... A vibrant, masterful rendering of human history.
