An Encyclopedia of World History

This is my grandmother's book, published in 1952, the front cover is nine inches by six.  It has just over 1350 pages.  My parents inherited it from my grandmother when I was 12; and as I was the only one who ever cracked the binding, it more or less became mine over the years.

The book is written in a spectacular point-form style, with dates of course, in as close to chronological order as possible.  This had its limitations once, but is now a brilliant companion to wikipedia, since it is replete with names, places and moments that can be looked up with such ease.  So, when I was asked by a reader to detail what my world would be like in the stone age, I went straight for this book.  I was glad to have it.  Until I moved in February, it has been in storage.

Because it is from 1952, however, much of the book's explanation of pre-history is way, way out of date.  Consider.  When the book was printed, Olduvai Gorge was nothing but a collection of a few stone tools and handaxes.  Our concept of human evolution has massively changed in just a few decades.  On that subject, I certainly wouldn't rely on this text; though it holds up fairly well, considering.  Given the content, the scholarship must have been first rate.  The book describes the contributor for the prehistoric period as Dr. Lauriston Ward.  Unfortunately, I can't find him on Wikipedia.  Lauriston is mentioned on this page, as the president and founder for the Council of Old World Archeology, apparently still active.  Must have been quite a fellow, before others outshone him.

Another fault of the book is that it is sadly lacking in non-European subjects.  Books did tend to be Eurocentric at the time ... but part of that is also because texts stored in relatively wet climates, made on rice paper, do not tend to survive as long as texts stored in a dry climate, written on parchment or rag paper.  It is extremely difficult to study 15th and 16th century West Africa, when most of the texts were written from the point of view of the Mali people who had a ready supply of papyrus in the Niger valley, and when papyrus is extraordinarily poor if what you want is for people to read your writing four hundred years later.  Mali did not, like Egypt, have a tradition of burying texts in jars in the desert ... so what we know about Mali during the time of Cromwell is annoyingly scant.  What we know about Cromwell, on the other hand ... you can spend a lifetime just reading letters passing between people between the years 1645 and 1660.  And people do.

Still, the image shows what I mean about point form and dates.  I find myself often on the verge of screaming at youtube videos created by amateurs who can't see the value of including dates relating to their material.  What is the good of my watching a breakdown of eight Moghul rulers and their methods, from Akbar on, if I can't relate their reigns to what's going on in other parts of the world?  After 1500, the encroachment of European power in India was just a little important.  But of course, I don't rely on video for my history research.

I do love history.  And I could spend a lot of years rewriting the encyclopedia to give a complete historical background to my world that fit in the presence of non-human races, monsters, the discovery and advancement of magic, etcetera, for the sheer pleasure of it.  I don't know who else would get anything out of it ... but there is something so rewarding in deconstructing history, I'm not certain I would care.