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The World

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The World

By: Simon Sebag Montefiore
Narrated by: Ajjaz Awad, Ako Mitchell, Anna Cordell, Ayesha Dharker, Damian Lynch, Gunnar Cauthery, Jonathan Aris, Kevin Shen, Lara Sawalha, Leighton Pugh, Lucian Msamati, Nabiha Akkari, Nneka Okoye, Rachel Handshaw, Raj Ghatak
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About this listen

THE TIMES HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEAR
ONE OF THE ECONOMIST'S BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR
A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

From the master storyteller and internationally bestselling author - the story of humanity from prehistory to the present day, told through the one thing all humans have in common: family.

We begin with the footsteps of a family walking along a beach 950,000 years ago. From here, Montefiore takes us on an exhilarating epic journey through the families that have shaped our world: the Caesars, Medicis and Incas, Ottomans and Mughals, Bonapartes, Habsburgs and Zulus, Rothschilds, Rockefellers and Krupps, Churchills, Kennedys, Castros, Nehrus, Pahlavis and Kenyattas, Saudis, Kims and Assads.

A rich cast of complex characters form the beating heart of the story. Some are well-known leaders, from Alexander the Great, Attila, Ivan the Terrible and Genghis Khan to Hitler, Thatcher, Obama, Putin and Zelensky. Some are creative, from Socrates, Michelangelo and Shakespeare to Newton, Mozart, Balzac, Freud, Bowie and Tim Berners-Lee.

Others are lesser-known: Hongwu, who began life as a beggar and founded the Ming dynasty; Kamehameha, conqueror of Hawaii; Zenobia, Arab empress who defied Rome; King Henry of Haiti; Lady Murasaki, first female novelist; Sayyida al-Hurra, Moroccan pirate-queen. Here are not just conquerors and queens but prophets, charlatans, actors, gangsters, artists, scientists, doctors, tycoons, lovers, wives, husbands and children.

This is world history on the most grand and intimate scale - spanning centuries, continents and cultures, and linking grand themes of war, migration, plague, religion, medicine and technology to the people at the centre of the human drama. As spellbinding as fiction, The World captures the story of humankind in all its joy, sorrow, romance, ingenuity and cruelty in a ground-breaking, single narrative that will forever shift the boundaries of what history can achieve.

©2021 Simon Sebag Montefiore (P)2021 Orion Publishing Group World War Royalty Ancient History Middle Ages China Ottoman Empire Imperialism Marriage Winston Churchill Military Mongol Empire Africa Imperial Japan Latin American Pirate Iran Interwar Period

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Critic reviews

A history of the world from the Neanderthals to Trump. It's a rollicking tale, a kaleidoscope of savagery, sex, cruelty and chaos. By focusing on family, Montefiore provides an intimacy usually lacking in global histories. [It] has personality and a soul. It's also outrageously funny . . . an enormously entertaining book (Gerard DeGroot)
Magnificent . . . magisterial . . . [a] real-life Game of Thrones. Dip into this book anywhere and the minutiae of history leap off the page . . . Dip too into the author's copious footnotes and there are gems to be mined. Often sassy, always entertaining . . . To my mind what it gives above all is perspective from which comes understanding and not a little wisdom (Tony Rennell)
For any reader with the stomach for bloodshed and megalomaniac ambition, for anyone with a taste for Ptolemaic depravities or who would simply like to spend some quality time with China's imperial eunuchs, Montefiore's 'World' . . . will deliver it and more in spades. The author's major achievement is to make us see the world through a different lens - to make the unfamiliar familiar and, more important, the familiar unfamiliar. There is hardly a dull paragraph (David Crane)
All stars
Most relevant  
Simon Sebag Montefiore's other books on sprawling, centuries-spanning histories (Jerusalem, The Romanovs) are among my favourites. From a writing perspective, this doesn't disappoint. Few do big history as well as SSM.

The issue with the audiobook is purely down the performance of the readers. One reader in particular covers an inordinate amount of the book, from beginning to end. Just as I found myself really engaging with a particular story, this narrator would suddenly pop up again and again to ruin it with a monotonous, machine-like delivery and bizarre pronunciation choices.

Great story though.

Fantastic story marred by poor narration

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Partly the craziest ride I've ever been on, and intriguing parts of human history never shown in the classroom. Loved it mostly, but due to its wastness, the tempo was a bit too much. I often had to stop reading to check foot notes 😂

worth the time

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Enjoying this, but enjoyment marred by very idiosyncratic reading. Great to involve diverse readers but is there any quality control on pronunciation ?

Poor narration

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Some particularly poor narrators who have clearly not prepared. Good book in written form

Narration

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i enjoyed the book. It is by nature sprawling and lengthy, but a hugely impressive attempt at something that's probably impossible to do well.

Like many reviews here I was disappointed by some of the narration. Much is excellent but three or four of the reader are very amateurish and quite spoilt their sections for me. Two appeared to be both reading the text for the first time and also new to english. Very disappointing, as presumably the large cast was brought together to add to the listening experience rather than detract from it.

there were also some odd decisions on when to switch from one narrator to the other - sometimes right in the middle of the action. Most odd and very distracting.

interesting book - narration very patchy

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Some of the narration was the worst I've ever heard. Surely, someone must be in charge of ensuring that narrators can pronounce incredibly famous names? Or that they can read as if they understand the words they are saying. This is not about accent, they all had great voices, but really, so frustrating when the sentences sound like they've finished have way through, or that they have no punctuation.

if it hadn't been a SSM book, I wouldn't have struggled through to the end.

fascinating, but spoiled by some of the narration

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Voices were often very difficult to follow. Readers often didn’t seem to understand what they were talking about

Huge grasp of world events and their Importance

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Original and entertaining way to tell history - through the personalities and families of those whose lives and decisions affected great events. Really brought characters alive . Several narrators added to variety , but some were not easy to understand and either pronounced names and places in a manner I couldn’t follow or totally mangled some words.
What irritated me were basic errors that should have been spotted. Just three that spring to mind -
How could Pitt the younger have a duel with another MP in 1898 when he was long dead by then ?
Lord Mountbatten’s father wasn’t from an illegitimate marriage - it was morganatic and legal and non of the children were illegitimate
Mountbatten didn’t die in 1981 .

Enjoyed it but some schoolboy errors

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Excellent and impressive summary of world history. Would have enjoyed more if the author had not been so fascinated by detailed descriptions of murders, executions, rapes, torture, incest etc.
Some of the narrators are far below the expected standard.

Interesting book weakened by some weak narrators.

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A great skim across human history can’t agree with all conclusions, but why should I? Exposes humans for both their goodness and appalling behaviour to each other regardless of nation, gender or race which is good to understand in todays manichean world view of humans. However, some really poor choices of narrators made some chapters annoying . But definitely worth the time

Worth it if you have the time

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