A History of the World in 100 Objects Audiobook CD – Unabridged, Audiobook, Box set Author: Visit Amazon's Neil MacGregor Page | Language: English | ISBN:
140846988X | Format: PDF
A History of the World in 100 Objects Audiobook CD – Unabridged, Audiobook, Box set Description
Amazon.com Review
Amazon Best Books of the Month, November 2011: In
A History of the World in 100 Objects, Neal MacGregor, director of the British Museum, takes readers on a tour of the world by way of its material goods. From everyday items such as pots, utensils, and money to valuables such as art and jewelry, MacGregor shows that the things humans have left behind are often as rich and informative as written texts. Whether it’s a strange and unique object like a throne made of rifles from Mozambique or a medieval German crystal, or a familiar one like a sculpture of the head of Augustus or Hokusai's painting
The Great Wave, MacGregor skillfully weaves each one into the fabric of the society that it came from. In that sense, the book is much more than a museum catalog: it's a hundred keyhole views into a hundred different societies from around the world and throughout history.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
Review
A History of the World in 100 Objects ... has been a triumph: hugely popular, and rightly lauded as one of the most effective and intellectually ambitious initiatives in the making of 'public history' for many decades. -- John Adamson Sunday Telegraph Highly intelligent, delightfully written and utterly absorbing -- Timothy Clifford Spectator Allen Lane has done Mr MacGregor proud... The objects have been beautifully photographed, Mr MacGregor's voice comes through distinctively and his arguments about the interconnectedness of disparate societies through the ages are all the stronger for the detail afforded by extra space. A book to savour and start over Economist This is a story book, vivid and witty, shining with insights, connections, shocks and delights -- Gillian Reynolds Daily Telegraph The style is authentic, personal and humorous. MacGregor could not have skewered our pretensions better...Look on our works, ye mighty, and despair -- Andrew Roberts Financial Times Brilliant, engagingly written, deeply researched -- Mary Beard Guardian
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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- Audio CD: 1 pages
- Publisher: AudioGO; Unabridged edition (July 1, 2011)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 140846988X
- ISBN-13: 978-1408469880
- Product Dimensions: 5.7 x 5.5 x 1.5 inches
- Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
One of the joys of being resident in the UK is the presence of the wonderful BBC Radio 4 a channel with which listeners have a true lifelong love affair. To Dear American chums a quick scan across the internet to the BBC "i" player will find this rich source and life will be all the better for it. Radio 4 challenges, it provokes and gets as near to that much sought after but rarely achieved quality "the heart of the matter" as is humanly possible (the probing questions of presenters on the Today programme makes me think that democracy still has a fighting chance). The channel also carries many brilliant series of which "A History of the World in 100 Objects" by Neil MacGregor is a prime example, even the trailers leading up to its broadcast in January this year were great. What a pleasure therefore to have copy in the written word of this weighty book (738 pages) to accompany the series and to revisit the passion and authority of Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum and cultivator of fabulous facts.
The whole premise underpinning this epic journey was predicated on a wicked idea conceived by Mark Damazer, then head of Radio 4 to challenge our hugely knowledgeable bods at the British Museum to undertake a somewhat mischievous and loaded exercise. Indeed on the surface any attempt to tell a rather large tale like the history of the world over a modest 2 million years in this manner seems like a piece of First Class honours inspired lunacy. "Baby and bathwater" is the phrase that comes to mind and even if the radio series and the following book were outright bilge you would at least have to give Neil MacGregor three stars for accepting the challenge and embracing with gusto the humongous concept.
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