Exploring Human History Through 100 Objects: A Book by Neil MacGregor

Valerio Pastore: Ad una lettura superficiale, sembra una marchetta al British Museum, ma la verità è che ci vuole la migliore istituzione museale del mondo per trovare cento oggetti rappresentativi e ben conservati di alcuni tra i più importanti e profondi cambiamenti di usi e costumi -dalla prima pietra usata nell'Olduvai 2 milioni di anni fa dai nostri antenati più remoti per lavorare le prede e migliorare la qualità della nostra vita, alle lampade ad alimentazione solare che danno preziosa luce alle popolazioni meno abbienti senza renderle dipendenti da complesse infrastrutture!
100 oggetti tra i più disparati per scoprire il mondo dell'Uomo con un linguaggio semplice e nozioni accessibili, un documentario stampato affascinante fino all'ultima pagina!

Italy on Aug 25, 2023

T. Shaw: Bought the audio book. Be aware this is a free podcast from the BBC.
Narration and story great and the book is convenient.

Canada on Apr 03, 2023

M&m!: After listening to the podcast version I wanted to see on pages what they were talking about. Unfortunately you still need to Google to see it, and search deeper to get the better images, if available. This lovely series needs an design update because it is pure treasure.

Sweden on Nov 14, 2022

ArupratanArupratan: Such a delicious book! Studded with large chunks of entertainment and seasoned with exotic information. The book tries to tell history in a way which has not been attempted before. 100 objects from all over the world with clear historical significance have been chosen from the large inventory of the British Museum, ranging from the beginning of human history (a simple flint tool or an arrowhead) right up to the present day (a credit card or a solar lamp). And the writer tells a fascinating and engaging story of world history through describing those objects. Such a novel approach. This is a must read for everyone.

India on Apr 10, 2019

JAVIER: I think everybody should know about this program. It reallly is a piece of art. What a wonderfull and flawless idea and performance. It is a must for understanding where we come from and why we are the way we are, behave, eat, desire, believe... from a very well exposed point of view and it actually makes the Bristish Museum deserving to own these pieces (even though they come from different parts of the world) otherwaise they would be buried, lost or in pirvate collections or blacl trade. Seriously it is a master piece. English is not my native language and despite of that, I love this program (althought I do not understand 100% of the plot). Thanks to the British Museum and Neil MacGregor for this.

Spain on May 30, 2018

Amazon Customer: Reading this book is like taking a tour of the British Museum. The author presents 100 objects from the British Museum and presents their stories and their significance in world history. The objects are presented in roughly historical order and also grouped according to several themes, and the author points out some common threads that are woven through this history.

One of the best parts of reading this book is encountering little-known facts, people, and cultural artifacts which one doesn't usually find in a textbook-style presentation of world history.

Overall I found this to be a very enjoyable read, easy to pick up and put down again, and I tended to read this during spare moments or a few chapters in the evening after work.

Perhaps the only "weakness" of this book is that as the book moves from object to object, there is not necessarily a coherent story line, and so I did not tend to feel drawn on to the next chapter.

Note also that the pictures in this book are in nice, high-resolution color. (Of course, not all Kindle models can display color.)

United States on Jul 08, 2013

Sum K: I stumbled on this book on Amazon, read all the reviews, and couldn't decide if I was ready to spend the money - there were concerns that the picture quality is not so good. So I decided to download the free podcast first and see if I like the program in the first place. (Make sure to download them from BBC's website or iTunes - They are free mp3s and you can burn them onto a CD, instead of buying the overpriced audiobook version)

I listen to the program when I commute to/from work, and I absolutely love the program, so much that I look forward to getting into the car in the morning. So I ordered this book the next day. I read somewhere that the British Museum and BBC spent 4 years making the program. There are plenty other reviews here talking about the content itself, so I will focus on the quality of the book.

As mentioned earlier, I was concerned that some reviews mentioned the picture quality was not so good. I completely disagree. The book itself is very handsome and would look good on any bookshelf. The pages are thick and matte, and you can tell the paper is of very nice quality. In fact, the paper quality is higher than any other hardcover i own. All...

United States on Jul 27, 2012

Donald Mitchell: "Eli was ninety-eight years old, and his eyes were so dim that he could not see." -- 1 Samuel 4:15 (NKJV)

Let me address right away the objections that some will have to this outstanding resource:

1. The photographs are often dim and unclear. Yup. That's true. But the point of the book is to tell the story of the objects, not to highlight them as things of beauty as might be the case for a painting or a sculpture.

2. The electronic version costs a lot more than $9.99 and is almost as much as the hardcover. Yup. I thought that hardcover was inexpensive for what it is. Buy that one if you don't want to spend a lot for your Kindle.

If you get past those problems, I think you'll love this book. It's like having several of the world's top authorities on each of 100 objects tell you deep meanings that you wouldn't grasp by visiting the British Museum on your own and staring at the objects.

I was very impressed by the selection process, finding objects that convey interesting information at several levels. For instance, an object might tell you something about who made it and how it was used. These objects also have significance in terms of where the...

United States on Dec 13, 2011