Peter Haugen: World History For Dummies

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The complete history of the world boiled down to 400-some pages and crammed between paperback covers? The idea is preposterous. It’s outrageous. I’d be crazy to attempt it. So here goes.

This book doesn’t claim to be complete. It can’t be. Hundreds of other volumes are devoted to a measly decade or two (the World War II era comes to mind). Plumbing thousands of years in one little book would be impossible. Skimming the surface, however, is another matter.

Here, you can find enough information that if you hit on an era, a personality, or a civilization you’d like to know more about, you’ll at least know what to look for. There’s no lack of places to find out more. You can turn to many far more complete accounts of the history of specific countries (such as the United States), continents (such as Europe), and events (such as the U.S. Civil War). You can find books about all these topics and more in this excellent For Dummies series. But if you want a simplified overview, consisting of a collection of easy-to-read glimpses of major players and events that have made the world what it is today, I’m your guide, and World History For Dummies, 3rd Edition, is your first-stop reference.

History is like a soap opera that has been running ever since the invention of writing. The show is lurid, full of dirty tricks and murder, romances and sexual deceptions, adventures, and wars and revolutions. (And, yes, treaties and dates.) Or maybe a better analogy is that history is like hundreds of soap operas, with thousands of crossover characters jumping out of one story and into another — too many for even the most devoted fan to keep straight, which is all the more reason for an easy-to-use overview.

The most important thing to remember is that history is fun, or should be. It’s not as though this is life-and-death stuff… . No, wait. It is life-and-death stuff — on a ginormous scale. It’s just that so many of the lives and deaths happened long ago. But that’s good, because I can pry into private affairs without getting sued. History is full of vintage gossip and antique scandal, peppered heavily with high adventure — swords and spears and cannons and stuff. The more you get into it, the better you’ll do when the neighbors drag out the home version of Jeopardy. (Renaissance Italy for $500, please.)

Every field from brain surgery to refuse collection has its conventions, a special vocabulary chief among them. History is no exception, but I tried to steer clear of historians-only words and phrases. When such a word is unavoidable, I explain it in reader-friendly terms. As for other technical terms, I usually follow them with definitions and explanations.

You’ll find a few Latin and other foreign words and phrases sprinkled throughout the book too. I have to include them because I tell you about cultures and countries where English was unknown. Latin terms show up because this book’s subjects include the important, influential Roman Empire, where everybody spoke Latin. I also cover Europe in the Middle Ages, when Latin was the international language. I use other words that may be unfamiliar; those terms are highlighted in italics and defined. Finally, I can’t write about world history without covering the enormous influence of the Roman Catholic Church, an institution that for many centuries clung to Latin as its official means of expression. But don’t worry. I promise not to use many such terms, and when I do, I’ll explain what they mean.

As I wrote this book, I made some assumptions about you. They may be foolish, but here they are:

You’ve studied at least some history in school. You may even know quite a lot about certain historical topics, but you’d like to find out more about how it all fits together.

You’ve seen movies or read novels set in various historical eras, and you suspect that they’d be more enjoyable if you were better informed about the time periods and the historical peoples featured.

At least once in your life, you’ve encountered an obnoxious history know-it-all, one of those people who spews random facts about ancient Rome or the French Revolution. In the event that it happens again, you want the satisfaction of either keeping up with the conversation or contradicting Smartypants and knowing (at least a little bit) about what you’re talking about.

Throughout this book, icons in the margins highlight certain types of valuable information. Here are the icons you’ll encounter and a brief description of each.

Remember icons mark information that’s especially important. But it’s okay if you forget; just go back and look for the icon. I hope that points you to content that’s memorable.

The Technical Stuff icon in this book marks information that’s interesting but not essential, so if you want, you can skip it. I like these asides, but you don’t have to.

Tip icons are for ideas that you may find helpful, including places to see historical artifacts that can help you feel more in touch with the past. If the artifact is in a museum, you probably won’t get to touch it physically, though.

The In Their Words icon marks a quote that makes a point better than I can, although I hate to admit it.