CONDENSING all known global history in a single book is an ambitious as well as a monumental task. British historian Andrew Marr has undertaken this endeavor in his book, A History of the World and a documentary series based upon this book. The interplay of written and visual medium has given the author an advantage that is clearly visible in the narrative.

In history, the important points are the dynamic events that changed the socio-cultural patterns for a long time to come. Marr has, quite painstakingly, identified such turning points and analysed them. Most of the times, these turning points in history are linked to some charismatic and overly-ambitious leader. Therefore, in some ways, his is an elitist history. This is in contrast to the recent trends in history writing that focus on the common man, such as Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States.

However, although focusing on great change- makers, Marr does acknowledge that the ability of these history-altering persons is not altogether inherent to them; it is their peculiar environment that enables them to produce these changes.

Marr had to be selective, editing out whole millennia and continents, great chunks of time and space. The introduction of the book sets out to try to answer the question of the purpose of writing this book. Although his introduction is nothing like the Muqaddimah of Ibn Khaldun, it does touch upon some of the important themes of historiography, articularly in reference to global histories and ways to identify important trendsetters in the entire history of human beings. Marr divides history into defined eras — politically and economically — and then chooses the important stories along the way.

Starting from the dawn of Homo sapiens and the extinction of Homo erectus, Marr follows the story of human evolution from Africa to Asia, to Europe, the Americas, and to Australia. He explains the importance of the agricultural revolution which allowed far more humans to be alive. To quote Marr, “It has been estimated that a hunter-gatherer needs about 10 square miles of game and berry-filled land to live on, whereas agriculture can produce enough calories in a tenth of that space to keep 50 people alive.” Furthermore, Marr tells us that in order to tackle the problem of floods in large rivers, local inhabitants entered into contractual settlements among themselves that gave rise to strong central governments in ancient China and Egypt.

The advent of Christianity and Islam are also given due importance. Moving on, not only are the brutalities of Genghis Khan discussed but also his influence on continental politics that lasted for centuries.

Marr also sheds light on Marco Polo’s adventures and their impact on coming generations, as well as presenting Leonardo Da Vinci as the real “Renaissance Man,” representative of the age of reason and intellectual curiosity. The complexity of the Reformation is also explored, started by Martin Luther and promoted by other reformists against the commercialisation of piety, sin, and forgiveness by the Vatican.

The emergence of the Renaissance in Italy and how it led to the Industrial Revolution in Britain is analysed brilliantly by Marr. He also delves into the reasons for Italian Renaissance not being able to produce the scientific knowledge during the 16th century to lead to an advanced Industrial Revolution. According to Marr, Renaissance Italy of the 16th century was still under the authority of the church in matters of cosmology and science. It was the revolution of 1688 in Britain that gave the parliament liberty in political matters leading to freedom in intellectual and scientific inquiries. Marr points out that US and Germany entered the race of industrialisation, and thus imperialism, by copying British technology and political strategy. Japan followed the trend after World War II and China is now doing the same through neo-liberal economic and neo-imperial political strategies.

Marr also explains the institution of serfdom in Russia, comparing and contrasting it with the peasantry of Western Europe and the slave plantations of the US in the 18th and 19th centuries. He further highlights the reforms undertaken by Alexander II, including the emancipation of the serfs in Russia. According to Marr, a well-informed European newspaper reader “in the early 1860s might well have compared the terrible civil war tearing the US apart with the comparatively orderly reform programme being run from St. Petersburg, and assumed that Russia would become the stronger power.” However, when Alexander II was killed in a bomb attack in 1881, the reforms programme was halted by his successor Alexander III.

After visiting the two World Wars, their causes, and their aftershocks, Marr delves into the complex web of international alignments that resulted in Cold War politics and turned the world into a bipolar entity. He concludes his book on a discussion on artificial intelligence and suggests that intelligent machines of the future will prove to be the next paradigm-shifting change that will affect every aspect of human life.

The conservative and radical forces within society are always at odds with each other. This complex interplay is discussed by Marr especially in the context of the emergence of new forms of governments in the UK and the US. He clearly states that gradual evolution proved to be a far more successful model of progress than revolutionary upheavals. Marr repeatedly talks about revolutions, their goals in the start, and their repercussions in the form of violence and anarchy. And while Marr admits that “monarchies and empires have their succession problems” he warns that “the problems of moving from one system of government to an entirely different one seem bloodier still.”

All in all, A History of the World is a commendable effort at popularising history.

A History of the World

(HISTORY)

By Andrew Marr

Pan Macmillan, UK

ISBN 9781447236825

640pp.