This is one of my favorite books of all time. I consider it in the top one percent of all books I have ever read. The sheer scope of this work makes me almost gasp with incredulity and amazement. To think that one man could have accomplished this is mind boggling. This is the eighth wonder of the world. From prehistory and until the late 1980s, this book covers politics, economics, science, and arts. McNeill's generalizations are wonderfully and cogently supported by facts at just the right places in the narrative. To produce a handbook of this scope that is also so pleasant to read is an incomparable achievement.

I'm not read for the titles "history of western civilization". In the future,I have to read above book and then write to my review. Have good happiness and health!

The Human Web is an excellent summary of human history. It is indeed a bird's eye view in that it looks at the broad overall sweep of human affairs and doesn't bog down in unnecessary detail. The major theme is the construction and expansion of human webs, or interconnections that tie cultures and civilizations together ever more tightly. If space voyagers ever arrived on Earth (and could read a human language) this book would be one of the first things I hope we hand them to help them understand us.

The last time I studied history was during high school and it was mostly a different part of it (let's say ancient civilization in one semester, european in another etc..) However I later on realized that there were some gaps and missing links between all these periods where I was mostly confused about the time intervals and the important events that started as a chain reaction and effected somehow all civilazations at different periods in time. This book offered me exactly what I was looking for. An overall summary of every civilization in the world history in a chronological and geographical order. Also the writer breaks the whole world history into very well organized sections with a two dimensional (time and geography) reference chart and maps at the beginning of each section. He also provides his personal summary and recaping the important events that marks the human history overall at the end of each section. I must add that he has an intense knowledge and background in every civilization and has a very objective point of view. Overall I recommend this book to everybody who wants to know a little bit more about all the cultures that has affected the human civilization (and I must say that we are not always thought objectively at high school where some bias can be observed about our own culture or civilazation that is thought by our people versus an outsider looking at it).

McNeill belongs to that category of historians who not only bring an enormous treasure chest of knowledge, but who present it in a writing style so direct and compelling that the reader cannot help but admire their work. "The Rise of the West" is a monumental book. McNeill's knowledge of histroy, of facts, his erudition--all leave the reader in a kind of suspense and disbelief. Can one man know this much? Apparently he can. McNeill's vast lore is a proof of commitment to scholarship and historical discovery. Whether or not the West has a special status and a claim to a special place in human civilization (as I believe it does) is something that is for you, the reader, to decide. McNeill makes his arguments and then reasses them years later in this new edition; and he is less upbeat about the special position of the West. But that is theory, perspective, possibility, interpretation. Whatever interpretation you embrace, you won't regret reading this book for its facts, its comprehensive narrative, and its gift of widening historical perspectives and imagination.

This epic magesterial volume deserves no less than to be required reading for all citizens of the Western World. McNeill employs deft understanding and sensitivity equal to the herculean task. The author is no Western apologist, but shows how global civilization is developing into a mosaic largely driven by Western ideas.

Beginning just before the dawn of the agrarian transormation and spanning its eventual blossomings (and fadings) into civilization, McNeill takes the reader on a journey that answers questions you never knew you had. The Western way eventually remade the world, and McNeill shows why and how and when. Using evidence from art, archaeology, anthropology, politics, commerce, science, and religion he paints confident, broad strokes that nevertheless are rich in detail. It is a masterpiece of staggering scope, rendered in a noble voice.

The only important criticism is an undeniable Eurocentric bias (readily admitted by the author). But this becomes understandable and quite forgiveable as the reader follows the author wrestling enormous epics of civilization into a readable form. Regardless of this necessary perspective Rise of the West can certainly stand as comparable, perhaps even superior to similar works by Spengler, Toynbee, Braudel, or Diamond.

I've read this book 3 times so far. The history given here is very different from the version I learned in school and in church and from my parents.

The information in this book forms much of the basis for many of my basic morals, beliefs and opinions. As a broad history, McNeil necessarily discusses many cultures. The extraordinary diversity of those cultures has given me much to think about, particularly about the effect on each person's beliefs of when in history and into which culture he/she was born, e.g., a person born into the original Assasins culture would probably believe that murder was good while the same person born into most other cultures would probably believe murder to be evil.

This book has made me more tolerent of and open to other people's ideas.

(Reading this book also helps a lot in Trivial Pursuit :-).)

In William McNeil's Plagues and Peoples, the author argued that disease profoundly shaped the course of human history. He even theorized that man himself is simply a disease-a macroparasite. Humans cannot escape the fact that, although they occupy the top spot in the food chain, they are still part of that chain: "the way infectious diseases have begun to come back shows that we remain caught in the web of life-permanently and irretrievably-no matter how clever we are at altering what we do not like, or how successful we become at displacing other species" (McNeil, 17). According to the author, humans are nothing more than a plague-a plague that forged the entire pattern of history as we know it, but a plague nevertheless. Although Plagues and Peoples presented a radically different view of traditional history, it left out several chapters in the saga of humanity's struggle with both their environment as well as themselves. McNeil supported his doomsday conclusions by systematically detailing the effects of disease-political, demographic, and psychological-in the human race, from prehistory to the present. His most powerful argument centered on the utter destruction of the vital Aztec civilization by a relative handful of Spaniards. As McNeil stated, the usual explanations-horses, gunpowder, allies-are inadequate. How could literally millions of people succumb to fewer than six hundred? Such an event defied all rational explanations and seemed to call for supernatural or racist theories-both certainly popular with the Spanish at the time. But McNeil's parasite thesis-on both the micro and macro level-offered a logical and intriguing counter argument. Although he characterized the Spanish as particularly brutal and careless, McNeil maintained, "After all, it was not in the interest of the Spaniards and other Europeans to allow potential taxpayers and the Indian work force to diminish. The main destructive role was certainly played by epidemic disease" (McNeil, 215). On the micro level, epidemic disease, namely smallpox, would have made Cortez's triumph "more difficult, and perhaps impossible" (216). The historic implications of this statement must not be taken lightly. The history of the entire Western Hemisphere, as well as Europe, would have been completely different without the successful take-over of Central and South America by the Spanish. On the macro level, the Spanish were themselves a disease, a "swarm" that descended on the Amerindians in the same way Louisiana mosquitoes descend upon their human prey at an after dusk barbecue. Although the analogy was uncannily accurate in this case, it did not describe the whole picture. What, for example, were the Spaniards' motivations for coming to the New World in the first place? They were mostly good, old-fashioned "human" considerations-greed, chauvinism, and religion. All history cannot simply be reduced to the level of parasites. Humans are creatures of emotion, of ideas. Unlike germs, they do not function merely through the wax and wane of biological urges. Even Sigmund Freud, great believer in the ever-grasping id, did not ignore the superego. In conclusion, McNeil's argument is important because it forces everyone-traditional historians included-to rethink humanity's role in history. His thesis enables one to take a step back from perhaps trivial details (did the Aztecs really think that Cortez was a blond god?) and truly examine the larger picture. But to leave out the essence of humanity-lust and greed, nobility and sacrifice-is to turn history into science fiction.

If you've been enjoying the rash of viral/epidemiological titles such as "Hot Zone", "The Coming Plague" or "Deadly Feasts", you'll find a real gem in "Plagues and Peoples". William McNeill, an author with impeccable credentials, is IMHO, the Marshall McCluhan of epidemiological biology. Like McCluhan, he published this work decades before the subject matter became mainstream. He also comes at the topics he investigates with a fresh and brain-stretching approach.

McNeill presents a history of mankind where every civilization is surrounded by a disease 'gradient'. These gradients interact with one another as one of the significant factors in inter-cultural dominance and expansion. The conquest of the New World takes on a new look as McNeill describes the impact of the European disease gradient on a defenseless North America. He contrasts this with the impact of the African disease gradient on Europeans.

Some of McNeills ideas, such as his analogies between micro-parasites (diseases, bugs, etc.) and macro-parasites (governments, barbarians, raiders, etc.) are still fresh and fascinating. Consider his idea that we accept a government as a low-level parasite so that we minimize the impact of rogue parasites like raiders and such in the same way we allow our bodies to be colonized by benign parasites like E.Coli so that we have fewer niches available to rouge germs like staph and strep. This book is filled with exciting ideas like this.

All in all, the book is very readable, adds greatly to any view of history and creates an excellent foundation for the recent titles in this area.

Diseases has been a big factor in human development. Disease has helped dictate where people have been able to live and create civilizations, helped in the conquest of countries and created a whole series of social ills in congested urban areas. McNeill takes a look at the effects of disease through human society.

The first chapter Man The Hunter focuses on disease in early human history. The following chapter Breakthrough to History focuses on the development of agriculture and permanent human settlements. The next chapter, Confluence of Civilized Disease Pools focuses on the role disease had on early civilizations in places such as China and India. The next chapter is Impact of the Mogul Empire and how this early large empire had an effect on disease. The next chapter is Transoceanic Exchanges focusing on the spearding of disease between the Eastern and Western Hempshires and its implications. The last chapter is Ecological Impact of Medical Science Focusing on how humans have been able to control diseas through means such as vacinations.

Good book to get a better understanding of history.

I confess I only read D. C. Somervell's abridgment of Arnold Toynbee's first six volumes A Study of History, so I cannot claim to be a student of his work, but I was impressed mightily by that reading. This biography of Toynbee by the eminent historian William H. McNeill is of consistent interest and does not fail to relate Toynbee's troubled personal life as well as explore his eminent historical writing life. After reading this bio I concluded that Toynbee's theories and prophecies have not proved overly valid. E.g., he feared the U.S. more than Soviet Russia, and that is a novel and unspportable fear to me, naturally. Toynbee, along with most great thinkers, did not foresee the Soviet collapse. I think an interesting work would be an exploration of the why so many people looked on Communism as the wave of the future, even including Whittaker Chambers. Does anyone know of a good book exploring that phenomenon?

This spare little book is a sweeping survey of the "big picture" of about three millenia of European history. The themes are so wide that it verges on a natural history of the humans that have occupied Europe over this period. But broad-stroked sketches, in the hands of a master, can reveal more than they obscure, can be works of great beauty, and can start one thinking about the essentials that emerge from the welter of detail.

I have read some terrible books, but this is by far the worst history textbook. It is filled with Eurocentric notions of culture and civilization. The uses of "barbaric people" and "civilized people" don't make much sense. For example, he considers the Native people barbaric. The Native people are not the only ones whom he considers barbaric people. He also suggests that Hinduism is based on the Indus cult. I am not a Hundu follower, but I find that offensive. He could have written that there was a connection between Hinduism and the ancient relgion of the Indus region. I am seriously questioning his understanding of history because it looks like that he is not familiar with cultural relativism or any other sociological theories. Yes, he does discuss the world history. The scope of this book is too big for him to handle. As a result, the book is often misleading and inaccurate. I think he made no attempt to correct this because this is his fifth edition.