This book is used as a MEH textbook for sophomores in my highschool. My friends and i found this book to be very dull and boring. It contains a lot of information but the way it is presented is not in an interesting manner, rather in a dull way. This book has no bold words which makes it difficult for us to read. I believe it was chapter 17 or 18 that the beginning was very interesting but suddenly it became boring. I think history is interesting but the way that this book teaches it to you is very uninteresting. I don't suggest this book for any highschool student. Everyday when we get our history assignment i dread to read this book because it is so boring.

I enjoyed this text during my history class very much because it was so in depth. The hundreds of famous paintings alone make this book worthwhile, but it reads very much like a college text. Don't get me wrong -- I came to love history through taking this class, and the book was a large part of that. You must have a high level of literacy and some previous knowledge of history to read this book very easily. NO DETAILS ARE LEFT OUT!!! The book is fabulous and I would recommend it to any level anyways.

The book had lots of info and was easy to understand. It covered all of the most important aspects of western civilizations. Anyone who complains that it was hard to read is an ... I would consider myself smart but i am by no means a rocket scientist and i found this book easy to read and enjoyable. It provided lots of information about certain interesting aspects of different civilizations cultures that would appeal to anyone who whould sign up for a history course.

While I admit, in our pop-culture world, the marketing of Harry Potter has reached an insane point, this does not take away from the fact the Harry Potter legend is as good as The Chronicles of Narnia, Lord of the Rings, and many other fantasy tales that take us back to that feeling of childhood wonder. Catholics and other Christians who prefer to avoid Potter mania need to leave the harmless fairy tale alone. Harry Potter will no more destroy or alter a child's religious belief than Cinderella or Star Wars.

I do have to say that I, myself am not a religious person, yet I hold no poor judgements towards people who do choose to follow it. With regards to Harry Potter, it is fiction. It does not dictate to children how to live their lives, or how to denounce their faith in their religion. I may not be a religious person, but I am an educated one, who is able to take fiction as just that; fiction, and i expect nothing more or less than entertainment from it. About all of this religious sceptisism surrounding Harry Potter due to its references to magic, and evil beings, why does the Wizard of Oz not suffer such scrutiny? It also intertwines its plots with witchcrafy, wizardry, and evil forces. I believe everyone who is critical of a piece of fiction, especialy Harry Potter, for portraying what they take to be un-godly, or anti-religion should take a good look at what this story is about. The Harry Potter series is about a boy struggling to fit in as he grows up into an adult, he just happens to be a wizard. What child in the world could ever be harmed by a book which can show kids it is ok to be different when growing up; how is this in any way evil I ask?

Whatever anyone's personal religious beliefs are, it's wonderful to finally have this book as truth in print to counter-point the insidious Harry Potter mania.

If you want a child to get more interested in reading... turn them on to The Hobbit and the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy by Tolkein. Turn them on to The Chronicles of Narnia (The Chronicles of Narnia: The Magician's Nephew/The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe/The Horse and His Boy/Prince Caspian/Voyage of the Dawn Treader/The Silver Chair/The Last Battle) by C.S. Lewis. How about A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L'engle?

All of these are wonderful alternatives for the imaginative mind.

On the other hand, Harry Potter encourages dangerous bases of thought. I'm glad that this book is here to educate those of us who don't ordinarily think in those terms. Catholic, or not... this book is worth the read!

This book was a requirment for my honors World History class and neither I, my class, nor my teacher enjoyed reading it. This book does have several positive factors though. It is full of information, dates, and facts. It also features very useful timelines, and excerps from important documents of whatever period is in question. But while these things are good...the bad outnumber them.

It is said that chronology is a historian's secret weapon. The biggest problem in this book is the lack of chronology. The various sections in this book (or what use to be different volumes) are all categorized by civilization and not by time. Since primarily used in a World History class, though, it is hard and downright confusing sometimes to create a mental timeline while reading. Instead there are overlapping dates and the text will hop around chronologically. While when I used this book it was mandatory, if anyone is simply looking for a reference for something, I reccomend you find another book.