In approaching world history there's nothing wrong with starting (or refreshing your memory) with a book like this. This book provides a quick outline of world history by devoting ten sections to the main regions of the world and then going through the history of each region by outlining its history in sections of Ancient, Classical, Medieval, and, Modern Civilization. (Discussions and disputes over 'theories of history' and how history should be seen and etc. are out of place because this book only has a simple goal of presenting basic historical knowledge through time in every part of the globe in order to give a reader a basic perspective of the entire picture before the reader may choose to move on to more extensive works or particular studies...) The ten regions of the world it covers are: the Middle East; European Civilization; Russian Civilization; North America; Latin America; India and Southwest Asia; China; Japan; Southeast Asia; and Sub-Sahara Africa. This book together with a good, basic book on geography will give a reader a beginning overall perspective of his or her world in time and space...

This volume, and volume II, make an excellent compainion piece for a servey look at British history. The chapters are arrainged to give a good over view of comtemporary ideas and issues and the excerps of documents are an excellent choise. I have used both volumes in survey courses of British history in college. One extra benefit is a chapter dedicated to the Irish question giving a wide variety of views. Many of the picks Prof. Arnstein has made are excellent choices as they are definatly not mainstream documents, yet are historicaly well known or give interesting views that are often overlooked.

The publishers of Horizon are well known for their large format pictoral essays on history and art. Lacey Baldwin Smith's book is a very good example of their work. It is broad in its approach and includes descriptions of the world both inside and outside of Elizabeth I's England. Although few of the plates are in color, the black and white images are large and clear. The etchings and woodcuts lose little for being monochromatic. The author makes good use of first hand accounts and narratives, and supports them with background commentary. These accounts are annotated with the name of the author and work. This is not a scholarly work, but as "coffee table" reading it is quite good. I would recommend it to anyone who would like a good general reading of the Elizabethan era.

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If you love the Tudors, and you already have your basic facts down, you'll really enjoy this orignial look at Henry VIII. Profesor Smith allows a look at Henry VIII as a person, revealing a personality that may have belonged to this great King. Definately worth the read.

More than four centuries after his death, Henry VIII remains one of the most fascinating monarchs in English history. As a result, numerous biographies have been written about him - and his equally famous six wives. But only Lacey Baldwin Smith's biography does justice to both subject and reader. He avoids the easy trap of portraying Henry as a misogynistic tyrant who twisted religion and politics in the pursuit of personal gratification. Such a treatment, sadly popular in current biographies, is an insult to any student of history. Instead, Smith brings Henry alive in the context of the turbulent sixteenth-century; he is seen as both man and king, troubled soul and tyrannical monarch. When you have finished this brilliant and learned work, you will have a new and profound understanding of Reformation England - and its contradictory leader.

What can I say? I wasn't impressed by this so-called "textbook." It doesn't seem matter-of-fact enough to be an actual textbook, yet isn't interesting enough to be considered a decent historical work. There is surprisingly little detail about the events here depicted.

I had to use this book for a class, but I found that I got about ten times more out of my instructor's lectures than this text. There really is very little to boast about here--it's basically just a mundane, watered-down history of England.

I hate to say it, but I was disappointed. I haven't studied much of English history, but even my limited knowledge was enough to know that this book is but a scratch on the surface. If you have to have this for a class, there's not much you can do, but if you're looking for a good history of England, keep looking.

The second in an informative and entertaining series on English history, this book is not a difficult read, even if it's required for class. An excellent overview of this time period for any student of English history- or the average reader. One of the few disappointments was the section in which Oliver Cromwell appeared. Absent was any mention of reasons why historians such as Maurice Ashley have labelled Cromwell as a "brave, bad man", or of the atrocities he instigated in Ireland. If your interest does not include the information on Cromwell, this is an excellent book, one I did not sell back after the semester was over!