A People's History of the World
From the Stone Age to the New Millennium

Historical Materialism 101: Preamble: --“Historical materialism” is the most powerful lens I have encountered to understand history/social change. It’s definitely the lens I try to start with. --During my first reading on summer vacation several years ago, I had a glimpse of the book’s potential: i)......more

Great introduction to the history of the world. Tries to fit most events into a Marxist context, explaining how the development of the "means of production" changed the course of the world at almost every juncture. A pretty good book to turn to if you are trying to place anchor some of these big ide......more

It is almost impossible to review a book with such an unrivalled scope as this. Chris Harman present a history of the world, a social history documenting the struggles of people the world over from 3000BC right through to the new millennium. It is a beautiful and admirable volume, packed with intere......more

This book is phenomenal. I could not put it down. It definitely doesn't follow Howard Zinn's methodology of using ordinary people's views of historical events, but it certainly does give a sense of how ordinary people are affected by historical change. The text is exciting to read and gives one an e......more

Particularly good coverage -- based primarily on Kolko's Century of War and Politics of War, I think -- of the parallel ways the Western Allies dispossessed leftist resistance movements from their gains in former Axis territory and installed provisional governments run by fascist collaborators, and......more