Charting 50 such defining moments, concluding with 11 September and the destruction of New York's Twin Towers, Days that Changed the World provides a concise yet fascinating history of our world. Hywel Williams is a renowned historian, newspaper columnist, political advisor and TV presenter.
Convert currency. Add to Basket. Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. Seller Inventory More information about this seller Contact this seller. Average rating 3. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Aug 29, Laura rated it it was ok. The dictionary-like style becomes dry, vague and tedious. The author uses days to summarise much larger, often century-spanning events.
As you might expect, summarising centuries in a few pages makes this book overly broad, lacking in detail and pretty unengaging. For example, a single day is used to summarise the whole global impact of Islam, whereas the impact of Christianity is subdivided into half a dozen significant days.
This pattern is repeated for all events: those that are to do with Europe or North America are split over multiple days, but events that took place in the rest of the world are condensed into lone entries. The author admits his bias in the introduction — which only makes it more inexcusable that he was incapable of giving his book a title that appropriately conveyed its extremely limited scope.
This book gets more interesting as it goes along, presumably because there are more historical sources to embellish events. There are occasional moments of insight, but this book is mostly just a forgettable recount. Objective Summary Williams lists the 50 days that he believes most impacted world history.
It follows the British date convention of day, month, and year. This format always seemed logical to me because it moves from smallest to largest unit of time, as opposed to Objective Summary Williams lists the 50 days that he believes most impacted world history. Good Friday c. Lee Surrenders at Appomattox But the concept of this book outshines its execution. There are two main problems. First, it skews too heavily towards both European history and recent history.
It does so at the expense of African, Asian, and ancient history. The recency bias makes sense considering technological advancements like the atom bomb, landing on the moon, and the internet revolutionized human achievement and experience. I tend to think not. Second, history is fluid. Causes and consequences flow as an incomprehensible stream or an impossibly interconnected piece of twine. To pull out single days as representations for eras requires a lot of context.
And here I think Williams falters. His prose leaves much to be desired. His weakness is a combination of trying to convey too much information in awkward sentence structure, and poor organizational lay out. Instead of presenting the events chronologically, he jumps back and forth from the events, to the causes, to the consequences in haphazard fashion. It can be hard to track. I could follow events he described if I already had familiarity with them.
But Williams did not effectively elucidate unfamiliar events for me. Wenceslas William von Ruppa formed a provisional government which replaced the Hapsburg administration. And so it went. No thanks. The ruler, who used the title isapostolos to signify his equality with the Apostles at the end of his life, was a sincere, if bloody, Christian.
When his son, the Caesar Crispus, became too popular he had him murdered. He elevated his mother to the rank of Augusta and when that made his wife jealous he showed his filial devotion by murdering the unfortunate Fausta.
A near fine soft-pack of pages with a near fine soft cover with French flaps. Some of the 50 days described here mark the end of an era: others the start of something new. Many are the dates of bloody battles or murders; others of momentous decisions or breathtaking discoveries. All are remembered as powerful symbols of their time.
Seller Inventory More information about this seller Contact this seller. Professional Packaging — I always use Top Quality packaging products to ensure you receive your item in the condition it was sent. Your email address will not be published. Description Additional information Reviews 0 Description Fifty Days That Changed The World by Hywel Williams Throughout the centuries there have been days on which the course of history has altered irrevocably; days on which something so momentous happened that it is difficult to imagine the world without their impact.
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