A History of the World in 100 Objects

Neil MacGregor

Penguin Books, 2012 - Antiquities - 613 pages

Neil MacGregor's A History of the World in 100 Objects takes a bold, original approach to human history, exploring past civilizations through the objects that defined them.

Encompassing a grand sweep of human history, A History of the World in 100 Objects begins with one of the earliest surviving objects made by human hands, a chopping tool from the Olduvai gorge in Africa, and ends with objects which characterise the world we live in today.

Seen through MacGregor's eyes, history is a kaleidoscope - shifting, interconnected, constantly surprising, and shaping our world today in ways that most of us have never imagined. A stone pillar tells us about a great Indian emperor preaching tolerance to his people; Spanish pieces of eight tell us about the beginning of a global currency; and an early Victorian tea-set speaks to us about the impact of empire.

An intellectual and visual feast, this is one of the most engrossing and unusual history books published in years.

'Brilliant, engagingly written, deeply researched' Mary Beard, Guardian

'A triumph: hugely popular, and rightly lauded as one of the most effective and intellectually ambitious initiatives in the making of 'public history' for many decades' Sunday Telegraph

'Highly intelligent, delightfully written and utterly absorbing ' Timothy Clifford, Spectator

'This is a story book, vivid and witty, shining with insights, connections, shocks and delights' Gillian Reynolds Daily Telegraph

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - bostonian71 - LibraryThing

Fantastic resource for anyone who loves history, culture and/or museums. Even though the title reads *A* history, it could've been called *The* history, given the sheer breadth of the themes and ...

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - murderbydeath - LibraryThing

Wow, this book took awhile for me to get through. So much interesting information that I had to read only a few sections per sitting if I had any hope of retaining what I read. I found the objects to ...

About the author

Neil MacGregor was Director of the National Gallery, London from 1987 to 2002 and of the British Museum from 2002 to 2015, and Chair of the Steering Committee of the Humboldt Forum in Berlin from 2015 to 2018. His previous books include A History of the World in 100 Objects, Shakespeare's Restless World and Germany: Memories of a Nation, all available in Penguin and now between them translated into more than a dozen languages. In 2010, he was made a member of the Order of Merit, the UK's highest civil honour. In 2015 he was awarded the Goethe Medal and the German National Prize. In 2018 the radio series Living with the Gods received the Sandford Saint Martin Award for Religious Broadcasting.

Bibliographic information

• Title: A History of the World in 100 Objects
• Author: Neil MacGregor
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Penguin Books, 2012
• ISBN: 0241951771, 9780241951774
• Length: 613 pages