Rating: 
Summary: Most unorganized book I've ever read...
Review: I would have stopped reading this book after about chapter 2. I wanted to finish it just to see if it would get better. It didn't...it was poorly written, terribly organized, and also made me think the author was using free association when he began to write this book (which is evident to his annoying, valueless references to other chapters every few paragraphs). The back cover touts that he puts the "story" in History. Nothing could be further from the truth. The book itself is somewhat boring, because there isn't enough detail to make a story. The books major problem is simple. It's jammed and crammed with trivial facts, facts that mean nothing unless they're strung together with some concept or generalization to take away from it. Rather than cover an important topic well, he's seemingly opted to give every event and every no-name empire a place in his book by devoting a few sentences to each and every one of them but not enough to allow any true of true understanding of what he's talking about. At the end of the book, I was left with a strange sensation of feeling like I knew nothing about a lot of things. Often times the amount of detail he goes into leaves you wondering what happened in huge gaps of time he's left out (or perhaps he refers to the gap he just created in another chapter). The point is, you're left not having any real idea of what was going on because you can't fit it together in any way. I'd love to speak with someone that learned history only from this book. They'd sound like a historian at their first comment about history (due to all the highly obscure details he dips quickly in and out of), but as soon as I asked one question about it, they'd be at a complete loss. The book fails to provide enough details to make you seem intelligent sounding in any area he writes about and the book fails to deliver generalizations and concepts because they were too fractured because of the terrible outlay of the book. Dummies books are typically great books...this one was not. While this book is not a total loss, I would never ever recommend it.
Rating: 
Summary: Classic for Dummies book
Review: If you want to learn World History as easily as you learned EXCEL, Word, Powerpoint, or any other program or discipline through the Dummies series, get this book right now. Also, this is history that makes sense. The author does not just follow a boring chronological order, but bunch historical events together that have similarities, connections, parallels. As a result, this is the type of history lesson that makes sense, and is easy to understand and remember. Nothing like the boring history fare you were served in high school.
Rating:
Summary: good, but...
Review: The author writes that the earth formed 6 billion years ago when in fact, for years, it has been accepted in the scientific community that the earth is 4.6 billion years old...
Rating:
Summary: 3000+ years of history in one book
Review: This book will not please the "hard-core" history students because it truncates so much detail. But the intention of the book is not to provide an exhaustive account of world history. Instead, the purpose of the book is to provide some overview of key historical events in our past. A large portion of the book is spent on narrating the numerous empires that ruled before (in Eygpt, Europe, and Asia). Note that there is hardly any mention of US History. There is a separate book for that. I agree with other reviewers that the book isn't as well organized. There are many abrupt endings and pieces that didn't seem to fit. It would be better if the book has better editing to make the overall picture sounds more coherant. On another aspect, I do like the several chapters on the different religions and how they got started. It provides a good summary of that, but there are probably better books for more details. In summary, if you are like me, who is a student in physics, you can learn all you need about world history with just this book. I don't need an encyclopedia; I just need a short read to "brush up" my history. In that case, this book suits me fine.
Rating:
Summary: 3000+ years of history in one book
Review: This book will not please the "hard-core" history students because it truncates so much detail. But the intention of the book is not to provide an exhaustive account of world history. Instead, the purpose of the book is to provide some overview of key historical events in our past. A large portion of the book is spent on narrating the numerous empires that ruled before (in Eygpt, Europe, and Asia). Note that there is hardly any mention of US History. There is a separate book for that. I agree with other reviewers that the book isn't as well organized. There are many abrupt endings and pieces that didn't seem to fit. It would be better if the book has better editing to make the overall picture sounds more coherant. On another aspect, I do like the several chapters on the different religions and how they got started. It provides a good summary of that, but there are probably better books for more details. In summary, if you are like me, who is a student in physics, you can learn all you need about world history with just this book. I don't need an encyclopedia; I just need a short read to "brush up" my history. In that case, this book suits me fine.
Rating: 
Summary: Too little on too much
Review: World History for Dummies is valuable if you have already read more extensive literature on world history. In that respect, I would recommend it as a refresher, a tool to jar your memory of more indepth texts. Major advancements in western history, including ancient societies such as Mesopotamia, Egypt, and of course Greece and Rome are covered. Other civilizations are represented as well, though not in as much detail as western civs. Examples include China, Japan, Aztecs, and Incas. I would recommend that an historical text on geography accompany this book as maps are scarce and the ones available aren't very comprehensive. This is a particular peeve since it is often nice to have a visual perspective of what is being studied. All in all, a good "reference for the rest of us", but not a text I would recommend for the first-time reader.
Rating:
Summary: Too little on too much
Review: World History for Dummies is valuable if you have already read more extensive literature on world history. In that respect, I would recommend it as a refresher, a tool to jar your memory of more indepth texts. Major advancements in western history, including ancient societies such as Mesopotamia, Egypt, and of course Greece and Rome are covered. Other civilizations are represented as well, though not in as much detail as western civs. Examples include China, Japan, Aztecs, and Incas. I would recommend that an historical text on geography accompany this book as maps are scarce and the ones available aren't very comprehensive. This is a particular peeve since it is often nice to have a visual perspective of what is being studied. All in all, a good "reference for the rest of us", but not a text I would recommend for the first-time reader.
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