Rating: 
Summary: Enthralling Past. Spaced-out Present. Funky Future.
Review: The first two-thirds is riveting as it takes the reader from cave men to Einstein. Many ideas are discussed clearly. Thought-provoking for an amateur philosopher, like me. I enjoyed it. Good reference work. Unfortunately, it falls down in the Twentieth Century. Apparently, it is true that an object flush against the nose allows no perspective. Van Doren is clearly a child of the Sixties. He places all his faith in science, technological progress and education. He even defends television and pseudo-science fiction. In his view, the only salvation for man will be a dictatorship by computers. Need I say more? Mr. Van Doren is a skilled and articulate scholar. The sort that collects a mountain of notes cards from every source conceivable, then distills the information into a very readable one-volume work. So long as his sources are brilliant, he basks in their glow. Unforntunately, an uninspired historian, unpracticed in forming his own ideas, (alas! suckled at the breast of tv commercials) is likely to leave his fly open when commenting on current events or speculating on the future.
Rating: 
Summary: Great book
Review: Van Doren gives an account of history and how events have shaped our western values. This is a great read especially for a engineer who has little knowledge of the arts.
Rating: 
Summary: Author's biases mar this otherwise well-written book
Review: Van Doren's writing style is accessible and refreshing, but it can't overcome the fact that he believes Christianity is the one true religion, and that Western history is what's really important. I would expect to see this in a religious bookstore, and I was surprised to see no mention of the author's Christian bias on the book's jacket. Had I known about it I would not have purchased the book. Not recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: The world history of Cliff's Notes
Review: A quick succint summary of every major philosophy, religion, culture, and interesting person from the history of the world. A neat book to read for those interested. I was thrilled to ad this to my shelf and am really glad I bought it. One of the more interesting concepts in literature I have seen. If your curious, but not looking for a doctrine, this will give you the 411 without the headache.
Rating:
Summary: Sophomoric
Review: Outline history of Western civilization and thinking.
Naive and biased both in its religious and cultural points of view. Appropriate for ninth or tenth grade high school students.
Rating:
Summary: Read in conjunction with "The New Lifetime Reading Plan."
Review: presently i'm reading "a history of
knowledge" by van doren. 5-star reading
all the way. here's yet another book they
should make compulsory in school. reading "H of K" makes me realize how
little i knew about basic human history. it's
a gap filler of epic proportions. essential. thanks to van doren, i'm now looking
forward to reading all those writers
fadiman recommends in "the new lifetime
reading plan" -- lucretius, st. augustine,
the early chinese writers, and more. when you have an HISTORICAL FRAMEWORK
in which to place these works of art, it
suddenly all becomes so much more inviting. best of all, van doren is such easy reading! a beautiful book. p.s. also check out chris brazier's "the no-nonsense
guide to world history" -- very short and very sweet.
Rating:
Summary: Historical Writing at its Worst
Review: This is a sad and unnecessary book. Indeed, how anyone with the intellect of Van Doren could write such a flawed and careless piece is almost incomprehensible. To begin, his work is Western biased, leaving very little space devoted to the remarkable achievements of non-Western civilizations and cultures. Perhaps Mr. Van Doren would have benefited himself and his work by examining the works of such scholars as L.S. Stavrianos. Emanuel Wallerstein, Peter Stearns, and other world systems historians who have done much to bring the West out of its exclusionary ego. Even more shocking is Van Doren's factual inaccuracy. One key example should illustrate my point: in his discussion of the 1904-05 Russo-Japanese War, Van Doren mistakenly leads us to believe that the Russians attacked the Japanese, thus initiating the war in which the Russians were beaten and humiliated. Actually it was the Japanese who attacked the Russian fleet at Port Arthur. Other factual errors can be found in several other passages of the book. Perhaps Van Doren feels that he has proven his scholarly manhood on enough occasions to exempt himself from the ardors of research, for one finds no footnotes or bibliographical information whatsoever in the entire work. A scholar such as Van Doren should not be so negligible in his endeavors. This work's most redeeming quality may very well be its service as an example of what good historical writing should not be.
Rating:
Summary: Surprisingly Well Done!
Review: It must take a tremendous ego for an author to give a book such a universal title. The surprising thing is that Charles Van Doren's work comes so very close to being completely worthy of its moniker! Obviously this is not "A COMPLETE History of Knowledge: Past, Present, and Future." Not even Mr. Van Doren could pull that off. Much of the knowledge of Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, Micronesia, and the indigenous peoples of Australia and the Western Hemisphere is simply glossed over. The book clearly has a pro-Western, Euro-centric preference. Even an author as obviously brilliant as Mr. Van Doren can only do so much in a mere 412 pages. Nevertheless, the text is engaging, thoughtful, stimulating, enthusiastic, concise, and very well written. For those already blessed with a traditional, liberal arts, undergraduate education the text will serve as a valued reminder of many of the great concepts to which they were exposed in college. For those without such an education, the text will serve as an even more valuable compendium of Western thought. Well done, Mr. Van Doren! Thank you!
Rating:
Summary: A somewhat mis-titled book
Review: An ambitious book by Van Doren, "A History of Knowledge" presents a sweeping portrayal of knowledge and its developments from the time of the ancients to today and beyond. This portrayal is a relatively easy read, and Van Doren's style is alternatingly conversational and didactic. While it's a good book, I wouldn't recommend it unreservedly. Why? I believe that it has two key flaws. First is its scope. Any book titled "A History of Knowledge" is bound to miss a few things while keeping the size of the book down to something that doesn't require a pickup truck to haul around, and this is no exception. However, the things that Van Doren has chosen to eliminate include all of the progress of knowledge in the Far East or the early Americas (the book would be more accurately titled: "A History of Western Knowledge"). If you're looking to see how knowledge has waxed and waned across the world through recorded history, your best bet is a more focused title (see any of Boorstin's recent three book series for a focus on technology, arts, or philosophy; or Beckman's "History of Pi" for a more mathematical insight). The second, and arguably more serious, flaw is the increasing focus on opinion and interpretation rather than historical presentation. We've become accustomed to separating our history into two parts, one that presents it as it happened (or we believe it happened at any rate), and one that interprets and analyzes it for reflection an understanding. Van Doren hasn't done this. And while I appreciate an author's perspective, I tire of reading of his unalloyed joy in his Judeo-Christian ethic, in the victory of Capitalism over Communism, and in the superiority of democracy over ALL other forms of government. And anyone who's read any science fiction at all will cringe at the prognostications regarding the next 100 years. It's a good, but flawed, book.
Rating:
Summary: Top-Notch Reading!
Review: This book held me fascinated for weeks! Packed full of so many things I never even knew about. Usually, I pass my books on to friends or family, but this one's definitely a keeper!
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