A Little History of the World: Illustrated Edition - E. H. Gombrich
This gorgeous new edition of the E.H. Gombrich favorite, A Little History of the World: Illustrated Edition (Yale Univ., $29.95), doesn’t just tell the story of civilization from its humble origins to its most grandiose inventions, it shows it, adding faces, maps, and designs to the leaders, places, and creations it discusses. Gombrich wrote this book in the 1930s, intending it as a primer for children to replace the dull, ineffectual texts forced on them. Anything but dull, and no longer just for children, if it ever really was, this Little History is an affectionate but not uncritical look at the world we’ve made.