Volume 50, Number 15 · October 9, 2003
The Whole World in Their Hands
By Jonathan D. Spence
The Human Web: A Bird's-Eye View of World History
by J.R. McNeill and William H. McNeill
Norton, 350 pp., $27.95
Writing a history of the world is surely one of the greatest challenges a historian faces. The problems are formidable: there must be erudition, it goes without saying, but there must also be a rigorous selection of material, a persuasive structure, stylistic vigor to guide the reader over such vast territories, and some internal principle to the work that will keep the reader intellectually engaged. One's own civilization or nation must be firmly placed within a truly global context, so as to avoid parochialism. And the author must have the mental energy to draw the work to some kind of closure that would give significance to the entire venture, and at least would suggest to readers how all the knowledge they have just been exposed to can be meaningfully integrated into their thinking about the largely unknowable future.
Review, 3965 words
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