ANDREW MARR'S HISTORY OF THE WORLD

AT AMAZON

I have just finished A HISTORY OF THE WORLD by Andrew Marr; he of the Sunday morning TV political interviews show.

It is a Tour de Force. A compelling page turner of a book, densely packed with facts, interpretations and commentary. So much so that all the way through I suspected Marr employed a large backroom team of Oxbridge History Firsts to research and feed him the narratives. Or, he truly is blessed with a giant brain that can indeed contain and analyse the entire world and its past. As Marr himself says, he set himself an impossible task in encompassing the whole of human history in one paper-back. 

It has informed me of the socio-economic and egotistical forces behind history's major movements, such as I had never imagined. A great, intelligent, very readable book which I recommend to you; to while away some of these, probably historically important Covid-19 days. Have a notepad to hand to ensure you get the most from this work. 

History is not a subject that grips me. It has gone. It can't be changed. Been there - done that. Our past seems to have been bullied into shape by sociopaths, psychopaths and murderous mad dictators. Imagine what the human race might have achieved without those loonies marauding round the world, slaughtering All the Men, All the Women, All the Children and All the Beasts of the Field and all progress to date, with monotonous regularity. 

The Future is of far greater interest; so I read Part 8, which looks ahead, with even more interest than the preceding chapters, of those old, deeply, deeply stupid, knuckle-dragging  lunatic "leaders" - driven by massive excesses of matted or peroxided hair, sweaty muscles, testosterone, spite and gross idiocy to wreak havoc on our lovely planet Earth. And to often die in "glorious" battle or to commit suicide when thwarted. 

So, I was somewhat disappointed that the hugely well informed Andrew Marr concludes with such thoughts as "...we will have a 50/50 chance of survival" (Martin Rees) and ...today's parents in the West are the first generation to worry that their children will live more meagre, if less wasteful lives..."  And , of politics "Unfortunately , our willingness to believe the promises of rabble-rousers and our greed, our capacity for anger and violence, are part of the story too."

Better, Mr Marr, to point the way to a wonderful future - and to impress the possibilities on all those dull, thoughtless, timid, myopic civic leaders who you interview on Sundays. You do have masses of evidence to support a pessimistic view of the future of humanity but I think that we, The People, are at a turning point - and will head off to the Sunlit Uplands. Try this article - and read my book AD2516. 

Friday, 15 June 2018

SENSE OF DIRECTION - UTOPIAN VISION

Thanks for the book.