La Storia Del Mondo In 100 Oggetti (2012) - Plot & Excerpts
Neil MacGregor is the current director of the British Museum. What he has done is to pick 100 objects from the museum’s collection that spans the human activity over a period of 2 million years. The oldest object is an Olduvai handaxe found in Tanzania, Africa which is 2 million years old and the latest object is a solar panel manufactured in china in 2010. The object gives the author and the various experts to present their views of the object and the world at the time of the object. It’s a fascinatingly new way of learning history. Since we get only a view of the history of those times, the book is titled "A History of the world" instead of "The History of the world".The author initially explains the object and presents the picture of the world at the time of the object and then delves deeper into the culture and civilization that existed around the time of the objects. Experts on fields as wide as anthropology, history, sculpting, pottery and even a political cartoonist were presenting their views of a variety of objects. The objects also cover a variety of topics ranging from state craft, the first cities and states, the beginning of writing, ancient empires, God and Religions to women's rights.7 of these 100 objects described in the book are from India. The oldest of them being the animal seals from the Indus Valley Civilization (circa 8000-1500 BC) Through this seal, the author explains us the fascinating culture and highly urbanized civilization of the Indus Valley. The animal seals have small holes in them indicating that they worn by people to indicate their profession or status or class. They have writing on them which is the language of the IVC people. Next object from India is the Ashoka Pillar is a fragment of stone, sandstone to be exact, and it’s about the size of a large curved brick carved from a huge pillar which has inscriptions written in Prakrit. Ashoka the Great took over a vast empire and, through the strength of his ideas, began a tradition that leads directly to the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi and still flourishes today – a tradition of pluralistic, humane, non-violent statecraft. Ashoka had pillars like this put up across the whole of his empire.Then you have the statue of Buddha from Gandara, Gold Coin of Kumara Gupta of Gupta Dynasty, Idol of Shiva and Parvati and the Painting of a Mughal Prince. As with other objects the life and times of the objects are detailed with enough fodder to keep you engaged from the experts of history of that time.It is fascinating to think that humans have lived 2 million years ago and how the life of that time would have been. Most of the views and opinions of the experts is guess work based on others similar studies. The objects cover a wide range of cultures like Korea, Japan, Mexico, Central America, Greek, British, Persian Empire( Iran), Mesopotamia (Iraq), China, Assyria, Vikings, Indonesia and Russia. Each object is carefully chosen to represent a different culture and time from respective countries. I often wonder of what will be left of our time for the future generations to study our times. Especially since our age is completely digital and that we do not leave much of physical objects like stone carvings or tablet writings that would survive 1000's of years. You will learn more about the world history in every page than in any other book that you have read. Interestingly enough this Book is originally a BBC radio series with the same name by the author.Each of the 100 objects were photographed and a short video of all these objects can be viewed in the bbc website. These radio podcasts can be downloaded from the BBC website. You can explore them in detail and view all the objects in that site.I have been to British Museum a number of times even before reading this book. But this book taught me an entirely new way of looking at each object in a museum. Neil Mc Gregor opens a whole new world for us to understand each of these objects. Since the time I started reading this book, I went back to the museum to track down each of these objects and see them for real. Of the 100 objects described in this book, atleast 80 objects are in display. I have managed to see around 50 of them so far in the last 3 times I have been there. Its amazingly satisfying to see them in person after learning the history of those objects in detail. It’s quite a feat given the vastness of the museum (it has around 90 galleries of objects) and objects of upwards 8 million in the museum. Overall, this was a historically sumptuous and satisfying read. Having recently traveled to an actual cradle of civilization, I was a little frustrated that the splendor and broad impact of ancient Greece was given such light coverage. I didn't fully realize what I was missing until I visited museums and historical sites; but, once I absorbed it all, I felt a bit cheated by MacGregor. I wonder why he glossed over such a transformational period in western civilization? What else did I miss out on?
What do You think about La Storia Del Mondo In 100 Oggetti (2012)?
Good non Eurocentric view as the 100 objects are distributed in a true world wide distribution .
—docwho0101
Excellent for reading a bit at a time (like an object a day); fascinating.
—mariasalazar
Fascinating. Brings history alive. So much to learn in nice small bites.
—kevin
Very good book. Try to understand historical objects under their time.
—Supremedonutz
