A History of the World
By Donn H. Crilly
hardcover (dust jacket) • 1,086 pages • 6 x 9 • bibliography, index
This massive hardcover book provides the reader with an overview of history from a scientific perspective, beginning with humankind’s first experiences and ending with the events of 1945, with some commentary on the state of the world since then. It is one of a few world histories to be published.
A distillation of the primary work of others, the book supplies the reader with a larger view of history and offers general conclusions based on current scholarly research. The writing of the book has involved an extensive amount of secondary research, including over 60 overseas journeys to archeological sites, museums, and libraries. Of special focus are belief systems, mythology and human psychology, as well as the relationships between languages and their classification.
"[The] book does not dwell upon personalities,” said Dr. Crilly. “If we go over and over the exploits of Alexander the Great, we tend to lose sight of the fact that it was Greek civilization—not some individual—that captured the world.”
Donn H. Crilly, M.D., completed a fellowship in surgery at the Mayo Clinic, after which he accepted a position at an Austrian medical center just then developing a department of vascular surgery. This was followed by thirty-three years of vascular surgical practice in California. He has returned with his wife to the family home in Nebraska, where he continues to pursue his lifelong interest in history, science, and music. He still travels to Salzburg annually.
"The idea for this hefty book (nearly 1,100 pages) began with the author's childhood love of charts, maps and time lines… Crilly said it was at Doane College [in Crete, Nebraska], where he did his undergraduate studies and served as a teaching assistant in the history department, that he acquired his approach to the study of history. He describes that approach as being based on civilizations rather than nations.
"Since then, he said he has expanded that perspective to include the entire world. There have been no more than five or six serious books written which attempt to cover the history of the entire world, he said. Among his favorites, A Short History of the World, was written by H. G. Wells and published in 1920. It is also the first history book he read.
To demonstrate this point, Crilly gestured toward the wall-to-wall books that fill his library.
"I have at least 25 books about the Tang Dynasty in China, but not one of them mentions anything that was going on in the rest of the world at the same time," he said. "From my perspective, I think it's also important to know that was the time of the Mayans in southern Mexico and Central America, the time of Charlemagne and the time of Mohammed."
—excerpted from "Lifelong Passion for History Results in New Book," The Superior Express, March 1, 2012
(Due to size, additional shipping is charged per book.)
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