Translated from the German.

"In 1935, with a doctorate in art history and no prospect of a job, the twenty-six-year-old Ernst Gombrich was invited by a publishing acquaintance to attempt a history of the world for younger readers. Amazingly, he completed the task in an intense six weeks, and Eine kurze Weltgeschichte fur junge Leser was published in Vienna to immediate success. It is now available in eighteen languages across the world." "Toward the end of his long life, Gombrich embarked upon a revision and, at last, an English translation. A Little History of the World presents his lively and involving history to English-language readers for the first time." "In forty concise chapters, Gombrich tells the story of humanity from the stone age to the atomic bomb. In between emerges a colorful picture of wars and conquests, grand works of art, and the spread and limitations of science. This is a text dominated not by dates and facts, but by the sweep of experience across the centuries, a guide to humanity's achievements and an acute witness to its frailties."--Jacket.

1 Once Upon a Time 1 -- 2 The Greatest Inventors of All Time 5 -- 3 The Land by the Nile 10 -- 4 Sunday, Monday 17 -- 5 The One and Only God 24 -- 6 I C-A-N R-E-A-D 29 -- 7 Heroes and their Weapons 31 -- 8 An Unequal Struggle 37 -- 9 Two Small Cities in One Small Land 44 -- 10 The Enlightened One and his Land 51 -- 11 A Great Teacher of a Great People 57 -- 12 The Greatest Adventure of All 62 -- 13 New Wars and New Warriors 73 -- 14 An Enemy of History 80 -- 15 Rulers of the Western World 83 -- 16 The Good News 92 -- 17 Life in the Empire and at its Frontiers 97 -- 18 The Storm 104 -- 19 The Starry Night Begins 110 -- 20 There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is His Prophet 115 -- 21 A Conqueror who Knows How to Rule 123 -- 22 A Struggle to Become Lord of Christendom 130 -- 23 Chivalrous Knights 137 -- 24 Emperors in the Age of Chivalry 144 -- 25 Cities and Citizens 156 -- 26 A New Age 163 -- 27 A New World 172 -- 28 A New Faith 180 -- 29 The Church at War 187 -- 30 Terrible Times 193 -- 31 An Unlucky King and a Lucky King 200 -- 32 Meanwhile, Looking Eastwards ... 206 -- 33 A Truly New Age 213 -- 34 A Very Violent Revolution 220 -- 35 The Last Conqueror 227 -- 36 Men and Machines 240 -- 37 Across the Seas 248 -- 38 Two New States in Europe 255 -- 39 Dividing Up the World 264 -- 40 The Small Part of the History of the World Which I Have Lived Through Myself: Looking Back 273.

1 2