The World - by Simon Sebag Montefiore (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - A magisterial world history unlike any other that tells the story of humanity through the one thing we all have in common: families - From the author of The Romanovs

A Best Book of the Year: The New Yorker, Smithsonian

"Succession meets Game of Thrones." --The Spectator - "The author brings his cast of dynastic titans, rogues and psychopaths to life...An epic that both entertains and informs." --The Economist, Best Books of the Year

Around 950,000 years ago, a family of five walked along the beach and left behind the oldest family footprints ever discovered. For award-winning historian Simon Sebag Montefiore, these poignant, familiar fossils serve as an inspiration for a new kind of world history, one that is genuinely global, spans all eras and all continents, and focuses on the family ties that connect every one of us.

In this epic, ever-surprising book, Montefiore chronicles the world's great dynasties across human history through palace intrigues, love affairs, and family lives, linking grand themes of war, migration, plague, religion, and technology to the people at the heart of the human drama.

It features a cast of extraordinary diversity: in addition to rulers and conquerors, there are priests, charlatans, artists, scientists, tycoons, gangsters, lovers, husbands, wives, and children. There is Hongwu, the beggar who founded the Ming dynasty; Ewuare, the Leopard-King of Benin; Henry Christophe, King of Haiti; Kamehameha, the conqueror of Hawaii; Zenobia, the Arab empress who defied Rome; Lady Murasaki, the first female novelist; Sayyida al-Hurra, the Moroccan pirate-queen. Here too are moderns such as Indira Gandhi, Margaret Thatcher, Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin, and Volodymyr Zelensky. Here are the Caesars, Medicis and Incas, Ottomans and Mughals, Bonapartes, Habsburgs and Zulus, Rothschilds, Rockefellers and Krupps, Churchills, Kennedys, Castros, Nehrus, Pahlavis and Kenyattas, Saudis, Kims and Assads.

These powerful families represent the breadth of human endeavor, with bloody succession battles, treacherous conspiracies, and shocking megalomania alongside flourishing culture, moving romances, and enlightened benevolence. A dazzling achievement as spellbinding as fiction, The World captures the whole human story in a single, masterful narrative.

Review Quotes

Named One of the Best Books of the Year by The New Yorker and The Economist - The Times (UK) History Book of the Year - Smithsonian Magazine Best History Book of the Year - Kirkus Best Nonfiction Book of the Year

"The World tells the story of humanity through families, be they large or small, powerful or weak, rich or poor. It is a book for people who want to read about people. . . . The World pulsates with the hundreds of human stories Mr. Montefiore brings to life in vivid, convincing fashion. . . . Montefiore is a biographer at heart. Combining literary flair with keen insight into human psychology, he can evoke a person with a few choice words. . . . Among the many strengths of The World is its truly global perspective. This is an unabashedly multicultural history that refuses to privilege any particular perspective, be it geographic, cultural or ethnic." --The Wall Street Journal

"A monumental survey of dynastic rule: how to get it, how to keep it, how to squander it. . . . Montefiore energetically fulfills his promise to write a 'genuine world history, not unbalanced by excessive focus on Britain and Europe.' In zesty sentences and lively vignettes, he captures the widening global circuits of people, commerce, and culture." --The New Yorker

"Simon Sebag Montefiore knows how to keep our attention. . . . He makes certain to pepper The World with enough inventive gore, twisted villainy, and seriously kinky sex to keep those pages turning. . . . Montefiore's accomplishment here is nothing short of breathtaking. It is no mean feat to create a comprehensive timeline of human history that is deeply researched, illuminating, addictively compelling, and--quite simply--a rowdy good time." --The Washington Independent Review of Books

"A delightful world history, told through influential families. . . . There is never a dull moment. . . . A triumph and a delight, an epic that entertains, informs and appalls in enjoyably equal measure." --The Economist

"A staggering achievement. Simon Sebag Montefiore has given us a tremendous gift: a pulsingly readable world history through the millennia and from one end of the globe to the other." --Sir Simon Schama, author of The Story of the Jews

"A tour de force. Hugely ambitious, erudite and filled with surprises. This puts the family and families back into the heart of history." --Peter Frankopan, New York Times best-selling author of Silk Roads

"Important and mesmerizing." --Michael Beschloss, New York Times best-selling author of Presidents of War

"Compelling, moving, epic, and diverse, Montefiore's wonderful storytelling prowess and wide research pulls off this unparalleled world history in a single narrative with unforgettable style. All the drama of humankind is here from cavemen to Putin and Zelensky." --Olivette Otele, author of African Europeans

"One word for Montefiore's book: magisterial." --Ben Okri, Booker Prize-winning author of The Famished Road

"In this work of astonishing scope and erudition, Simon Sebag Montefiore interweaves the stories of the servants, courtiers, and kings, pioneers, preachers, and philosophers who have made history. A brilliant synthesis that will impart fresh insight to even the most learned readers." --Henry Kissinger, former U.S. Secretary of State

"Simon Sebag Montefiore took on the ambitious task of telling the story of mankind throughout time which he accomplished in splendid fashion! The World is a brilliant book, and its examination of our species' experiences through the prism of the family is truly inspired." --General David Petraeus (US Army, Ret.); former Director of the CIA

"There is a certain satisfaction in holding, and reading a bulky tome. Simon Sebag Montefiore's The World requires strong wrists, but is well worth the physical effort. It is a most readable and fascinating history of humanity from the perspective of that most enduring of institutions: the family. There is pleasure and learning on every [page]." ―Alexander McCall Smith, New Statesman, Books of the Year 2022

"A rollicking, globetrotting. . . . A thrilling tapestry. Only a highly skilled storyteller and pen-portraitist could so deftly grip attention across twenty-three 'acts', spanning more than six millennia and packed with lavish and pullulating detail. . . . The World is wildly entertaining . . . certainly enriching and bracingly profane." ―Times Literary Supplement

"A riveting page-turner. The author brings his cast of dynastic titans, rogues and psychopaths to life with pithy, witty pen portraits, ladling on the sex and violence. An epic that both entertains and informs." --The Economist, Best Books of 2022

"Magnificent. . . . [A] magisterial tome. . . . Dip into this book anywhere and the minutiae of history leap off the page. . . . [A] real-life Game of Thrones." --The Daily Mail, Book of the Week

"A rollicking tale, a kaleidoscope of savagery, sex, cruelty and chaos. . . . Montefiore provides an intimacy usually lacking in global histories. . . . [The World] has personality and a soul. It's also outrageously funny. . . . An enormously entertaining book." --The Times (UK), History Book of the Year

"Deserves to be a roaring bestseller. . . . Think Succession meets Game of Thrones, history told through dynasty and intrigue and written with wit, insight, and more than a dash of scandal." --The Spectator

"Dip into any page and you'll find history rushing by in prose that combines clarity, liveliness and even deadpan humour with intriguing little asides a specialty. . . . A staggering achievement." ―Daily Telegraph

"This is not just an undoubted book of the year but of many years. . . . It's a treasure trove of marvellous stories, brilliantly researched and absorbingly told, fascinating characters who leap off thepages but, above all, the thing missing most in our troubled, self-absorbed society--perspective." ―Daily Mail

"It is hard to stop turning the pages. . . . There is no doubting that family is the central institution of human history and Montefiore's overview of its most recent five millennia is entertaining and consistently interesting." ―Financial Times

"Succeeds in scintillating fashion . . . . [A]n epic rich in detail . . . . [O]n each page, you'll find an interesting idea, a witty observation or a footnote containing an anecdote emblematic of a wider point. Montefiore pays attention to the lives of women and children and to places slighted by Western historians. . . . This is an extraordinary work of wisdom and vivid storytelling." ―Literary Review

"[Montefiore's] major achievement is to make us see the world through a different lens - to make theunfamiliar familiar and, more important, the familiar unfamiliar. . . . [B]rings [history] most vividly, almost feverishly, to life. There is hardly a dull paragraph." ―The Spectator

"[A]n incredible undertaking. Montefiore finds enduring resonances and offers new perspectives . . . . Because these are family stories, he adeptly eschews traditionally male histories to find greater texture and diversity. A remarkable achievement." ―Observer

"Violence, treachery, and sex are the motors of history in this sweeping chronicle. . . . Setting a whirlwind pace, Montefiore skillfully guides readers through the tumult with elegant prose and evocative character sketches. It's a bravura performance." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Award-winning historian Montefiore draws on 30 years of research, reading, and travel to create a panoramic, abundantly populated, richly detailed history of the world through the stories of families across place and time. . . . A vibrant, masterful rendering of human history." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"History buffs and novices will appreciate this extensive, accessible, highly recommended work; it may inspire them to dig into lesser-known areas of global history." --Library Journal (starred review)

About the Author

SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE is a historian whose best-selling books have been published in forty-eight languages and won numerous awards including the Costa Biography Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. His books include Catherine the Great and Potemkin; Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar; Young Stalin; Jerusalem: The Biography; and The Romanovs. Montefiore is also the author of the acclaimed Moscow Trilogy of novels--Shashenka, Red Sky at Noon, and One Night in Winter--as well as Written in History: Letters That Changed the World and Voices of History: Speeches That Changed the World. He received his Ph.D. from Cambridge University, and he is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He lives in London.