The World: A History, Combined Volume, by Felipe Fernández-Armesto. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2006, 1152 pp., $126.20 hardbound.

Abstract

According to Wikipedia, Felipe Fernandez-Armesto has achieved the honorable title of a UK “Superdon,” which in American English may stand for an academic who is both a Superman and an intellectual celebrity. This famed source of student learning can be trusted on this one: since 2005 Armesto has held the Prince of Asturias Chair in Spanish Culture and Civilization at Tufts University. He also directs the Pearson PrenticeHall Seminar Series in Global History; is a member of the faculty of history at the University of London; and is the author, co-author, and editor of twenty-five books, over forty chapters, and numerous scholarly articles. His bestselling book,Millennium: A History of the Last Thousand Years, which inspired CNN’s Millennium, was the one that brought him global attention. Other honors include the Caird Medal of the National Maritime Museum (1997), and the John Carter Brown Medal (1999). His journalistic works have been widely syndicated and appear frequently in the London Times, the Guardian, and regularly in the Sunday edition of the Independent. He also contributes to BBC Radio, most often as a panelist on Room for Improvement, International Question Time, and Night Waves. Perhaps the most notorious incident that solidified his celebrity status occurred on January 4, 2007, when while in Atlanta, Georgia, for a conference of the American Historical Association he was thrown to the ground, handcuffed by five policemen, and jailed for eight hours as a result of jaywalking. In a video interview conducted by the History News Network following his arrest, which circulated several days later on YouTube, a poster in the background advertises his latest publication, a textbook entitled The World: Acad. Quest. (2008) 21:226–237 DOI 10.1007/s12129-008-9056-8