Try free for 30 days

1 credit a month to use on any title, yours to keep (you’ll use your first credit on this title).
Stream or download thousands of included titles.
Access to exclusive deals and discounts.
$16.45 a month after 30 day trial. Cancel anytime.
A History of the World cover art

A History of the World

By: Andrew Marr
Narrated by: Andrew Marr, David Timson
Try for $0.00

$16.45 per month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $33.43

Buy Now for $33.43

Pay using voucher balance (if applicable) then card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions Of Use and Privacy Notice and authorise Audible to charge your designated credit card or another available credit card on file.

Publisher's Summary

From the earliest civilizations to the 21st century: a global journey through human history, published alongside a landmark BBC One television series.

Our understanding of world history is changing, as new discoveries are made on all the continents and old prejudices are being challenged. In this truly global journey, Andrew Marr revisits some of the traditional epic stories, from classical Greece and Rome to the rise of Napoleon, but surrounds them with less familiar material, from Peru to the Ukraine, China to the Caribbean. He looks at cultures that have failed and vanished, as well as the origins of today’s superpowers, and finds surprising echoes and parallels across vast distances and epochs. This is a book about the great change-makers of history and their times, people such as Cleopatra, Genghis Khan, Galileo, and Mao, but it is also a book about us. For 'The better we understand how rulers lose touch with reality, or why revolutions produce dictators more often than they produce happiness, or why some parts of the world are richer than others, the easier it is to understand our own times.'

Fresh, exciting and vividly listenable, this is popular history at its very best.

©2012 Andrew Marr (P)2012 Macmillan Digital Audio
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

What listeners say about A History of the World

Average Customer Ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    175
  • 4 Stars
    63
  • 3 Stars
    11
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    4
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    166
  • 4 Stars
    46
  • 3 Stars
    6
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    2
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    145
  • 4 Stars
    58
  • 3 Stars
    12
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    3

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great work

Well read, thoroughly enjoyable and engaging account. Learned a lot from this book. I will listen to it again in a year or so to refresh and see what interesting tidbits I missed first time!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Enjoyed it, especially earlier on.

I found a good selection of subject matter and certainly enjoyed listening to earlier sections. I did enjoy the latter part of the book too, it's just that modern history can have many interpretations and i don't always adhere to popular opinion and beliefs.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

mind opening

This book will change your view of the goodness of man. We are not nice yet we are all the same if our motivation is enough.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

great

I loved this book it was interesting the whole way through and went into a lot of detail

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Fascinating and well written/read.

A fascinating journey through time and exploration of key people, places and times with some very interesting conclusions and themes.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

interesting but biased

easy to follow, interesting take on human history. the pro capitalist political slant and opining would not have been missed.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Riveting Romp through History

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Andrew Marr has managed to blend the microscopic with the macroscopic in this fascinating and compassionate work on the history of our world.

What did you like best about this story?

I was engrossed by the up-closeness of the narrative style particularly the way Marr gets under the skin of both the characters and the times that inform our human journey.

What does Andrew Marr and David Timson bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

The narrator's tone draws out the quirks and humour of Marr's anecdotes so that as a listener I felt I was in the presence of a masterful story-teller.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

The huge scope of this work makes listening in one sitting impossible - although perfect perhaps for a long train ride or tedious bus journey.

Any additional comments?

Andrew Marr excels at weaving the threads of history into a Bayeux- like tapestry of colour, line, texture and form while at the same time bring a wise, incisive order to history's ever-changing tableaux.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Good balance of detail and interesting facts

Very interesting book with enough detail but not so much that it becomes tedious.
I easily understood it at double speed.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Pure enjoyment

Loved listening, highly recommended for everyone. Not only for history-phils but for people who simply like a good story.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Well crafted, well narrated, well done!

What made the experience of listening to A History of the World the most enjoyable?

Andrew Marr, and David Timson seamlessly bring this together in a very listenable manner.

What did you like best about this story?

Insights that I was unaware of and the weaving of connections across continents, the observations based on genetic research were quite thought provoking.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.