The History Book

The premise of this book is that history is intrinsically boring (‘just one thing after another’), only palatable if spiced up into a ‘rip roaring ride into the past’, peppered with bloody battles, monstrous monarchs and revolting revolutions. If you can stomach the Holocaust turned into a strip cartoon, or an Aztec ritual of human sacrifice depicted as a Glastonbury-style rock festival, then you will undoubtedly enjoy the inventive excursions of the DK creative team. The Great War is depicted in a latter-day Bayeux Tapestry, a biography of Stalin is served up as a school report complete with comment from History teacher Mr Gulag, while a spread on Tiger economies in South East Asia becomes a giant pinball machine. Diary pages, blogs, screen grabs, film posters and fake catalogue pages of inventions are all used as illustrative devices in this journey through history from the Stone Age to the present day. A final section includes famous quotes and misquotes (‘Let them eat cake/brioche/pastry’), loony leaders, curious costume and a (very) brief history of Britain and Ireland. Bright and manically busy, this could be the perfect end of term gift for a dull history teacher.