100 Reasons to Love History!

Cara/Andrea here,

The Holiday Season is traditionally a time of festivities with friends and family—parties, sweets, tinsel and song! (Today is the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year here in the Northern Hemisphere, so it’s no wonder that we celebrate the long, dark stretch of hours with festive lights, blazing Yule logs, glittering candles and copious amounts liquid good cheer.) And of course, it's a time for exchanging gifts. Now, many of you still have your gaily-wrapped gifts to open, but I received an early present from a friend who loves history just as much as I do. And it’s such a fun thing that I want to share!

It’s a book—ha, no surprise there why I’m waxing poetic! A HISTORY OF THE WORLD IN 100 OBJECTS by Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum, started out as a joint venture with the BBC Radio 4 as a 20-week series of  5 short (15 minutes) programs per week, focusing on one item from the Museum’s collection in each spotlight. The mission was to tell the history of the world through 100 objects, using just the British Museum’s resources. Well, much to the delighted surprise of both the curators and the broadcasters, the series was a runaway hit. So MacGregor and his colleagues decided to put the show in book format.

Oh, joy. 707 pages of it, to be exact. Yes, it’s heavy, but hey, it’s carrying the weight of the world between those glorious red covers! (The U. S. edition is red beneath the dust jacket.) MacGregor starts out his preface by saying, “Telling history through things is what museums are for.” Tipping his hat to the Parliamentary Act of 1753, which directed that the Museum be “aimed at universality,” he goes on to say that the rules of this intellectual game were as follows—the objects had to range from the beginning of human history (approximately 2 million years ago) to the present. And the goal was “to tell the history . . . by deciphering the messages which objects communicate across time—messages about peoples and places, environments and interactions, about different moments in history and about our own time as we reflect on it.”

And then, MacGregor is off and running through the centuries. The richly detailed photograph (or photographs) of each object is accompanied by a short essay. The text is is very informative—but far more than that it’s wonderfully entertaining. MacGregor’s enthusiasm and love for history—and his delightful sense of humor—dances over the pages as he describes the object and why he and his staff feel it is significant. Of added interest is that he often asks an expert in a specific field, but not necessarily a scholar—a sculptor or an economist—to write a paragraph within the essay saying what the object means to him or her. It provides a fascinating perspective.

The range of objects is breathtaking. MacGregor covers a dazzling array of cultures from every corner of the globe, and the objects themselves represent an incredible array of mediums. Mummies, stone tools, clocks, tapestries, coins, woodcuts, jewelry, bronzes, pottery, to name just a few.  As the New York Times book review says, “These objects, some humble, some glorious, embody intriguing tales of politics and power, social history and human behavior.”

I’m up to #30 on the List (it’s arranged chronologically, except for the first item, which is a mummy—a nod to the British Museum’s most famous attractions!) A nice thing is you can read a few each day, as they are stand-alone essays, and so go at your own pace. I’m enjoying it immensely—and for those of you who still have a few last-minute gift hints to drop . . .well, hint, hint!


It’s wonderful to see history striking such a chord with the general public, isn’t it? The BBC radio broadcasts regularly attracted an audience of nearly four million listeners, while the podcast downloads of the programs have totaled over 10,441,884. And the museum curators are delighted that the public has uploaded well over 3,240 objects as their choices for the Top 100 List. The success of the British Museum’s idea has also encouraged other museums to come up with their own Lists, thus engaging the public in a fun and interactive experience of history.

You can explore more about the 100 Objects here at the wonderful British Museum website, which including, podcasts, blogs and an interactive visual display of the featured items.

Okay, so now let’s us have a little fun! What one item (or maybe two) would you put on a History of the World in 100 Objects list? I would put the Gutenberg Bible and the first Apple home computer for the way moveable type and simple-to-use advanced technology  revolutionized the dissemination of information.

Comments

[Jenny]

Oh Cara/Andrea, I want a copy. Straight after Christmas I will order one. As to what I would put on the 100 objects list, I would have to put the wheel first. Without the wheel, nothing would have subsequently been invented. Then maybe the steam engine (using the wheel, of course).

[Liz]

Seems a good time for Michelangelo's Madonna of Bruges.

[Cara Elliott/Andrea Penrose]

Great suggestions, Jenny! You will LOVE this book—it's so fascinating and thought=provoking!

[Cara Elliott/Andrea Penrose]

Lovely suggestion, Liz. Last night I read the essay on an ancient Chinese bell, and how Confucius believed that music was important to society because it created a feeling of harmony . . .each person plays his/her note in life which makes the whole melodious. It's a concept that still resonates with the Chinese today. So in three pages I learned something so very interesting!

[Diane]

The typewriter would be my choice since it was a vital component for most way before the computer existed.

[Cara Elliott/Andrea Penrose]

Excellent, Diane!

[Susan/DC]

I put this book and P.D. James' "Death Comes to Pemberley" on my wish list -- now to see if my husband or children deliver.

As for additions to the list, I'm not sure. One of my favorite things is the Alexander Sarcophagus in the antiquities museum in Istanbul. I don't know if it is historically important, but it is one of the most beautiful objects I've ever seen.

Since I don't yet have the book, I don't know if any optical lenses are included; if not, they are my suggestion. When we think of all of the discoveries both large (telescopes) and small (microscopes) thanks to lenses, I think they are very important to the world and not just to me (see Joanna's blog from Monday on eyeglasses).

[Cara Elliott/Andrea Penrose]

I hope Santa brings you the book, Susan/DC! Alexander (on a coin) is represented in 100 Objects. The sarcophagus sounds beautiful. and a worthy addition. I haven't peeked ahead at all the items (I find it fun to discover them as I go along) but I am sure sort sort of lens will be listed. (I was so excited to see the Herschel telescope at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich on my trip to London this past fall.)

[Anne]

A fascinating post which I enjoyed. GPS is an item that most think is a necessity, but maps were a useful and great tool for years.

[Cara Elliott/Andrea Penrose]

Anne, I so agree about maps—plus they say so much about the people who made them! I read a wonderful essay once that talked about this—look at the old ones with sea monsters in the oceans. That tells us the oceans were frightening places because they were so unknown . Or look at the distorted continents or weird scale of early maps. Again it shows us what people knew—and didn't know. It's fascinating to look for the subtext beneath the surface drawings!

[Sherrie Holmes]

Sherrie, here. Cara/Andrea, what a wonderful post! Most of us who visit the Wenches blog regularly are history buffs, so this post really hit the right spot!

My addition to the list would be a terra cotta or ceramic Tang Dynasty horse. I have always been wild about these wonderfully rendered Chinese horse figurines, with their robust bodies, arched necks, and tiny but elegant heads.

The horse played a vital role in the history of mankind. The animal provided transportation (riding, driving, hauling canal boats and wheeled cargo vehicles); subsistance (plowing, harvesting & even being eaten); military endeavors (cavalry, knights, soldiers, hauling cannons/military equipment); sports and gambling (racing, endurance racing, harness racing, dressage, Olympics, horse shows); theater & entertainment (circuses, rodeos, trick horses, theater, movies); health (PMU-pregnant mare urine, used to produce Premarin [PREgnant MARe urINe]; horseback riding for the handicapped); and even companionship.

It is nearly impossible to chart the development of mankind without including the horse. And every romance reader knows that the hero always rides a black stallion. *g*

[Cara Elliott/Andrea Penrose]

Sherrie, MacGregor should invite you to do a guest paragraph for his essays! You are SO right about the horse, and yes, the Tang figures are in the book. I really am having such fun reading the BM's ideas of WHY these pieces are important are important to mankind, aside from their aesthetic beauty, Lots of thought-provoking stuff, but done in such a fun, accessible way.

[Mary Jo Putney]

I LOVE this British Museum project. I discovered it when my friend,author Laura Resnick, sent me a CD with a couple of weeks of the 15 minute broadcasts. Macgregor has the loveliest thoughtful British voice as he describes the various objects and fits them into a larger view of world history. As he points out, this isn't THE history of the world, but A history since there are many different ways to shape the past.

I meant to buy the book, but accidentally bought the audiobook, which has a happy mistake because I love listening to him. Plus, the audio book comes with a little booklet listing the objects and showing small pictures.

But that wasn't enough. I recently bought the regular book as well. *G* Delicious stuff!

[Susan/DC]

To update my 2011 comment: I did receive a copy of this from my children last year and have spent time in 2012 enjoying the articles. It's both fun and insightful, which makes a lovely book.

[Anne Gracie]

I missed this last year, and am now firmly hooked. It sounds fabulous. I'm ordering it as a Christmas present — mine.

[Sherrie Holmes]

I. Want. This. Book.

[LouisaCornell]

Definitely gifting myself with this one for Christmas! And I might just buy the audiobook as well!

I'd have to include Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro. It was considered quite revolutionary in its day (premiered May 1,1786 in Vienna) as it was the one of the first times opera presented a servant hero who outwits his master.(Rossini's Barber of Seville being the first and both of these operas were based on plays in a trilogy by Beaumarchais, plays that were censored in France as being too revolutionary!) It changed opera and music forever.

And I'd also have to include Beethoven's Ninth Symphony - one of the first to include a large choral movement and Beethoven was responsible for many other firsts in music - first to use large sections of brass in his compositions and the first major composer to break free of the patronage system which kept composers in the roles of servants for so long. Of course Beethoven never intended to be a revolutionary. He simply knew he was a superior being and was incapable of getting along with aristocrats for very long!

[Louis]

Ms Sherrie...

I fully agree about the horse. (I have to as a horse owner)

I'd like to add, if it is not in the book...radio...and all of its successors...TV, FM, and other devices.

Looking forward to getting the book.

[Karin]

I love Louisa Cornell's choice of Mozart and Beethoven, and the Gutenberg Bible is great too. I would pick the Rosetta Stone, the Koran and the Model T Ford.

[Janice]

I'd pick the can opener. Before it was invented there were all these cans lying around and nobody could open them. Genius invention.