The traditional definition of a historical museum is:a place where tangible objects tell a story about the past. If you had thousands of objects, ranging from a Tanzanian stone spearhead to a credit card, you could tell a story about the entire world history. If you also add beautiful photos of all that beauty to that story, you have 'A history of the world in 100 objects'.
The book was compiled by Neil McGregor, a British art historian who drew on the largest collection of special historical objects in the world, that of the British Museum. McGregor has been director of the world-famous museum since 2002.
The objects that McGregor chose – a carved ivory reindeer figurine (France, 11,000 years old), a cuneiform clay tablet (3100 years old, Iraq) or a Chinese painting from the time of the Silk Road (about 1,300 years old) – are 'signals from the past'. They tell something about the world in which and for which they were made.
History did not run parallel on all continents. If you can only use 100 objects from the museum on the basis of which you have to describe world history, you have to make sharp choices.
McGregor describes, for example, how the lifestyle of people after the last ice age (about 11,000 years ago) changed worldwide with the discovery of agriculture on the basis of this remarkable bird-shaped grain pistil, found in Papua New Guinea.
Almost all objects are explained by experts from all over the world. For example, the famous historian and writer Tom Holland uses a golden miniature to explain how the Persian Empire was built and how the Persians slowly developed ideas about their own identity and that of other peoples.
An important global development at the time when the great empires (Greeks, Romans, Chinese) of antiquity were slowly taking shape.
The voyages of discovery and conquest of Europeans during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries left an important mark on world history. It shaped both European and indigenous cultures.
For example, take a look at the copper plaque from West Africa above. We see the local ruler Oba flanked by two African traders. Two Portuguese travelers are also depicted very small. The plaque, made of bronze from Portugal, shows that the Africans themselves controlled the trade. It provides an interesting global view of what we usually see as the age of European expansionism.
Expert and accessible
"A History of the World in 100 Objects" is a wonderful Christmas gift for anyone who would like a complete look at world history. The book is much more than just a description of the artifacts from the British Museum. These are above all a guideline and a beautiful illustration for the reader who in the meantime is presented with an expert, in-depth and accessible story about more than 12,000 years of human history.