In 1935, with a doctorate in art history no prospect of a job, twenty-six-year-old Ernst Gombrich was invited to try a history of the world for younger readers. Amazingly, he finished the task within an extreme six weeks, and Eine kurze Weltgeschichte für junge Leser was released in Vienna to immediate success. It is now a global bestseller and obtainable in nearly thirty languages around the world.

In forty concise chapters, Gombrich tells the story of man in the Stone Age towards the atomic bomb. In between emerges a colorful picture of wars and conquests, grand works of art, and the spread and limitations of science. This is a text message dominated not really by dates and facts but by the sweep of mankind’s knowledge across the decades, a guide to humanity’s accomplishments and an severe witness to its frailties. The merchandise of a nice and humane sensibility, this timeless account makes intelligible the full span of history.