I think this was a gift from several years back. It is a general history book that claims to provide answers to common questions.
The book is organized by subject: war, philosophy, discovery etc. These are the chapters. Within the chapters are sections that are a couple pages each in length. Each section is topped by a question such as "What is X" or "who was Y". As far as that goes, the book is fine.
Being a general history book, the answers are general. They are short and summarized, maybe to the point of being incomplete. This is not a problem. It was addressed in the introduction. Adding more specific answers to each question would make the book unwieldly in length. For introductory information, it is sufficient. The problems, as I seem them, are not with the answers themselves.
Rather, the problems are with the table of contents and the lack of recommended direction. The former is incomplete and the latter is stifling. These problems make the book less convenient to use and less useful overall.
The table of contents only lists the start of each chapter. So there is no easy means of paging within chapters, only between them. Next, the questions answered are not listed so the reader does know which are answered without going through the entire chapter. Making this worse, the table of contents only lists categories like "Ancient medicine" or "Trojan War" so one must make a guess in which section one's question is in. All this combines to make the book inconvenient at best as a reference book.
Each answer is limited in its information. This is excusable but there is no direction to find in-depth information. All that exists is a page of references at the end of the book. A couple titles as recommended reading for each answer would increase the book's value. Without such a feature, the book is far less "handy" than it could be.
Trickster Eric Novels gives "The Handy History Answer Book" a C-
Click here for my next book review: War and Human Nature
Click here for my previous book review: Mahou Sensei Negima - omnibus #7
Brian Wilkerson is a independent novelist, freelance book reviewer, and writing advice blogger. He studied at the University of Minnesota and came away with bachelor degrees in English Literature and History (Classical Mediterranean Period concentration).
His fantasy series, Journey to Chaos, is currently available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback
The book is organized by subject: war, philosophy, discovery etc. These are the chapters. Within the chapters are sections that are a couple pages each in length. Each section is topped by a question such as "What is X" or "who was Y". As far as that goes, the book is fine.
Being a general history book, the answers are general. They are short and summarized, maybe to the point of being incomplete. This is not a problem. It was addressed in the introduction. Adding more specific answers to each question would make the book unwieldly in length. For introductory information, it is sufficient. The problems, as I seem them, are not with the answers themselves.
Rather, the problems are with the table of contents and the lack of recommended direction. The former is incomplete and the latter is stifling. These problems make the book less convenient to use and less useful overall.
The table of contents only lists the start of each chapter. So there is no easy means of paging within chapters, only between them. Next, the questions answered are not listed so the reader does know which are answered without going through the entire chapter. Making this worse, the table of contents only lists categories like "Ancient medicine" or "Trojan War" so one must make a guess in which section one's question is in. All this combines to make the book inconvenient at best as a reference book.
Each answer is limited in its information. This is excusable but there is no direction to find in-depth information. All that exists is a page of references at the end of the book. A couple titles as recommended reading for each answer would increase the book's value. Without such a feature, the book is far less "handy" than it could be.
Trickster Eric Novels gives "The Handy History Answer Book" a C-
Click here for my next book review: War and Human Nature
Click here for my previous book review: Mahou Sensei Negima - omnibus #7
Brian Wilkerson is a independent novelist, freelance book reviewer, and writing advice blogger. He studied at the University of Minnesota and came away with bachelor degrees in English Literature and History (Classical Mediterranean Period concentration).
His fantasy series, Journey to Chaos, is currently available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback
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