The History of the World

What readers need to know going into Frank Welsh’s “The History of the World” is the definition of the word hegemony.

It means the influential dominance of one group over another and Welsh seems to use the word about three dozen times within the first hundred pages.

But other than not defining hegemony, Welsh seems to explain everything else under the sun in the historical volume sub-titled “From the Dawn of Humanity to the Modern Age.”

Readers travel alongside cave dwellers to the Egyptian pyramids to the rise of the Greeks to the Romans onward.

The beginnings and rise of Judaism, Christianity, Islam and other religions are chronicled.

Readers travel through time and around the world, visiting the developing cultures and nations.

Welsh lives in France and England. The book doesn’t really have a Eurocentric feel — Welsh actually treats eras and nations somewhat evenly — but Americans may leave certain chapters believing there is an undue European influence.

And, perhaps, arguably, there is.

For example, Welsh pays more attention to Napoleon Bonaparte and his French empire dominating Europe than he does George Washington and the American Revolution.

Still, Welsh gives readers “The History of the World” in an easy-to-read and compelling fashion.