What Daniel Boorstin did for science in The Discoverers, Timothy Ferris for cosmology in Coming of Age in the Milky Way, and Robert Heilbroner for economics in The Worldly Philosophers, Colin Wells now does for history in A Brief History of History. The most accessible, concise, and clear-sighted biography ever of history as a living idea, this book brings together evocative sketches of the great historians with concise summaries of their key works. From its humble origins as a minor literary genre in ancient Greece, to its modern-day status as perhaps the most successful monument to the global spread of Western civilization, Wells traces the remarkable evolution of this branch of knowledge, and shows how it has long been the turf on which we fight our culture wars.

A riveting blend of readability, vibrant humor, and penetrating insight, A Brief History of History is a must for anyone for whom living in the present, and looking to the future, is unimaginable without serious reflection on the past.