Condensing the story of humanity’s 200,000 year tenure on Earth into 450 pages (including pictures) could be an act of hubris or the result of orderly—yet imaginative—minds making connections across centuries and continents. The Oxford Illustrated History of the World is more the latter. Edited by the distinguished British-educated historian Felipe Fernández-Armesto, the attractively designed book is thematic as well as chronological. Art, climate, disease, war, technology, religion philosophy, politics, economics and much more are summarized from the Ice Age through our present Anthropocene Epoch when humanity has reshaped the world in unprecedented and dangerous ways. The authors are various and their writings range from turgid to lucid. Fortunately, most of The Oxford Illustrated History is a pleasure to read with many thought-provoking passages.