Absolutely Everything! A History of Earth, Dinosaurs, Rulers, Robots, and Other Things Too Numerous to Mention, by Christopher Lloyd

I love history.  I love reading about it, I love studying it, I love teaching it*, and I love discovering new things about it.  Certainly there are aspects of history that I tend to favor, such as the ancient world of the Mediterranean and Europe in the Middle Ages, but most any bit of knowledge I can gain -especially told in story form- is welcome.

Because I have my favorite places and eras to learn about, it is easy to become tunnel visioned on just those pieces.  It happens a lot for students of Western Civilization; we are so focused on what was happening in England or Greece that we don't realize the things that were simultaneously occurring in Oceania or Mesoamerica, for instance.  Roughly around the time of the Roman Republic's creation, a one Siddhartha Gautama (better known to most as the Buddha) was on a spiritual journey that would lead to the founding of one of the modern world's major religions.  While Gothic cathedrals were being erected in France, Mansa Musa of the Mali Empire was busy making things happen in Africa.  There were a few things going on.

Enter Absolutely Everything!  A History of Earth, Dinosaurs, Rulers, Robots, and Other Things Too Numerous to Mention, by Christopher Lloyd.  

No, not that Christopher Lloyd.  Otherwise, we wouldn't have to read about history and could instead just pile in the DeLorean.

Anyway, this Christopher Lloyd (of Absolutely Everything!) is only slightly less animated than Doc Brown.  Writing for older children and young adults, his voice (both spoken -he reads the audiobook- and written) is full of whimsy and good humor.  He makes a concerted effort to zoom out and consider the big picture of how all aspects of Earth's natural and political history are related: the birth of our planet, its multiple geological and ecological transformations, the historical changes of weather patterns and their influences on the rises and falls of power, our progress -and sometimes regressions- as humans.  It is a vast scope, but I like his approach.  Sure, we gloss over some things and omit others entirely but, when trying to see the entire puzzle instead of just the individual pieces, it's gotta be done.  I would compare it to how movie adaptations of books often leave out scenes or characters, else every book-based film would be 76+ hours long.

Although Lloyd writes in a sometimes annoyingly biased way (e.g. taking some things as fact vs theory), it is a fun read and does a fine job of encompassing an insane amount of material in an approachable and enjoyable way.  (At no point did I need to reach an acceleration of 88 mph.)  It was fun for a new type of book, but I still prefer less agenda-driven series The Story of the World by Susan Wise Bauer.

*I am currently teaching a French conversation course on Antiquity and the early Middle Ages in France.