In 1935, at the age of only 25, Gombrich dared to write world history for young readers. Without ever becoming lengthy, he describes the complicated development of mankind from the Stone Age to the First World War in a vivid, exciting and attentive manner. He succeeds in covering a wide arc without blurring or trivialisingthe complexity of the historical events. This makes the book a unique experience for both young and old readers: after reading it, they can grasp the great events of the past in one go, and our knowledge of history, which is mostly fragmentary, is finally given a common thread in Gombrich's work.