The History of Mankind in Its Entirety (Abridged)

In many ways this is a satirical love letter to the concept of historical research. There's references to Eric Hobsbawn, Francis Fukuyama among other academics that would frequently appear during my own history degree.

There's a lot of amusing commentary on the nature of modern scholarly research with its 'bottom up' social history angle. It's amusing really because while I do love looking at such things, there is an element of truth in that when you first embrace history it's usually through the mad despots and broader horrible history (with many thanks to Terry Dreary). I very much appreciated the look at Victorian Science as it is an oft under discussed part of the human story, it's consequences still affecting the modern world.

I've enjoyed Finn Vs History for a while now and Finn's "British Dad" character is reminiscent of my own father who doubtless would espouse a lot of what is discussed here. There's a good amount of laughs at the recognition at a seemingly universal experiential truth of how British Dads behave and think. A good amount of ironic laughs too.

Finn is a nimble story teller as well as comedian, as demonstrated in the World War Two stages. I feel perhaps the book would be better served by being a bit more focused on subject matter as this straddles the line between narrative history and manifesto. I look forward to any sequels.