I started reading this book in May 2022.
Published in 1931 and later amended in 1949, this book reflects the anti-imperialist and pro-socialist sentiment of the then politicians and thinkers.
But all these thoughts and concepts failed, and in the new world, capitalism won. With the end of the USSR (United of Soviet Socialist Republics) dismantling their socialist regime into a capitalist state and India still being a developing nation since independence (1947) shows that the first prime minister of India JN and his thinking and concepts have lost their roots.
Anyhow the gathered knowledge in the book is incomparable and very valuable.
When reading this book and comparing it with historic films watched it makes me very ecstatic. Kingdom of Heaven (2005), 300 (2006), Gladiator (2000), Troy (2004), Apocalypto (2006), Braveheart (1995), 1917 (2019), and Mongol (2007) and many films aroused my knowledge about book's content.
I read this book prior to reading Dr. Yuval Noah Harari's book trilogy to get an understanding of the way how knowledge is expressed in two generations.
The first part of this book which is titled "Letters from a Father to his daughter" contains information from the beginning of the universe to the earlier civilizations. It's a small book that contains 30 letters.
But "Glimpses of World History" contain 196 letters and it exceeds 1000 pages.
From the beginning of written history to the seventy-year-old Arabic and West Asian crisis caused by the Israel-Palestine issue is exposed in this book.
The first world war, the Russian Revolution, the Inception of Turkey, India's struggle for freedom, world literature, science, and art's role in the global setting are analyzed by the author of this book.
Films like Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and Doctor Zhivago (1965) directed by David Lean came to my mind when reading the relevant book.
And also other films like Testament of Youth (2014), Gandhi (1982), The Last of the Mohicans (1992), and The Patriot (2000) came to my mind when reading this book.
Foreign intellectuals consider this book as the first instance where a South Asian Politician interpreted world history.
Though the first prime minister of India was unable to build a developed country or a nation with ethics and discipline this book is a milestone in history book publications.
Though the first three decades of the twentieth century are explained with biases toward Socialism this book contains a lot of history of that period.
A book of great hard work and magnitude.
I read both the English and Sinhalese translations of this book which improved my knowledge significantly.
The book had minor translation errors. The English copy of the book was found on the "Internet Archive" website and it had missing five pages from one chapter. Overall around 95% of the book was well translated into English. The main errors were the mentioning of the Steppes grass valley as a wasteland or the Sinhalese word "Mudubim" (මුඩුබිම්). Some sentences were also deducted from the Sinhalese translation from the original English book.
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