65 pages • 2 hours read
E.H. GombrichA Little History of the World
Nonfiction | Book | YA | Published in 1936A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter 1Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “Once Upon a Time”
As an introduction to his survey of human history, Gombrich begins with an exploration of history and memory. If someone stands between two mirrors, they will see a line of mirrors reflected in those mirrors, each one smaller than the last, until they can no longer be seen. The endless reflection of mirrors goes on but cannot be observed. This phenomenon, he argues, is not unlike our perspective on history (1). At first, our own memories and the memories of surviving generations provide relatively clear pictures of the past. Then, what was left behind by those before us provides a smaller picture. The further back in history, the smaller the picture, until we cannot see what we know is there. He offers another simile by describing history as a well and our memory a burning scrap of paper lighting less and less as it falls deeper into time.
Gombrich briefly reflects on the massive expanse of time. Before humans existed, millions of years ago, there were dinosaurs. Thousands of millions of years ago, there were only small creatures like snails and worms. Before that, there were just plants, and if one goes back far enough, the planet was merely a whirling ball of gas. Like the endless line of mirrors, thinking of the entirety of history at once is impossible, but if you slow down and look at each picture, you can make sense of it. The author argues that all stories begin with “once upon a time” (4), and the story of humanity is no different. History is when we ask “when” and “how.”
Chapter 1 Analysis
In this first chapter of A Little History, Gombrich lays out the intention of his project: to tell the story of who we are. Like all stories, this one begins with “once upon a time,” but this phrase serves as a summary of the story itself—a story about time. Though it is a survey of history, Gombrich uses a linear, narrative perspective to lay out the events of the book because his goal is to tell “our story, the story that we call the history of the world” (4). This first chapter presents no critical thesis or research because Gombrich does not intend to create a piece of historical scholarship. It is, first and foremost, a story.
Essential to this perspective of history is Gombrich’s explicit awareness and involvement of his audience. Addressing the reader as “you,” Gombrich asks questions of them and encourages them to ask questions of their own, often anticipating what those might be. By interacting with the reader, he evokes the foundations of storytelling and creates a sense of audience and speaker. The intended audience is children, and this target is clear in his explanation of history as a collection of human memory: “Your father and mother were also small once, and so was your grandfather, and your grandmother, a much longer time ago, but you know that too. After all, we say: ‘They are old’” (3).
This first chapter reflects on the overwhelming and strange idea of our existence over thousands of years, and Gombrich introduces his book as a way of slowing down and attempting to understand that existence through the examination of important events and human experience.
