Book review
Glimpses of World History: Being Further Letters to His Daughter, Written in Prison and Containing a Rambling Account of History for Young People


'It is one of the most remarkable books ever written...Nehru makes even H.G.Wells seem singularly insular...One is awed by the breadth of Nehru's culture.' —New York Times

On New Year's Day, 1931, Jawaharlal Nehru began a remarkable series of letters on the history of the world to his daughter, Indira, then thirteen years old. Over the next thirty months, Nehru wrote nearly two hundred letters in this series, which were later published as Glimpses of World History.

With its panoramic sweep and its gripping narrative flow, all the more remarkable for being written in prison where Nehru had no recourse to reference books or a library, Glimpses of World History covers the rise and fall of empires and civilizations from Greece and Rome to China and West Asia; great figures such as Ashoka and Genghis Khan, Gandhi and Lenin; wars and revolutions, democracies and dictatorships. An enduring classic, this book is dazzling testimony to the breadth of Nehru's world view, his grasp of the lessons of history, and of the forces and personalities that shape it.


Edition: Paperback
Format: Royal | 1192 pages
Classification: Non Fiction
Published: 5/1/2004


About the author Jawaharlal Nehru was born on 14 November 1889 at Allahabad and educated in England at Harrow and Cambridge. In 1912, Nehru returned home to play a central role in India's struggle for freedom from British colonial rule, and then, as prime minister of independent India for seventeen years, went on to shape the nation's future as a modern, secular and democratic state. He died in office, on 27 May 1964. Visionary and idealist, scholar and statesman of international stature, Nehru was also an outstanding writer. His three renowned books—An Autobiography, Glimpses of World History and The Discovery of India—have acquired the status of classics.