So, does the series hold up? Aside from it being a bit dated, yes. The essays themselves are very well written, the illustrations and photographs are magnificent, and the maps (with very rare exceptions) are clear and informative. It’s also hard to argue with their choices; the few that don’t seem to deserve the honor of a “milestone” are more than compensated for by those that you wouldn’t have thought of, but do deserve it. Even the inclusion of cultural milestones is made to be appropriate. And a true Milestone won’t ever lose that name.

It is, naturally, “Eurocentric”, and even “Anglo-centric”.

I can think of two reasons for this. First, one must be honest and note that World History itself is more than just a little Eurocentric – as great as they might have been, the kingdoms of sub-Saharan Africa, southeast Asia, and the Americas never thought to expand outwards to dominate the world either militarily or politically, bringing their cultures with them (why that is is something for another time and place). More importantly, the set is written and published for an English-reading, Anglo-American, general audience. So of course it’s going to concentrate on their historical background. A set written and published in China, for a Chinese audience, for example, will naturally have a different set of Milestones.

Even with that in mind, they do include essays covering India, China, and Japan – bringing to the reader’s attention some events they might never had heard of before. Looking over their choices at a distance of half a century, there are a few that perhaps could be removed from the list, and replaced with others to give a properly “global” perspective. I really don’t think that “De Gaulle’s Return to Power” in 1958 had any lasting significance, for one. And Simón Bolívar’s liberation of Spain’s South American holdings from their empire really does deserve to be included as a Milestone of History, and not just mentioned in one of the connecting essays.

Be that as it may, the series does not deserve to be lost.

If I were going to create my own list and update things to the present, here are some I’d consider including. What would you add?

483 BC: The Teachings of Confucius

A government official creates a system of ethics that would serve as the basis for China’s own native religion.
(They have founding events in all the other major religions, why not Confucianism?)

1425: The Return of the Admiral

A Grand Fleet spreads China’s influence around the Indian Ocean, but political intrigue and a domestic crisis end the voyages and any chance of China becoming a world power.
(This is a “What Might Have Been” milestone. In the early 1400s, China was the largest, most powerful, and most advanced nation in the world. But they made the deliberate choice to turn isolationist, and therefore yielded control of the globe to the European powers. If they had continued to expand their influence….)

1819: The Liberator

Simon Bolivar is named President of Gran Colombia, and the days of Spain’s empire in the New World are numbered.
(Bolivar’s career is well worth being remembered)

1905: Einstein’s Revolution in Physics

In a set of papers, Albert Einstein builds on recent developments in physics and changes the way we understand the universe.
(Copernicus, Newton, and Darwin have their milestones….)

1954: The Fall of Dien Bien Phu

The French military is humiliated in Southeast Asia, signaling the end of Colonialism.
(Probably a better choice to mark the end of Colonialism than De Gaulle returning to power in the Algerian Crisis)

1973: The Arab Oil Embargo

In a strategic move in a war against Israel, Arab nations stop exporting oil to the US, and the world is stunned into realizing the limits to its resources.
(I want to include something to mark the growth of environmentalism)

1989: “This is for Everyone”

Tim Berners-Lee creates a new way for computers to ‘talk’ to each other, and the world is connected like never before.
(Try and convince me that the creation of the modern Internet ISN’T a Milestone….)

2001: A New Kind of War

A small group of terrorists attacks symbols of the United States’ dominance, and warfare is no longer just a contest between nations.
(Trying to combine the spread of international terrorism and the development of drones in warfare…)

To keep the list at a nice round 100 Milestones, each one I’d add means that one must be dropped. I do NOT want to have to make that choice.