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E. H. Gombrich's A Little History Of The World

1500 Words6 Pages
History is made up of all the factors of people’s lives, whether those exist till today or not. These factors are considered to be crucial and contributed to the historical events. One of the most crucial factors is writing. Writing has contributed to the development of trade, political system, education, and more. Addition to this, writing made it possible for numerous historical facts to be passed down till today. One of the writing inventions by our ancestors that we are using it till today is the alphabets. In the book “A Little History of the World” written by E. H. Gombrich, the chapter “I C-A-N R-E-A-D” discusses the origin of the alphabets we use today. Gombrich states that Phoenicians, who were the merchants, developed the letters we use as the alphabets today and communicate with their families and friends in the hometown. However, Gombrich’s “A Little History of the World” was criticized due to the several implications it consists of; the oversimplified historical facts, inaccurate information, and unsuitable structure and organization of the presentation of the information. In the chapter “I C-A-N R-E-A-D”, E. H. Gombrich argues that the alphabets we use invented by the Phoenicians. They developed twenty-six signs – which form the alphabets – that are simpler compared to the Egyptian hieroglyphs or the cuneiform script. They lived near Jerusalem in ports of Tyre and Sidon that rivaled Babylon. The Phoenicians made their conquests by sailing to unknown shores,
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