A Little History of the World

Over 60 years after A Little History’s publication, Gombrich wrote this added chapter, noting, “It is one thing to learn about history from books, and quite another to experience it oneself” (273). He now intends to describe the part of history that has happened during his own lifetime. He says that he has learned, as so much more information has become available to us all, that you cannot always trust what the newspaper says. So, the chapter “Dividing Up the World” included biases he had not intended because he still believed what he had read to be true at that time. Americans and their allies did not keep their promises to the Germans as Gombrich believed they had. This reality, misunderstood by Gombrich and much of the public at the time, had dire consequences. Those who had lost the war and were left weakened and destitute saw their fate as the result of a cruel deception. This feeling was easily manipulated by Adolf Hitler, who directed their anger toward the Jewish population.

Gombrich admits that though he comes from a Jewish family himself and has told the reader about the many persecutions of the Jews, he never believed it would happen again in his lifetime.