author
Karl Friedrich Becker
1777–1806
Best remembered for making world history accessible to young readers, this German educator and historian wrote a widely used history of the world before his life was cut short at just 29. His work lived on long after his death through many later editions and revisions.
3 Audiobooks
Ulysses of Ithaca
by Karl Friedrich Becker, Homer
Achilles
by Karl Friedrich Becker
Gods and Heroes
by Ferdinand Schmidt, Karl Friedrich Becker
About the author
Born in Berlin on March 11, 1777, Karl Friedrich Becker was a German educator and historian. He studied in Berlin and at Halle, where he worked under the classical scholar Friedrich August Wolf, and he turned early toward the study of history.
He is chiefly known for Weltgeschichte für Kinder und Kinderlehrer (World History for Children and Teachers of Children), a history written to be useful and approachable for younger readers and the people teaching them. The book became his best-known work and continued to circulate widely, with later historians expanding and revising it after his death.
Becker died in Berlin on March 15, 1806. Although his life was brief, his reputation endured through the long afterlife of his historical writing, especially in education.