Sir Ernst Hans Josef Gombrich (1909–2001) was an Austrian art historian. Gombrich belonged to a wealthy Jewish Viennese family that had converted to Protestantism, but after the events of the Second World War, he referred to himself as an Austrian Jew. His theoretical works on art and perception were some of the most influential of the 20th century. While a student, he entered correspondence with a 10-year-old family friend who asked him to explain his thesis to her. He found the task of summarizing his work in a way that was accessible yet interesting to be a fascinating one. It was then that he set to work on A Little History of the World, which was published for the first time in 1936. Soon after, it was published in five more languages, before the Nazis banned the book for its pacifist views (xvii).

In 1950, Gombrich wrote The History of Art. More than 30 years later, A Little History was republished in a second German edition, this time with a new final chapter. Renewed success followed, and the book was translated into 18 different languages, but Gombrich resisted translating the book into English. He believed that his book about European history would not be interesting to English children.