01716nam a22002417a 450000500170000000800410001702000150005804000070007304100080008008200180008810000170010624500360012326000410015930000310020036500200023152010870025165000250133865000270136365000250139065000230141565000170143870000190145520220214142031.0220214b           ||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d  a0393052311  cAL  aeng  223a930bCOOB  aMichael Cook  aBrief History of the Human Race  aNew YorkbW W Norton & Companyc2003  axxiv,385 p.bHBc21x14 cm.  b26.95c$d26.95  aA global account of how and why human history unfolded as it did from the rise of agriculture to the fall of the Twin Towers. Why has human history been crowded into the last few thousand years? Why has it happened at all? Could it have happened in a radically different way? What should we make of the disproportionate role of the West in shaping the world we currently live in? This witty, intelligent hopscotch through human history addresses these questions and more. Michael Cook sifts the human career on earth for the most telling nuggets and then uses them to elucidate the whole. From the calendars of Mesoamerica and the temple courtesans of medieval India to the intricacies of marriage among an aboriginal Australian tribe, Cook explains the sometimes eccentric variety in human cultural expression. He guides us from the prehistoric origins of human history across the globe through the increasing unification of the world, first by Muslims and then by European Christians in the modern period, illuminating the contingencies that have governed broad historical change.  aNeolithic Revolution  aPaleollthic Background  aIslamic Civilization  aEuropean Expansion  aModern World  aCOOK (Michael)