01820nam a22002657a 4500 20220214142031.0 220214b ||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d 0393052311 AL eng 23 930 COOB Michael Cook 19705 Brief History of the Human Race New York W W Norton & Company 2003 xxiv,385 p. HB 21x14 cm. 26.95 $ 26.95 A 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. Neolithic Revolution 19706 Paleollthic Background 19707 Islamic Civilization 19708 European Expansion 19709 Modern World 19710 COOK (Michael) 19711 ddc GF 221502 221502 0 0 ddc 0 0 HIS AL AL 2013-03-24 1 930 COOB GF03076 2023-11-09 00:00:00 2023-10-30 2022-02-14 GF