"Enthralling....If so compact a book can be magisterial, [this] is
it."Michael Dirda, Washington Post Book World 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. 11 maps, 28
illustrations.
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