A Concise History of the World

A concise history of the world from the Paleolithic to the present, telling the story of humans as producers and reproducers.

Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks (Author)

9781107694538, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 23 September 2015

405 pages, 37 b/w illus. 14 maps
21.5 x 14 x 2.2 cm, 0.64 kg

'This affordable, commonsense look at all human history is divided into five chapters, each covering a shorter period of time than the previous one … With this sense of scale, the focus is naturally global and not Eurocentric … Wiesner-Hanks's balance between macro and micro history gives readers a sense of the big picture while explaining how it functions in key locations. The author is able to take complex information, e.g., theories about early man, and make them easy to understand, using humor at times. Themes that run throughout the book are histories of families, women, children, and sexuality. Whether discussing roles in foraging lifeways or the gender gap between different keyboard jobs, this analysis remains consistent … Summing up: highly recommended. All levels/libraries.' M. L. Russell, Choice

This book tells the story of humankind as producers and reproducers from the Paleolithic to the present. Renowned social and cultural historian Merry Wiesner-Hanks brings a new perspective to world history by examining social and cultural developments across the globe, including families and kin groups, social and gender hierarchies, sexuality, race and ethnicity, labor, religion, consumption, and material culture. She examines how these structures and activities changed over time through local processes and interactions with other cultures, highlighting key developments that defined particular eras such as the growth of cities or the creation of a global trading network. Incorporating foragers, farmers and factory workers along with shamans, scribes and secretaries, the book widens and lengthens human history. It makes comparisons and generalizations, but also notes diversities and particularities, as it examines the social and cultural matters that are at the heart of big questions in world history today.

Introduction
1. Foraging and farming families (to 3000 BCE)
2. Cities and classical societies (3000 BCE–500 CE)
3. Expanding networks of interaction, 500 CE–1500 CE
4. A new world of connections, 1500 CE–1800 CE
5. Industrialization, imperialism, and inequality, 1800–2015
Index.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural history [HBTB], History: earliest times to present day [HBL], General & world history [HBG]