A History of Humanity
The Evolution of the Human System

Analyzes both the social and biological evolution of humans, from the spoken language to today's institutions.

Patrick Manning (Author)

9781108747097, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 27 February 2020

374 pages, 13 maps
22.8 x 15.1 x 2 cm, 0.54 kg

'This study is history on a grand scale …' Brian Fagan, Journal of Interdisciplinary History

Humanity today functions as a gigantic, world-encompassing system. Renowned world historian, Patrick Manning traces how this human system evolved from Homo Sapiens' beginnings over 200,000 years ago right up to the present day. He focuses on three great shifts in the scale of social organization - the rise of syntactical language, of agricultural society, and today's newly global social discourse - and links processes of social evolution to the dynamics of biological and cultural evolution. Throughout each of these shifts, migration and social diversity have been central, and social institutions have existed in a delicate balance, serving not just their own members but undergoing regulation from society. Integrating approaches from world history, environmental studies, biological and cultural evolution, social anthropology, sociology, and evolutionary linguistics, Patrick Manning offers an unprecedented account of the evolution of humans and our complex social system and explores the crises facing that human system today.

List of maps
List of figures
List of tables
Preface
Acknowledgments
Part I. Introduction: 1. The human system
Part II. Pleistocene Evolution: 2. Biological and cultural evolution
3. Speech and social evolution
4. Systemic expansion
5. Production and confederation
Part III. Holocene Evolution: 6. Society: network vs hierarchy
7. Collisions and contraction
8. From global networks to capitalism
Part IV. Anthropocene Evolution: 9. Systemic threats
10. Hope for adaptations
Appendix. Frameworks for analysis
Notes
Glossary
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural history [HBTB], General & world history [HBG]