A Short History of the World - Softcover

Blainey Geoffrey

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0670911399 ISBN 13: 9780670911394

Publisher: Viking / Penguin Australia, 2001

Synopsis

Here is a masterly account of the grand adventure of human history, brilliantly narrated by a distinguished historian. It is the story of the world s people during the last four million years, beginning before the human race moved out of Africa to explore and settle the other continents. Geoffrey Blainey explores the development of technology and skills, the rise of major religions, and the role of geography, which often governed what could not happen. He concerns himself not only with major transformations but also with what people ate and how hard they worked in order to earn their daily bread; with the intense power of the moon, the stars, and the night sky on human experience and on the ways in which the universe was seen. The spell that Mr. Blainey s narrative casts is unmistakable. He makes the reader see what life may have been like for a prehistoric cave dweller, or what the map of the world looks like when there are land masses that might be traversed from Ireland to Alaska. He has a compelling sense of the novelty of the patterns of history, and a keen sense of the strangeness and congruency of the earth s many cultures. A Short History of the World is that rare book that will delight every kind of reader

About this title

About the Author

Geoffrey Blainey, one of AustraliaOs most prominent historians, held a chair at Harvard in the early 1980s and taught for many years at the University of Melbourne. He is the recipient of AustraliaOs highest honor, Companion in the Order of Australia. He lives near Melbourne.

From Library Journal

Blainey, who published A Shorter History of Australia in 1994, now extends his efforts to the world. Another work about Australia, The Tyranny of Distance (1966), betrays his intellectual approach, namely, organizing his explanations around a single factor in this case, the effect of distance and technology upon society. Blainey discusses the various journeys humans have taken over the last four million years, the cultural contact that has resulted, and the factors that might have delayed or speeded up contact. For example, he explores the role of the Sahara Desert in the interplay among the various cultures surrounding that enormous barrier and shows that groups like the Mongols crossed huge spaces and barriers to influence peoples far from their homeland. Blainey also discusses the distances traveled by Islam, Christianity, and secular capitalism and the manner in which cultures located on different continents were and are influenced by such forces. Readers may complain that Blainey treats Africa only in light of its contact with the West, and that is true, but he does this for all cultures. He does pay more attention to Southeast Asia and Oceania than many historians, doubtless because of his Australian roots. Recommended. Clay Williams, Hunter Coll., CUNY
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Viking / Penguin Australia
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0670911399
• ISBN 13: 9780670911394
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 669