World Prehistory: A Brief Introduction

For one semester or quarter courses in World Prehistory.

Written by one of the leading archaeological writers in the world -— in a simple, jargon-free narrative style —- this brief, well-illustrated account of the major developments in the human past makes world prehistory uniquely accessible to complete beginners.

Written by Brian Fagan, World Prehistory covers the entire world, not just the Americas or Europe, and places major emphasis on both theories and the latest archaeological and multidisciplinary approaches.  His focus is on four major developments in world prehistory:  1) The origins of humanity.  2) The appearance and spread of modern humans before and during the late Ice Age- including the first settlement of the Americas.  3) The beginnings of food production.  4) The rise of the first civilizations.

Brian Fagan is one of the leading archaeological writers in the world and an internationally recognized authority on world prehistory. He studied archaeology and anthropology at Pembroke College, Cambridge University, and then spent seven years in sub-Saharan Africa working in museums and in monument conservation and excavating early farming sites in Zambia and East Africa. He was one of the pioneers of multidisciplinary African history in the 1960s. From 1967 to 2003, he was Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he specialized in lecturing and writing about archaeology to wide audiences. He is now Emeritus.

Professor Fagan has written six best-selling textbooks apart from this book: Ancient Lives: An Introduction to Archaeology; In the Beginning; Archaeology: A Brief Introduction; People of the Earth; World Prehistory, all published by Prentice Hall—that are used around the world. His general books include The Rape of the Nile, a classic history of Egyptology; The Adventure of Archaeology; Time Detectives; Ancient North America; The Little Ice Age, The Long Summer, and Fish on Friday. He is General Editor of the Oxford Companion to Archaeology. In addition, he has published several scholarly monographs on African archaeology and numerous specialized articles in national and international journals. He is also an expert on multimedia teaching and has received the Society for American Archaeology’s first Public Education Award for his indefatigable efforts on behalf of archaeology and education.

Brian Fagan’s other interests include bicycling, sailing, kayaking, and good food. He is married and lives in Santa Barbara with his wife and daughter, four cats (who supervise his writing), and, last but not least, seven rabbits.