| The Human Web: A Bird's-Eye View of World History Contributor(s): McNeill, J. R. (Author), McNeill, William H. (Author) |
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ISBN: 0393925684 ISBN-13: 9780393925685 Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company OUR PRICE: $28.74 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: December 2003 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | World - General |
| Dewey: 930 |
| Physical Information: 0.9" H x 6.1" W x 9.1" (1.15 lbs) 368 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: World-historical questions such as these, the subjects of major works by Jared Diamond, David Landes, and others, are now of great moment as global frictions increase. In a spirited and original contribution to this quickening discussion, two renowned historians, father and son, explore the webs that have drawn humans together in patterns of interaction and exchange, cooperation and competition, since earliest times. Whether small or large, loose or dense, these webs have provided the medium for the movement of ideas, goods, power, and money within and across cultures, societies, and nations. From the thin, localized webs that characterized agricultural communities twelve thousand years ago, through the denser, more interactive metropolitan webs that surrounded ancient Sumer, Athens, and Timbuktu, to the electrified global web that today envelops virtually the entire world in a maelstrom of cooperation and competition, J. R. McNeill and William H. McNeill show human webs to be a key component of world history and a revealing framework of analysis. Avoiding any determinism, environmental or cultural, the McNeills give us a synthesizing picture of the big patterns of world history in a rich, open-ended, concise account. |
Contributor Bio(s): McNeill, William H.: - William H. McNeill (1917--2016) was emeritus professor of history at the University of Chicago. He is best known for The Rise of the West which won the National Book Award for history and biography in 1963.McNeill, J. R.: - J. R. McNeill is professor of history at Georgetown University. He is the author of The Mountains of the Mediterranean World and other works. |