A Brief History of the Human Race

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Author :
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN 13 : 9780393052312
Total Pages : 418 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (523 download)

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Book Synopsis A Brief History of the Human Race by : Michael Cook

Download or read book A Brief History of the Human Race written by Michael Cook and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2003 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why has human history been crowded into the last few thousand years? Why has it happened at all? Could it have happened in a radically different way? What should we make of the disproportionate role of the West in shaping the world we currently live in? This witty, intelligent hopscotch through human history addresses these questions and more. Michael Cook sifts the human career on earth for the most telling nuggets and then uses them to elucidate the whole. From the calendars of Mesoamerica and the temple courtesans of medieval India to the intricacies of marriage among an aboriginal Australian tribe, Cook explains the sometimes eccentric variety in human cultural expression. He guides us from the prehistoric origins of human history across the globe through the increasing unification of the world, first by Muslims and then by European Christians in the modern period, illuminating the contingencies that have governed broad historical change. "A smart, literate survey of human life from paleolithic times until 9/11."—Edward Rothstein, The New York Times

Sapiens

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Publisher : Harper Collins
ISBN 13 : 0062316109
Total Pages : 403 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (623 download)

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Book Synopsis Sapiens by : Yuval Noah Harari

Download or read book Sapiens written by Yuval Noah Harari and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2015-02-10 with total page 403 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New York Times Readers’ Pick: Top 100 Books of the 21st Century New York Times Bestseller A Summer Reading Pick for President Barack Obama, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg From a renowned historian comes a groundbreaking narrative of humanity’s creation and evolution—a #1 international bestseller—that explores the ways in which biology and history have defined us and enhanced our understanding of what it means to be “human.” One hundred thousand years ago, at least six different species of humans inhabited Earth. Yet today there is only one—homo sapiens. What happened to the others? And what may happen to us? Most books about the history of humanity pursue either a historical or a biological approach, but Dr. Yuval Noah Harari breaks the mold with this highly original book that begins about 70,000 years ago with the appearance of modern cognition. From examining the role evolving humans have played in the global ecosystem to charting the rise of empires, Sapiens integrates history and science to reconsider accepted narratives, connect past developments with contemporary concerns, and examine specific events within the context of larger ideas. Dr. Harari also compels us to look ahead, because over the last few decades humans have begun to bend laws of natural selection that have governed life for the past four billion years. We are acquiring the ability to design not only the world around us, but also ourselves. Where is this leading us, and what do we want to become? Featuring 27 photographs, 6 maps, and 25 illustrations/diagrams, this provocative and insightful work is sure to spark debate and is essential reading for aficionados of Jared Diamond, James Gleick, Matt Ridley, Robert Wright, and Sharon Moalem.

World Prehistory

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Author :
Publisher : Addison Wesley Publishing Company
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 324 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis World Prehistory by : Brian M. Fagan

Download or read book World Prehistory written by Brian M. Fagan and published by Addison Wesley Publishing Company. This book was released on 1996 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This brief survey of world archaeology, designed for readers with no previous experience of the subject, provides an overview of the major developments in the early human past. Special attention is given to the latest findings on evolution

The Past in Perspective

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Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 9780195391350
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (913 download)

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Book Synopsis The Past in Perspective by : Kenneth L. Feder

Download or read book The Past in Perspective written by Kenneth L. Feder and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2011 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ideal for introduction to archaeology and world prehistory courses, The Past in Perspective: An Introduction to Human Prehistory, Fifth Edition, is an engaging and up-to-date chronological introduction to human prehistory. Kenneth L. Feder introduces students to "the big picture"--the grand sweep of human evolutionary history--presenting the human past within the context of fundamental themes of cultural evolution. Written in a refreshingly accessible voice, this narrative of human prehistory personalizes the past and makes it relevant to today's students. Using a consistent chapter format--Prelude, Chronicle, Issues and Debates, and Case Study Close-up--Feder helps students master both what we know and what is still being debated about the complex story of the human past. Each chapter also includes an overview; a timeline of events, maps pinpointing locations of sites discussed, site lists with page references, a chapter summary, key terms (defined in the glossary at the back of the book), and suggested reading lists. New to This Edition * Updated information about early hominin finds, including Ardipithecus (Chapter 3), Homo floresiensis (Chapter 4), Sima del Elefante Cave in Spain (Chapter 4), the reconstruction of the Neandertal genome (Chapter 5), and the spectacular array of artifacts recovered at Hohle Fels Cave in Germany (Chapter 6) * New information on methodology, such as strontium isotype analysis for tracing geographic sources (Chapter 2), molecular archaeology (Chapter 5), and forensics (Chapter 1) * New information and a summary that updates our understanding of the peopling of the Americas and Australia (Chapter 7) * New chapter (8) "After the Ice: The Food-Producing Revolution"--a combined and streamlined version of Chapters 8 and 9 of the Fourth Edition--with new information about China and the domestication of the horse, as well as the complex at Gobeckli Tepe in Turkey * New information on the Olmec and the recent excavation at Stonehenge (Chapter 9) * A reorganization and updating of Chapters 10 and 11, with significant new material on China * A greatly expanded discussion of the roots of complexity in Mesoamerica, South America, aboriginal North America, and sub-Saharan Africa (Chapters 12-14)

A Brief History of Everyone who Ever Lived

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Publisher : George Weidenfeld & Nicholson
ISBN 13 : 9781780229072
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (29 download)

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Book Synopsis A Brief History of Everyone who Ever Lived by : Adam Rutherford

Download or read book A Brief History of Everyone who Ever Lived written by Adam Rutherford and published by George Weidenfeld & Nicholson. This book was released on 2017 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'A brilliant, authoritative, surprising, captivating introduction to human genetics. You'll be spellbound' Brian Cox This is a story about you. It is the history of who you are and how you came to be. It is unique to you, as it is to each of the 100 billion modern humans who have ever drawn breath. But it is also our collective story, because in every one of our genomes we each carry the history of our species - births, deaths, disease, war, famine, migration and a lot of sex. In this captivating journey through the expanding landscape of genetics, Adam Rutherford reveals what our genes now tell us about human history, and what history can now tell us about our genes. From Neanderthals to murder, from redheads to race, dead kings to plague, evolution to epigenetics, this is a demystifying and illuminating new portrait of who we are and how we came to be. *** 'A thoroughly entertaining history of Homo sapiens and its DNA in a manner that displays popular science writing at its best' Observer 'Magisterial, informative and delightful' Peter Frankopan 'An extraordinary adventure...From the Neanderthals to the Vikings, from the Queen of Sheba to Richard III, Rutherford goes in search of our ancestors, tracing the genetic clues deep into the past' Alice Roberts

The Human Journey

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Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 1538105594
Total Pages : 255 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (381 download)

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Book Synopsis The Human Journey by : Kevin Reilly

Download or read book The Human Journey written by Kevin Reilly and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2018-05-04 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Human Journey offers a truly concise yet satisfyingly full history of the world from ancient times to the present. The book’s scope, as the title implies, is the whole story of humanity, in planetary context. Its themes include not only the great questions of the humanities—nature versus nurture, the history and meaning of human variation, the sources of wealth and causes of revolution—but also the major transformations in human history: agriculture, cities, iron, writing, universal religions, global trade, industrialization, popular government, justice, and equality. In each conceptually rich chapter, Kevin Reilly concentrates on a single important period and theme, sustaining a focused narrative and analytical perspective. Free of either a confined, limiting focus or a mandatory laundry list of topics, this book begins with our most important questions and searches all of our past for answers. Well-grounded in the latest scholarship, this is not a fill-in-the-blanks text, but world history in a grand humanistic tradition. An instructor’s manual includes questions for classroom discussion, substance exam questions, evaluative questions, critical thinking questions, and multiple choice questions, also available in a test-bank format.

The Dawn of Everything

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Publisher : Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN 13 : 0374721106
Total Pages : 384 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (747 download)

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Book Synopsis The Dawn of Everything by : David Graeber

Download or read book The Dawn of Everything written by David Graeber and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2021-11-09 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A dramatically new understanding of human history, challenging our most fundamental assumptions about social evolution—from the development of agriculture and cities to the origins of the state, democracy, and inequality—and revealing new possibilities for human emancipation. For generations, our remote ancestors have been cast as primitive and childlike—either free and equal innocents, or thuggish and warlike. Civilization, we are told, could be achieved only by sacrificing those original freedoms or, alternatively, by taming our baser instincts. David Graeber and David Wengrow show how such theories first emerged in the eighteenth century as a conservative reaction to powerful critiques of European society posed by Indigenous observers and intellectuals. Revisiting this encounter has startling implications for how we make sense of human history today, including the origins of farming, property, cities, democracy, slavery, and civilization itself. Drawing on pathbreaking research in archaeology and anthropology, the authors show how history becomes a far more interesting place once we learn to throw off our conceptual shackles and perceive what’s really there. If humans did not spend 95 percent of their evolutionary past in tiny bands of hunter-gatherers, what were they doing all that time? If agriculture, and cities, did not mean a plunge into hierarchy and domination, then what kinds of social and economic organization did they lead to? The answers are often unexpected, and suggest that the course of human history may be less set in stone, and more full of playful, hopeful possibilities, than we tend to assume. The Dawn of Everything fundamentally transforms our understanding of the human past and offers a path toward imagining new forms of freedom, new ways of organizing society. This is a monumental book of formidable intellectual range, animated by curiosity, moral vision, and a faith in the power of direct action. Includes Black-and-White Illustrations

Human Evolution

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Author :
Publisher : Chapman & Hall
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 84 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis Human Evolution by : Bernard A. Wood

Download or read book Human Evolution written by Bernard A. Wood and published by Chapman & Hall. This book was released on 1978 with total page 84 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Human Evolution

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Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0198831749
Total Pages : 161 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (988 download)

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Book Synopsis Human Evolution by : Bernard Wood

Download or read book Human Evolution written by Bernard Wood and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2019 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The study of human evolution is advancing rapidly. Newly discovered fossil evidence is adding ever more pieces to the puzzle of our past, whilst revolutionary technological advances in the study of ancient DNA are completely reshaping theories of early human populations and migrations.In this Very Short Introduction Bernard Wood traces the history of paleoanthropology from its beginnings in the eighteenth century to the very latest fossil finds. In this new edition he discusses how Ancient DNA studies have revolutionized how we view the recent (post-550 ka) human evolution, andthe process of speciation. The combination of ancient and modern human DNA has contributed to discoveries of new taxa, as well as the suggestion of "ghost" taxa whose fossil records still remain to be discovered. Considering the contributions of related sciences such as paleoclimatology,geochronology, systematics, genetics, and developmental biology, Wood explores our latest understandings of our own evolution.ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, andenthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

A Short History of Progress

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Author :
Publisher : House of Anansi
ISBN 13 : 0887847064
Total Pages : 226 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (878 download)

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Book Synopsis A Short History of Progress by : Ronald Wright

Download or read book A Short History of Progress written by Ronald Wright and published by House of Anansi. This book was released on 2004 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Each time history repeats itself, so it's said, the price goes up. The twentieth century was a time of runaway growth in human population, consumption, and technology, placing a colossal load on all natural systems, especially earth, air, and water — the very elements of life. The most urgent questions of the twenty-first century are: where will this growth lead? can it be consolidated or sustained? and what kind of world is our present bequeathing to our future?In his #1 bestseller A Short History of Progress Ronald Wright argues that our modern predicament is as old as civilization, a 10,000-year experiment we have participated in but seldom controlled. Only by understanding the patterns of triumph and disaster that humanity has repeated around the world since the Stone Age can we recognize the experiment's inherent dangers, and, with luck and wisdom, shape its outcome.

A Brief History of Human Culture in the 20th Century

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Author :
Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 9811399735
Total Pages : 275 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (113 download)

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Book Synopsis A Brief History of Human Culture in the 20th Century by : Qi Xin

Download or read book A Brief History of Human Culture in the 20th Century written by Qi Xin and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2019-08-27 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the cultural concepts that guided the development of the “age of mankind”— the changes that took place in historical, philosophical, scientific, religious, literary, and artistic thought in the 20th century. It discusses a broad range of major topics, including the spread of commercial capitalism; socialist revolutions; the two world wars; anti-colonialist national liberation movements; scientific progress; the clashes and fusion of Eastern and Western cultures; globalization; women’s rights movements; mass media and entertainment; the age of information and the digital society. The combination of cultural phenomena and theoretical descriptions ensures a unity of culture, history and logic. Lastly, the book explores the enormous changes in lifestyles and the virtualized future, revealing cultural characteristics and discussing 21st -century trends in the context of information technology, globalization and the digital era.

Homo Deus

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Publisher : HarperCollins
ISBN 13 : 0062464353
Total Pages : 464 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (624 download)

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Book Synopsis Homo Deus by : Yuval Noah Harari

Download or read book Homo Deus written by Yuval Noah Harari and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2017-02-21 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Official U.S. edition with full color illustrations throughout. NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Yuval Noah Harari, author of the critically-acclaimed New York Times bestseller and international phenomenon Sapiens, returns with an equally original, compelling, and provocative book, turning his focus toward humanity’s future, and our quest to upgrade humans into gods. Over the past century humankind has managed to do the impossible and rein in famine, plague, and war. This may seem hard to accept, but, as Harari explains in his trademark style—thorough, yet riveting—famine, plague and war have been transformed from incomprehensible and uncontrollable forces of nature into manageable challenges. For the first time ever, more people die from eating too much than from eating too little; more people die from old age than from infectious diseases; and more people commit suicide than are killed by soldiers, terrorists and criminals put together. The average American is a thousand times more likely to die from binging at McDonalds than from being blown up by Al Qaeda. What then will replace famine, plague, and war at the top of the human agenda? As the self-made gods of planet earth, what destinies will we set ourselves, and which quests will we undertake? Homo Deus explores the projects, dreams and nightmares that will shape the twenty-first century—from overcoming death to creating artificial life. It asks the fundamental questions: Where do we go from here? And how will we protect this fragile world from our own destructive powers? This is the next stage of evolution. This is Homo Deus. With the same insight and clarity that made Sapiens an international hit and a New York Times bestseller, Harari maps out our future.

Energy

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Publisher : Simon & Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1501105361
Total Pages : 480 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (11 download)

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Book Synopsis Energy by : Richard Rhodes

Download or read book Energy written by Richard Rhodes and published by Simon & Schuster. This book was released on 2019-06-11 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A “meticulously researched” (The New York Times Book Review) examination of energy transitions over time and an exploration of the current challenges presented by global warming, a surging world population, and renewable energy—from Pulitzer Prize- and National Book Award-winning author Richard Rhodes. People have lived and died, businesses have prospered and failed, and nations have risen to world power and declined, all over energy challenges. Through an unforgettable cast of characters, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Rhodes explains how wood gave way to coal and coal made room for oil, as we now turn to natural gas, nuclear power, and renewable energy. “Entertaining and informative…a powerful look at the importance of science” (NPR.org), Rhodes looks back on five centuries of progress, through such influential figures as Queen Elizabeth I, King James I, Benjamin Franklin, Herman Melville, John D. Rockefeller, and Henry Ford. In his “magisterial history…a tour de force of popular science” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review), Rhodes shows how breakthroughs in energy production occurred; from animal and waterpower to the steam engine, from internal-combustion to the electric motor. He looks at the current energy landscape, with a focus on how wind energy is competing for dominance with cast supplies of coal and natural gas. He also addresses the specter of global warming, and a population hurtling towards ten billion by 2100. Human beings have confronted the problem of how to draw energy from raw material since the beginning of time. Each invention, each discovery, each adaptation brought further challenges, and through such transformations, we arrived at where we are today. “A beautifully written, often inspiring saga of ingenuity and progress…Energy brings facts, context, and clarity to a key, often contentious subject” (Booklist, starred review).

So You Think You're Human?

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Publisher : OUP Oxford
ISBN 13 : 0199691282
Total Pages : 204 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (996 download)

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Book Synopsis So You Think You're Human? by : Felipe Fernández-Armesto

Download or read book So You Think You're Human? written by Felipe Fernández-Armesto and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2005 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An enlightening journey through the history of humankind, revealing the challenges to our most fundamental belief, that we are, and always have been, human. Also discusses AI and genetics.

A Brief History of the Verb To Be

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Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262037122
Total Pages : 306 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (62 download)

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Book Synopsis A Brief History of the Verb To Be by : Andrea Moro

Download or read book A Brief History of the Verb To Be written by Andrea Moro and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2018-01-12 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A journey through linguistic time and space, from Aristotle through the twentieth century's “era of syntax,” in search of a dangerous verb and its significance. Beginning with the early works of Aristotle, the interpretation of the verb to be runs through Western linguistic thought like Ariadne's thread. As it unravels, it becomes intertwined with philosophy, metaphysics, logic, and even with mathematics—so much so that Bertrand Russell showed no hesitation in proclaiming that the verb to be was a disgrace to the human race. With the conviction that this verb penetrates modern linguistic thinking, creating scandal in its wake and, like a Trojan horse of linguistics, introducing disruptive elements that lead us to rethink radically the most basic structure of human language—the sentence—Andrea Moro reconstructs this history. From classical Greece to the dueling masters of medieval logic through the revolutionary geniuses from the seventeenth century to the Enlightenment, and finally to the twentieth century—when linguistics became a driving force and model for neuroscience—the plot unfolds like a detective story, culminating in the discovery of a formula that solves the problem even as it raises new questions—about language, evolution, and the nature and structure of the human mind. While Moro never resorts to easy shortcuts, A Brief History of the Verb To Be isn't burdened with inaccessible formulas and always refers to the broader picture of mind and language. In this way it serves as an engaging introduction to a new field of cutting-edge research.

A Brief History of Vice

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Author :
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0147517605
Total Pages : 274 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (475 download)

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Book Synopsis A Brief History of Vice by : Robert Evans

Download or read book A Brief History of Vice written by Robert Evans and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2016-08-09 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A celebration of the brave, drunken pioneers who built our civilization one seemingly bad decision at a time, A Brief History of Vice explores a side of the past that mainstream history books prefer to hide. History has never been more fun—or more intoxicating. Guns, germs, and steel might have transformed us from hunter-gatherers into modern man, but booze, sex, trash talk, and tripping built our civilization. Cracked editor Robert Evans brings his signature dogged research and lively insight to uncover the many and magnificent ways vice has influenced history, from the prostitute-turned-empress who scored a major victory for women’s rights to the beer that helped create—and destroy—South America's first empire. And Evans goes deeper than simply writing about ancient debauchery; he recreates some of history's most enjoyable (and most painful) vices and includes guides so you can follow along at home. You’ll learn how to: • Trip like a Greek philosopher. • Rave like your Stone Age ancestors. • Get drunk like a Sumerian. • Smoke a nose pipe like a pre–Columbian Native American. “Mixing science, humor, and grossly irresponsible self-experimentation, Evans paints a vivid picture of how bad habits built the world we know and love.”—David Wong, author of John Dies at the End

Short History of Human Error

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Author :
Publisher : Arena books
ISBN 13 : 1909421359
Total Pages : 365 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (94 download)

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Book Synopsis Short History of Human Error by : Oliver Thomson

Download or read book Short History of Human Error written by Oliver Thomson and published by Arena books. This book was released on 2013-12-09 with total page 365 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a candid, sometimes controversial study of the psychological or other flaws of political, religious and economic leaders from ancient times to the present day: from Rameses II to Colonel Gaddafi, from Genghis Khan to Stalin and Hitler, from Buddha or Saint Paul to Martin Luther or Ron Hubbard, from bipolar, insecure, asthmatic or sex-addicted presidents to alcoholic prime ministers, mad kings, obese emperors and kleptomaniac dictators. Amongst their followers we find psychopathic police chiefs, gay generals, crazed philosophers, epileptic prophets and ludomaniac business- men. We look at how the minor personality disorders and health problems of the few have led frequently to considerable misery for the many.Without slavish adherence to the latest psychiatric fashions the author uses at least some of these concepts to help analyse the anti-social behaviour traits of leaders past and present and to assess the degree to which their mental or physical state contributed to most of the world's worst man-made disasters: wars, genocides, famines, persecutions, enslavements and recessions.We consider the questions: How many millions died because the Archangel Gabriel supposedly appeared to both the Virgin Mary and Mohammed? How many millions died because Napoleon was bullied at school, because Hitler failed to get into the Vienna Academy, because Stalin had an alcoholic father or because Mao suffered from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder?