Describes many things that originally came from Austria, including inventions, music, sports and games, medical advances, foods, animals, and holidays.

Archaeologist and historian Ian Morris explains that Western dominance is largely the result of the effects of geography on the everyday efforts of ordinary people as they deal with crises of resources, disease, migration, and climate. As geography and human ingenuity continue to interact, however, the world over the next hundred years will subsequently change in astonishing ways, transforming Western rule in the process.

Presents main themes in twentieth-century life, including military confrontations, booms and depressions, political ideologies, and technological developments.

Surveys the fads, fashions, trends, and cultural and intellectual preoccupations of the comfortable, high-living 1920s.