An overview of world history discusses influential people and highlights important dates and events.

"A trailblazing account of human history, challenging our most fundamental assumptions about social evolution-from the development of agriculture and cities to the emergence of "the state," political violence, and social 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,...

[TofC cont.] Perspectives on the present: Restructuring the postwar world; Colonies become new nations; Struggles for democracy; Global interdependence -- Glossary.