Humanity today functions as a gigantic, world-encompassing system. Renowned world historian Patrick Manning traces how this Human System evolved from Homo sapiens’ beginnings over 200,000 years ago right up to the present day. He focuses on three great shifts in the scale of social organization – the rise of syntactical language, of agricultural society, and today’s newly globa...(展开全部)

Humanity today functions as a gigantic, world-encompassing system. Renowned world historian, Patrick Manning traces how this human system evolved from Homo Sapiens' beginnings over 200,000 years ago right up to the present day. He focuses on three great shifts in the scale of social organization - the rise of syntactical language, of agricultural society, and today's newly glob...(展开全部)

From the acclaimed author of author of The Romanovs -- a magisterial history of humanity viewed through the lens of its most powerful dynasties In this sprawling and eye-opening book, best-selling historian Simon Sebag Montefiore chronicles the world's great dynasties across human history through engrossing tales of palace intrigue, glorious battle, and the real lives of people...(展开全部)

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 ...(展开全部)

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 c...(展开全部)

威廉•麦克尼尔（William H. McNeill，1917—2016），知名历史学家、全球史研究奠基人、世界历史学科的“现代开创者”。芝加哥大学荣誉退休教授，曾担任美国历史学会主席、美国世界史学会主席。在全球史方面的研究卓然有成，德高望重，与斯宾格勒、汤因比齐名，被誉为“20世纪对历史进行世界性解释的巨人”，开辟了一个西方世界史学的新时代。 1963年，威廉•麦克尼尔以一部《西方的兴起：人类共同体史》一举成名，并因此获得美国国家图书奖。在长达六十余年的学术生涯中，麦克尼尔笔耕不辍，著作等身，迄今已出版30多部作品。1996年，威廉•麦克尼尔因“在欧洲文化、社会和社会科学领域里做出的杰出贡献”荣获伊拉斯谟奖。2009年，美国总统奥巴马为威廉•麦克尼尔颁授国家人文勋章，以表彰其在人文科学研究方面所做出的卓越贡献。 威廉•麦克尼尔毕生追求博大宽宏的视野...(展开全部)

This book is a tour-de-force on how human consciousness may have evolved. From the "phantom pain" experienced by people who have lost their limbs to the uncanny faculty of "blindsight," Humphrey argues that raw sensations are central to all conscious states and that consciousness must have evolved, just like all other mental faculties, over time from our ancestors'bodily respon...(展开全部)

Human domination of our earth is now so complete that it is easy to forget how recently our role in the history of our planet began: the earliest apes evolved around 20 million years ago, yet Homo Sapiens has existed for a mere 160,000 years. In the intervening period, dozens of species of early ape and human have lived and died out, leaving behind the fossilized remains that h...(展开全部)

Human domination of our earth is now so complete that it is easy to forget how recently our role in the history of our planet began: the earliest apes evolved around 20 million years ago, yet homo sapiens has existed for a mere 160,000 years. In the intervening period, dozens of species of early ape and human have lived and died out, leaving behind the fossilized remains that h...(展开全部)