This book starts from the assumption that the human story has to be seen in the round examining the evolution of humans their lives as hunters and gatherers and their eventual adoption of agriculture before looking at the emergence of civilisation across the globe: in Mesopotamia Egypt China the Indus Valley Mesoamerica and Peru. It also describes the great empires of Islam of China and of the Mongols. Towards the end of the story Europe slowly comes to dominate the world against the background of technical innovations and social and economic change. Now in the twenty-first century this European dominance is passing away. The book thus provides a global sweep and produces a different outlook on human history from most conventional accounts. (Adapted from back cover).
