Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
A deeply provocative and engaging new look at the meaning and direction of history, from the author of "The Moral Animal."
About the Author
Robert Wright is the author of Three Scientists and Their Gods and The Moral Animal, which was named by the New York Times Book Review as one of the twelve best books of the year and has been published in nine languages. A recipient of the National Magazine Award for Essay and Criticism, Wright has published in The Atlantic, The New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, Time, and Slate. He was previously a senior editor at The New Republic and The Sciences and now runs the Web site nonzero.org. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife and two daughters.
Table of Contents
The ladder of cultural evolution -- The way we were -- Add technology and bake for five millennia -- The invisible brain -- War: what is it good for? -- The inevitability of agriculture -- The age of chiefdoms -- The second information revolution -- Civilization and so on -- Our friends the barbarians -- Dark Ages -- The inscrutable Orient -- Modern times -- And here we are -- New world order -- Degrees of freedom -- The cosmic context -- The rise of biological non-zero-sumness -- Why life is so complex -- The last adaptation -- Non-crazy questions -- You call this a god?.