Synopses & Reviews
and#147;Ranging across the disciplines, this truly collaborative team cuts through the constraints of our previous notions of historical understanding and points towards a fundamental new way of thinking about history.and#8221;and#151;Lynn Hunt, author of
Measuring Time, Making Historyand#147;In recent decades, history as a discipline has increasingly portrayed humans as an exception in the story of life, as though all other life-forms were part of nature but humans somehow were not, or not quite. This book issues a profound and timely challenge to that implicit assumption and argues for an integration of deep and recorded human pasts. The challenge is profound, because it is at once methodological and philosophical, and it is timely in the way it resonates with concerns about our growing ecological footprint on the planet. This collaborative enterprise will appeal to students of human pasts in a variety of disciplines.and#8221; and#151;Dipesh Chakrabarty, author of Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference
and#147;Leading scholars in deep history have been brought together from a variety of disciplines in this ambitious project. The result is constantly exciting. I read barely a page that didnand#8217;t cause me to reconsider how we might tell the human story.and#8221;and#151;Martin Jones, University of Cambridge
and#147;In Deep History: The Architecture of Past and Present, a multi-disciplinary team of historians, archeologists, paleontologists, primatologists, and anthropologists takes up the challenge of incorporating the past six million or so years into the record of human history. Combining open minds with scholarly rigor, the authors use linguistics and genetics, trails of bones, shells and crafted objects, dietary traditions, and kinship rules to follow our footloose species out of Africa and around the globe, along the way dismantling barriers between disciplines that have outlived their usefulness.and#8221; and#151;Sarah B. Hrdy, author of Mother Nature: A History of Mothers, Infants, and Natural Selection
Review
and#8220;This is an important book for those who focus on human rights in history.and#8221;
Review
“An intelligent disquiet runs through these pages.”
Review
“A creative and compelling synthesis of ideas, Smails book provides an engaging and invigorating analysis of our history.”
Review
“A provocative thesis. . . . Radically rethinks the relationship between biology and culture.”
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“Relax and enjoy. Its a good read, and it makes you think.”
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“[An] intriguing little book.”
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“Dazzling.”
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“A pioneering work.”
Review
and#8220;The goal of this project is to question old narrative elements of human evolution and discuss new ones. . . . In practice, this means the book is about some of the cleverest people in the field having fun with ideas.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;A different kind of historical writing . . . it offers general readers a thought-provoking approach to language, the brain, genes, exchange and other human faculties.and#8221;
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and#8220;The chapters are perceptive . . . in their arguments. . . . Something that is long overdue.and#8221;
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and#8220;Recommended.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;A volume of great significance, bringing fresh insight, focus, and shape to our understanding of the dynamic connectedness that spans the entirety of human history. . . . . The calibre of contributors is exceptional and Andrew Shryock and Daniel Lord Smail should be congratulated for assembling the line-up whilst also fostering the volumeand#8217;s collaborative character.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;By envisioning nothing less than a complete account of the human experience, it stakes out a new frontier for historical consciousness that is as welcome as it is timely.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;An impressiveand#8212;at times dazzlingand#8212;array of data, summaries of literature, and conceptual elements, clearly pooling the specialized knowledges of the various contributors. . . . This is a rich tour of a vast terrain.and#8221;
Synopsis
This engrossing anthology gathers together a remarkable collection of writings on the use of strategy in war. Gand#233;rard Chaliand has ranged over the whole of human history in assembling this collectionand#151;the result is an integration of the annals of military thought that provides a learned framework for understanding global political history.
Included are writings from ancient and modern Europe, China, Byzantium, the Arab world, Persia, and the Ottoman Empire. Alongside well-known militarists such as Julius Caesar, Napoleon, Walter Raleigh, Rommel, and many others are "irregulars" such as Cortand#233;s, Lawrence of Arabia, and even Gandhi. Contrary to standard interpretations stressing competition between land and sea powers, or among rival Christian societies, Chaliand shows the great importance of the struggles between nomadic and sedentary peoples, and of the conflicts between Christianity and Islam. With the invention of firepower, a relatively recent occurrence in the history of warfare, modes of organization and strategic conceptsand#151;elements reflecting the nature of a societyand#151;have been key to how war is waged.
Unparalleled in its breadth, this anthology will become the standard work for understanding a fundamental part of human historyand#151;the conduct of war.
"This anthology is not only an unparalleled corpus of information and an aid to failing memory; it is also and above all a reliable and liberating guide for research. . . . Ranging "from the origins to the nuclear age," it compels us to widen our narrow perspectives on conflicts and strategic action and open ourselves up to the universal."and#151;from the Foreword
Synopsis
Micheline Ishay recounts the dramatic struggle for human rights across the ages in a book that brilliantly synthesizes historical and intellectual developments from the Mesopotamian Codes of Hammurabi to today's era of globalization. As she chronicles the clash of social movements, ideas, and armies that have played a part in this struggle, Ishay illustrates how the history of human rights has evolved from one era to the next through texts, cultural traditions, and creative expression. Writing with verve and extraordinary range, she develops a framework for understanding contemporary issues from the debate over globalization to the intervention in Kosovo to the climate for human rights after September 11, 2001. The only comprehensive history of human rights available, the book will be essential reading for anyone concerned with humankind's quest for justice and dignity.
Ishay structures her chapters around six core questions that have shaped human rights debate and scholarship: What are the origins of human rights? Why did the European vision of human rights triumph over those of other civilizations? Has socialism made a lasting contribution to the legacy of human rights? Are human rights universal or culturally bound? Must human rights be sacrificed to the demands of national security? Is globalization eroding or advancing human rights? As she explores these questions, Ishay also incorporates notable documentsand#151;writings, speeches, and political statementsand#151;from activists, writers, and thinkers throughout history.
Synopsis
"This well-written book, chock-full of knowledge, presents a history of the idea, or ideas, of human rights through the prism of the author's thoughtful views on key controversies that bedevil human rights discourse to this day."and#151;Professor Sir Nigel Rodley, Chair, University of Essex Human Rights Centre; Member, (UN) Human Rights Committee
Synopsis
When does history begin? What characterizes it? This brilliant and beautifully written book dissolves the logic of a beginning based on writing, civilization, or historical consciousness and offers a model for a history that escapes the continuing grip of the Judeo-Christian time frame. Daniel Lord Smail argues that in the wake of the Decade of the Brain and the best-selling historical work of scientists like Jared Diamond, the time has come for fundamentally new ways of thinking about our past. He shows how recent work in evolution and paleohistory makes it possible to join the deep past with the recent past and abandon, once and for all, the idea of prehistory. Making an enormous literature accessible to the general reader, he lays out a bold new case for bringing neuroscience and neurobiology into the realm of history.
Synopsis
"This is surely a new paradigm for the study of history that will be regarded as revolutionary but which is also well justified. To my knowledge, no other book integrates the study of human history with principles of biological and cultural evolution on such an ambitious scale."David Sloan Wilson, author of
Darwin's Cathedral: Evolution, Religion and the Nature of Society"This is one of the most exciting books I've read in years. It is so accessible, so groundbreaking, so stimulating, so important that I imagine the next generation of historians will be deeply influenced by what Smail has to say here. Simply dazzling."Lynn Hunt, author of Inventing Human Rights
Synopsis
"A definitive account of the history of human rights told from the perspective of those struggling to obtain them. Using the Enlightenment, industrialization, war, national self-determination, and globalization as lenses through which to look at their evolution, Ishay brings both historical context and conceptual acuity to modern debates about the role of human rights in a multicultural world. Her encompassing and compassionate approach issues in a book equally valuable to scholars, students, and citizens."and#151;Benjamin Barber, University of Maryland, author of
Jihad vs. McWorld"This well-written book, chock-full of knowledge, presents a history of the idea, or ideas, of human rights through the prism of the author's thoughtful views on key controversies that bedevil human rights discourse to this day."and#151;Professor Sir Nigel Rodley, Chair, University of Essex Human Rights Centre; Member, (UN) Human Rights Committee
"The first account of human rights as embedded in the history of political theory, relating it to the basic issues of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. Erudite and non-dogmatic, Ishayand#160;reaches beyond individual human rights to issues of economic, cultural and national rights, and shows how the campaign for human rights was instrumental in bringing down oppressive regimes in the last decades... Humane and generous inand#160;its approach, brilliant in its conception and presentation."and#151;Shlomo Avineri, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Synopsis
Humans have always been interested in their origins, but historians have been reluctant to write about the long stretches of time before the invention of writing. In fact, the deep past was left out of most historical writing almost as soon as it was discovered. This breakthrough book, as important for readers interested in the present as in the past,brings science into history to offer a dazzling new vision of humanity across time. Team-written by leading experts in a variety of fields, it maps events, cultures, and eras across millions of years to present a new scale for understanding the human body, energy and ecosystems, language, food, kinship, migration, and more. Combining cutting-edge social and evolutionary theory with the latest discoveries about human genes, brains, and material culture,
Deep History invites scholars and general readers alike to explore the dynamic of connectedness that spans all of human history.
With Timothy Earle, Gillian Feeley-Harnik, Felipe Fernand#225;ndez-Armesto, Clive Gamble, April McMahon, John C. Mitani, Hendrik Poinar, Mary C. Stiner, and Thomas R. Trautmann
Synopsis
An introduction to a new way of looking at history, from a perspective that stretches from the beginning of time to the present day,
Maps of Time is world history on an unprecedented scale. Beginning with the Big Bang, David Christian views the interaction of the natural world with the more recent arrivals in flora and fauna, including human beings.
Cosmology, geology, archeology, and population and environmental studiesand#151;all figure in David Christian's account, which is an ambitious overview of the emerging field of "Big History." Maps of Time opens with the origins of the universe, the stars and the galaxies, the sun and the solar system, including the earth, and conducts readers through the evolution of the planet before human habitation. It surveys the development of human society from the Paleolithic era through the transition to agriculture, the emergence of cities and states, and the birth of the modern, industrial period right up to intimations of possible futures. Sweeping in scope, finely focused in its minute detail, this riveting account of the known world, from the inception of space-time to the prospects of global warming, lays the groundwork for world historyand#151;and Big Historyand#151;true as never before to its name.
Synopsis
"You've all seen the poster of the milky way galaxy with an arrow to a point about halfway out from the center and the caption, and#145;You are here.and#8217; This book is like that only more so. It locates the human experience in the entirety of space-time."and#151;Alfred Crosby, author of Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900
Synopsis
Andre Gunder Frank asks us to ReOrient our views away from Eurocentrismand#151;to see the rise of the West as a mere blip in what was, and is again becoming, an Asia-centered world. In a bold challenge to received historiography and social theory he turns on its head the world according to Marx, Weber, and other theorists, including Polanyi, Rostow, Braudel, and Wallerstein. Frank explains the Rise of the West in world economic and demographic terms that relate it in a single historical sweep to the decline of the East around 1800. European states, he says, used the silver extracted from the American colonies to buy entry into an expanding Asian market that already flourished in the global economy. Resorting to import substitution and export promotion in the world market, they became Newly Industrializing Economies and tipped the global economic balance to the West. That is precisely what East Asia is doing today, Frank points out, to recover its traditional dominance. As a result, the "center" of the world economy is once again moving to the "Middle Kingdom" of China. Anyone interested in Asia, in world systems and world economic and social history, in international relations, and in comparative area studies, will have to take into account Frank's exciting reassessment of our global economic past and future.
Synopsis
"Frank shows how Marx and Weber got it all wrong. A fundamental rethinking of the rise of the West and the origin of the world-system. Absolutely essential to understanding world history."and#151;Albert Bergesen,University of Arizona
"The great virtue of this stimulating book is its relentless push to redefine our framework for thinking about the early modern economy. . . . A benchmark study."and#151;R. Bin Wong,University of California, Irvine
Synopsis
Over the past few centuries, as Western civilization has enjoyed an expansive and flexible geographic domain, Westerners have observed other cultures with little interest in a return gaze. In turn, these other civilizations have been similarly disinclined when they have held sway. Clearly, though, an external frame of reference outstrips introspectionand#151;we cannot see ourselves as others see us. Unprecedented in its scope,
What the Rest Think of the West provides a rich historical look through the eyes of outsiders as they survey and scrutinize the politics, science, technology, religion, family practices, and gender roles of civilizations not their own. The book emphasizes the broader figurative meaning of looking west in the scope of history.
Focusing on four civilizationsand#151;Islamic, Japanese, Chinese, and South Asianand#151;Nader has collected observations made over centuries by scholars, diplomats, missionaries, travelers, merchants, and students reflecting upon their own and#147;Wests.and#8221; These writings derive from a range of purposes and perspectives, such as the seventh-century Chinese Buddhist who goes west to India, the missionary from Baghdad who travels up the Volga in the tenth century and meets the Vikings, and the Egyptian imam who in 1826 is sent to Paris to study the French. The accounts variously express critique, adoration, admiration, and fear, and are sometimes humorous, occasionally disturbing, at times controversial, and always enlightening. With informative introductions to each of the selections, Laura Nader initiates conversations about the power of representational practices.
About the Author
Gand#233;rard Chaliand is an internationally known specialist on strategy. Since 1960 he has been a participant-observer of guerrilla movements throughout Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. He teaches at the Ecole Supand#233;rieure de Guerre in Paris. He has previously taught at the Ecole Nationale d'Administration in Paris, and at Harvard University, the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Capetown, Meiji University in Tokyo, and the University of Quebec, among others. The author of many works of scholarship and three volumes of poetry, he is the editor of Guerrilla Strategies: An Historical Anthology from the Long March to Afghanistan (California, 1982).
Table of Contents
List of Figures
Preface
A Note on Dates
PART ONE. PROBLEMS AND ORIENTATIONS
1. Introduction
Andrew Shryock and Daniel Lord Smail
2. Imagining the Human in Deep Time
Andrew Shryock, Thomas R. Trautmann, and Clive Gamble
PART TWO. FRAMES FOR HISTORY IN DEEP TIME
3. Body
Daniel Lord Smail and Andrew Shryock
4. Energy and Ecosystems
Mary C. Stiner and Gillian Feeley-Harnik
5. Language
April McMahon, Thomas R. Trautmann, and Andrew Shryock
PART THREE. SHARED SUBSTANCE
6. Food
Felipe Fernand#225;ndez-Armesto with Daniel Lord Smail
7. Deep Kinship
Thomas R. Trautmann, Gillian Feeley-Harnik, and John C. Mitani
PART FOUR. HUMAN EXPANSION
8. Migration
Timothy Earle and Clive Gamble with Hendrik Poinar
9. Goods
Daniel Lord Smail, Mary C. Stiner, and Timothy Earle
10. Scale
Mary C. Stiner, Timothy Earle, Daniel Lord Smail, and Andrew Shryock
Notes
Bibliography
Contributors
Index