Summary Of This Fleeting World
David Christian, This Fleeting World: A Short History of Humanity. Great Barrington, MA: Berkshire Publishing, 2009; 120 pp. $14.95 (paperback)
When asked to give a brief explanation of how the world was shaped, many historians will usually struggle and will only explain the history of a specific area. However, Christian’s This Fleeting World not only explains how the world became as it is today, but how humanity survived and societies united. Due to the majority of people not knowing about the world’s changes, Christian provides enough detail to educate them in only three major eras: the foraging, the agrarian, and the modern - all under 150 pages (also including the 8-page preface, though he did not write that piece in the book). Some may argue that learning the whole …show more content…
Yet, Christian’s controversial goal in showing how different societies were brought together puts the essence of learning much easier. Was his goal in making the learning of world history much easier successful? Most likely yes, due to the amount of available evidence he puts in his work. Starting off with the foragers era, Christian informs that mankind was beginning to develop communities - with archaeological evidence leading that it happened in Africa 200,000 or 300,000 years ago and spreaded onwards in different countries. Foragers usually scavenged for food and materials, only moving around when necessities were scarce. This period lasted the longest, estimated to be over 200,000 years. Patriarchy was soon developing, limiting women into more suppressed roles in society. Communities showed no signs of remorse towards children and the elderly dying, resulting to more controlled and small populations. The idea of growing their own food and using basic technology
When asked to give a brief explanation of how the world was shaped, many historians will usually struggle and will only explain the history of a specific area. However, Christian’s This Fleeting World not only explains how the world became as it is today, but how humanity survived and societies united. Due to the majority of people not knowing about the world’s changes, Christian provides enough detail to educate them in only three major eras: the foraging, the agrarian, and the modern - all under 150 pages (also including the 8-page preface, though he did not write that piece in the book). Some may argue that learning the whole …show more content…
Yet, Christian’s controversial goal in showing how different societies were brought together puts the essence of learning much easier. Was his goal in making the learning of world history much easier successful? Most likely yes, due to the amount of available evidence he puts in his work. Starting off with the foragers era, Christian informs that mankind was beginning to develop communities - with archaeological evidence leading that it happened in Africa 200,000 or 300,000 years ago and spreaded onwards in different countries. Foragers usually scavenged for food and materials, only moving around when necessities were scarce. This period lasted the longest, estimated to be over 200,000 years. Patriarchy was soon developing, limiting women into more suppressed roles in society. Communities showed no signs of remorse towards children and the elderly dying, resulting to more controlled and small populations. The idea of growing their own food and using basic technology