People's Hist Of The Wld Pa

by Harman,Chris

• ISBN13: 9781844672387
• ISBN10: 1844672387
• Edition: 00
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2008-04-17
• Publisher: VERSO

Summary

The only comprehensive "bottom up" history of the world from the earliest human society to the twenty-first century. From earliest human society to the Holy Roman Empire, from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment, from the Industrial Revolution to the end of the millennium, Chris Harman provides a brilliant and comprehensive history of the planet. Eschewing the standard histories of "Great Men," of dates and kings, Harman offers a groundbreaking counter-history, a breathtaking sweep across the centuries in the tradition of "history from below." In a fiery narrative he shows how ordinary men and women were involved in creating and changing society and how conflict between classes was often at the core of these changes. While many pundits see the victory of capitalism as now safely secured, Harman explains the rise and fall of societies and civilizations throughout the ages and demonstrates that history never ends. This magisterial study is essential reading for anyone interested in how society has changed and developed and the possibilities for further radical change in the new millennium. Includes timelines, glossaries of people, places and terms, guides to further reading, and a detailed index.

Table of Contents

The rise of class societies
Prologue: Before class	p. 3
The neolithic 'revolution'	p. 10
The first civilisations	p. 17
The first class divisions	p. 22
Women's oppression	p. 29
The first 'Dark Ages'	p. 32
The ancient world
Iron and empires	p. 45
Ancient India	p. 48
The first Chinese empires	p. 54
The Greek city states	p. 63
Rome's rise and fall	p. 71
The rise of Christianity	p. 87
The 'Middle Ages'
The centuries of chaos	p. 103
China: the rebirth of the empire	p. 106
Byzantium: the living fossil	p. 117
The Islamic revolutions	p. 123
The African civilisations	p. 136
European feudalism	p. 140
The great transformation
The conquest of the New Spain	p. 161
Renaissance to Reformation	p. 172
The birth pangs of a new order	p. 194
The last flowering of Asia's empires	p. 219
The spread of the new order
A time of social peace	p. 233
From superstition to science	p. 237
The Enlightenment	p. 242
Slavery and wage slavery	p. 247
Slavery and racism	p. 249
The economics of 'free labour'	p. 257
The world turned upside down
American prologue	p. 265
The French Revolution	p. 277
Jacobinism outside France	p. 303
The retreat of reason	p. 315
The industrial revolution	p. 318
The birth of Marxism	p. 326
1848	p. 335
The American Civil War	p. 345
The conquest of the East	p. 355
The Japanese exception	p. 365
Storming heaven: The Paris Commune	p. 368
The century of hope and horror
The world of capital	p. 379
World war and world revolution	p. 405
Europe in turmoil	p. 430
Revolt in the colonial world	p. 449
The 'Golden Twenties'	p. 463
The great slump	p. 469
Strangled hope: 1934-36	p. 491
Midnight in the century	p. 510
The Cold War	p. 543
The new world disorder	p. 577
Conclusion: Illusion of the epoch	p. 605
Notes	p. 621
Glossary	p. 663
Further Reading	p. 687
Index	p. 695
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.