By Steppe, Desert, and Ocean
The Birth of Eurasia
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
By Steppe, Desert, and Ocean is nothing less than the story of how humans first started building the globalized world we know today. Set on a huge continental stage, from Europe to China, it is a tale covering over 10,000 years, from the origins of farming around 9000 BC to the expansion of the Mongols in the thirteenth century AD.
An unashamedly 'big history', it charts the development of European, Near Eastern, and Chinese civilizations and the growing links between them by way of the Indian Ocean, the silk Roads, and the great steppe corridor (which crucially allowed horse riders to travel from Mongolia to the Great Hungarian Plain within a year). Along the way, it is also the story of the rise and fall of empires, the development of maritime trade, and the shattering impact of predatory nomads on their urban neighbours.
Above all, as this immense historical panorama unfolds, we begin to see in clearer focus those basic underlying factors - the acquisitive nature of humanity, the differing environments in which people live, and the dislocating effect of even slight climatic variation - which have driven change throughout the ages, and which help us better understand our world today.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Renowned British archaeologist Cunliffe (Britain Begins) explores the social, climatic, and environmental factors that set the inhabitants of the Fertile Crescent and the Yangtze and Yellow River basins on the path "from simple foraging to organized food production and urban living" in this sweeping and ambitious capstone to his long career. Proposing that history has been far more influenced by geography than great personalities, he explores how a densely interconnected web of natural dynamics shaped human behavior and molded the emerging cultures. He apologizes in the preface for barely mentioning well-known human dramas such as Alexander the Great's conquests, yet his pithy observations will engross adherents of the social sciences as much as the natural sciences: Macedonia in the 4th century B.C.E., for instance, "was a macho world, boisterous and dangerous, ready to be set alight by any charismatic leader who chanced his luck." The importance of climate change as a driver of mass migration and social flux recurs throughout, sounding an ominous note for the Earth's current circumstances. Cunliffe is a master storyteller, explaining his carefully researched conclusions through polished language and apropos turns of phrase that make his book a breeze despite its depth and breadth.
