About the Author:
Felipe Fernandez-Armesto is a professor in history and geography at Queen Mary College, University of London. His books Millennium (Bantam Press, 1995), Civilizations (Macmillan, 2000) and Food (Macmillan, 2001) have been translated into over 20 languages. His work appears frequently in the British and American press and he works regularly for the BBC. Felipe resides in London.
From Booklist:
This copiously illustrated book begins more than 30 millennia ago and portrays human history as the product of a series of intellectual and conceptual discoveries. The author shows how our ancestors pulled themselves out of prehistory by realizing that symbols could be used to express ideas; by grasping that what we see is not necessarily what is--by, in short, having the big idea that the world operates according to rules that can be understood. By extending the history of ideas to prehistory (most histories of ideas "start late in the day, with the invention of writing"), Fernandez-Armesto offers a wealth of insights and new ways of looking at human evolution. That's not to say, however, that he doesn't cover more modern ground. Key intellectual moments in the development of science, government, society, and religion are all surveyed in accessible prose and with hundreds of fascinating illustrations. This is obviously not the last word on the history of ideas, but it makes a fascinating place to start. David Pitt
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