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Index
Title page
Copyright page
Contents
PART ONE: SETTING THE SCENE
TIMELINE
In the beginning
The birth and death of stars
The Goldilocks zone
The restless Earth
Shaping the surface
What is life?
Where does the energy come from?
Life gets complicated
How life carries on
The origin of species
The blueprint of life
PART TWO: ANIMAL PLANET
TIMELINE
The first animals
Life comes ashore
The age of the dinosaurs
Mass extinctions
The coming of the mammals
Where do we come from?
PART THREE: HUMANS START TO DOMINATE
TIMELINE
Humans past and present
What makes humans human?
Culture
How humans populated the world
The impact of the ice
From scavenger to hunter
Fire
Hunter-gatherer technologies
Language
Kinship
Early religion
The beginning of art
Shelter
Clothing
Pottery
The first farmers
Domesticating animals
Putting animals to work
The wheel
Nomads
From stone to bronze
From bronze to iron
PART FOUR: CIVILIZATION
TIMELINE
Early trade routes
The birth of cities
Transport
From barter to money
Paper money
Credit, debt and investment
Writing
Law
Ancient empires
Why empires fall
Polytheism and monotheism
Epics
Writing history
The nature of reality
What is the good life?
The beginnings of science
Disease pandemics
Europe in transition
Land, labour and power
Clashes of civilizations
PART FIVE: THE RISE OF THE WEST
TIMELINE
Renaissance and Reformation
The long road to toleration
Printing
The Scientific Revolution
Europe expands
The Enlightenment
The Industrial Revolution
The Agricultural Revolution
The social contract
From mercantilism to free-market capitalism
Nationalism and the nation
Urbanization
Expanding horizons
The peak of imperialism
Trade unions, socialism and communism
PART SIX: THE MODERN WORLD
TIMELINE
Modernism in the arts
Towards gender equality
Revolutions in science
Fighting disease
The road to world war
Industrialized slaughter
Versailles and its outcomes
Revolutions
World economic collapse
Totalitarianism
Total war
Genocide
The nuclear age
The Cold War
Life after the Cold War
The information revolution
The promises of bioscience
Internationalism, globalization and the future of the nation-state
Population
Migration
Economic developments
Environmental problems
The future of humanity
The fate of the universe
Picture acknowledgements
Index
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