Brief History of the Human Race [Paperback]

Farming began in the Near East - Mesopotamia (present day Iraq) - the birthplace of civilization, as every schoolchild learns. Interestingly, and logically, as Cook shows, the last place civilization caught on in the Old World was Western Europe - its best soils being too heavy for the available plow. When a heavier plow was developed halfway through the first millennium, cities sprouted and armies reaped the benefits.

In broad strokes (with accompanying broad maps) Cook credits geography, climate and natural resources for driving early advances. Cultural flow is more problematic - why did Greek culture spread while Egyptian did not? Or why did Buddhism wander to China while Hinduism stayed put in India? Cook raises many such tantalizing questions and explores what evidence there is, offering cogent theories of his own. And he shows how technological advances shaped larger movements - expensive bronze favoring elite rule, while cheap iron empowered the masses, for instance.

But if farming made civilization possible, monotheism began to shape the world as we know it. Christianity made its way through the scattered Jewish diaspora of the Roman Empire and was, as a political expedient, finally adopted as the state religion by Constantine. It then became attractive to frontier peoples as a trapping of civilization. Islam (Cook's specialty) solved a political difficulty by uniting two Arab tribes in Arabia to form a state, which then had the power to coordinate a wave of conquest, which resulted in the largest empire ever.

Cook organizes his book in four parts. He begins with an overview of prehistory and inevitable development and concludes with a question, "Toward One World?" which embraces the Islamic expansion, the European expansion and the modern world. Three-part chapters within each of these sections focus on broad geographical masses and the cultural developments within, then draw it all together by homing in on particular features: the complicated marriageability rules among the Australian Aranda, Chinese ancestor worship, caste and sexuality in Hinduism, Greek pottery and more.

Much is left out; much is simplified. Naturally. And the most interesting bits are the story-like chapter conclusions. But Cook uses these to illustrate his broader points and to show the individual peculiarities of human cultures. His writing is lucid, often witty, and seldom dry. And he gives an extensive "further reading" list for each chapter. A fine, thought-provoking, well-organized and succinct history of the last 10,000 years.

"The result is that this book is both deliberately selective and involuntarily patchy." - also from preface

The first quote relates the author's ideas on writing about human history, and the second exemplifies his approach to this book. These two quotes convey exactly what you can expect from this book. It is obviously not a comprehensive history of the human race nor does it intend to be, but even as an organized outline of our history, it falls short. It is patchy, and the author often presents his ideas and arguments in rather haphazard sequences.

The main part of Cook's history is separated into chapters based on geographical origins (or absences) of civilization. He takes us from Australia to the Americas then to Africa and so forth, and in the process, he uses familiar discussions of climate and geography to relate the rise of civilization predominantly with farming. The last part of the book is concerned with the interaction of civilizations and how various cultures were affected by the Islamic world, European expansion, etc. All in all, Cook provides very interesting information, and his arguments are fairly good.

However, many of the chapters include interesting discussions of traditions or phenomena that are/were unique to certain civilizations, but the author fails to satisfactorily integrate these with his other discussions. He does not adequately compare and contrast cultural traditions but rather describes them and moves on. Of course, the author may not have able to do that without substantially lengthening the book, but a book titled "A Brief History of the Human Race" should be able to provide a more cohesive picture than the disorganized one that it does.

Another problem I had with this book was that it was sorely lacking in maps and figures. There are a few to be sure, but the author apparently assumes that the average reader has a very good knowledge of geographical and geological history. For example, the author repeatedly refers to Pangaea, Gondwanaland, and Eurasia but never provides a map of the world before the continents took their present shape.

This book is a pretty quick and informative read, but if you're looking for a more comprehensive and organized work, look elsewhere.