It takes more than 10 billion years to create just the right conditions on one planet for life to begin. It takes another three billion years of evolving life forms until it finally happens, a primate super species mankind. In conjunction with History Channel's hit television series by the same name, Mankind is a sweeping history of humans from the birth of the Earth and hunting antelope in Africa's Rift Valley to the present day with the completion of the Genome project and the birth of the seven billionth human. Like a Hollywood action movie, Mankind is a fast-moving, adventurous history of key events from each major historical epoch that directly affect us today such as the invention of iron, the beginning of Buddhism, the crucifixion of Jesus, the fall of Rome, the invention of the printing press, the Industrial Revolution, and the invention of the computer. With more than 300 color photographs and maps, Mankind is not only a visual overview of the broad story of civilization, but it also includes illustrated pop-out sidebars explaining distinctions between science and history, such as why there is 700 times more iron than bronze buried in the earth, why pepper is the only food we can taste with our skin, and how a wobble in the earth's axis helped bring down the Egyptian Empire. This is the most exciting and entertaining history of mankind ever produced.
Author
I'm an academic renegade The first day of my PhD program at University of Chicago, my advisor said, "You know there are no jobs, right?" I knew, but I didn't care. I wanted to write about history for a broader audience than the other five people interested in my dissertation topic. I wanted to write for history buffs and nerdy kids and the general intelligent reader. (That would be you, right?) Officially my degree is in the history of the Indian sub-continent, with strong sub-fields in European imperialism and Islam. I feel strongly that the West in general and Americans in particular need to know more about the history of other parts of the world. That belief is often reflected in the topics I choose to write about, whether I'm working on a small story (feather hats in ancient Peru, anyone?) or a big one (Mankind: the Story of All of Us). These days I write about a wide range of historical topics for history buffs, nerdy kids and—you get the idea. On any given day I could be working on World War I recruiting posters, the mud mosques of West Africa, the first European translation of the Arabian Nights, Napoleon's invasion of Egypt, or the history of absinth. At least half the time I'm writing outside of "my field", exploring odd corners of the past with field-tested research skills, a red-hot library card, and a large bump of curiosity. Basically, I'm interested in the times and places where two cultures meet and change each other. Come along for the ride.
