People's History of the World: From the Stone Age to the New Millennium

Good book, great price and fast shipping!A+

One somewhat negative review of this fantastic history states that it is 'biased'. Typical of someone who cannot see the bias in the history book he/she has in their mind. History is not science. The work Chris Harman has done to produce this truly epic piece of history is admirable on its' own, it is thorough (though it was inevitable that he missed some things I would like to have heard about and some things were glossed over, but that is true of any book of this type) and well researched.Most importantly, however, the overriding analysis of history is refreshingly cogent and consistent. Whereas some history textbooks tend to state what they hope in vain to describe merely as how things happened and then analyze each episode individually, Harman has a clear analysis of history that he constantly reaffirms throughout the text where appropriate. He gets it right as well; he doesn't cherry pick, he doesn't propagate any conspiracy theories, he states history in a way that is not very controversial and applies enough analysis to make it interesting. The rest, which is drawing our own conclusions about exploitation, etc. is left to us. And I must say, he did a very good job indeed.

A truly fantastic book which tells history from the perspective of the vast majority of those who lived it. If history was taught, as this book does, in a way which shows how the decisions of the elites effected the masses, we would all have a greater understanding of human history, sociology, and psychology. (It is time for schools to stop being useless knowledge factories, and to start teaching an engaging form of history that students can actually relate to: a history of the people.) The book also provides an anthropological study of pre-capitalist humans who lived in democratic societies without knowledge of possession or class, proving that human nature is malleable. We do not have have a desire built into our DNA to oppress those around us. Human greed is a product of our current insidious social environment which twists human nature to reflect societal demands for profit.I applaud you, Christopher Hartman, for taking the time necessary to create an accurate historical account of the forgotten masses who have experienced oppression and privation, for the benefit of the few elites. I find your analysis of historical facts to be spot on. Your book, and the uprisings in Northern Africa, give me hope that humanity will not be forever doomed to the ubiquitous barbarism concomitant to the rise of capitalism.

This was a most interesting recap of the traits of humanity worldwide and shows how we will walk over people to reap wealth.

Harman describes how the Agricultural Revolution enhanced people's adaptive capabilities but at a price. It introduced bureaucracy, a necessary innovation to deal with complexities introduced by the division of labor in society. Tribal connectivity gave way to management and ultimately to elitism. The history of empires, of feudalism in Europe, and finally the development of modern global society reflect the poisonous effects of pragmatism at the expense of community solidarity. Harman shows us how a thin thread, however, growing gradually more substantial since the Middle Ages, and significantly so during the French Revolution, testifies to humans' stumbling drive to reverse this anomaly. He provides, therefore, a useful focus for activism in our age. Less upon accomplishing specific political goals than upon learning how to build complex community, including needed bureaucracy, without sacrificing the core survival attribute of our species: our drive to connect. Elites inevitably seek to disrupt this drive, but so do our own individual tendencies to sacrifice happiness for short term gains. In the Marxist tradition, Harman calls upon his readers consciously to come to terms with our own irrationality, and consciously to reject elitism in order to promote our own survival. What makes us happy is indeed most adaptive.