For a serious, non-fiction book, this was engaging and eye-opening. A broad sweep of human history that puts us and our civilization into perspective. A step back looking at the events and influences that make our world and society what it is. In a word - smaller. The succession of empires and colonialization that, along with their oppression, bridged cultures, unified peoples and spread knowledge. It is not an exaggeration to discover we are all 'children of Rome' in many of our assumptions and conventions. The Christian faith? Spread on the rubble of Rome. What if Constantine hadn't adopted it? How is it that an island in the north Atlantic with a bastardized language came to dominate world culture? A fashion trend in Croatia gets picked up by French King Louis VI - the cravat, or necktie - spreads across Europe and becomes the standard for modern male business dress. It took tens of thousands of years for mankind to crawl out of caves and only the past couple hundred to go from rudumentary mechanics to artificial intelligence. Conflicts, trade and accelerating technology have made a world where we physically travel to the other side of the planet in 24 hours and electronically share anything with anyone anwhere, instantly. The world over, we essentially use the same language for business, economics, music, film, drama, art, clothing, engineering, architecture, science, medicine, communications, diplomacy and, increasingly, language itself. Despite regressive and reactionary populist impulses, the world and the unifying of human civilization continues to accelerate at an exponential and dizzying pace.
Unless.....the author postilates some trends and future developments. All are based on sound assumptions. My own fear is that civilization will need another metmorphasis: a nuclear catastrophe, a dictatorial world war or pandemic for mankind to reach the next level of (hopefully) democratic enlightenment and unification.
Great book to make you think.
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