Ebook: The invention of yesterday: a 50,000-year history of human culture, conflict, and connection

"A sweeping global human history that describes the separate beginnings of the world's major civilizations and cultural movements -- Confuscianism, Islam, Judeo-Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism and Nomadism -- and the dramatic, sometimes ruinous, sometimes transformative effects of their ever closer intertwinement that has brought us to where we are today"--;The physical stage -- History begins with language -- Civilization begins with geography -- Trade weaves the networks -- The birth of belief systems -- Money, math, messaging, management, and might -- Megaempires take the stage -- The lands in between -- When worlds overlap -- World historical monads -- Out of the north -- Europe on the rise -- The nomads' last roar -- Europe and the long crusades -- The restoration narrative -- The progress narrative -- That Columbus moment -- Chain reactions -- After Columbus : the world -- The center does not hold -- Middle world enmeshed -- Ripple effects -- The invention explosion -- Our machines, ourselves -- Social constellations in the machine age -- Empires and nation-states -- A world at war -- Beyond the nation-state -- Digital era -- The environment -- The big picture.