The Human Web: A Bird's-Eye View of World History [Paperback]

Robert McNeill (Author), William H. McNeill (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 17, 2003 | ISBN-10: 0393925684 | ISBN-13: 978-0965739658 | Edition: 1ST

Why did the first civilizations emerge when and where they did? How did Islam become a unifying force in the world of its birth? What enabled the West to project its goods and power around the world from the fifteenth century on? Why was agriculture invented seven times and the steam engine just once?

World-historical questions such as these, the subjects of major works by Jared Diamond, David Landes, and others, are now of great moment as global frictions increase. In a spirited and original contribution to this quickening discussion, two renowned historians, father and son, explore the webs that have drawn humans together in patterns of interaction and exchange, cooperation and competition, since earliest times. Whether small or large, loose or dense, these webs have provided the medium for the movement of ideas, goods, power, and money within and across cultures, societies, and nations. From the thin, localized webs that characterized agricultural communities twelve thousand years ago, through the denser, more interactive metropolitan webs that surrounded ancient Sumer, Athens, and Timbuktu, to the electrified global web that today envelops virtually the entire world in a maelstrom of cooperation and competition, J. R. McNeill and William H. McNeill show human webs to be a key component of world history and a revealing framework of analysis. Avoiding any determinism, environmental or cultural, the McNeills give us a synthesizing picture of the big patterns of world history in a rich, open-ended, concise account.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The spread of agriculture, the growth of world religions and the rise of European civilization to world dominance are some of the themes explored in this engrossing addition to the distinctive McNeill brand of broad-brush macro-history. The motor of history this time is the growing "web" of interactions-weaving together hunter-gatherer bands, then civilizations and finally the whole world-by which people, goods, diseases and ideas spread. As it binds ever more people ever more tightly, the web both brings them into conflict and lets them share and build on each other's achievements; thus Columbus's extension of the web to the Americas led to conquest but also to the exchange of New World potatoes and maize for Old World horses and smallpox. The father-son historian duo also revisit ideas from William's previous books, discussing the co-evolution of humans and microbes, the uneasy symbiosis between warrior elites and the farmers they protect and exploit, and the social solidarity imparted by group singing and dancing. More ecological than humanistic, the McNeill outlook sees conflict and cooperation as twin outcomes of the struggle for survival that drives developments in technology, political organization, social habits and even religious beliefs. This approach can be reductionist (Europe's vibrant civil society is said to spring from its use of mold-board plows); and as impersonal historical meta-agents go, the trendy "web" conceit is less substantive and fertile than other McNeill brainstorms. Still, this concise and beautifully written synthesis brims with revealing insights that make history comprehensible and enthralling. 25 illus., maps.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

J.R. and father William, both history professors, unravel the various webs that have connected humans through time.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1ST edition (December 17, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393925684
• ISBN-13: 978-0965739658
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #21,796 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #14 in Books > Computers & Technology > Business & Culture > History
  • #94 in Books > Computers & Technology > Computer Science

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A major work for general readers, December 13, 2003

By 

Jukka Kemppinen "Dr. Jukka Kemppinen" (Kirkkonummi, Finnland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Human Web: A Bird's-Eye View of World History (Hardcover)

W.H. McNeill has written several of the top 20 works for specialists and general audience on general history. This work is a breathtaking overview of world history seen in the context of environment.

People who rightly were thrilled by Diamond's "Guns, Germs and Steel" should go on and enjoy this rare treat: lucid and easy to understand, based on a wealth of erudition connected with plain sense, a new vision.

Young readers might get ideas about a change of courses. As a university professor I immediately took this book up as reading matter for my students - mostly engineers and lawyers at present.

33 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Overall View of History, June 12, 2003

By 

John D. Cofield - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Human Web: A Bird's-Eye View of World History (Hardcover)

The Human Web is an excellent summary of human history. It is indeed a bird's eye view in that it looks at the broad overall sweep of human affairs and doesn't bog down in unnecessary detail. The major theme is the construction and expansion of human webs, or interconnections that tie cultures and civilizations together ever more tightly. If space voyagers ever arrived on Earth (and could read a human language) this book would be one of the first things I hope we hand them to help them understand us.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A refreshing and exceptional overview of world history, August 25, 2009

By 

Tammi Lauri (Helsinki, Finland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Human Web: A Bird's-Eye View of World History (Paperback)

If you need to try to survive from our history by reading only one book, here's one of the better, perhaps even the best, alternative. I'm a student of history myself, and I can only say that, due to my experience, it's very difficult to beat J.R. and William McNeill. The task of creating a general view from the whole world history is very difficult, but the McNeills have managed extremely well and written this very readable and colorful analysis of our history. This is a rare success book with challenging thoughts not just for students and advanced historians, but also for any literate blue-collar lad, waitress or "hockey-mom".

When Human Web was translated into Finnish (in 2005), immediately four main history and social science departments took it as their entrance examinations book. And not just the schools of history in Turku and Tampere and the subject of social and economical history in Helsinki, but also the Finland's most respected school for world politics in Helsinki had it as their main entrance examination book - and most of them still have.

Human Web is a book written with an impressing academical knowledge on a very clear and readable way avoiding any frustrating jargon. All this makes it a very pleasant, refreshing and exceptional reading experience for anyone.