A History of the World in 100 Objects

'In this book, we travel back in time and across the globe, to see how we humans have shaped our world and been shaped by it over the past two million years. The story is told exclusively through the things that humans have made - all sorts of things, carefully designed and then either admired and preserved or used, broken and thrown away. I've chosen just a hundred objects from different points on our journey - from a cooking pot to a golden galleon, from a Stone Age tool to a credit card, and each object comes from the collection of the British Museum' - [from the introduction]. This book takes a dramatically original approach to the history of humanity, using objects which previous civilisations have left behind them, often accidentally, as prisms through which we can explore past worlds and the lives of the men and women who lived in them. The book's range is enormous. It begins with one of the earliest surviving objects made by human hands, a chopping tool from the Olduvai gorge in Africa, and ends with an object from the 21st century which represents the world we live in today. Neil MacGregor's aim is not simply to describe these remarkable things, but to show us their significance - how a stone pillar tells us about a great Indian emperor preaching tolerance to his people, how Spanish pieces of eight tell us about the beginning of a global currency or how an early Victorian tea-set tells us about the impact of empire. Each chapter immerses the reader in a past civilisation accompanied by an exceptionally well-informed guide. Seen through this lens, history is a kaleidoscope - shifting, interconnected, constantly surprising, and shaping our world today in ways that most of us have never imagined. An intellectual and visual feast, it is one of the most engrossing and unusual history books published in years.

ISBN 1846144132   Pages 736 ISBN13 9781846144134 (What's this?)   Weight (grammes) 1772 Publisher Penguin Books Ltd   Published in London Imprint Allen Lane   Height (mm) 239 Format Hardback   Width (mm) 162 Publication date 25 Oct 2010   Spine width (mm) 59 DEWEY 904   Academic level General DEWEY edition DC22

		Preface: Mission Impossible
		Introduction: Signals from the Past
PART ONE		Making us Human 2,000,000-9000 BC
1		Mummy of Hornedjitef		2
2		Olduvai Stone Chopping Tool		9
3		Olduvai Handaxe		15
4		Swimming Reindeer		19
5		Clovis Spear Point		26
PART TWO		After the Ice Age: Food and Sex 9000-3500 BC
6		Bird-shaped Pestle		32
7		Ain Sakhri Lovers Figurine		37
8		Egyptian Clay Model of Cattle		43
9		Maya Maize God Statue		49
10		Jomon Pot		55
PART THREE		The First Cities and States 4000-2000 BC
11		King Den's Sandal Label		62
12		Standard of Ur		68
13		Indus Seal		78
14		Jade Axe		84
15		Early Writing Tablet		90
PART FOUR		The Beginnings of Science and Literature 2000-700 BC
16		Flood Tablet		96
17		Rhind Mathematical Papyrus		102
18		Minoan Bull-leaper		111
19		Mold Gold Cape		117
20		Statue of Ramesses II		124
PART FIVE		Old World, New Powers 1100-300 BC
21		Lachish Reliefs		132
		More...

After seeing an advert in the London Review of Books, I bought a copy of A History of the World in 100 Objects. It is a wonderful book. I have bought two more copies for friends. - Samuel Hudson

A History of the World in 100 Objects is a delight, beautifully written and illustrated with very good photos (which unfortunately are not printed on glossy paper). The book offers superb demonstrations of the paradox that (a) all human history is local and (b) that even in the most distant and dim antiquity, human life is a vast web of relatedness and repetition. To find the connections amongst peoples, all one needs to do to is to pull a string, pull a string, pull a string, pull a string, pull a string. - Samuel Hudson



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