Outskirts Press, INC.

A FRESH LOOK BACK AT HUMAN HISTORY FRAMES THE CRISIS OUR SPECIES CONFRONTS

This wide-ranging history depicts the human journey through time. In Humans, global historian Ted Farmer looks at our species by placing it into six distinct periods, each reflecting a new pattern of social grouping. Although the evolution of these social groupings didn’t occur simultaneously across widespread populations, their sequence followed the same order. At each stage, people, no matter what part of the globe they inhabited, grouped themselves into comparable formations, following a similar evolutionary development. And, notably, human history has followed a telescoped chronology, with both technological and social change accelerating within tighter and tighter time frames. The first of the six major periods lasted more than 2 million years; our current – the sixth – period is less than three decades old. The six-part division of human history reveals patterns, useful in examining how we have evolved. The first three periods were characterized by a growing racial and cultural divergence. The next three brought connection and convergence. Each of the last five periods has generated a predominant means of ascertaining truth or mode of understanding the world. All five have survived and compete in the present, complicating our ability to make sense of current reality. Living in a world of competing claims of authenticity and kinds of truth complicates our ability as humans to confront the existential crises of climate change and the threat of global conflict.