An Intimate History of Humanity

Front Cover
Random House, Dec 31, 2012 - Philosophy - 496 pages

'The book that changed my life... a constant companion' Bill Bailey

'Extraordinary and beautiful...the most exciting and ambitious work of non-fiction I have read in more than a decade' The Daily Telegraph

This extraordinarily wide-ranging study looks at the dilemmas of life today and shows how they need not have arisen. Portraits of living people and historical figures are placed alongside each other as Zeldin discusses how men and women have lost and regained hope; how they have learnt to have interesting conversations; how some have acquired an immunity to loneliness; how new forms of love and desire have been invented; how respect has become more valued than power; how the art of escaping from one's troubles has developed; why even the privileged are often gloomy; and why parents and children are changing their minds about what they want from each other.

 

Selected pages

Contents

How humans have repeatedly lost hope and how new
1
How men and women have slowly learned to have
22
How people searching for their roots are only beginning
43
How new forms of love have been invented
72
Why there has been more progress in cooking than in sex
86
How the desire that men feel for women and for other
108
How respect has become more desirable than power
131
How those who want neither to give orders nor to receive
147
Copyright

Other editions - View all

An Intimate History of Humanity
Theodore Zeldin
Snippet view - 1994
An Intimate History of Humanity
Theodore Zeldin
Snippet view - 1994
An Intimate History of Humanity
Theodore Zeldin
No preview available - 1995

Common terms and phrases

admired ambition American ancient Antoinette Fouque astrology became become believe Bernard Mandeville Catherine Trautmann cent century child China Chinese Christian civilisation conversation culture curiosity desire discovered dream emotions enemies escape everything father fear feel Feminism fight foreign France freedom French friends friendship Germaine Greer girls give godparents happy Henri Laborit Hindu homosexual hospitality humans husband hypochondria Ibn Battuta Ibn Hazm idea ideal Ihara Saikaku imagination Indian individual interesting intermediaries invented Islam Japanese kind less lives loneliness look marriage married means mind modern mother Muslim nation never one's oneself organised Oxford parents passion person pleasure politics possible problems recognise relationship religion says sexual slaves social society someone sometimes strangers Tale of Genji talk things thought toleration tradition tried trying understand woman women worry

About the author (2012)

Theodore Zeldin, educated at Birkbeck College London and Christ Church Oxford, is senior fellow of St Antony's College Oxford. He has been awarded the Wolfson Prize for History, been elected a member of the European Academy, and figures on the Magazine Littéraire's list of the hundred most important thinkers in the world today.

Bibliographic information

TitleAn Intimate History of Humanity
AuthorTheodore Zeldin
Editionreprint
PublisherRandom House, 2012
ISBN1448161991, 9781448161997
Length496 pages
Subjects ›  › 

Philosophy / Ethics & Moral Philosophy
Science / General
Social Science / Anthropology / General
Social Science / Sociology / General
  
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