This Fleeting World Chapter Summary

“Human History at last took off around 50,000 years ago, at the time of what I have termed our Great Leap Forward. (Page 39)

We are only a brief second in the long history of the universe; many things have preceded us to make us the most complex creatures that ever walked the Earth. We are a “new level of complexity” which makes us different from all other creatures that have come before us. Our species has only been around for 250,000 years, a short time compared to the formation of the Earth at 4.5 billion years ago and the creation of the Universe at 13.7 billion years ago, but the time we have had on this Earth has greatly affected the outcome of history. In an attempt to provide an overview of human history in his book This Fleeting World, David Christian introduces it in the context of the history of the universe and then systematically breaks it down

The Encounters at the Heart of the World by Elizabeth A. Fenn is a book that includes the history of Mandan people. Most of the people know this place because of Lewis and Clark, but in this book readers can also learn so many important things about Mandan and combination of important new discoveries. In this book, a reader can examine how an author can go far and beyond the expectation, the way she went into the Mandan’s history. The way author have written this book, makes easier for readers to read because she divides each chapter in many topics.

The plot of Until We Meet Again, by Anne Schraff, is interesting because it gives the reader a realistic sense of what it is like to have to go through rough stages in life as a young teenager. Darcy is a teenager who attends Bluford High, she has a pretty normal life until things start to change right before her eyes. Hakeem is leaving her, her grandmother is sick, and her just upped and walked back in her and her sister's life. When Darcy and Jamie were younger there dad just upped and left them and their mother without even saying everything, he skipped town and left their mother to take care of her two children and grandmother by herself. Darcy's mother is a hard working woman. She works at a hospital and pays all the bills and takes care of the family by herself. Years later after Darcy's father walked on them he finally came back to the family to make everything right with the girls and their mother. He moved them

By shifting his range of vision from regional and national to global, Christian has captured the world in a way that brings shame to other historians. He makes his argument credible by providing evidence from the era of foragers showing their diets and coming to a conclusion that hunting and gathering lifestyle was predominant during this time. More evidence comes during the agrarian era where farming was the most prominent approach to gain food. Evidence of this came from the Nile valley to early Mesopotamia where the soil was rich and eager to be cultivated. The rise of agriculture is believed to be a push rather that a pull factor. In other words, there was nothing that made foragers want to be farmers but something pushed them to do so. Perhaps a lack of resources or increasing population growth required a different and more reliable source of food and resources. determining the end of the agrarian era and the beginning of the modern era can be difficult. As new technologies were discovered and increasing production. Christian uses the economical knowledge of an economist named Angus Maddison to find that the gross domestic product of the world was increased by ninety times from 1700 to 2000. New governments and hierarchies were formed, and unlike the rulers of before, they cared for their people. Despite the substantial amount of information available from this modern era, it is

Numerous advantages and disadvantages exist when explaining the history of the world in seven minutes, as seen in "The History of the World in Seven Minutes." As a result, many events are briefly looked at, or ignored completely. Both major and important occurrences in history are summarized, giving the events most influential to humans a spotlight or greater focus. On the other hand, humans have made exceptional progress over the last 15,000 years, consequently, all of the major time periods, civilisations, and confrontations cannot be observed by more than a name and a date; the lack of depth creates a sense of lacking and a gap of missing knowledge.

Christian also provides each era with an introduction. In the Era of Foragers, Christian begins with a description about foragers along with a list of multiple fields of science that historians use to learn about the era of foragers. Next, there’s an introduction of how humans first were, how they started to spread around the world, and how they lived. In the Agrarian Era, the author begins with the Origins of Agriculture, since agriculture was a big influence to the agrarian era. Afterwards, he writes about the progressive changes from foragers to agriculture, the changes from villages to cities/states, and the steady advancement in technology and governments. In the Modern Era, he begins with the Major Features and Trends of the Modern Era along with the changes from agrarian societies to the modern world. Then, he writes a brief description about the Industrial Revolution, economic/cultural changes, Twentieth Century Crisis, and finishes with the Contemporary Period. All types of people ranging from high school students to professors and even world historians will find this book intriguing since it offers readers a short “long history”. He sets up this

In reading the first parts of Behind the Beautiful Forevers, the primary setting of Annawadi was not often described in a glowing light. The area gave me the image of a worse off poorer part of an inner city. The slum seemed to be rather crowded, often very dirty with trash being abound, unclean sewage water being prevalent, overall a rather unnerving place to live. Looking more towards the conditions of the population of Annawadi, there is not a whole lot of positive to be gleaned from here. The majority of the slum’s citizens do not have stable paying jobs, forcing people to undertake very unconventional paths to gain money, such as Sunil, who like a number of people, gain money by scavenging through garbage. Additionally due to the unsettled

I read the chapter “The Newcomers”, the book first starts off by stating how France started sending explorers to find new lands. When Francis I, (The king of France) sent Jacque Cartier, his job was to find a shipping route and precious gems and metals. Jacque Cartier arrived at Newfoundland and from there journeyed down to Prince Edward Island. Chief Donnacona went with his brother and two sons protest the cross, but the French convinced Donnacona to allow Jacque Cartier to take his two sons Domagaya and Taignoagny. Donnacona told stories to ward off Cartier from going past Quebec City, but soon Cartier went against Donnaconas wishes and past Quebec City and went as far as Montreal. Cartier’s crew got sick with scurvy and died off but he was still alive so he set sail back to France.

This book has been molded to be a breakdown of how various fields in science have progressed over centuries as mankind has advanced. The book starts off introducing the idea that the telling of natural history has changed numerous times as humans have evolved. We also learn to agree that our knowledge has been shaped by the tools available and the perceptions of its users. In the earliest stages of life, Muehlbauer states “…observers of the natural world had only their senses to work with, and were limited to visual, auditory, tactile, and olfactory descriptions perceived by the unaided

Starting with our evolution, from prokaryotes to bipedal apes, We formed into hunters and gathers Staying regular close to our homes and used many techniques to control the population, such as killing an excess of the old and newborns and other methods of abortions. This was known as the Stone Age. To the farmers who controlled the world and adopted the idea of cities in the Neothetics, where the invention of ground and stone tools were more widespread. Pastoralism (the production of dairy) was also very well successful in this time . Farmers were most useful during times of war and when hunting game was sparse. During this time, after isolating ourselves to a small community. We migrated to many locations. From Africa to around the world. Including places like Siberia and Ice Age Australia. All of which can be introduced as the Agrarian Era. Then the third, the “Modern” age.The modern age is when innovation reached it’s peak and didn’t take thousands of years to trot over the globe of it’s ideas to instead live in a single global village. Which is presumed to have started in the last 250 years or so. Though, we live in the “postmodern” age. Which really means that we have dramatically changed many aspects of lives than what this book considers “modern” Containing the changing world’s economy that spreads off from China to the western hemisphere. Showing off the industrialization of many countries. The use of the Stone Age category is highly valuable for this large picture. In order to have the history of either latter category, you must always start with the beginning of it all. Which Christian has succeeded in doing so. He has made history easier of understanding by going back more than just the start of humanity. He started with the

The journey from a few cave people to seven billion humans on this planet has been portrayed by the physical development of Homo sapiens starting with one place to another,

David Christian, This Fleeting World: A Short Story of Humanity. Great Barrington, MA: Berkshire Publishing, 2009. 120 pages.

This chapter questions the morality of people trying to survive as told from the beginning of the chapter. The chapter starts with four men who are all in a life boat without water and food. Three of the four men have a family and one that doesn't is an orphan. The orphan is about to die because he drank salt water. By the end the orphan gets killed and then eaten by the three surviving men. When rescued they ultimately get to court and they simply state that the boy was about to die anyways, and they needed food. We are told to ignore the government and the law and figure out what we would do in a case where we have to survive. Realistically I would have done the same exact thing in order to survive. The chapter than explain the meaning of being a

The author in this sentence explains that a good moment won't last forever but make your best. I can tell he means this because he says "nothing can last forever" When I was in Europe I had a grandpa and he used to draw with me, this was very special to me because I only got to see him for a few days in a year. These were the best moments untill I had to fly back to