Description
When does history begin? What characterizes it? This brilliant and beautifully written book dissolves the logic of a beginning based on writing, civilization, or historical consciousness and offers a model for a history that escapes the continuing grip of the Judeo-Christian time frame. Daniel Lord Smail argues that in the wake of the "Decade of the Brain" and the best-selling historical work of scientists like Jared Diamond, the time has come for fundamentally new ways of thinking about our past. He shows how recent work in evolution and paleohistory makes it possible to join the deep past with the recent past and abandon, once and for all, the idea of prehistory. Making an enormous literature accessible to the general reader, he lays out a bold new case for bringing neuroscience and neurobiology into the realm of history.
About the Author
Daniel Lord Smail is Professor of History at Harvard University. He is the author of Imaginary Cartographies (1999), which won the American Historical Association's Herbert Baxter Adams Prize and the Social Science History Association's President's Award; The Consumption of Justice (2003), which won the Law and Society Association's James Willard Hurst Prize; and co-editor of Fama: The Politics of Talk and Reputation in Medieval Europe (2003).
Reviews
"An intelligent disquiet runs through these pages." New York Times Book Review "A creative and compelling synthesis of ideas, Smail's book provides an engaging and invigorating analysis of our history." Science (AAAS) "A provocative thesis... Radically rethinks the relationship between biology and culture." -- Steven Mithen London Review Of Books "Relax and enjoy. It's a good read, and it makes you think." New Scientist "[An] intriguing little book." American Scientist "Dazzling." Boston Globe Book Section "A pioneering work." -- Brendan Wallace Fortean Times: The Journal Of Strange Phenomena
Book Information
ISBN 9780520258129
Author Daniel Lord Smail
Format Paperback
Page Count 286
Imprint University of California Press
Publisher University of California Press
Weight(grams) 318g
Dimensions(mm) 210mm * 140mm * 18mm
About the Author
Daniel Lord Smail is Professor of History at Harvard University. He is the author of Imaginary Cartographies (1999), which won the American Historical Association's Herbert Baxter Adams Prize and the Social Science History Association's President's Award; The Consumption of Justice (2003), which won the Law and Society Association's James Willard Hurst Prize; and co-editor of Fama: The Politics of Talk and Reputation in Medieval Europe (2003).
Reviews
"An intelligent disquiet runs through these pages." New York Times Book Review "A creative and compelling synthesis of ideas, Smail's book provides an engaging and invigorating analysis of our history." Science (AAAS) "A provocative thesis... Radically rethinks the relationship between biology and culture." -- Steven Mithen London Review Of Books "Relax and enjoy. It's a good read, and it makes you think." New Scientist "[An] intriguing little book." American Scientist "Dazzling." Boston Globe Book Section "A pioneering work." -- Brendan Wallace Fortean Times: The Journal Of Strange Phenomena
Book Information
ISBN 9780520258129
Author Daniel Lord Smail
Format Paperback
Page Count 286
Imprint University of California Press
Publisher University of California Press
Weight(grams) 318g
Dimensions(mm) 210mm * 140mm * 18mm
