What Happened in History
Will be published approx. on 5. January 2027
Book
Paperback/Softback
320 pages
978-1-83674-405-4 (ISBN)
Description
First published in 1942, thisremains a compelling guide to early human history. Archaeologist and historian Gordon Childe charts the momentous shift from hunter-gathering to settled agriculture and the development of the first towns and cities in Mesopotamia. The book develops his ideas about the "neolithic revolution" and "urban revolution", two famous terms he coined. It explores the invention of iron, the alphabet, coined money and new sciences. The story culminates with the spectacular rise and fall of Graeco-Roman civilisation.
Childe was one of the first scholars to deploy Marxist ideas to early human history. What Happened in History puts archaeological discoveries to the service of debate around large-scale models of historical social development. Progress is real if discontinuous, Childe insists. This is a fluent, accessible and audacious introduction to prehistory and the birth of civilisation.
Childe was one of the first scholars to deploy Marxist ideas to early human history. What Happened in History puts archaeological discoveries to the service of debate around large-scale models of historical social development. Progress is real if discontinuous, Childe insists. This is a fluent, accessible and audacious introduction to prehistory and the birth of civilisation.
Reviews / Votes
A masterpiece of popular scholarship . Childe gave European prehistory a coherence that made systematic progress possible * Past & Present * Fascinating * Nature * An eminent prehistorian. a scholar of international repute who reached a wider public * The Times *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 129 mm
Weight
367 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-83674-405-4 (9781836744054)
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Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Gordon Childe (1892-1957) was born in Sydney and moved to England to study classical archaeology at Oxford. He taught at the University of Edinburgh and led the excavation of the famous 5,000-year-old Neolithic village at Skara Brae in Orkney. In 1946, he was appointed director and professor of European prehistory at the Institute of Archaeology in London, where he remained until his retirement in 1956. A prolific author, his other books include The Dawn of European Civilisation, The Danube in Prehistory and Man Makes Himself.