Chris Harman describes the shape and
course of human history as a narrative of ordinary people forming and
re-forming complex societies in pursuit of common human goals.
Interacting with the forces of technological change as well as the
impact of powerful individuals and revolutionary ideas, these societies
have engendered events familiar to every schoolchild—from the empires of
antiquity to the world wars of the twentieth century.
In a bravura conclusion, Chris Harman exposes the reductive
complacency of contemporary capitalism, and asks, in a world riven as
never before by suffering and inequality, why we imagine that it can—or
should—survive much longer. Ambitious, provocative and invigorating, A People's History of the World
delivers a vital corrective to traditional history, as well as a
powerful sense of the deep currents of humanity which surge beneath the
froth of government.
