"History" without the "story"
Having the word "history" in the title of A Brief History of the Human Race is a bit misleading. Michael Cook's short and brisky-written book is less a history than it is a series of interconnected essays supporting a thesis. There's nothing wrong with this approach, but Cook's essays are often too brief for their own good and his thesis is flawed.
Cook essentially extols the idea of geographical determinism, an idea put forward in Jared Diamond's Pulitzer-winning Guns, Germs and Steel. In essence, the idea is that societies advance or decline based not on any inherent quality of the people--genetically, morally, or otherwise--but on the basis of what natural advantages their environment has randomly blessed them with. It's an intriguing idea, and one worth arguing about (Victor Davis Hanson's Carnage and Culture is an eloquent, exciting counterargument to Diamond), but Cook assumes the truth of his thesis and narrates from that point of view, not arguing for the idea so much as describing, vaguely, the origins of man from this point of view.
Cook shows strange priorities in selecting his material. The section on aboriginal Australian marriage ritual--mentioned by several other reviewers--is interesting enough, but beyond making the point that "primitive" societies are sometimes quite complex the section is irrelevant. Compare this lengthy section with the treatment given more traditional subjects of "brief histories"--Alexander the Great is mentioned three times, Julius Caesar only once, Hebrew religion is pawned off as an exclusivist former polytheism, and modern history passes so quickly that it warrants the cliche "blink and you'll miss it."
I think what I most disliked about the book, which was required reading for the students in a Western Civ class in which I was the graduate assistant, was a sort of unconscious chronological snobbery. Stone age peoples advance only as ice ages come and go--as if human beings haven't overcome immense natural obstacles solely to see what's on the other side. Actually, much of the book is built on speculation and rather insignificant anthropological study, reminding me of Mark Twain's famous observation that "There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact."
In short, those looking here for history, brief or not, will be disappointed. If this book has any redeeming trait, it's that Cook is a talented writer--if not a great historian--and the book is rarely dull. That might not save it from being a waste of time, but it will keep it from being miserable.
Not recommended.
A Brief History of the Human Race
Should be mandatory in schools. Builds well on Jared Diamond`s (Guns, Germs, and Steel" -- I think that`s the correct title).
Easy read with interesting observations
As a small book, "A Brief History of the Human Race" leaves out more than it puts in about human history, but it's an interesting survey. The author's most profound point in my opinion was his obvious, but not often made, point that the principal characteristics of civilization in the unconnected new world and the old were the same: farming, cities, etc. That's profound when you think about it. Faced with two different environments, cultural, and geographic realities human beings responded in pretty much the same way.
The author leavens this macro approach with a lot of micro points. Especially fascinating was his explanation of the marriage customs of Australian aborigines and his questions as to why they were so complex. He also takes a look at the similarities of snuff use around the world, calendars, Shang-dynasty bronzes, and the rise of Islam. All this combines to make for a potpourri of reading in which the similarities of humankind in broad ways are contrasted with his differences in mostly small, but sometimes large ways. Why, for example, did not sub-Saharan Africans take to the sea? The environmental determinism that this book promotes here and there owes a debt to Jared Diamond's "Guns, Germs, and Steel."
This is a book that even if you're an ignoramus you can read and understand. If you're not an ignoramus, it's still interesting to dip into. There's nothing here that will cause you to jump and shout "Eureka" but it's an informative read with a take on human history that is sometimes provocative or unfamiliar.
Smallchief
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