"Over the past two centuries, humanity has experienced unprecedented progress. Extreme poverty has declined, life expectancy has doubled, illiteracy has declined. While we as a species are becoming more prosperous, more educated, healthier, and more peaceful, it is useful to remind ourselves of the underlying cause of this progress: innovation. Human innovation--whether it be new ideas, inventions, or systems-is the primary way people create wealth...

An archaeologist and historian offers his view on why the West has dominated the globe for the past two hundred years and whether or not its power will last, examining the past fifty thousand years of human history and predicting what the next one hundred years will bring.

Describes many things that originally came from Switzerland, including inventions, food, animals, sports, transportation, and medicine.

"Beloved author Jack Weatherford's classic work is now available with a new introduction by the author. 'Indian Givers' is the utterly compelling story of how the cultural, social, and political practices of Native Americans transformed the way life is lived throughout the world."--P.[4] of cover.

A humanities professor describes the impact had by the translation of the last remaining manuscript of "On the Nature of Things" by Roman philosopher Lucretius, which fueled the Renaissance and inspired artists, great thinkers, and scientists.

An expedition into an industrialized civilization that has collapsed in the year 2310 in which scientists try to figure out what happened.

Recounts how Britain's Royal Navy allowed one nation to rise to a level of power unprecedented in history. From its beginnings under Henry VIII and adventurers like John Hawkins and Francis Drake, the Royal Navy toppled one world economic system, built by Spain and Portugal after Columbus, and ushered in another--the one in which we still live today. Follows its historiy from the defeat of the Spanish Armada, through the seventeenth century, when...