The Fifth Beginning: What Six Million Years of Human History Can Tell Us about Our Future

The Fifth Beginning: What Six Million Years of Human History Can Tell Us about Our Future
ISBN-10
0520303482
ISBN-13
9780520303485
Category
Social Science
Pages
168
Language
English
Published
2019-02-12
Publisher
University of California Press
Author
Robert L. Kelly

Description

“I have seen yesterday. I know tomorrow.” This inscription in Tutankhamun’s tomb summarizes The Fifth Beginning. Here, archaeologist Robert L. Kelly explains how the study of our cultural past can predict the future of humanity. In an eminently readable style, Kelly identifies four key pivot points in the six-million-year history of human development: the emergence of technology, culture, agriculture, and the state. In each example, the author examines the long-term processes that resulted in a definitive, no-turning-back change for the organization of society. Kelly then looks ahead, giving us evidence for what he calls a fifth beginning, one that started about AD 1500. Some might call it “globalization,” but the author places it in its larger context: a five-thousand-year arms race, capitalism’s global reach, and the cultural effects of a worldwide communication network. Kelly predicts that the emergent phenomena of this fifth beginning will include the end of war as a viable way to resolve disputes, the end of capitalism as we know it, the widespread shift toward world citizenship, and the rise of forms of cooperation that will end the near-sacred status of nation-states. It’s the end of life as we have known it. However, the author is cautiously optimistic: he dwells not on the coming chaos, but on humanity’s great potential.

Get the book

Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Search the book
eBay.com
eBay.com
Search the book

Other editions

Similar books

  • The Fifth Season
    The Fifth Season
    By N. K. Jemisin

    At the end of the world, a woman must hide her secret power and find her kidnapped daughter in this "intricate and extraordinary" Hugo Award winning novel of power, oppression, and revolution. (The New York Times) This is the way the world ...

  • The Fifth Profession
    The Fifth Profession
    By David Morrell

    From the bestselling author of First Blood comes a spectacular thriller, in which a former Navy SEAL and a Japanese samurai master are bound together in a terrifying past that never happened.

  • The Fifth Sorceress: A Fantasy Novel
    The Fifth Sorceress: A Fantasy Novel
    By Robert Newcomb

    In The Fifth Sorceress, Robert Newcomb conjures a time and place wrought with exquisite detail, characters vividly drawn and deeply felt, and a history rich in glory and horror, splendor and secrets. . . . “We gave them a chance once, ...

  • The Lifeways of Hunter-Gatherers: The Foraging Spectrum
    The Lifeways of Hunter-Gatherers: The Foraging Spectrum
    By Robert L. Kelly

    Challenges the preconceptions that hunter-gatherers were Paleolithic relics living in a raw state of nature, instead crafting a position that emphasizes their diversity.

  • The Fifth Letter
    The Fifth Letter
    By Nicola Moriarty

    Nicola Moriarty makes her US debut with this stunning page-turner for fans of Jojo Moyes, Emily Griffin, Kate Morton, and Jessica Knoll, about four best friends on a relaxing vacation that turns devastating when old secrets are revealed, ...

  • The Fifth Woman
    The Fifth Woman
    By Henning Mankell

    Inspector Kurt Wallander searches for a killer as he uncovers the link between the murders of four nuns and an unidentified woman in an Algerian convent and the death of a birdwatcher found skewered in a pit of sharpened bamboo poles.

  • The Advocate: Women of Redemption Series
    The Advocate: Women of Redemption Series
    By Lori Lacefield

    Q - These books seem to cross genre boundaries, a bit mystery, suspense, and thriller. A - I think all authors like to create books that mirror the kind of books they like to read.

  • The 5th Wave: 5th Year Anniversary
    The 5th Wave: 5th Year Anniversary
    By Rick Yancey

    "Remarkable, not-to-be-missed-under-any-circumstances."—Entertainment Weekly (Grade A) The Passage meets Ender's Game in an epic new series from award-winning author Rick Yancey.

  • The Fifth Gospel: A Novel
    The Fifth Gospel: A Novel
    By Ian Caldwell

    A follow-up to the New York Times best-seller The Rule of Four finds a lost gospel, a contentious relic and a dying pope's final wish sending two Vatican priest brothers on a dangerous intellectual quest to untangle Christianity's greatest ...

  • The End The Book: Part One
    The End The Book: Part One
    By J. L. ROBB

    Not a cloud in the blue Atlanta sky, Jeffrey Ross made his morning visit to the Dunwoody Starbucks, expecting this day to be like any other.