A People's History of the World

Just completed reading " A people's history of the world" written by Chris Harman. It is a fabulous study of the human history from the beginning of paleolithic era 12000 years ago to the beginning of 21st century.  Harman takes us on a guided tour of how the social classes and systems of feudalism, capitalism and socialism evolved among the Homo sapiens. Unlike THE history books which speak volumes about the transfer of powers from one king to the next, Harman brings the outsider-the common man and proletariat to the focus in this comprehensive analysis.

We all know that the oldest of humans were hunter gatherers . Harman quite successfully establishes that everyone were equal in the beginning of our race and class differences originated owing to non-natural reasons. In fact there is more analysis than plain history in this book albeit giving succinct discussions at relevant places which might have been overlooked by the traditional historians. I was awed by the comprehensive nature of the work. It describes events from the birth of humans in Africa and sprouting of civilisations in Middle East, Asia and America to the upheavals in the 20the century. True to his socialist roots, Harman has consciously tried to bring about a truly global focus and thus negating the conventional view of the history commencing with ancient Greek.

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