The Story
In this extraordinary book, an award-winning author tells
the story of how humans invented history, from the Stone Age to the Virtual Age
āTerrificā¦ Tamim Ansary explores the underappreciated ways that empires,
nations, and smaller sets of people have responded to their surroundings,
influenced one another, and developed stories that give their lives meaning.ā āSan
Francisco Chronicle
Traveling across millennia and cultures,Ā The Invention of YesterdayĀ argues
that world history is a narrative weāre constantly inventing. Fifty thousand
years ago, we roamed the world as countless autonomous bands of
hunter-gatherers, each one telling itself a story of the world with itself at
the center. We used narratives to organize for survival and explain the
unfathomable, and these stories evolved into the bases for cultures, empires,
and civilizations. When disparate narratives collided, the encounters produced
everything from confusion, chaos, and war to cultural efflorescence, religious
awakenings, and intellectual breakthroughs.
In this updated edition with a new postscript, Tamim Ansary uses insightful,
vivid stories to illuminate how our propensity to invent a shared symbolic
universe has shaped our journey from the Stone Age to the Virtual Age.
About the Author
Tamim AnsaryĀ is the author of many books, includingĀ Destiny Disrupted. He has published essays and commentary in theĀ San Francisco Chronicle,Ā Salon, theĀ Los Angeles Times, and more. Born in Afghanistan in 1948, he moved to the US in 1964. He lives in San Francisco.Ā
Description
In this extraordinary book, an award-winning author tells
the story of how humans invented history, from the Stone Age to the Virtual Age
āTerrificā¦ Tamim Ansary explores the underappreciated ways that empires,
nations, and smaller sets of people have responded to their surroundings,
influenced one another, and developed stories that give their lives meaning.ā āSan
Francisco Chronicle
Traveling across millennia and cultures,Ā The Invention of YesterdayĀ argues
that world history is a narrative weāre constantly inventing. Fifty thousand
years ago, we roamed the world as countless autonomous bands of
hunter-gatherers, each one telling itself a story of the world with itself at
the center. We used narratives to organize for survival and explain the
unfathomable, and these stories evolved into the bases for cultures, empires,
and civilizations. When disparate narratives collided, the encounters produced
everything from confusion, chaos, and war to cultural efflorescence, religious
awakenings, and intellectual breakthroughs.
In this updated edition with a new postscript, Tamim Ansary uses insightful,
vivid stories to illuminate how our propensity to invent a shared symbolic
universe has shaped our journey from the Stone Age to the Virtual Age.
About the Author
Tamim AnsaryĀ is the author of many books, includingĀ Destiny Disrupted. He has published essays and commentary in theĀ San Francisco Chronicle,Ā Salon, theĀ Los Angeles Times, and more. Born in Afghanistan in 1948, he moved to the US in 1964. He lives in San Francisco.Ā
