PDF [Download] The Invention of Prehistory:

The Invention of Prehistory: Empire, Violence, and Our Obsession with Human Origins by Stefanos Geroulanos

• The Invention of Prehistory: Empire, Violence, and Our Obsession with Human Origins
• Stefanos Geroulanos
• Page: 512
• Format: pdf, ePub, mobi, fb2
• ISBN: 9781324091462
• Publisher: Liveright Publishing Corporation

Download The Invention of Prehistory: Empire, Violence, and Our Obsession with Human Origins

Ebooks spanish free download The Invention of Prehistory: Empire, Violence, and Our Obsession with Human Origins 9781324091462 (English Edition) by Stefanos Geroulanos

Overview

“[A]n incisive and captivating reassessment of prehistory . . . In lucid prose, Geroulanos unspools an enthralling and detailed history of the development of modern natural science. It’s a must-read.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review “An astute, powerfully rendered history of humanity.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review An eminent historian tells the story of how we came to obsess over the origins of humanity—and how, for three centuries, ideas of prehistory have been used to justify devastating violence against others. Books about the origins of humanity dominate bestseller lists, while national newspapers present breathless accounts of new archaeological findings and speculate about what those findings tell us about our earliest ancestors. We are obsessed with prehistory—and, in this respect, our current era is no different from any other in the last three hundred years. In this coruscating work, acclaimed historian Stefanos Geroulanos demonstrates how claims about the earliest humans not only shaped Western intellectual culture, but gave rise to our modern world. The very idea that there was a human past before recorded history only emerged with the Enlightenment, when European thinkers began to reject faith-based notions of humanity and history in favor of supposedly more empirical ideas about the world. From the “state of nature” and Romantic notions of virtuous German barbarians to theories about Neanderthals, killer apes, and a matriarchal paradise where women ruled, Geroulanos captures the sheer variety and strangeness of the ideas that animated many of the major thinkers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, including Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Charles Darwin, and Karl Marx. Yet as Geroulanos shows, such ideas became, for the most part, the ideological foundations of repressive regimes and globe-spanning empires. Deeming other peoples “savages” allowed for guilt-free violence against them; notions of “killer apes” who were our evolutionary predecessors made war seem natural. The emergence of modern science only accelerated the West’s imperialism. The Nazi obsession with race was rooted in archaeological claims about prehistoric IndoGermans; the idea that colonialized peoples could be “bombed back to the Stone Age” was made possible by the technology of flight and the anthropological idea that civilization advanced in stages. As Geroulanos argues, accounts of prehistory tell us more about the moment when they are proposed than about the deep past—and if we hope to start improving our future, we would be better off setting aside the search for how it all started. A necessary, timely, indelible account of how the quest for understanding the origins of humanity became the handmaiden of war and empire, The Invention of Prehistory will forever change how we think about the deep past.

Other ebooks: Muse: Cicely Tyson and Me: A Relationship Forged in Fashion by B Michael on Audiobook New pdf, Until I Get You by Claire Contreras on Ipad link, Online Read Ebook Starfinder RPG: Ports of Call by Kate Baker, Brian Bauman, Jessica Catalan, John Compton, John Curtin pdf, CHANNEL TO THE FUTURE (4ª ESO) SANDRA SHERWOOD ePub gratis read pdf, [Kindle] MI ULTIMA DUQUESA descargar gratis pdf, Descargar ebook MARTE ROJO (TRILOGIA MARCIANA 1) | Descarga Libros Gratis (PDF - EPUB) download link, [PDF/Kindle] Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros link, Download Pdf Killer Collections: Dark Artifacts from True Crime by Paul Gambino site, Read [pdf]> Just the Good Stuff: No-BS Secrets to Success (No Matter What Life Throws at You) by Jim VandeHei site, {epub descargar} HIJOS DEL MISMO SOL read pdf, Download PDF Thrawn: Alliances (Star Wars) by Timothy Zahn pdf, UNA VELADA EN LA LIBRERIA MORISAKI EBOOK | SATOSHI YAGISAWA | Descargar libro PDF EPUB pdf,