World History

Unit 1: The Beginnings of Civilization

Chapter 1: The Emergence of Civilization

4: Thu, Sep 12, 2013

We’d like today to talk a little bit about technique — how (in Mark Twain’s phrase) to make history dates stick. It’s not entirely a matter of dates, really, but it is about how to take on this kind of information and make something coherent of it.

We also need to get down to what we know, or think we know, about primitive mankind. In some ways, this is all background, precisely because prehistory is definitionally not part of history. Nevertheless, it’s a bit like setting the pieces up on the chessboard before you start to play the game. It lets us know something about where we’re starting from. You may have different theories here — that’s okay.

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