The Bactra Review: Occasional and eclectic book reviews by Cosma Shalizi NUMBERDTW
The Human Web
A Bird's-Eye View of World History
W. W. Norton, 2003
Six Degrees of Civilization
People are acquisitive, power-hungry, proud, communicative animals, with strong
senses of justice and wonder, which
Odd omission: Not much about social networks smaller than the great
webs, though this is a very powerful way of viewing society, and one where a
lot of fascinating historical work has been done recently, like Randall Collins
on philosophy, or John Padgett's very nice material on Renaissance Florence.
xviii+350 pp., 15 maps, suggestions for further reading, index
Currently in print as a hardback, ISBN 0-393-05179-X, US$27.95 [Buy from Amazon]