An Intimate History of Humanity

About this book

A provocative work that explores the evolution of emotions and personal relationships through diverse cultures and time. "An intellectually dazzling view of our past and future."--Timemagazine Contents 1. How humans have repeatedly lost hope, and how new encounters, and a new pair of spectacles, revive them 2. How men and women have slowly learned to have interesting conversations 3. How people searching for their roots are only beginning to look far and deep enough 4. How some people have acquired an immunity to loneliness 5. How new forms of love have been invented 6. Why there has been more progress in cooking than in sex 7. How the desire that men feel for women, and for other men, has altered through the centuries 8. How respect has become more desirable than power 9. How those who want neither to give orders nor to receive them can become intermediaries 10. How people have freed themselves from fear by finding new fears 11. How curiosity has become the key to freedom 12. Why it has become increasingly difficult to destroy one's enemies 13. How the art of escaping from one's troubles has developed, but not the art of knowing where to escape to 14. Why compassion has flowered even in stony ground 15. Why toleration has never been enough 16. Why even the privileged are often somewhat gloomy about life, even when they can have anything the consumer society offers, and even after sexual liberation 17. How travellers are becoming the largest nation in the world, and how they have learned not to see only what they are looking for 18. Why friendship between men and women has been so fragile 19. How even astrologers resist their destiny 20. Why people have not been able to find the time to lead several lives 21. Why fathers and their children are changing their minds about what they want from each other 22. Why the crisis in the family is only one stage in the evolution of generosity 23. How people choose a way of life, and how it does not wholly satisfy them 24. How humans become hospitable to each other 25. What becomes possible when soul-mates meet