An Intimate History of Humanity

Bol

This extraordinarily wide-ranging study looks at the dilemmas of life today and shows how they need not have arisen. Portraits of living people and historical figures are placed alongside each other as Zeldin discusses how men and women have lost and regained hope; how they have learnt to have interesting conversations; how some have acquired an immunity to loneliness; how new forms of love and desire have been invented; how respect has become more valued than power; how the art of escaping from one's troubles has developed; why even the privileged are often gloomy; and why parents and children are changing their minds about what they want from each other.

Bol Partner

A readable and thoughtful work first published in Great Britain in 1994 by Sinclair-Stevenson, an imprint of Reed Consumer Books, Ltd. Historian Zeldin (Oxford U.) conveys the broad scope of his reflections in chapters with such intriguing titles as: How humans have repeatedly lost hope, and how new encounters, and a new pair of spectacles revive them; How men and women have slowly learned to have interesting conversations; How some people have acquired an immunity to loneliness; Why there has been more progress in cooking than in sex; and How people have freed themselves from fear by finding new fears. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.