Lifelines from Our Past

A revised edition of this interpretation of world history which divides human history into three categories: kinship societies, tributary societies, and capitalist societies and within each type studies four lifeline issues: ecology, gender relations, social relations and war. This edition looks forward to the 21st century. This book offers an extraordinary interpretation of world history, from the paleolithic era to the present. Renowned historian L.S. Stavrianos conceptualizes human history into three categories: kinship societies, tributary societies, and capitalist societies. In each, he discerns and studies four "life-line" issues - ecology, gender relations, social relations, and war - that encompass the broadest areas of human experience. The revised edition projects forward to the twenty-first century, offering the author's views on possible future scenarios involving the same lifeline issues.