Four Thousand Years Ago: A World Panorama of Life in the Second Millenium B.C.
Author:
Genres: History, Nonfiction
Book Type: Hardcover
Author:
Genres: History, Nonfiction
Book Type: Hardcover
This is one of the best, most imaginative history books I've ever read, and history is and always has been my main interest. I've read it three times and still have my hardback copy which I intend to read at least twice more before my time is up.
In this book, Bibby recreates the mental and physical atmosphere of the second millenium B.C., from 2000 B.C. to 1000 B.C. A fascinating millenium if there ever was one. And his human-oriented, individual-oriented point-of-view results in fascinating takes on what it was like to be a person within the various cultures that flourished in that time period; what they knew and didn't know, what they experienced and didn't experience. All based on the best knowledge we have today about how people lived at the time.
This kind of imaginative recreation, this kind of serious cultural empathy, is very, very rare. Bibby does NOT project current ideas and morals into the past (thank God). He is able to take what we do know and breathe into it a sympathetic understanding of human life at the time. Highly recommended to all people interested in far away times and places.
In this book, Bibby recreates the mental and physical atmosphere of the second millenium B.C., from 2000 B.C. to 1000 B.C. A fascinating millenium if there ever was one. And his human-oriented, individual-oriented point-of-view results in fascinating takes on what it was like to be a person within the various cultures that flourished in that time period; what they knew and didn't know, what they experienced and didn't experience. All based on the best knowledge we have today about how people lived at the time.
This kind of imaginative recreation, this kind of serious cultural empathy, is very, very rare. Bibby does NOT project current ideas and morals into the past (thank God). He is able to take what we do know and breathe into it a sympathetic understanding of human life at the time. Highly recommended to all people interested in far away times and places.
