The Human Web: A Bird's-Eye View of World History

The Human Web: A Bird’s-Eye View of World History (2003) by prolific and pioneering historians J. R. McNeill and William H. McNeill is a comprehensive synthesis of human history that studies the framework of human connection. The text illustrates the creation, expansion, and consolidation of networks of exchange among human societies from the Paleolithic Era to the 20th century. The authors illuminate biological, technological, religious, political, ideological, scientific, economic, cultural, and environmental factors that have driven the process of globalization. They particularly draw attention to the profound impact of the globalizing process as it transformed from slender webs of interaction between dispersed human communities to the tightly connected and rapid flow of people, goods, ideas, information, and wealth across established borders.

This guide refers to the 2003 W. W. Norton & Company digitized version made available by the Internet Archive.

Content Warning: The Human Web examines war, violence, enslavement, and social inequality through a historical lens.

Summary

In the Preface, the authors acknowledge their sources of inspiration and support in writing the book and describe their process. The Introduction provides a brief overview of human history in terms of interconnections, or webs. The authors define their key concepts, explaining why they use “webs” in the plural, and identify key characteristics of webs. Part 1, “The Human Apprenticeship,” discusses the Paleolithic, or early part of the Stone Age, emphasizing distinctly human characteristics that enabled migration and the creation of the first worldwide web.

Part 2, “Shifting to Food Production,” explains humanity’s transition from a nomadic, hunter-gatherer existence to settled communities sustained by agriculture. Parallel developments of agriculture across the globe created slender webs of communication as villages shared new agricultural information, skills, and technologies. These slender communication webs established the basis for cities and civilizations to emerge, which is the main subject of Part 3, “Webs and Civilizations in the Old World.” The authors discuss early civilizations and urban centers in Eurasia and North Africa from 3500 BCE to 200 CE and critical developments that emerged out of the interaction among urban centers, agricultural villages, and steppe pastoralists.

In Part 4, “The Growth of Webs in the Old World and America,” the authors focus on the period from 200 to 1000 CE, during which the Old World Web grew and an American Web emerged. Key characteristics of this period were improvements in transportation technologies and the spread of portable, congregational religions through trade routes and military conquest. The authors briefly discuss civilization centers in the American Web, noting the reasons why the American Web lagged behind the Old World Web in tight integration. Part 5, “Thickening Webs,” highlights intensified interactions within Eurasia and North Africa from 1000 CE to 1500. Key developments during this period were improvements in water transportation and seafaring capabilities, as well as the commercialization of Chinese society and European warfare.

Part 6, “Spinning the World Wide Web,” tracks a decisive shift in human history as Atlantic Europeans used their enhanced maritime knowledge and technology to expand the web into Africa on a larger scale than in previous eras and fuse the Old World Web and the American Web through transatlantic navigation. The creation of the cosmopolitan web between 1450 and 1800 ushered in new intellectual, cultural, political, economic, social, ecological, and geographical shifts that continue to reverberate today. In Part 7, “Breaking Old Chains, Tightening the New Web,” the authors examine the period between 1750 and 1914, discussing the consolidation of the global web. The single most important development during this period was the Industrial Revolution and the transition to fossil usage, specifically coal. Industrialization stimulated new imperialist impulses and profound changes to the nature and conditions of labor.

Part 8, “Strains on the Web: The World Since 1890,” focuses on the globalized world of the 20th century. The authors emphasize how this period’s major events, including World War I, World War II, and the Cold War, locked the globe into greater interaction through the interplay of cooperation and competition. Big oil usage and network technologies were key developments during this era, and the US emerged as a global superpower. In Part 9, “‘Big Pictures and Long Prospects,” the authors write separately, offering their final thoughts on human complexity and their suggestions for humanity’s long-term survival in light of globalization.