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This Fleeting World Summary

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This Fleeting World: A Short History of Humanity: The history of humanity is very dissimilar to short and sweet, if not the mere opposite. Learning the background of humankind can be very intimidating and daunting to the everyday AP World student and even the everyday AP World teacher. David Christian, a world history professor at San Diego State University, wrote a short and sweet 100 paged book on the history of humanity, with the goal in mind to make it easier for the everyday AP World student and AP World teacher to understand. Christian achieved his goal by breaking apart history into 3 specific eras, and also by taking other historians explanations and addressing them. David Christian’s goal was to make history easier to understand …show more content…

Christian’s goal was for, This Fleeting World: A Short History of Humanity, to become an everyday tool in the world history classroom. The bold titles in the preface validate his goal: This Fleeting World as a Teaching Tool, Using This Fleeting World to Plan and Teach World History (Christian, XI & XII). Christian divided history, and his book, into 3 eras: The Foragers Era, The Agrarian Era, and The Modern Era. Human history, In Christian’s explanation, started about 250,000 years ago with the era of the Foragers. This era lasted the longest taking up 95% of human history and consisted of humans living by searching out or hunting food and other things they needed, rather than growing and manufacturing them (Christian, 1). The next era Christian addresses is the Agrarian era which lasted for almost 10,000 years. This is where the appearance of the first agriculture communities took place. …show more content…

If the course is so difficult for the teacher or educator then imagine how difficult it is for the student. David Christian’s, This Fleeting World: A Short History of Humanity, is profitable for the everyday AP world teacher and student because Christian puts a big picture in little words and explains it with the everyday world history teacher and student in mind. Christian only used 100 pages to explain the history of humankind, which makes it easier for teachers, educators, and students to revert back to the book multiple times during the school year. Also, because, This Fleeting World: A Short History of Humanity, was written with the everyday world history teacher and student in mind, it makes it an easy tool in the classroom, as was David Christian’s goal for the book. For a student who has to focus on so many things such as, basketball, soccer, marching band, and other classes, This Fleeting World: A Short History of Humanity, makes it not only easier but also less stressful to learn world

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The third era is the modern era which started in 1750-present and is so far the shortest era in human history. Each of these sections are only approximately 30 pages long and is relatively short compared to most history books I have read. David Cristian has many arguments in “This Fleeting World” but he talks about one in particular. His main argument is that by looking at the bigger picture of human history it is possible to find processes that every human has in common. If David went into small little details about human history, the readers would have never known that humans in all parts of the world mostly lived the same.

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