Mokyr, Joel. The Lever of Riches: Technological Creativity and Economic
Progress. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990. A standard history of
technological change that contains a ¿ ne theoretical discussion of factors
driving innovation.
Nissen, H. J. The Early History of the Ancient Near East. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1988. A classic account of the rise of early states
in Mesopotamia.
Pinker, Steven. The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language.
London: Penguin, 1995. A beautifully written account of the nature of
language, which also gives much insight into the many complex arguments
that swirl around this fundamental topic.
Pomeranz, Kenneth. The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making
of the Modern World Economy. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000.
An important recent discussion of the sources of the modern world economy
which argues that signi¿ cant differences between Atlantic economies and
the economies of Asia’s major powers emerged only toward the end of the
18 th century.
Ponting, C. A Green History of the World. Harmondsworth, England:
Penguin, 1991. A pioneering (though now slightly dated) overview of the
changing relationship of humans to the natural environment over the course
of human history. A revised, expanded, and updated edition was published
in 2007.
Prantzos, Nikos. Our Cosmic Future: Humanity’s Fate in the Universe.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. A discussion of the
possibilities for human migration beyond planet Earth, and of scenarios for
the remote future of the Universe.
Redfern, Martin. The Earth: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2003. The Oxford “Very Short Introductions” provide
brief but expert introductions to important scienti¿ c ¿ elds.