"History's greatest tour guide--Ian Mortimer--takes us on an eye-opening and expansive journey through the last millennium of human innovation. We are an astonishing species. Over the past millennium of plagues and exploration, revolution and scientific discovery, women's rights and technological advances, human society has changed beyond recognition. ln Millennium, bestselling historian Ian Mortimer takes the reader on a whirlwind tour of the last ten centuries of Western history. It is a journey into a past vividly brought to life--and bursting with ideas--that pits one century against another in his quest to measure which century saw the greatest change. We journey from a time when there was a fair chance of your village being burned to the ground by invaders--and dried human dung was a recommended cure for cancer--to a world in which explorers sailed into the unknown and civilizations came into conflict with each other on an epic scale. Here is a story of brilliant scientists, fearless adventurers, cold-hearted entrepreneurs, and strong-minded women--a story of discovery, invention, revolution, and cataclysmic shifts in perspective. Millennium is a journey into the past like no other. Our understanding of human development will never be the same again"--Jacket.

Originally published as: Centuries of change. London : Bodley Head, 2014. Title page verso in paperback version is duplicate of that of the hardcover, including copyright and ISBN information.

1001-1100: The Eleventh Century. The growth of the Western Church ; Peace ; The discontinuation of slavery ; Structural engineering -- 1101-1200: The Twelfth Century. Population growth ; The expansion of the monastic network ; The intellectual renaissance ; Medicine ; The rule of law -- 1201-1300: The Thirteenth Century. Commerce ; Education ; Accountability ; Friars ; Travel -- 1301-1400: The Fourteenth Century. The Black Death ; Projectile warfare ; Nationalism ; Vernacular languages -- 1401-1500: The Fifteenth Century. The age of discovery ; Measuring time ; Individualism ; Realism and Renaissance naturalism -- 1501-1600: The Sixteenth Century. Printed books and literacy ; The Reformation ; Firearms ; The decline of private violence ; The foundation of European empires -- 1601-1700: The Seventeenth Century. The Scientific Revolution ; The Medical Revolution ; Settlement of the world ; The social contract ; Rise of the middle classes -- 1701-1800: The Eighteenth Century. Transport and communications ; The Agricultural Revolution ; Enlightenment liberalism ; Economic theory ; The Industrial Revolution ; Political revolution -- 1801-1900: The Nineteenth Century. Population growth and urbanisation ; Transport ; Communications ; Public health and sanitation ; Photography ; Social reform -- 1901-2000: The Twentieth Century. Transport ; War ; Life expectancy ; The media ; Electrical and electronic appliances ; The invention of the future -- Conclusion: Which century saw the most change? Stability and change ; A scale of needs ; Social change in relation to the scale of needs ; The end of history? ; The principal agent of change -- Envoi: Why it matters.