What people throughout history ate and wore, how they worked and played, how they built and furnished thir homes, and how they treated their illnesses provide the focus of the book while the great battles, the major inventions, and the rise and fall of empires serve as backdrop.

Includes index.

ANCIENT WORLDS: 100,000 BC - AD 100, first civilizations. Hunters to farming -- Cities in the river valleys: Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley -- Good life as a gift of the Nile: Ancient Egypt -- Masters of the Aegean: Minoans and Mycenaeans -- People of Biblical times in the Near East -- A world behind walls: Ancient China -- Greek age of gold / Ancient Greece -- Imperial Rome (Roman empire) -- Iron age -- OLD WORLDS, NEW WORLDS, AD 100 - 1775, the medieval world. Byzantium (Byzantine empire) -- Saxons, Celts, Franks and Vikings -- Western Europe's Middle Ages -- Rise of Islam: Muslim empire in Asia -- Early America -- China and Japan -- Nation-states in Western Europe -- Serfs of the Tsar's empire: Russia in the Middle Ages -- THE MODERN WORLD, AD 1776 - 1900, revolutions in living and cultures in conflict. American Revolution and Europe -- The Industrial Revolution -- Western Europe in the 19th century -- Eastern Europe -- Africa, slaves and settlers -- Hindus and the Raj: India -- Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific islands -- The United States -- 100 innovations that have made life in the home and society more secure and agreeable.