An Intimate History of Humanity

A provocative work that explores the evolution of emotions and personal relationships through diverse cultures and time. “An intellectually dazzling view of our past and future.”–Time magazine

Contents
1. How humans have repeatedly lost hope, and how new encounters, and a new pair of spectacles, revive them
2. How men and women have slowly learned to have interesting conversations
3. How people searching for their roots are only beginning to look far and deep enough
4. How some people have acquired an immunity to loneliness
5. How new forms of love have been invented
6. Why there has been more progress in cooking than in sex
7. How the desire that men feel for women, and for other men, has altered through the centuries
8. How respect has become more desirable than power
9. How those who want neither to give orders nor to receive them can become intermediaries
10. How people have freed themselves from fear by finding new fears
11. How curiosity has become the key to freedom
12. Why it has become increasingly difficult to destroy one’s enemies
13. How the art of escaping from one’s troubles has developed, but not the art of knowing where to escape to
14. Why compassion has flowered even in stony ground
15. Why toleration has never been enough
16. Why even the privileged are often somewhat gloomy about life, even when they can have anything the consumer society offers, and even after sexual liberation
17. How travellers are becoming the largest nation in the world, and how they have learned not to see only what they are looking for
18. Why friendship between men and women has been so fragile
19. How even astrologers resist their destiny
20. Why people have not been able to find the time to lead several lives
21. Why fathers and their children are changing their minds about what they want from each other
22. Why the crisis in the family is only one stage in the evolution of generosity
23. How people choose a way of life, and how it does not wholly satisfy them
24. How humans become hospitable to each other
25. What becomes possible when soul-mates meet