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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 128
EAN num: 9780060926915
ISBN number: 0060926910
Label: Harper Perennial
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 496
Printing Date: January 10, 1996
Publishing house: Harper Perennial
Release Date: December 01, 1995
Sale Popularity Level: 289546
Studio: Harper Perennial
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
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
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Rated by buyers 
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A book written by someone who has been reading his whole life. As Zeldin gives the history of the different traits of humans, you question your own traits and it encourages you to think with more awareness of how you live. Moreover, Zeldin refreshingly avoids being too Anglo-centric, and gives sufficient space to the history of humanity in East Asia or the Middle East. Also incredible is the bibliography at the end of every chapter, very broad... Only thing that seemed oddly missing is the history of humour, though as it is, the book is long enough. All in all a great, refreshing and though-provoking book.
Rated by buyers 
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In 'An Intimate History of Humanity', Theodore Zeldin undertakes an ambitious project. He takes a broad look at a side of history often neglected in standard textbooks - the history of people's interior lives and interpersonal relationships. His hope is that people yesterday can improve themselves and the world by gleaning lessons from history - lessons on meaningful communication, open-mindedness, creativity and curiosity.
The strengths of his book lie with his fundamental optimism in human nature. He doesn't believe that history has come to its end, and that there is no more room for true innovation of spirit and mind. His tone is kindly and curious; he does not write contemptuously of anyone. He believes that true change cannot be imposed by force from a government, that traits such as compassion, generosity and empathy cannot be legislated.
Perhaps the best part of his book are the beginnings of each chapter. He structures his chapters in the following way - very first he creates a portrait of someone in the present day (almost 100% of the time, this present-day person is a Frenchwoman). Afterwards, he links the issues and dilemmas of this Frenchwoman to what he sees as similar issues in the past. For example, after spending a few pages discussing a particular Frenchwoman's thoughts about relationships with men, he will sketch out some history on the relationship between men and women and how it has evolved.
His portraits of the contemporary women are engrossing. Just as character studies they are interesting to read. The Frenchwomen he speaks to come from different walks of life, and he succeeds in rendering their complexity.
What weakens his book is the nature of his forays into history. Because he touches upon so many topics, and devotes only several pages to each, it's difficult for him to discuss and develop his points in-depth. The facts he does present are interesting - he writes about various historical figures, texts and old cultural practices, and I enjoyed reading about people as diverse as Galen and Lady Murasaki. But his discusion of historical trends can be simplistic. He'll present, for instance, some evolving attitudes of British or Japanese aristocracy on the topic of love as evidence of how people's ideas of love can change. However he doesn't convincingly argue that these changes can be recreated (or are relevant) across the world, or all classes; I'm not always convinced that he chooses the best examples. He doesn't go deep enough into the roots of those changes, the broader historical and psychological circumstances (I would've loved reading a close comparison of two cultures faced with similar historical dilemmas, and their similarities and differences in how they evolved in respects to something like marriage or romantic love). While I'm certain that there are struggles and questions that human beings share universally, Zeldin's possible solutions to these struggles sometimes seems relevant to only a certain socioeconomic class or culture. Other times he'll raise an interesting point - for example, that India's ancient civilizations were often open-minded about foreign ideas, but that the society closed off different castes from each other... and then he just leaves it at that. Why not discuss the possible reasons for this further? Wouldn't that enrich our understanding of human nature and history?
His definitions of various character traits and abstract ideas can suffer from fuzzy, superficial definitions. For instance, in his brief historical foray into 'compassion', he focuses a lot on medical care and then includes, disjointedly, some other arguments about the nature of present-day romantic relationships and interpersonal communication (he doesn't quite justify why he focuses on these facets of compassion in particular). At one point he writes about the length of time patients stay in hospitals and mentions that in Japan hospital stays are treated as "as a holiday from conformity and the rigours of ordinary life" - patients are seen as individuals, not as cases, they wear their own clothes, they have individually tailored treatments, and they love discussing all of their symptoms ("eighty-eight percent of the Japanese claim to be suffering from some kind of illness"). But there's a lot more going on here, psychologically and culturally, than evidence of compassion. He then talks about Sweden democratising compassion by providing everyone with care... while in another chapter he speaks of the limitations of care provided by the government, how it is often impersonal and mechanical rather than truly caring. This is just one example of the sorts of inconsistencies and superficialties that crop up in his book.
The different sections of each chapter seem disjointed as well. It can be awkward, how he links the issues of a contemporary Frenchwomen to various cultural upheavals in the past ... Read More
Rated by buyers -
I've given out over a dozen copies of this book to random friends and the like and there's near universal approval. It's poetic so if you need tight clear directions with charts and lists then move along. But if you want to explore the issues that drive what makes us human, and fulfilled people, then read away!
Rated by buyers -
Just reading this book gave me a thrilled sort of enthusiasm and compassion towards humanity. I agree that it does not build up very well; it does not have a big powerful climax of revelation, but it is so packed full of interesting true stories, both historical and current, that what you learn is between the lines. He shows how history looked at from the perspective of individual lives is not so much an evolving entity but that different attitudes have been prevelent at different places and times, and what we hold to be proper now has been considered both true and false somewhere else before, or even in our own culture's history, and what really binds us is our always human outlook and response to it all.
Rated by buyers -
What a wonderful and intelligent book to read agian and again. Theodore Zeldin discusses in 25 chapters the past, the present and the future.
He has a different subject for each chapter analyzing the issue in his simple and challenging form, and he pushes the reader to get smarter...
Some of the chapters are: How men and woman have slowley learned to have interesting conversations, how some people have acquired an immunity to loneliness, how respect has become more desirable than power, how humams become hospitable to each other, and why people have not been able to find the time to lead several lives. These are just some of the titles in the book, and as you can see the subjects are just enchanting in every way, and it drives the reader to get involved in every way, and make his own beliefs and thoughts.
one of the best books for sure...
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