The author presents over 30,000 discrete events in the human record, in chronological entries across the centuries from "Pre-history" to "Antiquity" and then by the century starting from the 7th century BC. To reduce the "obvious hazard" that such a chronology would "dissolve into a welter of unrelated facts" [viii], the author employs referent dates and 30 graphic symbols which depict subjects and which permit tracking by category.

The presentation fairly establishes the fact that human achievements are progressive and cumulative -- "Half the children born in the United States before 1850 died before the age of five."
Even "knowledge grows incrementally", innovations arising upon the work of previous generations.

Study of the sequelae also show interrelationships often obscured by flat historical records -- e.g. the potato and population increases, indifferent to the current religious or political structures. The entries are global, although not geographically arranged -- adjacent entries for the peopling of the Western Hemisphere, New Guinea, and Japan between 36,000 and 27,000 BC [1]. Some of the entries are expressly "somewhat conjectural"-- e.g. a Great Flood of much of the world as a result of rapid melting of glacial ice in 13,600 BC. [1]

The leitmotif of the work is the ever-so-tenuous, delayed, and perduring human demographic expansion in numbers and in space. The take-away of the work is in the interaction of all the human endeavors--the contrapuntal correspondence of things.

With a detailed Index, but interestingly, no "Table of Contents". It is after all, in "chronological" order, so you really can find the century or period you are looking for in its sequence. And the illustrations are wonderful, small black-and-whites, that make the work a pleasure to peruse. ( )

This chronological desk reference for social and political history covers prehistory through 1991. The concise, although chatty, entries are arranged by category (identified by a symbol in the left margin). A comprehensive index is included. Although one may initially plan to search for a specific bit of information, both the style and content make it difficult to stop reading. Students can locate information for assignments and collect data to bring conventional reports to life. Those working on decade reports will find popular songs, political figures, major events, hit movies, and much more. All will garner a better understanding of politics, daily life, and the arts during any time period, and almost any region of the world. Or, they can simply bone up on trivia through the centuries.