UsHumans.net: Table of Contents



 

Introduction

 

Part One

How and when the universe and the Earth began

 

Chapter 1

Science

Summary

 

Chapter 2

Nature has but a few fundamental rules; today, millions of natural phenomena are understood to be different aspects of these few rules

Newton's motion equation and the gravitational force

The electric force and light waves

Atoms and molecules

Radioactive dating

Summary

 

Chapter 3

How and when the Universe began

Extreme heating of a block of material is the reverse of the outwardly expanding and cooling universe

Measuring the distance and speed of stars, and their chemical composition

Gravitational formation of stars and planets

The Big Bang

How and when atoms first formed

Star formation and stellar fusion

The products of aging stars and supernova explosions form the carbon, oxygen, iron and heavier atoms that are now part of our own bodies

Our solar system

Summary

 

Chapter 4

How and when the Earth began and the effects of its moving continents on life

Initial formation of the Earth

The Earth's layers

Tectonic plates and the factors that affect climate

Life

Summary

 

Part Two

The nature of a human

 

Chapter 5

The nature of the molecules of life and the sequence of plants and animals that have developed on the Earth

Electrical binding in atoms as the physical basis of the molecules of biology and life

DNA naturally duplicates itself and builds and operates entire individuals

Science, living matter, and religion

Evolution and the sequence of life forms that have occurred on the Earth

Summary

 

Chapter 6

The emergence of humans

From mammals to primates

Monkeys and apes

The transition to the human variety of ape

Australopithecus afarensis

Australopithecus robustus

Homo habilis

Stone tools

Culture expands

Homo erectus

Homo neanderthals

Homo sapiens sapiens

Summary

 

Chapter 7

Behavior of mammals

General behaviors

Food packets determine social size

Communication

Dominance Hierarchy

Mating and offspring

Summary

 

Chapter 8

Primate social systems and the origins of our emotions, language, and morals

Social system of nonprimate mammals

Primate social systems

Complex social systems require bigger brains and promote sympathy, empathy, and self-awareness

The social systems of common chimpanzees and Bonobos

What do these primate social systems tell us about ourselves?

Matrilineages, patrilineages, and cross-cousin marriages

Origin of our language

Scientific studies of language ability in apes

Origin and purpose of our feelings and emotions

Origin and purpose of our morals

Summary

 

Chapter 9

The gatherer-hunter way of life: the Kalapalo Indians of Central Brazil

The Kalapalo

Proper behavior

Myths

Nuclear family

Village

Food

Extended family

Childbirth

Puberty

Marriage

Death

Respected persons

Ceremonies

Village decisions

Trading day

Shaman

Witchcraft

Making tools

Summary

 

Part Three

Origin and development of religion, government and civilization

 

Chapter 10

The religion of gatherer-hunter peoples: the power in the bush

All humans have religion

Deities and the power in the bush

Elements of religion

Death

Summary

 

Chapter 11

Human Political Forms: Bands, Tribes, Chiefs, and States

Band

Tribe

Chiefdom

Ranked and socially stratified society

State

Summary

 

Chapter 12

The origin of Farming, Cities, and the Civilization of us Humans

First settlements

Pottery

Plant and animal domestication

Trade in raw materials

Farming villages and irrigation

Cities

Temples

Writing

Enlarging cities

Inter-city conflicts

Daily life

Business and trade

King and queen, palace and government

Court system

Invention of war: by the leader, for the leader

Worldwide spread of farming

Yoruba

Cahokia

Summary

 

Chapter 13

The religions of the first farmers, the beginnings of today's moral religions and summaries of a few of them

Mesopotamian religion

Our modern religions of moral behaviors

Some views of the people of the Hindu faith

Some views of Jewish people

Some views of Muslim persons

Some views of those of us humans who are Christian

Some views of those of us humans who are Buddhists

Some views of Confucianists

People who are humanists celebrate humanity

Summary

 

Chapter 14

Our Civilization, From Ancient to Modern

Astronomy, mathematics, and reading tea-leaves

The Ancient Greeks present our first explanations of nature not given in terms of deities

Democracy in Ancient Athens

The Middle Ages

Medieval African Cities

Medieval China

Confucian respect for helpful elders binds families, society, and government

Emperor, administration, and a bureaucratic system based on merit

Calendars, days, and hours

Religious festivals, deities, and the ancestor cult

Social clubs

Birth and childhood

Weddings and marriage

Funerals

Education

Medicine

Hangchow

Canals

Recreation

Homes and furniture

Art

Bathing, cosmetics, and clothing

Food

Urban Poor

Shops and markets

Guilds

Servants, laborers, and peddlers

State monopolies, taxes, and currency

Overseas trade

Village farmers

Medieval Europe

Villages

Marriage

Old age, death, and inheritance

Holidays, entertainment, and clothing

Penny coins

Serfs and villeins

Village farming

Daily food

The lord's manor

Courts

The feudal and manorial system, Magna Carta, and peasant revolt

Church

City life

Schools, books, and education

Doctors and hospitals

Guilds

Growing wool industry expands trade

Annual Trade Fairs of France

Gothic Architecture

Europeans inherit knowledge expanded in Islamic lands

Gunpowder

European Renaissance

The Scientific Revolution

Our ideas for specific liberties resulting from specific injustices

The Petition of Right

Worth of individuals over states

Government by and for the people

Political Science

Balancing the spread powers of government

Voting

Constitution of the United States

Numerous travelers talk of other cultures

Idea of history

Economics

Industrial Revolution

Social affects of factory life

Summary

 

Chapter 15

The changing way of life in the United States during the 19th century as we switched from working our own family farm within the neighborhood to being factory workers

Colonial beginnings and immigrants from the world

Differing agricultural economies of the early U.S.

Rapid westward expansion of twenty miles per year

Social and economic classes and enslaved people

Cities

Shops

Apprenticeships

Roads and travel

Family farms and villages

Homes

Food, food-storing, and cooking

Birth and family size

Marriage

Daily work on the farm

Families bartered goods at the General Store

Agricultural and social events

School

Mutually beneficial exchange of help among community members

Health and death

Colonial crafts, technology, and industry were brought by European immigrants and evolved from the techniques of the first cities of Mesopotamia

Grain mills

Baking

Tanning

Weaving

Mining, ore processing, and blacksmithing

Lead, tin, pewter, copper, brass and silver working

Glassmaking

English mechanics were sought to build the first U.S. factories

Debate of benefits and drawbacks of industrialization

Debate over the role of government in any coming industrialization

Production techniques mixed as industrialization requires power and decades to mature

No employees exist for the first factories

Corporations for pooling business funds

Lowell mills operated by northeastern girls, then immigrants

Factory clothing replaces homemade

Handmade shoes and instruments

Varieties of products fill our homes

The South chooses to remain agricultural

Many of us factory workers struggle to earn money for bread and rent

Interrelated elements of the economy

Occupations change

Growth of inequality

Increasing numbers immigrate

Families migrate west

Peddlers, freight haulers, and entertainers

Steamboats

Canals transport people and goods between east and west

Railroads

Commercial farms in the west

Cities and industry grow and spread Westward

Sharecropping in the South

Industrialization, urbanization, and commercialization

Large corporations develop

Labor strikes of the 1880s and 1890s

The role of government and courts in industrialization

The U.S. power elite

Big Government

When a nation chooses to industrialize today

Summary

 

Chapter 16

The early 1900s brings college for the middle-class, instant and mass-communication by radio, massive advertising, movie stars, sports, and blues and jazz music

Bicycles, autos, and planes

Movies, sports, and other entertainment


Radio

Drug war

Flappers

Some modern things

 

Part Four

Today's society, business, and government

 

Chapter 17

The computer and its uses

How a computer works

What computers are used for

Summary

 

Chapter 18

Today's global business

Global corporations from Europe, Japan, and the U.S.

Global manufacturing blurs imports and exports

Currency and banking

Political power of global corporations

Global corporations and governing one's national economy

Taxing a global corporation

Global corporations search the world for the cheapest labor

Working conditions

Products of global corporations sold mostly to people within the richest nations

Electronics

Entertainment, book, news, and record businesses

Advertising

Monitoring each customer's purchases

Monitoring customer and voter emotions

Tobacco

Global food business

Today's worldwide migration of 75 million job-seekers per year

Franchises and preferential agreements between corporations

Global products but not global culture

Globalization is not yet global

Governing global corporations with independent, sovereign nations

Summary

 

Chapter 19

Government in today's nations: authoritarian and democratic systems, and the cultural ingredients of democracy

Political Culture

Reasons for a people to change their government

Authoritarian governments of Eastern Europe from 1945-1989

Democracy

Taiwan's conversion from authoritarian to democratic government

Democratic India

African government before, during, and after independence

Guiding principles for U.S. foreign policy

Snapshot of a nation

A global, democratic assembly of democratic nations

Summary

 

Chapter 20

How Washington shares power today

Branches of government in the U.S.

Political power and legislation through consensus-building

The military

Bureaucrats

The president can set the agenda

President's staff

Abuse of presidential power and legislative reactions

Congress and its recent further spreading of power, and the power of congressional staff

Role of television and marketing in politics

Party politics

Campaign marketing, and the talents needed to campaign compared with those needed to govern

Lobbies, political action committees, and issue marketing

Reelection efforts

Proposed reforms

Summary

 

Chapter 21

Today's big-city way of life for two boys in Chicago

Summary

 

Chapter 22

The science of government through measurements of the success of government's efforts

The social health indicators

Infant mortality rate

Elderly poverty

Life expectancy

Affordable housing

Education

Suicide rates

Rates of child neglect and abuse

Violent crime

Average income

Child poverty rates

Income inequality

Reluctant government

Putting the indicators to work measuring the success of our efforts to govern

National and global surveys of social-health indicators

Importance of social-health indicators

Well-being and the quality of life in the past

Summary

 

Chapter 23

Concluding remarks

 

Appendix

Goal and Happiness Survey



 



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Copyright © 2006 Robert Dalling, UsHumans.net