The history of man created by Carleton S. Coon

Includes index.

Chapter 1 The earliest men, 2 - Of flint, fire, and early society, 3 - The skilled hunter and healer, 4 - The tiller and herdsman, 5 - The cold and the sea, 6 - The power of the sun, 7 - Wheels, metals, and writing, 8 - Iron and empire, 9 - Gunpowder, 10 - a new world, 11 - From coke to atoms, 12 - A vision of paradise.

This is the story of man who alone of beasts mastered the wild-fire, became a skilled hunter and healer, a tiller of earth and a herdsman, and conquered the cold and the sea while te power of the sun altered him. Wheel-making, smelting and writing, he hammered out empires with iron, circled his planet with cannon, found and took a new planet with cannon, found and took a new world - whence he challenges space with his atoms while facing the ultimate challenge.