The matter of history : how things create the past /
New insights into the microbiome, epigenetics and cognition are radically challenging our very idea of what it means to be "human," while an explosion of neo-materialist thinking in the humanities has fostered a renewed appreciation of the formative powers of a dynamic material environment...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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Cambridge ; New York :
Cambridge University Press,
[2017]
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| Series: | Studies in environment and history.
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| Subjects: |
| Summary: | New insights into the microbiome, epigenetics and cognition are radically challenging our very idea of what it means to be "human," while an explosion of neo-materialist thinking in the humanities has fostered a renewed appreciation of the formative powers of a dynamic material environment. The Matter of History brings these scientific and humanistic ideas together to develop a bold new post-anthropocentric understanding of the past, one that reveals how powerful organisms and things help to create humans in all their dimensions, biological, social and cultural. Timothy J. LeCain combines cutting-edge theory and detailed empirical analysis to explain the extraordinary late-nineteenth century convergence between the United States and Japan at the pivotal moment when both were emerging as global superpowers. Illustrating the power of a deeply material social and cultural history, The Matter of History argues that three powerful things, cattle, silkworms and copper, helped to drive these previously diverse nations towards a global "great convergence." |
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| Physical Description: | xix, 346 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9781107134171 110713417X 9781107592704 1107592704 |