A Million Years in a Day

Posted on 18 April 2017 by Greg Jenner

One of my all time favourite books about history erudite, witty and packed with things you ve never thought about DR PETER FRANKOPAN, author of The Silk Roads A New History of the World Structured around one ordinary modern Saturday, A MILLION YEARS IN A DAY reveals the astonishing origins and development of the daily practices we take for granted In this gloriously entertaining romp through human history, peppered with amusing pop culture references, Greg Jenner explores the gradual and often unexpected evolution of our daily routines.This is not a story of politics, wars or great events, instead Greg Jenner has scoured Roman rubbish bins, Egyptian tombs and Victorian sewers to bring us the most intriguing, surprising and sometimes downright silly nuggets from our past Drawn from across the world, spanning a million years of humanity, this book is a smorgasbord of historical delights It is a history of all those things you always wondered and many you have never considered It is the story of your life, one million years in the making.The UK paperback edition 2016 is revised and updated with extra facts.OTHER REVIEWS If you find yourself secretly relishing your children s Horrible Histories books, you will love Greg Jenner s jolly account of how we have in common with our ancestors than we might think all human life is here, amusingly conveyed in intriguing nuggets of gossipy historical anecdote DAILY MAIL A wonderful idea, gloriously put into practice, Greg Jenner is as witty as he is knowledgeable TOM HOLLAND Delightful, surprising and hilarious, this is a fascinating history of the everyday objects and inventions we take for granted LAUREN LAVERNE Greg Jenner s magpie mind takes you through the history of who we are and what we do, answering tons of questions you never thought to ask AL MURRAY Like visiting the most wonderful and cluttered museum, each chapter like another room teetering with illuminating ideas and information ROBIN INCE Hugely entertainingfull of astonishing insights HISTORY REVEALED MAGAZINE Jenner has a vivid, colloquial turn of phraselively, funny and completely absorbing CURRENT ARCHAEOLOGY MAGAZINE Best Read [ A Million Years in a Day ] Author [ Greg Jenner ] For Kindle ePUB or eBook – kino-fada.fr I haven t got anything to add to what I wrote whilst reading the book Except it s very forgettable Not a substantial tome but for someone interested in a light and entertaining presentation of history by a light and entertaining author, you might really enjoy this book It s not a bad book just one where the style was at odds with the content and I found that very ...Since it s still August and therefore still History Month for me, I spiced things up with this hilarious non fiction book Basically, it goes into detail about our daily routine and where many things come from by looking at one day a Saturday, thank goodness, or we d have had to talk about work URGH.The chapters are divided into hours of the day, starting at 9 30am and ending at midnight We look at getting up, the concept of time, bathrooms and bowel movements, clothing sadly, nothing abo Since it s still August and therefore still History Month for me, I spiced things up with this hilarious non fiction book Basically, it goes into detail about our daily routine and where many things come from by looking at one day a Saturday, thank goodness, or we d have had to talk about work URGH.The chapters are divided into hours of the day, starting at 9 30am and ending at midnight We look at getting up, the concept of time, bathrooms and bowel movements, clothing sadly, nothing about shoes, I would have liked a sub chapter about them , pets, communication and news, eating, alcohol, social interactions, dental hygiene and many other things.While looking at our habits, the author doesn t just pick one continent, country or time period but ALL OF HISTORY Which gives a unique look at our evolution, progress and setbacks, and makes for a compelling study.What makes this book so unique is the author And I don t ...For what this is, a witty accounting of technological progress through recorded history, it s quite excellent.Of course, you must be naturally curious and willing to put up with a lot of excrement jokes, too, but hey That s what history is all about A never ending avalanche of shit.Well, maybe I m mostly talking about the Medievals, but the Renaissance and even the Romans were pretty gross.Oh my Don t get me wrong, it s not all about social advancement without soap or where to put your fece For what this is, a witty accounting of technological progress through recorded history, it s quite excellent.Of course, you must be naturally curious and willing to put up with a lot of excrement jokes, too, but hey That s what history is all about A never en...The wonderful thing about history is that no matter how much you know, you can never truly know it all The scope is just too vast This brilliant book looks at a 24 hour cycle in our modern life and asks the question why do we do that and where did it come from Starting with getting up in the morning, it follows a person doing normal things..but looks at it from the perspective of Why are we so fascinated with keeping time blame the monks and their different calls to prayer to why The wonderful thing about history is that no matter how much you know, you can never truly know it all The scope is just too vast This brilliant book looks at a 24 hour cycle in our modern life and asks the question why do we do that and where did it come from Starting with getting up in the morning, it follows a person doing normal things..but looks at it from the perspective of Why are we so fascinated with keeping time blame the monks and their different calls to prayer to why do we eat eggs , why do we wear clothes , etc.Utterly fascinating and full of information that came as a surprise even ...I was drawn to the idea of a book describing a day in the life and using this as the structure for investigations into how and why we do the things we do So many aspects of our ordinary day are completely taken for granted sleeping through the night, waking up at dawn or when the alarm goes etc Jenner goes through the evolution of our daily rituals.We get mini histories of topics as diverse as toilets, champagne, manners and dental hygiene.Humorous, clever, always interesting and never p I was drawn to the idea of a book describing a day in the life and using this as the structure for investigations into how and why we do the things we do So many aspects of our ordinary day are completely taken for granted sleeping through the n...A fun book For example, I was unaware that the Tower Bridge in London used to have facilities that emptied out directly over the Thames, and the passing boats below Gross, but pretty funny when you think about it A good book for teens.3.5 stars I feel as if the title put me in the wrong mindset for this book was devoted to the how humans learned how to use private bathrooms That is actually a subject I was extremely curious about I even looked for books that addressed the origin of private bathrooms, private bedrooms, private houses It wasn t easy to find information on that so, I should have been happy to find this But, I was mostly annoyed by the writi..., ,, , ,,, ,, , ,,, ,, , , , ,,,, ,, 2016,, , , ,, , A brilliant, informative, funny book with a very clever structure taking you through a modern day whilst explaining how the individual components, such as beds or alarm clocks, have evolved through history Great for interesting little facts to start conversations annoy people with, such as that up until 2011 women were legally banned from wearing trousers in Paris except when on a bike or horse Crazy The day I finished this I had went to a talk by the author about the book which was excelle A brilliant, informative, funny book with a very clever structure taking you through a modern day whilst explaining how the individual components, such as beds or alarm clocks, have evolved through history Great for interesting little facts to start conversations annoy people with, such as that up until 2011 women were legally banned from wearing trousers in Paris except when on a bike or horse Crazy The day I finished this I had went to a talk by the author about the book which was excellen...This book sounded fascinating in the review I read I should have liked it However, I am not the reader Jenner is targeting I think that audience is middle school boys The language is way to cutesy and full of current cultural references to appeal to this retirement age woman I did not finish the book but did get about half way through before the library wanted it back It has short vignettes about t...

English
18 April 2017

Greg Jenner