A Very Short History of the World is the story of the world's people during the last four million years. It begins before the human race moved out of Africa to explore and settle the other continents, several of which were later marooned by the great rising of the seas. It is a story of the inhabited world being pulled apart, and of it coming together again in recent centuries. Australia's distinguished historian Professor Geoffrey Blainey makes the past come alive as he touches on the trivial and the grand: on changes in diet and daily work and sport, on changing attitudes to the night sky, as well as on profound discoveries and mighty empires.