The Invention of Yesterday: A 50,000-Year History of Human Culture, Conflict, and Connection

by Tamim Ansary

Overview

In this “terrific” (San Francisco Chronicle) book, an award-winning author tells the story of how humans invented history, from the Stone Age to the Virtual Age 

Traveling across millennia and cultures, The Invention of Yesterday argues that world history is a narrative we’re constantly inventing. Fifty thousand years ago, we roamed the world as countless autonomous bands of hunter-gatherers, each one telling itself a story of the world with itself at the center. We used narratives to organize for survival and explain the unfathomable, and these stories evolved into the bases for cultures, empires, and civilizations. When disparate narratives collided, the encounters produced everything from confusion, chaos, and war to cultural efflorescence, religious awakenings, and intellectual breakthroughs. 

Through vivid stories studded with insights, Tamim Ansary illuminates how our propensity to invent a shared symbolic universe has shaped our journey from the Stone Age to the Virtual Age. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781541706224
Publisher:	PublicAffairs
Publication date:	02/24/2026
Pages:	448
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Tamim Ansary is the author of many books, including Destiny Disrupted. He has published essays and commentary in the San Francisco Chronicle, Salon, the Los Angeles Times, and more. Born in Afghanistan in 1948, he moved to the US in 1964. He lives in San Francisco. 

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Part I Tools, Language, and Environment 11

1 The Physical Stage 13

2 History Begins with Language 21

3 Civilization Begins with Geography 27

4 Trade Weaves the Networks 41

5 The Birth of Belief Systems 53

Part II One Planet, Many Worlds 73

6 Money, Math, Messaging, Management, and Might 75

7 Megaempires Take the Stage 85

8 The Lands in Between 104

9 When Worlds Overlap 119

10 World Historical Monads 148

Part III The Table Tilts 173

11 Out of the North 175

12 Europe on the Rise 185

13 The Nomads' Last Roar 196

4 Europe and the Long Crusades 203

5 The Restoration Narrative 223

16 The Progress Narrative 247

Part IV History's Hinge 255

17 That Columbus Moment 257

18 Chain Reactions 265

19 After Columbus: The World 278

20 The Center Does Not Hold 286

21 Middle World Enmeshed 296

22 Ripple Effects 305

Part V Enter the Machine 309

23 The Invention Explosion 311

24 Our Machines, Ourselves 321

25 Social Constellations in the Machine Age 335

26 Empires and Nation-States 345

27 A World at War 356

Part VI The Singularity Has Three Sides 365

28 Beyond the Nation-State 367

29 Digital Era 380

30 The Environment 389

31 The Big Picture 397

Acknowledgments 407

Bibliography 409

Index 419

Editorial Reviews

Ansary offers a remarkable big-picture synthesis that draws upon geography but resists determinism and celebrates diversity while embracing humanity's commonalities.”—Booklist

“Terrific… Tamim Ansary explores the underappreciated ways that empires, nations and smaller sets of people have responded to their surroundings, influenced one another and developed stories that give their lives meaning.”—San Francisco Chronicle

“A well-written and valuable take on the diverse narratives that have shaped human history.”—Kirkus

“Chatty, breezy, and capacious.”—Publishers Weekly

“A beautifully written world history focused on the stories different civilizations have told about who we are. It ends with a fundamental question: In today’s extraordinary world, can we build new narratives that are inclusive and global enough to encourage worldwide cooperation in the task of building a better future for humanity?”—David Christian, author of Origin Story

“Brimming with essential insights and yet always approachable, this is the global history we need now.”—Lynn Hunt, author of Inventing Human Rights

“Tamim Ansary has done it again, writing an expansive, wonderfully readable account of our present world. With deft examples drawn from across history, he skewers the idea that there’s anything pure about culture or race. Ideas have blended and meshed across space and time to make the modern world what it is. Ansary is a charming guide to this Blesh of Civilizations, and to the world’s permanent—and hopeful—capacity for change.”—Raj Patel, author of Stuffed and Starved

 “Weaving together multiple complex strands of the human experience into a single compelling storyline, Ansary delivers—in his usual down-to-earth yet erudite style—an engaging global ‘narrative of narratives’ informed by decades of critical study, reflection, and personal transcultural experience. A deeply enriching, highly relevant read from an important, unique voice of our day.”—R. Charles Weller, Washington State University and Kazakh National University

“The Invention of Yesterday is an insightful guide into human civilization packed with information that shows how we have been connected globally since the beginning of history. Tamim Ansary unpacks complicated theories to make sense of how we became who we are today.”—Fariba Nawa, author of Opium Nation

From the Publisher

The Invention of Yesterday is an insightful guide into human civilization packed with information that shows how we have been connected globally since the beginning of history. Tamim Ansary unpacks complicated theories to make sense of how we became who we are today.

Fariba Nawa

Informative and thoroughly engaging.”

author of The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini

Tamim Ansary has done it again, writing an expansive, wonderfully readable account of our present world. With deft examples drawn from across history, he skewers the idea that there's anything pure about culture or race. Ideas have blended and meshed across space and time to make the modern world what it is. Ansary is a charming guide to this blesh of civilizations, and to the world's permanent-and hopeful-capacity for change.

author of Stuffedand Starved: The Hidden Battl Raj Patel

A beautifully written world history focused on the stories different civilizations have told about who we are. It ends with a fundamental question: In today's extraordinary world, can we build new narratives that are inclusive and global enough to encourage worldwide cooperation in the task of building a better future for humanity?

David Christian

Ansary offers a remarkable big-picture synthesis that draws upon geography but resists determinism, and celebrates diversity while embracing humanity's commonalities.

Booklist

"Ansary has written an informative and thoroughly engaging look at the past, present and future of Islam. With his seamless and charming prose, he challenges conventional wisdom and appeals for a fuller understanding of how Islam and the world at large have shaped each other. And that makes this book, in this uneasy, contentious post 9/11 world, a must-read.

author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Khaled Hosseini

Weaving together multiple complex strands of the human experience into a single compelling storyline, Ansary delivers-in his usual down-to-earth yet erudite style-an engaging global 'narrative of narratives' informed by decades of critical study, reflection, and personal transcultural experience. A deeply enriching, highly relevant read from an important, unique voice of our day.

R. Charles Weller

In "Games Without Rules," Tamim Ansary has written the most engaging, accessible and insightful history of Afghanistan. With gifted prose and revealing details, Ansary gives us the oft-neglected Afghan perspective of the wars, foreign meddling and palace intrigue that has defined the past few centuries between the Indus and Oxus. This brilliant book should be required reading for anyone involved in the current war there — and anyone who wants to understand why Afghanistan will not be at peace anytime soon.

Rajiv Chandrasekaran

Brimming with essential insights and yet always approachable, this is the global history we need now.

author of WritingHistory in the Global Era Lynn Hunt

In his terrific new book, Tamim Ansary explores the underappreciated ways that empires, nations and smaller sets of people have responded to their surroundings, influenced one another and developed stories that give their lives meaning.

San Francisco Chronicle

2019-07-17
World history as "a story that we're telling one another."

In this intriguing account of humankind from the Stone Age to the present, Ansary (Road Trips: Becoming an American in the Vapor Trail of the Sixties, 2019, etc.) writes, "we live on the same planet but in many different worlds." In 800 C.E., for instance, the Chinese thought their world was the world; other civilizations also believed they lived at the center of their own world model. The author argues that we invent the tribes and other social constellations—the culture—of our own world through narratives based on geographical differences. Viewing the past through this lens, he sees global history as a melding of many master narratives—a "drama of ever-increasing interconnectedness." Trade, warfare, and other interactions caused separate worlds to overlap. "Neighbors influenced neighbors who influenced neighbors," writes Ansary. When Rome conquered the Fertile Crescent, diverse belief systems became part of the Roman state. Jews, for example, encountered the secular-pagan ideas of the Greco-Roman world in their daily lives. The Crusades brought hundreds of ideas and innovations into Europe, from gunpowder to mechanical clocks. Pivotal moments triggered interconnections among major cultures, with great ripple effects: Columbus' discovery of America sparked the rise of corporations and banks in Europe and drew the entire world into "one great global drama." The advent of machines in the 18th and 19th centuries changed the division of labor between men and women. The invention of the transistor in 1947 heralded the digital age. As an Afghan American, the San Francisco-based author draws nicely on his experiences of life in the different worlds of Islam and the secular West to help readers understand the outcomes of overlapping narratives. He examines the role of interconnections in the development of everything from board games to belief systems, science, and multinational corporations.

A well-written and valuable take on the diverse narratives that have shaped human history.

Kirkus Reviews