Sailing Ships, Pirates, and the World

Wheels, stirrups, bows and arrows, gunpowder, and sailing ships: along the timeline of history, every object has a story worth telling. They have sparked changes in nations and brought different civilizations into contact, shaping the history of human civilization. That is also what makes history so mysterious and fascinating.

This is the first volume in the Details of History series. Beginning with the invention of the wheel, it explores how people improved and used it, and the nations, wars, and civilizations that grew from it, tracing the wheel's relationship with human civilization in an engaging narrative. From wheels to chariots and roads, from horse-drawn carriages to sedan chairs, wheelbarrows, and cars, from the collapse of ritual order in the Spring and Autumn period to the Industrial Revolution of modern times. The wheel, in short, brought humanity a profound intellectual awakening and technological revolution.