HISTORY'S GREATEST EVENTS: 100 Turning Points that Changed the World --- an illustrated Journey by Time Books, 2010 (i-vi, 154 pages) OUTLINE OF BOOK'S FACTS & IDEAS 3-6-16 1) Man's prehistoric breakthroughs (5) 2) The development of the alphabet (6) Ancient Sumer, the influential Mesopotamian civilization developed cuneiform, a pictographic system, about 3,400 BC (6) The earliest known heiroglyphs, a combination of characters and pictograms, date from 3,400-3,200 BC. "With the invention of writing, the information revolution had begun!" (6) 4) Hammurabi's Code reflects the dream of a just society (8) 6) A rebel pharaoh defies Egypt's Divine Cosmology (11) 8) Greece enjoys a golden age (14-15) "Classical Greece reached its high point in Athens under the statesman Pericles, who ruled the city-state for about 31 years, between 461 and 429 BC." (14) HIGHLIGHTS OF CLASSICAL GREEK CIVILIZATION (14) 7 items listed AUTHOR NOTE, SUMMARY, AND BOOK DESCRIPTION AUTHOR NOTES = Kelly Knauer is a writer and editor for TIME Books in New York City, the book-publishing division of TIME Magazine. He has written and edited more than 30 TIME books on such subjects as Hurricane Katrina, the Middle East, great photojournalism, natural history, global warming, architecture, American history, and the life of Abraham Lincoln. He worked with TIME's longtime White House Correspondent, Hugh Sidey, on the book Hugh Sidey's Portraits of the Presidents. Among those who have written introductions for Mr. Knauer's books are former Presidents George H. W. Bush and Jimmy Carter and actor Tom Hanks. SUMMARY = Chronicles one hundred key events in world history, including the rise and fall of great civilizations, colossal natural disasters, landmark inventions, and the individuals who shaped humanity. BOOK DESCRIPTION = Join the editors of Time in a fast-paced journey through the adventures of man on Planet Earth in this richly illustrated volume, which explores history's most important turning points. Here are the great religions: Buddhism, Christianity and Islam. Here are the great empires, from the vanished civilization of the Minoans on Crete to the glories of Classical Greece and Rome to the mysterious collapse of the Maya culture in Mexico. Here are the visionary scientists who altered our view of nature's laws: Newton and Darwin, Copernicus and Einstein. Here are the great conquerors, including Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Genghis Khan and Napoleon. And here are the great clashes between cultures, as Christian knights besiege Muslim citadels in the Crusades, a handful of Spanish conquistadors topple the empires of the Aztecs and Incas, and Japan attacks the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor. The book is arranged chronologically, rapidly accelerating in pace as it reports the development of the technologies that define the modern world, from the coming of the railroad and the telegraph to the advent of photography, the cinema and television and culminating in the invention of the transistor and the boot-up of the World Wide Web. And it offers fresh perspectives on cultures too often overlooked, from the Golden Age of Islam to the voyages of Viking mariners to China's renascence under the Ming dynasty. Presented in a special oversized format, this beautifully illustrated volume also offers a sweeping panorama of man's greatest artistic achievements, from the cave paintings of Lascaux to marvelous medieval maps and on to the great paintings and sculptures of the Renaissance. As an illuminating guide to mankind's triumphs and sorrows, and as a gallery of human culture, science, art and architecture, it offers a dazzling and provocative encounter with the great turning points of history. instantly return to: ALPHABETIZED SUBJECT BOOK BUTTONS