Advanced
Error loading page.
Try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, there may be a network issue, and you can use our self test page to see what's preventing the page from loading.
Learn more about possible network issues or contact support for more help.
Title details for A Million Years in a Day by Greg Jenner - Available

A Million Years in a Day

A Curious History of Everyday Life From the Stone Age to the Phone Age

by Greg Jenner
Matthew Lloyd Davies
Audiobook
1 of 2 copies available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
1 of 2 copies available
Who invented beds? When did we start cleaning our teeth? How old are wine and beer? Which came first: the toilet seat or toilet paper? What was the first clock? Every day, from the moment our alarm clock wakes us in the morning until our head hits our pillow at night, we all take part in rituals that are millennia old.
Structured around one ordinary day, 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, 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, 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.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Awards

  • Release date

    June 21, 2016

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781515925156
      • File size: 328998 KB
      • Duration: 11:25:24

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Everything you do during the day, even checking your email, has history behind it. Matthew Lloyd Davies narrates this work with an elegant British voice, drawing laughs from the author's humor as he sets scenes across time. Greg Jenner starts out with ancient Egyptian dawn rituals to explain the origins of each of your daily tasks. Some things, like train times and movable type, are obvious, but there's much to learn as well. Listeners may not know, for example, that Plato conceived of the alarm clock. Starting with the chapter human waste, Jenner includes some earthy language. It's quite funny but may have too much saltiness for some listeners. Overall, the barrage of facts may not sink in completely, but it's entertaining. J.A.S. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      April 25, 2016
      Jenner, a cowriter of the BBC’s Horrible Histories series, muses about the historical antecedents of activities on a typical British Saturday in this entertaining work. He begins his day at 9:30 a.m. and proceeds to consider humans’ historical and varied methods of dividing time, setting the pattern for succeeding chapters. Over the course of the day, Jenner reflects on the keeping of pets, human communication technologies, clothing, alcohol, dining, and even tooth-brushing. His extensive coverage of bodily functions in the chapter on “Answering the Call of Nature” may be a bit much for some readers, but he shows that humans have done some fairly gross things in our past (see the section on bathing, for instance). The fact-checking isn’t always flawless—for instance, Jenner credits Charles Wesley with the first utterance of “Cleanliness is next to godliness” rather than his brother John—but this is a fun book, not a scholarly tome. His sources are also overwhelmingly Eurocentric, though he does include some references to Asia and the Americas. Jenner’s book is an amusing examination of what we humans do with ourselves all day. Agent: Donald Winchester, Watson Little (U.K.).

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Loading
Check Out What's Being Checked Out Right NowThe Ohio Digital Library is a program of the State Library of Ohio and is supported in whole or in part by federal Institute of Museum and Library Services funds, awarded to the State Library of Ohio.