Offering an original vision of history, this book explores the webs that have drawn humans together in exchange, co-operation and competition since the earliest times. Whether small or large, dense or small, these webs have provided the medium for the movement of ideas, goods, power and money within and across cultures, societies and nations. From the thin, localised webs that typified agricultural communities to 12,000 years ago, to the denser, more interactive webs that surrounded ancient Sumer, Athens, and Timbuktu, to the electrified global web in place today, these human webs are a key component of history and a revealing framework of analysis. This book offers a synthesising picture of the larger patterns of world history in a detailed, open-ended and concise account.