這是一本曾被Amazon資深書評家考菲德（John Cofield）評為：「如果外星人來訪，最好就拿這本書讓他們讀，他們很快就能了解人類」的人類文明簡史。作者是擁有「世界史宗師」(dean of world history)美譽，同時也是暢銷書《瘟疫與人》（Plagues and People）的作者威廉•麥克內爾(William Mcneil)，以及他的公子，同樣身為史學家的J. R.麥克內爾（著有《太陽底下的新鮮事》）。
　　這本由父子檔史學家連袂傾力完成的世界史著作，提出一個有趣的觀點：原來網際網路並不是連結全球人類的第一個網絡。人類透過親緣、友誼、信仰、競爭、敵對、生態依存、政治合作、貿易和征服等互動模式與技術的演進，藉由資訊、物流甚至病害的交換和散佈，擴張跨區域與族群的傳播網絡，織就我們熟悉的當代文明之網。
　　中文版由清華大學資訊系教授張俊盛、林翠芬擔任譯者，更獲得PC Home網路家庭董事長詹宏志專文推薦。全書洞鑑古今，深入淺出，以豐富實例與清晰論證為經緯，比較各區域文明特色，反思科技革新與全球化等人類共同面對的新興議題，勾勒出精采的世界文明史地圖。

Why did the first civilizations emerge when and where they did? How did Islam become a unifying force in the world of its birth? What enabled the West to project its goods and power around the world from the fifteenth century on? Why was agriculture invented seven times and the steam engine just once?

World-historical questions such as these, the subjects of major works by Jared Diamond, David Landes, and others, are now of great moment as global frictions increase. In a spirited and original contribution to this quickening discussion, two renowned historians, father and son, explore the webs that have drawn humans together in patterns of interaction and exchange, cooperation and competition, since earliest times. Whether small or large, loose or dense, 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, localized webs that characterized agricultural communities twelve thousand years ago, through the denser, more interactive metropolitan webs that surrounded ancient Sumer, Athens, and Timbuktu, to the electrified global web that today envelops virtually the entire world in a maelstrom of cooperation and competition, J. R. McNeill and William H. McNeill show human webs to be a key component of world history and a revealing framework of analysis. Avoiding any determinism, environmental or cultural, the McNeills give us a synthesizing picture of the big patterns of world history in a rich, open-ended, concise account.