Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- The cultural animal -- Savage lovers : language, communalism and violent simplicity -- Symbolic revolutions : agriculture, climate change and the beginnings of war -- Violent complexity : writing, god and the ancient enlightenment -- What is enlightenment? : liberalism, romantic science and the first mass media -- In the age of agitation : modern media, violent consumers and imaginings of state -- Web of world s: nature, love and the internet -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Index.
