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  • A Million Years in a Day

  • A Curious History of Everyday Life from the Stone Age to the Phone Age
  • Written by: Greg Jenner
  • Narrated by: Matthew Lloyd Davies
  • Length: 11 hrs and 25 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (4 ratings)

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A Million Years in a Day

Written by: Greg Jenner
Narrated by: Matthew Lloyd Davies
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Publisher's Summary

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 wars, politics, 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 historical 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 about—and many you have never considered. It is the story of your life, one million years in the making.

"[Jenner] crafts some fine aphorisms ('History doesn't repeat itself—people do'), and it would be a staggeringly learned person who could not glean anything new from this work." —The Wall Street Journal

©2015 Greg Jenner (P)2016 Tantor

What the critics say

"Erudite, witty, and packed with things you've never thought about." (Dr. Peter Frankopan, author of Silk Roads)

What listeners say about A Million Years in a Day

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A different and interesting way to organize history

Overall the book was interesting, informative and I enjoyed it. Although the narrator was fine, it would have been better read by Jenner himself as some of the jokes would have landed better

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