This volume tells the story behind the inspirations that have driven mankind's mental, spiritual and physical development. It is arranged in five sections: science, politics, philosophy, spirituality, the arts and the human sciences. A fold-out timeline offers an at-a-glance reference down the centuries, giving the reader a sense of progress through time. The timeline introduces the early ideas and discoveries, and sets the scene for the explosion of development between the late-18th century and the present day. In each of the five sections, entries and articles over two or three pages, set out to expose the origins of each idea or movement, unravel its complexities and explain its importance. Inventors and founders are profiled and cross-references pinpoint other appropriate spreads, for example, with Surrealism, the reader is directed to Dadaism and to Jung and analytical psychiatry.