Includes bibliographical references.

Contents:
I Point of View 1 --
Chapter 1 Connecting the Dots 3 --
How We Describe the World Inscribes in Our Thinking 3 --
II Then --
Chapter 2 The Web 21 --
Woven to Nature ‘ s Cycles 21 --
Chapter 3 The Ladder 47 --
Heriarchal Order 47 --
III Now 77 --
Chapter 4 The Helix 79 --
Spiraling to the Next 79 --
Chapter 5 The Network 103 --
Everything connects 103 --
IV Next 125 --
Chapter 6 The Lens Enlarges 127 --
Macro and Micro Views 127 --
References 167 --
Further Reading 173 --
Image Credits and Sources 177 --
Acknowledgments 183 --
About the Author 187 --

Seeing the world through shape. How do humans make sense of the world? In answer to this timeless question, award winning documentary filmmaker, Lois Farfel Stark, takes the reader on a remarkable journey from tribal ceremonies in Liberia and the pyramids in Egypt, to the gravity-defying architecture of modern China. Drawing on her experience as a global explorer, Stark unveils a crucial, hidden key to understanding the universe: Shape itself. The telling image is a stunning synthesis of civilization's changing mindsets, a brilliantly original perspective urging you to re-envision history not as a story of kings and wars but through the lens of shape. In this sweeping tour through time, Stark takes us from migratory humans, who imitated a web in round-thatched huts and stone circles, to the urban ladder of pyramids and skyscrapers, organized by hierarchy and measurements, to today's world of interconnected networks. In The telling image Stark reveals how buildings, behaviors, and beliefs reflect humans' search for pattern and meaning. We can read the past and glimpse the future by watching when shapes shift. Stark's beautifully illustrated book asks of all its readers: See what you think.