But how would a time-traveler from our prehistoric past assess the lives we lead and the future prospects for the path we’re on? To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average.

However, by presenting forager societies as the pinnacle of human fulfillment, Ryan falls into the trap that industry giants like Yuval Noah Harari warned us against. With faith in the future melting like an overheated glacier even as contentment with the present evaporates, it’s high time for a sober reassessment of the past.Jack Dorsey, cofounder and CEO of Twitter “Engaging, extensively documented, well-organized, and thought provoking. Critics of Chris’s position on cultural evolution: Matt Ridley, Steven Pinker, Richard Dawkins, David Buss, Helen Fisher.

I have to confess that, though I read roughly a hundred books a year and try to carefully read the books that I review, I stopped reading carefully and moved more quickly through the last hundred pages of this book because it wasn’t worth the time to read it carefully. Most of us have instinctive evidence the world is ending-balmy December days, face-to-face conversation replaced with heads-to-screens zomboidism, a world at constant war, a political system in disarray. This is the sort of book that would be a great gift for the struggling parent of young children wondering how the treadmill of dishes, laundry, activities, and meals could matter in eternity. I highly recommend against the audio book, unless you want to hear the author use an obnoxiously childish tone when discussing things he doesn't like or disagrees with, completely undermining any legitimacy his claims might have. The politics of perpetual fear is corrosive to our well-being and our innate capacities for cooperation, community, and kindness.Who hasn’t been in a situation that seemed to make sense at the time, but that ultimately made no sense at all? You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice.

He focuses on the disruptive role of agriculture in human history, marking that as the period during which we veered off course.

By using the Web site, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by the Terms and Conditions. Foragers felt comfortable living close to the earth, cooperating with one another, and even with predators. So, saying you have a partial cure for something that you, in fact, caused, doesn’t quite sound as impressive as we might have first assumed. As I was reading along in the first few chapters, I started to recognize that Ryan was glossing over counter arguments and cherry-picking data. was to question the racial superiority of Europeans and the fundamental legitimacy of colonialism and the will of the Christian God as interpreted by men with vast armies at their disposal.

He does devote several pages to suggesting we try psychedelic drugs to refresh our perspective and reduce our suffering, much as ancient shamans did. I don’t dispute the reality of progress in certain contexts, but I have my doubts about how to conceptualize and measure it. The author subsequently demonstrates how wrong civilization is, has been, and will continue to be when compared to the nomadic tribes we once were part of. Modernity is toxic, brutal, and insane compared to the blithe existence of ancient and contemporary hunter-gatherers, according to this fervent jeremiad. The author is clearly passionate about the subject which I respect, but the arguments made throughout the book felt so poorly made that they rubbed me completely the wrong way.Maybe so, but Ryan downplays the fact that agriculture also allowed many more humans to exist in the first place. With outsized wildfires raking the American West and high seas swallowing coastlines the world over, the reading public is primed to accept the notion that civilization has reached critical condition. But in fact, most of these monuments memorialize the dark deeds of unhinged lunatics driven by rampant ego and raving greed. His discussion of how we have become obsessed with postponing death at any cost does make me wonder at the sanity of our society.