Catalog Search Results
Author
Pub. Date
2019.
Language
English
Formats
Description
For too long, scientists have focused on the dark side of our biological heritage: our capacity for aggression, cruelty, prejudice, and self-interest. But natural selection has given us a suite of beneficial social features, including our capacity for love, friendship, cooperation, and learning. Beneath all our inventions -- our tools, farms, machines, cities, nations -- we carry with us innate proclivities to make a good society. In Blueprint, Nicholas...
Author
Series
Language
English
Formats
Description
Why did Eurasians conquer, displace, or decimate Native Americans, Australians, and Africans, instead of the reverse? In this groundbreaking book, evolutionary biologist Jared Diamond stunningly dismantles racially based theories of human history by revealing the environmental factors actually responsible for history's broadest patterns. Here, at last, is a world history that really is a history of all the world's peoples, a unified narrative of human...
Publisher
Atria Paperback, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
"This timely and compelling anthology is a rousing call-to-action for all of us to help transform the world into a just, peaceful, and thriving one-featuring creative and practical solutions to the many crises facing humanity today. Humanity is currently facing a series of interconnected emergencies that threaten our very survival-from climate change to economic inequality and beyond. And yet, at the same time, a global shift towards harnessing our...
Author
Publisher
St. Martin's Press
Pub. Date
2023.
Language
English
Description
"An astounding and inspiring look at the science behind tribalism, and how we can learn to harness it to improve the world around us. What do you think of when you hear the word "tribalism?" For many, it conjures images of bigotry, xenophobia, and sectarian violence. Others may envision their own tribe: family, friends, and the bonds of loyalty that keep them together. Tribalism is one of the most complex and ancient evolutionary forces; it gave us...
Author
Publisher
Princeton University Press
Pub. Date
[2015]
Language
English
Description
"Humans are a puzzling species. On the one hand, we struggle to survive on our own in the wild, often failing to overcome even basic challenges, like obtaining food, building shelters, or avoiding predators. On the other hand, human groups have produced ingenious technologies, sophisticated languages, and complex institutions that have permitted us to successfully expand into a vast range of diverse environments. What has enabled us to dominate the...
Author
Publisher
Bloomsbury Sigma
Pub. Date
[2017]
Language
English
Description
Karin Bojs grew up in a small, broken family, and at her mother's funeral she felt this more keenly than ever. As part of the healing process, she decided to use DNA research to learn more about herself, her family, and the interconnectedness of society. She went deep in search of her genealogy, having her DNA sequenced and tested, and effectively becoming an experimental subject. Remarkably, she was able to trace the path of her ancestors through...
Author
Publisher
St. Martin's Press
Pub. Date
2021.
Language
English
Description
"In the tradition of Richard Dawkins's The Selfish Gene, Nichola Raihani's The Social Instinct is a profound and engaging look at the hidden relationships underpinning human evolution, and why cooperation is key to our future survival. Cooperation is the means by which life arose in the first place. It's how we progressed through scale and complexity, from free-floating strands of genetic material, to nation states. But given what we know about the...
Author
Publisher
Oneworld
Pub. Date
2023.
Language
English
Appears on list
Description
"Many animals and plants eke out seemingly unremarkable lives. Passive, constrained, modest, threatened. Then, in a blink of evolutionary time, they flourish spectacularly. Once we start to look, these "sleeping beauties" crop up everywhere. But why? Looking at the book of life, from apex predators to keystone crops, and informed by his own cutting-edge experiments, renowned scientist Andreas Wagner demonstrates that innovations can come frequently...
Author
Publisher
Harvard University Press
Pub. Date
2019.
Language
English
Description
Why is the genome of a salamander forty times larger than that of a human? Why does the avocado tree produce a million flowers and only a hundred fruits? Why, in short, is there so much waste in nature? In this lively and wide-ranging meditation on the curious accidents and unexpected detours on the path of life, Daniel Milo argues that we ask these questions because we've embraced a faulty conception of how evolution--and human society--really works....
Author
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Pub. Date
[2016]
Language
English
Description
"This book covers the psychological aspects of human evolution with a table of contents ranging from prehistoric times to modern days. Dunbar focuses on an aspect of evolution that has typically been overshadowed by the archaeological record: the biological, neurological, and genetic changes that occurred with each "transition" in the evolutionary narrative"--
Author
Publisher
Random House
Pub. Date
[2020]
Language
English
Description
"For most of the approximately 200,000 years that our species has existed, we shared the planet with at least four other types of humans. They were smart, they were strong, and they were inventive. Neanderthals even had the capacity for spoken language. But, one by one, our hominid relatives went extinct. Why did we thrive? In delightfully conversational prose and based on years of his own original research, Brian Hare, professor in the department...
Author
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Pub. Date
2015.
Language
English
Description
We are a weird species. Like other species, we have a culture. But by comparison with other species, we are strangely unstable: human cultures self-transform, diverge, and multiply with bewildering speed. They vary, radically and rapidly, from time to time and place to place. And the way we live - our manners, morals, habits, experiences, relationships, technology, values - seems to be changing at an ever accelerating pace. The effects can be dislocating,...
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