This book is receiving both very positive as well as very negative comments and ratings. Although I tend towards the latter, I still have a lot of appreciation for the enormous amount of knowledge that Gaia Vince has incorporated into this, and for the way in which she has tried to organize it into a workable whole. In recent decades, more people have ventured into an attempt to present a coherent, historically based vision of humanity. Just think of Yuval Harari, David Christian, Stephen Pinker and so on. It takes special courage to do “the big take”.

Celebrated British science journalist Gaia Vince focuses on 4 themes, which she believes explain why humans, ‘homo sapiens’, have managed to gain a unique grasp of nature and themselves: fire, language, beauty and time. Her vision is certainly relevant, but also a bit predictable and obvious. What bothers me most, however, is that she makes an unlikely mix of facts and figures, often without proper source references. And in some cases her premise, such as on the earliest use of fire, is downright wrong. On that basis, I do not recommend reading this book, however interesting. More about that in my History-account on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3701641431 ( )