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The Human Swarm: How Our Societies Arise, Thrive, and Fall
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About The Human Swarm: How Our Societies
Product Description The epic story, ultimate big history, and "remarkable intellectual achievement" (Quarterly Review of Biology) describing how human society evolved from intimate chimp communities into the sprawling civilizations of a world-dominating species If a chimpanzee ventures into the territory of a different group, it will almost certainly be killed. But a New Yorker can fly to Los Angeles--or Borneo--with very little fear. Psychologists have done little to explain this: for years, they have held that our biology puts a hard upper limit--about 150 people--on the size of our social groups. But human societies are in fact vastly larger. How do we manage--by and large--to get along with each other? In this paradigm-shattering book, biologist Mark W. Moffett draws on findings in psychology, sociology and anthropology to explain the social adaptations that bind societies. He explores how the tension between identity and anonymity defines how societies develop, function, and fail. Surpassing Guns, Germs, and Steel and Sapiens, The Human Swarm reveals how mankind created sprawling civilizations of unrivaled complexity--and what it will take to sustain them. Review One of Forbes' Must-Read Books of 2020 One of Kirkus' Best Books of 2019 Recommended reading "for how we got into this mess"― Amy Tan, New York Times "[An] uplifiting perspective...mesmerizing"― The Financial Times "The Human Swarm is a book of wonders . . . Moffett is a maverick"― The New Statesman "Moffett is a renowned expert on these creatures, and begins by providing mesmerising descriptions of how they create systems that rival human societies in complexity. He also explains in detail how, as different species collide, ants (like parts of the human race) are locked in permanent war beneath the soil. I will never look at an ant in the same way again." ― Financial Times "Fascinating... a delightfully accessible and ingenious series of lessons on humans and our societies."― Kirkus Reviews, starred review "[Moffett] intrigues by setting human societies in the context of those of the animal kingdom. This fine work should have broad appeal to anyone curious about human societies, which is basically everyone."― Publishers Weekly, starred review "A well-researched and richly detailed account of why societies have been a fundamental part of the human experience since our earliest ancestors. Highly recommended for fans of Jared Diamond's Collapse: How Societies Choose To Fail or Succeed and Yuval Harari's Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind."― Library Journal, starred review "[An] enticing whirlwind tour of the fascinating patterns of behaviour and structures of societies revealed through the varied lives of people and animals across the globe."― Nature "The Human Swarm is a remarkable intellectual achievement of sustained intensity, to be commended for navigating an important yet difficult area in between biology, psychology, sociology, economics, history, and philosophy. Fruitfully, it also raises many questions for future research."― Hugh Desmond, Quarterly Review of Biology "Our times are filled with garage start-ups that become Silicon Valley behemoths overnight. Such scaling-up pales in comparison to humans going from hunter-gatherer bands to our globalized world in the blink of an evolutionary eye -- and thus now, a stranger a continent away can be killed when we press a button operating a drone, or rescued when we press a button marked 'Donate now.' In The Human Swarm, Mark Moffett charts the science of this scaling up of human societies, and its unlikely evolutionary consequences. This highly readable book is ambitious in its interdisciplinary breadth, rigorous in its science, and deeply thought-provoking in its implications."― Robert Sapolsky, author of Behave " The Human Swarm is surely the most accurate, most comprehensive, most original explanation of our social existence that we're ever likely to see, one jaw-dropping revel
