Humans: A Brief History of How We F*cked It All Up
A brilliantly funny, light but informative weekend read that I would happily recommend to anyone.
I don't typically read a lot of human history books as it has never been a particularly strong interest of mine, however I picked this up on a whim whilst perusing Waterstones and waiting for my bus to arrive and I am very pleased that I did. Tom Phillips achieves a fantastic balance between factual information and comedy. The book takes you on a journey through some of the most idiotic, catastrophic, and dire mistakes made by humans. These range from quite minor and humorous situations to disasters that have had a lasting impact on the world and society. Each chapter deals with a different context, be it environmental screw ups, colonialism, war, terrible leaders (a favourite section of mine), and even touches on technological miscalculations, giving a fairly comprehensive and wide coverage of humanities biggest blunders. The aforementioned balance between humour and information is perfect for this topic because many of the events are sombre/serious, and the witticism certainly doesn't come across as condescending or making light of dark subject matters. Instead, the humour prevents the book from being somewhat sad, by turning it into a fascinating and self-deprecating look at humanity. Perhaps I enjoyed it so much because my humour is quite heavily rooted within sarcasm and self-deprecation. Regardless, I found it to be an easy read with the writing style being quite informal, allowing me to breeze through it over a weekend (despite frequent stops to read out particularly interesting or funny sections to my girlfriend).
One thing that I found especially refreshing was the historical honesty presented in the book. The location of your upbringing and education directly impacts both what historical events you are taught at school and how these events are perceived. However, this book does not shy away from showing historical events in a more accurate/un-biased light, making you think about the morality of what people did in the past. Somehow both funny and depressing the book really does highlight that we, as a species, don't learn from mistakes and have been monumentally screwing up in all aspects of our existence ever since our first ancestor fell out of a tree. Whether or not you consider yourself someone interested in history, I would recommend reading this book. Both to gain new insights and perspectives on famous historical events and to learn about those that are less well known. Additionally, it you are ever feeling like a failure or beating yourself up over a small mistake, it is weirdly comforting to see that screwing up is part of human nature and whatever you have done, someone in the past has done much worse.
I don't typically read a lot of human history books as it has never been a particularly strong interest of mine, however I picked this up on a whim whilst perusing Waterstones and waiting for my bus to arrive and I am very pleased that I did. Tom Phillips achieves a fantastic balance between factual information and comedy. The book takes you on a journey through some of the most idiotic, catastrophic, and dire mistakes made by humans. These range from quite minor and humorous situations to disasters that have had a lasting impact on the world and society. Each chapter deals with a different context, be it environmental screw ups, colonialism, war, terrible leaders (a favourite section of mine), and even touches on technological miscalculations, giving a fairly comprehensive and wide coverage of humanities biggest blunders. The aforementioned balance between humour and information is perfect for this topic because many of the events are sombre/serious, and the witticism certainly doesn't come across as condescending or making light of dark subject matters. Instead, the humour prevents the book from being somewhat sad, by turning it into a fascinating and self-deprecating look at humanity. Perhaps I enjoyed it so much because my humour is quite heavily rooted within sarcasm and self-deprecation. Regardless, I found it to be an easy read with the writing style being quite informal, allowing me to breeze through it over a weekend (despite frequent stops to read out particularly interesting or funny sections to my girlfriend).
One thing that I found especially refreshing was the historical honesty presented in the book. The location of your upbringing and education directly impacts both what historical events you are taught at school and how these events are perceived. However, this book does not shy away from showing historical events in a more accurate/un-biased light, making you think about the morality of what people did in the past. Somehow both funny and depressing the book really does highlight that we, as a species, don't learn from mistakes and have been monumentally screwing up in all aspects of our existence ever since our first ancestor fell out of a tree. Whether or not you consider yourself someone interested in history, I would recommend reading this book. Both to gain new insights and perspectives on famous historical events and to learn about those that are less well known. Additionally, it you are ever feeling like a failure or beating yourself up over a small mistake, it is weirdly comforting to see that screwing up is part of human nature and whatever you have done, someone in the past has done much worse.
