Humans: A Brief History of How We F*cked It All Up
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Narrated by:
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Nish Kumar
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By:
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Tom Phillips
About this listen
Modern humans have come a long way in the 70,000 years they’ve walked the earth. Art, science, culture, trade - on the evolutionary food chain, we’re true winners. But it hasn’t always been smooth sailing, and sometimes - just occasionally - we’ve managed to truly f--k things up.
Weaving together history, science, politics, and pop culture, Humans offers a panoramic exploration of humankind in all its glory, or lack thereof. From Lucy, our first ancestor, who fell out of a tree and died, to General Zhou Shou of China, who stored gunpowder in his palace before a lantern festival, to the Austrian army attacking itself one drunken night, to the most spectacular fails of the present day, Humans reveals how even the most mundane mistakes can shift the course of civilization as we know it.
Lively, wry, and brimming with brilliant insight, this unique compendium offers a fresh take on world history and is one of the most entertaining listens of the year.
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Ranging with dazzling expertise through anthropology, history, and literature, Wright reconfigures our self-perception, arguing that the "essence" of America can be traced to the foundations of our history--literally to the collision of worlds that began in 1492, as one civilization subsumed another--and exploring how these currents continue to shape our world.
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insightful overview
- By rm3154 on 04-19-12
By: Ronald Wright
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Don't Know Much About Geography: Revised and Updated Edition
- Everything You Need to Know About the World But Never Learned, Revised and Updated
- By: Kenneth C. Davis
- Narrated by: Kenneth C. Davis, Joe Ochman, Mark Bramhall, and others
- Length: 12 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Kenneth C. Davis, author of Don't Know Much About® History, Don't Know Much About the Civil War and Don't Know Much About the Bible, turns his inimitable wit and wide-ranging knowledge to the subject of geography, and proves once and for all that there is a lot more to it than labeling countries on a map. From often amusing perceptions people have had through the ages about the world and the universe to the changing map of today, Davis shows how geography is really a great crossroad of many fields: biology, meteorology, astronomy, history, economics, and even politics.
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Errors
- By The Product Owner on 08-29-15
By: Kenneth C. Davis
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Pilgrims and Puritans: 1620-1676
- Drama of American History
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- Narrated by: Jim Manchester
- Length: 1 hr and 56 mins
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In Pilgrims and Puritans, the authors begin in the year 1620 in England and end in New England in the year 1676. The book recounts the religious, political, and social history of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and its influence on our lives today. The narrative follows various groups of settlers from their departure from England through arrival in the New World and their often violent conflicts with the native peoples of the Americas. The authors examine a number of issues that arose in the new society that was founded and the rise and fall of the "city on a hill."
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We need a Puritan revival
- By pat hanley on 08-10-21
By: James Lincoln Collier, and others
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The Invention of Yesterday
- A 50,000-Year History of Human Culture, Conflict, and Connection
- By: Tamim Ansary
- Narrated by: Tamim Ansary
- Length: 17 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Traveling across millennia, weaving the experiences and world views of cultures both extinct and extant, The Invention of Yesterday shows that the engine of history is not so much heroic (battles won), geographic (farmers thrive), or anthropogenic (humans change the planet) as it is narrative. Many thousands of years ago, when we existed only as countless small autonomous bands of hunter-gatherers widely distributed through the wilderness, we began inventing stories - to organize for survival, to find purpose and meaning, to explain the unfathomable.
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Relaxed but packed with insight
- By Tad Davis on 02-14-20
By: Tamim Ansary
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The Treaty of Versailles: A Captivating Guide to the Peace Treaty That Ended World War 1 and Its Impact on Germany and the Rise of Adolf Hitler
- By: Captivating History
- Narrated by: Jason Zenobia
- Length: 3 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Though the men of Versailles (and they were overwhelmingly men) had arrived in Paris to put an end to World War I, by the time the conference ended, the main goal of the diplomats and national leaders had turned into ending wars for all time. Obviously, that did not work, and as a matter of fact, the end result of the Paris Peace Conference - the Treaty of Versailles - would likely cause more wars than any of its authors could have possibly dreamed of, including World War II.
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Good Introduction
- By Jean AR on 06-15-20
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The Nutmeg's Curse
- Parables for a Planet in Crisis
- By: Amitav Ghosh
- Narrated by: Sam Dastor
- Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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A powerful work of history, essay, testimony, and polemic, The Nutmeg’s Curse argues that the dynamics of climate change today are rooted in a centuries-old geopolitical order constructed by Western colonialism. At the center of Ghosh’s narrative is the now-ubiquitous spice nutmeg. The history of the nutmeg is one of conquest and exploitation—of both human life and the natural environment. In Ghosh’s hands, the story of the nutmeg becomes a parable for our environmental crisis.
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performance....
- By Bonnie on 11-15-22
By: Amitav Ghosh
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The Spanish-American War
- A Captivating Guide to the Armed Conflict Between the United States of America and Spain That Took Place After the US Intervened in the Cuban War of Independence
- By: Captivating History
- Narrated by: Jason Zenobia
- Length: 3 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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The Spanish-American War really only lasted about ten weeks (the buildup and decision to go to war took longer than the war itself), but a peace treaty was not signed until December of 1898. This was an event that was the tipping point for the end of the Spanish Empire and the rise of the US as a formidable player on the world stage. Not all Americans were happy with the change, with famous Americans like Mark Twain speaking out about the US occupation of the lands that it was meant to save.
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Elementary, Sloppy, and with an Agenda
- By Drew in Florida on 10-10-20
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How Iceland Changed the World
- The Big History of a Small Island
- By: Egill Bjarnason
- Narrated by: Einar Gunn
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
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The history of Iceland began 1,200 years ago, when a frustrated Viking captain and his useless navigator ran aground in the middle of the North Atlantic. Suddenly, the island was no longer just a layover for the Arctic tern. Instead, it became a nation whose diplomats and musicians, sailors and soldiers, volcanoes and flowers, quietly altered the globe forever. How Iceland Changed the World takes readers on a tour of history, showing them how Iceland played a pivotal role in events as diverse as the French Revolution, the Moon Landing, and the foundation of Israel.
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Brilliant
- By Ian D. Jones on 06-01-21
By: Egill Bjarnason
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The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight: Revised and Updated
- The Fate of the World and What We Can Do Before It's Too Late
- By: Thom Hartmann, Neale Donald Walsch - associate editor
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 18 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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While everything appears to be collapsing around us - ecodamage, genetic engineering, virulent diseases, water shortages, global famine, wars - we can still do something about it and create a world that will work for us and for our children's children. The inspiration for Leonardo DiCaprio's feature documentary movie The 11th Hour, The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight details what is happening to our planet, the reasons for our culture's blind behavior, and how we can fix the problem.
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One of the Most Important Books of our Time
- By Jana on 04-24-20
By: Thom Hartmann, and others
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52 Times Britain Was a Bellend
- The History You Didn't Get Taught at School
- By: James Felton
- Narrated by: Mathew Baynton
- Length: 2 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Twitter hero James Felton brings you the painfully funny history of Britain you were never taught at school, chronicling 52 of the most ludicrous, weird and downright 'baddie' things we British* have done to the world since time immemorial - and then conveniently forgot all about, of course.
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School Textbook
- By Dave on 10-23-19
By: James Felton
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The World War 2 Trivia Book: Interesting Stories and Random Facts from the Second World War
- Trivia War Books, Book 1
- By: Dwayne Walker, Bill O'Neill
- Narrated by: Derek Newman
- Length: 3 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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When was the last time someone around you brought up World War Two?
It’s a pretty popular war. Maybe you heard about it yesterday. Maybe last month. But it was probably recent. And when it came up, did you wish that you could be the one to casually drop a fact that would have everyone in the room going, “Wow, I never knew that!”
With this audiobook, you can be that person.
You can listen to it just a few minutes a day.
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Little known facts about the biggest war
- By LITRPG Audiobook Reviews on 03-17-18
By: Dwayne Walker, and others
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The Viking Heart
- How Scandinavians Conquered the World
- By: Arthur Herman
- Narrated by: Kiff VandenHeuvel
- Length: 18 hrs and 50 mins
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Scandinavia has always been a world apart. For millennia Norwegians, Danes, Finns, and Swedes lived a remote and rugged existence among the fjords and peaks of the land of the midnight sun. But when they finally left their homeland in search of opportunity, these wanderers — including the most famous, the Vikings — would reshape Europe and beyond.
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Confused and not worth the time and money
- By Jacob The Dane on 08-16-21
By: Arthur Herman
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nothing new
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Sarah Vowell travels through the American past and investigates the dusty, bumpy roads of her own life. Her essays confront a wide range of subjects, icons, and historical moments: Ike, Teddy Roosevelt, and Bill Clinton; Canadian Mounties and German Filmmakers; Tom Cruise and Buffy the Vampire Slayer; twins and nerds; the Gettysburg Address, the State of the Union, and George W. Bush's inauguration. The result is an engrossing audiobook, capturing Vowell's memorable wit and her keen social commentary.
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What would you do if a time machine hurled you thousands of years into the past...and then broke? How would you survive? With this book as your guide, you'll survive - and thrive - in any period in Earth's history. Best-selling author and time-travel enthusiast Ryan North tells you how to invent all the modern conveniences we take for granted - from first principles. This manual contains all the science, engineering, art, philosophy, facts, and figures required for even the most clueless time traveler to build a civilization from the ground up.
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Get the book
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What listeners say about Humans: A Brief History of How We F*cked It All Up
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Zak Clayton
- 06-06-19
loved it! Well put together.
Although not a fan of profanity in print, this book was put together, written, and performed so well I honestly loved the flow. Great book. I will listen to it again, and again.
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- Olivia
- 08-17-19
Haha, how have we not gone extinct yet?
A really funny look at the very serious ways that humans have been fucking up throughout all of history. Definitely worth checking out, as those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it again and again and again and again. As humans tend to to.
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- Jay
- 10-25-23
Very amusing book!
This book was very amusing while making you think about the long term impacts of the choices that are made leaders and every day people.
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- Daniel Vera
- 01-14-20
Funny AF...
Great reminders of our ability to fuck up big time..
easy to listen I really enjoyed it
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- Anonymous User
- 05-20-19
Truth in Spades
Wow! Slapped in the face, and yet I still hope for the human race. God help us. 🌿
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- Mom
- 01-19-23
WE’RE DOOMED!!
Blunt, insightful and hilarious!! The debate rages on, will it be mankind’s ignorance or greed that will cause our own extinction??
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- W. E. Cobble
- 05-19-19
Simultaneously Hilarious and Cringe-Inducing
This book is the perfect accompaniment to Yuval Noah Harari's Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind.
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- H2O_Doc
- 03-03-20
Good
A good and fun read. Worth the time. Interesting bits of history well told and funny.
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- Chris Lane
- 07-07-20
Like a Will Anderson Solo Dollop
A very interesting history of all humans. Yes it tackle s Colonization but it isn't all white people are bad we should shoot ourselves. To make myself look more like a moron let me quote Sum 41 we are all to blame
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- Amazon Customer
- 01-26-23
Great overall
Fantastic audio, hilarious yet informative. I loved just about everything about it. Hearing about people's mistakes throughout the world and history makes me feel slightly better about the ones I've made in my lifetime.
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