The Evolution of Everything: The Patterns and Causes of Big History Paperback – 24 Nov. 2022

I was a little sceptical when I first saw this book and even more sceptical when I first read the contents. I consider myself pretty well-read in both history and in evolutionary science and I'm used to reading books that spend 4 or 500 pages on a since topic (this book followed Mukherjee's "Song of the Cell" on my reading list for example). So when a book promises to range from prehistory to the present, across biology, geology, politics, economics and much more besides...well, it's going to be superficial skim isn't it? In fact, I loved reading this book and can't recommend it highly enough.Praise first, then a couple of qualifications so you don't buy a book that's not for you. This book didn't teach me a lot that I didn't, kind of, already know. Those titbits that were new (e.g. Banana Republics? Who knew?) were fascinating but the value of this book is the way it weaves together the big themes in history, like stepping back from a picture to see it properly. Avowed geeks like me with love it for the perspective. But I'm going to recommend it to all the teenagers and thoughtful adults I know. This book gives a view of history that should be part of any civics or citizenship course. The way it, for example, presents the big transitions of history as a connected stream is just wonderful.What's not to like? Well, very little but there are two kinds of people who won't like this.First, if you're a nitpicker, then little errors that arise from taking a big view might bug you. For example, to say that Nazi Germany suffered no consequences for Czechoslovakia or Poland but, because of a change of government did for France is well...that just wrong, even if it doesn't detract from the point. This, and some other bits, are signs of a US-biased perspective but even that doesn't take away from the sweeping arc of narrative.Second, if you like a good story with heroes and villains and simple cause and effect. The writing is very readable but each chapter is 1/2 or more in boxes, which makes it a bitty reading experience. And the nature of the argument is that history isn't changed by Kings or Battles or single events but is the emergence from a complex system. This suited me but if you like history as soap opera, you will be disappointed.Bottom line? This is a great book that any thinking person will enjoy and learn from. The author must have had a bucket load of self-confidence to venture from his expert field (palaeoanthropology) to tackle the widest possible canvas, but that self-confidence was, it turns out, well justified.

This is really a textbook covering the basics of genetics etc before going on to look at other evolutionary factors so unless you like to read this kind of book it is not in the general reading criteria of popular science. It is however clearly written accurate.

I bought this book on the strength of the marketing blurb which implies it to be a new academic synthesis covering a broad and well integrated range of theory. In fact it is presented in the style and format of an undergraduate textbook -replete with numerous box features etc. -whilst the book even describes itself as a textbook. How the marketing people managed to miss this key point is beyond me -although having published academic works before I have certainly had similar experiences with marketing departments.Just to be clear however, it is a really excellent textbook and I would highly recommend it to any students/tutors looking for a single volume that tackles the broad ranging subject of how evolutionary forces underlie virtually every aspect of human behaviour and societal development -a much needed antidote to the social science driven relativist nonsense that has taken hold of much of what universities (especially in the US) have been pushing in recent years.

It looked like a good book, although definitely more study or text book than something you read in your spare time. Had to send it back as it arrived damaged, as often these days with Amazon.