This was an interesting and informative exploration of humanity from its earliest beginnings through to what it could be in the future. I don't know why, but I thought there would be more focus on prehistoric and ancient times, so it took me a while to get on board with the more modern chapters. However, I did appreciate that time was given to eastern and African cultures instead of all the focus being on Europe and I did enjoy the final chapter talking about what humans could do next. Overall, I enjoyed this once I readjusted my expectations.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

A lovely potted history of humanity. Wildly ambitious, enormous in scope and endlessly interesting. I listened to the audiobook version. Linkage between sections/topics isn't great but it may be easier to follow if reading, as opposed to listening. Overall, I really enjoyed it. I think the book would work as an excellent jumping off point for further research, as a multitude of topics are introduced in brief. The narrator speaks in what I consider to be RP English, which I find quite dry and soporific. For this reason, I had to spend a lot of time rewinding. The content, however, is presented in a way which is accessible and I really appreciate being able to learn so much, from just one book, as a layperson. I will be recommending this one and gifting copies.

Full of facts and some amazing research this book is the story of the human race from evolution to population of today. The events that have shaped us and our history, so it's a factual account and therefore a study book. Not my thing really however narration was good. Thank you #NetGalley for the audiobook to review.

Covering a wide array of topics the book starts with the evolution of human beings to answer various questions related to it (such as, why just homo sapiens survived). From that point, the book widens its horizons in several directions by talking about history, geography, trade, war and even environmental impacts on homo sapiens.

While I did enjoy the various topics discussed in the book, I found it difficult to stay composed when the point of discussion hopped from one subject to the next. Another issue I had was how certain words and concepts were addressed. A better transition to the topics is required if we read this work from the perspective of a single book. Otherwise, it would better be stated out as essays on different topics related to human beings.

Thank you @netgalley @arcturusbooks for this audiobook. Though I am still okay with the content, the pronunciation of different words from multiple cultures (non-English ones particularly) is not accurate and so I did not enjoy the narration.

Genre: #nonfiction #history #religion #science #humanity
Rating: 3/5 ⭐️

This is a good basic look at the history of civilisation. It doesn’t go into much detail about each event but does give a good overview of them so you get a general idea. It does feel a little disjointed but then this also gives you an idea of what was happening if different parts of the world at the same time.
I did enjoy this but didn’t learn massive amounts.