100 Best Anthropology Books of All Time (Updated for 2026)

1

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Yuval Noah Harari

5.0

100,000 years ago, at least six human species inhabited the earth. Today there is just one. Us. Homo sapiens.

How did our species succeed in the battle for dominance? Why did our foraging ancestors come together to create cities and kingdoms? How did we come to believe in gods, nations and human rights; to trust money, books and laws; and to be enslaved by bureaucracy, timetables and consumerism?

Recommended by Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Reid Hoffman, and 34 others.

Barack Obama

Former USA President

Fact or fiction, the president knows that reading keeps the mind sharp. He also delved into these non-fiction reads. [source]

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

Both Melinda and I read this one, and it has sparked lots of great conversations at our dinner table. Harari takes on a daunting challenge: to tell the entire history of the human race in just 400 pages. He also writes about our species today and how artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, and other technologies will change us in the future. Although I found things to disagree with—especially Harari’s claim that humans were better off before we started farming—I would recommend Sapiens to anyone who’s interested in the history and future of our species. [source]

Reid Hoffman

CEO/LinkedIn

A grand theory of humanity. [source]

2

Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies

Jared Diamond

4.8

Preview Summary

Explaining what William McNeill called The Rise of the West has become the central problem in the study of global history. In Guns, Germs, and Steel Jared Diamond presents the biologist's answer: geography, demography, and ecological happenstance. Diamond evenhandedly reviews human history on every continent since the Ice Age at a rate that emphasizes only the broadest movements of peoples and ide

Recommended by Bill Gates, Charles T. Munger, Charlie Munger, and 12 others.

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

Fascinating.... Lays a foundation for understanding human history. [source]

Daniel Ek

A brilliant Pulitzer Prize-winning book about how the modern world was formed, analyzing how societies developed differently on different continents. [source]

Simon Sinek

Author

I’m a fan of books that challenge our assumptions, and Diamond offers us a new and remarkably simple way of looking at our world. Learning to challenge existing assumptions is core to effective leadership for it trains us to keep an open mind. [source]

3

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed

Jared Diamond

4.5

In Jared Diamond’s follow-up to the Pulitzer-Prize winning Guns, Germs and Steel, the author explores how climate change, the population explosion and political discord create the conditions for the collapse of civilization

Environmental damage, climate change, globalization, rapid population growth, and unwise political choices were all factors in the demise of societies around the world, but some

Recommended by Bill Gates, Daniel Headrick, David Pilling, and 3 others.

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

I found this to be an interesting follow-up to the excellent Guns, Germs, and Steel. It examines the downfall of some of history's greatest civilizations. [source]

Daniel Headrick

I found Jared Diamond’s book Collapse more valuable in influencing my own thinking, because it shows the importance of culture in determining how humans deal with environmental threats. …….The author investigates the successes and failures of a number of civilisations which had reached a crisis point, and looks at why some succeeded and others hadn’t. [source]

David Pilling

This is a warning that societies can do this. We, as a human society, could do this if we’re not careful. If we stretch the earth beyond its planetary limits, we could ruin the soil, we could ruin the ocean, we could ruin the air, and we could drain the ocean of fish. He sees evidence all around that we’re doing precisely that. He sees a limit to technology to solve our problems. [source]

4

Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow

Yuval Noah Harari

4.4

Preview Summary

Yuval Noah Harari, author of the critically-acclaimed New York Times bestseller and international phenomenon Sapiens, returns with an equally original, compelling, and provocative book, turning his focus toward humanity’s future, and our quest to upgrade humans into gods.

Over the past century humankind has managed to do the impossible and rein in famine, plague, and war. This may seem hard to acce

Recommended by Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Naval Ravikant, and 15 others.

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

Harari’s new book is as challenging and readable as Sapiens. Rather than looking back, as Sapiens does, it looks to the future. I don’t agree with everything the author has to say, but he has written a thoughtful look at what may be in store for humanity. [source]

Richard Branson

Founder/Virgin Group

I certainly wouldn’t consider myself a big reader of paleontology or anthropology – not good words for us dyslexics! – but I enjoy learning about how society has unfolded and history has developed in an exciting, easy to read way. The sequel, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, is a fascinating look into the future too. While these aren’t traditional business or leadership books, they are all about people – and learning how to work with, live with, interact with people and get the best out of them is what leadership is all about. [source]

Vinod Khosla

Co-Founder/Sun Microsystem

Not that I agree with all of it, but it is still mind-bending speculation about our future as a follow-up to a previous favorite, Sapiens. It’s directionally right. [source]

5

The Hero With a Thousand Faces

Joseph Campbell

4.3

Preview Summary

The first popular work to combine the spiritual and psychological insights of modern psychoanalysis with the archetypes of world mythology, the book creates a roadmap for navigating the frustrating path of contemporary life. Examining heroic myths in the light of modern psychology, it considers not only the patterns and stages of mythology but also its relevance to our lives today--and to the life

Recommended by Ray Dalio, Bryan Callen, Catherine Plano, and 4 others.

Ray Dalio

Founder/Bridgewater Associates

The book I’d give every graduating senior in college or high school would be … Joseph Campbell’s 'Hero of a Thousand Faces'. It's little bit dense but it’s so rich, so it’s a good one. [source]

Bryan Callen

Joseph Campbell was the first person to really open my eyes to the compassionate side of life, or of thought... Campbell was the guy who really kind of put it all together for me, and not in a way I could put my finger on... It made you just glad to be alive, realizing how vast this world is, and how similar and how different we are. [source]

Catherine Plano

Was mind blowing, it really helped me put into perspective, that there are cycles and rhythms, and I now call them initiations, when you are faced with fear we are never too sure of our potential unless we know how to fail, what did we learn from it and what are we going to do differently the next time. There is a lesson in everything we experience, as long as we slow down enough to reflect. The other thing in the hero's journey is that even when you say 'yes' to a project, it really doesn't mean that you are going to succeed at it, but if you go into a project with an open mind and embrace that you are here to learn, the journey itself is rewarding, not always the outcome and when we really look at our failures, they weren't real failures after all, but a stepping stone onto something greater. [source]

6

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals

Michael Pollan

4.3

Preview Summary

What should we have for dinner? For omnivore's like ourselves, this simple question has always posed a dilemma: When you can eat just about anything nature (or the supermarket) has to offer, deciding what you should eat will inevitably stir anxiety, especially when some of the foods on offer might shorten your life. Today, buffeted by one food fad after another, America is suffering from what can

Recommended by Barry Estabrook, Gabriel Coarna, Paul Rozin, and 1 others.

Barry Estabrook

Michael Pollan looks at food production through four meals. One is a fast-food meal, the other is an industrial-scale organic meal, then there is a small-scale organic meal and finally he actually goes out and either grows or kills, in the case of the meat, the entire meal himself. That is the narrative. [source]

Gabriel Coarna

Michael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemma" --more precisely, the first 3rd of it-- was what first made me realize how badly the Earth, as an ecosystem, is out of balance. [source]

Paul Rozin

Michael Pollan is an excellent journalist who specializes in the food domain.He proposes relying more on whole foods and less on processed foods, like Oreo Cookies. He argues that unprocessed foods are more nutritious, more wholistic and better for the environment. [source]

7

1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus

Charles C. Mann

4.3

In this groundbreaking work of science, history, and archaeology, Charles C. Mann radically alters our understanding of the Americas before the arrival of Columbus in 1492.

Contrary to what so many Americans learn in school, the pre-Columbian Indians were not sparsely settled in a pristine wilderness; rather, there were huge numbers of Indians who actively molded and influenced the land around them

Recommended by Adam Conover, Colin Calloway, and Scott Keyes.

Adam Conover

@TheBaltimoreSon @CharlesCMann Sure it! A total revolution in my understanding of history, all in one book. Amazing stuff. [source]

Colin Calloway

The book provides a huge hemispheric overview. [source]

Scott Keyes

It’s one of those books that takes everything you thought you knew about the history of European colonialists and indigenous groups in the Americas and turns it on its head. Just a fascinating deep-dive into early American history that questions a lot of dogma we were taught in school. [source]

8

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures

Anne Fadiman

4.3

Lia Lee was born in 1982 to a family of recent Hmong immigrants, and soon developed symptoms of epilepsy. By 1988 she was living at home but was brain dead after a tragic cycle of misunderstanding, over-medication, and culture clash: "What the doctors viewed as clinical efficiency the Hmong viewed as frosty arrogance." The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down is a tragedy of Shakespearean dimensio

9

Outliers: The Story of Success

Malcolm Gladwell

4.3

Preview Summary

In this stunning new book, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of "outliers"--the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different?

His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their

Recommended by Bill Gates, Charles T. Munger, Charlie Munger, and 18 others.

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

On Bill Gates's reading list in 2011. [source]

James Altucher

Founder/StockPickr

Gladwell is not the first person to come up with the 10,000 hour rule. Nor is he the first person to document what it takes to become the best in the world at something. But his stories are so great as he explains these deep concepts. How did the Beatles become the best? Why are professional hockey players born in January, February and March? And so on. [source]

Alex Circei

Question: What five books would you recommend to young people interested in your career path & why? Answer: Screw It, Let's Do It: Lessons In Life by Richard Branson Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone To Take Action by Simon Sinek The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not! by Robert T. Kiyosaki [source]

10

The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution & Future of the Human Animal

Jared M. Diamond

4.3

A provocative look at mankind's evolution from the ape into the complex creature we call human. By standards of other animals, our powerful civilization appears unique. So do many of our behaviors, including our sexual habits and the ways we select mates. Yet in many respects we are merely another species of ape--our genes are more than 98% identical to those of chimpanzees. 25 line drawings and h

Recommended by Charles T. Munger and Charlie Munger.

11

Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality

Christopher Ryan, Cacilda Jethá

4.3

Preview Summary

“Sex at Dawn challenges conventional wisdom about sex in a big way. By examining the prehistoric origins of human sexual behavior the authors are able to expose the fallacies and weaknesses of standard theories proposed by most experts. This is a provocative, entertaining, and pioneering book. I learned a lot from it and recommend it highly.” — Andrew Weil, M.D.

“Sex at Dawn irrefutably shows that

Recommended by Noah Kagan, Aubrey Marcus, and Esther Perel.

Noah Kagan

Founder/Sumo

A few months ago, I was drinking a Noah’s Mill whiskey (cute) with my good buddy Brian Balfour and talking about life... During the conversation, we got on the topic of books that changed our lives. I want to share them with you. I judge a book's success if a year later I'm still using at least 1 thing from the book. [source]

Esther Perel

Esther Perel recommended this book as an answer to "What are some resources for couples who want to explore having a more “monogamish” relationship?" [source]

12

Debt: The First 5,000 Years (Updated and Expanded)

David Graeber

4.3

Before there was money, there was debt

Every economics textbook says the same thing: Money was invented to replace onerous and complicated barter systems—to relieve ancient people from having to haul their goods to market. The problem with this version of history? There’s not a shred of evidence to support it.

Here anthropologist David Graeber presents a stunning reversal of conventional wisdom. He

Recommended by Seth Godin, David Heinemeier Hansson, and Will Davies.

Seth Godin

Author, Marketer, Entrepreneur

I recommend it in audio because David is sometimes repetitive and a little elliptical, but in audio it's all okay because you can just listen to it again. [source]

David Heinemeier Hansson

After a few false starts, I finally got going with this, and what a treat. It shoots down the common myth that prior to money, everyone just bartered shit. I give you a pig, you give me five pies and a hat. Evidence shows that just wasn’t at all how things went. Most societies were structured either rather communistic (take what you need, give what you can) or with a loose debt-ledger system (or a combination of both). But where things get really interesting is how the emergence of market economies (and money) changed the relationship with human life and dignity. Especially as a consequence of slavery, which put a very explicit price on that which previously was priceless. All sorts of fascinating historical links to women wearing veils (to distinguish them from women who could be bought), how debt peonage really took off once slavery came profitable (so debtors could be sold, or their children sold, if they failed to repay), and how other morality got intertwined with debt. It’s truly eye-opening, and the lines trace disturbingly well from millennia. [source]

Will Davies

What’s stunning about the book is how it brings an anthropological perspective to bear on such an expansive history and geography, bringing the story right up to the present day, at the precise moment when debt has become a hugely political, mobilizing and destabilizing issue. Its central argument is simple and easy to grasp, and has been seized by activists and critics of the financial sector. [source]

13

The Power of Myth

Joseph Campbell

4.2

The Power Of Myth launched an extraordinary resurgence of interest in Joseph Campbell and his work. A preeminent scholar, writer, and teacher, he has had a profound influence on millions of people. To him, mythology was the "song of the universe, the music of the spheres." With Bill Moyers, one of America's most prominent journalists, as his thoughtful and engaging interviewer, The Power Of Myth t

Recommended by Naval Ravikant, Ashley Hathaway, Bryan Callen, and 2 others.

Naval Ravikant

CEO & Co-Founder/AngelList

I’m rereading The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell. Sometimes I think it’s better to just to reread the greats than it is to read something that’s not as great. [source]

Ashley Hathaway

The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell has got to be at least one of my all-time favorites. I reference it constantly. If you’re not familiar the book is just a conversation between the journalist Bill Moyers and Joseph Campbell, who worked in comparative mythology and religious studies. It so beautifully brings every human experience together from the beginning of time. The world is basically explained through archetypes of people and the stories we tell. I highly recommend it and re-read parts regularly. [source]

Bryan Callen

Joseph Campbell was the first person to really open my eyes to the compassionate side of life, or of thought... Campbell was the guy who really kind of put it all together for me, and not in a way I could put my finger on... It made you just glad to be alive, realizing how vast this world is, and how similar and how different we are. [source]

14

The Interpretation of Cultures

Clifford Geertz

4.2

In The Interpretation of Cultures, the most original anthropologist of his generation moved far beyond the traditional confines of his discipline to develop an important new concept of culture. This groundbreaking book, winner of the 1974 Sorokin Award of the American Sociological Association, helped define for an entire generation of anthropologists what their field is ultimately about.

15

The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined

Steven Pinker

4.2

Believe it or not, today we may be living in the most peaceful moment in our species' existence. In his gripping and controversial new work, New York Times bestselling author Steven Pinker shows that despite the ceaseless news about war, crime, and terrorism, violence has actually been in decline over long stretches of history. Exploding myths about humankind's inherent violence and the curse of m

Recommended by Bill Gates, Eric Schmidt, Mark Zuckerberg, and 12 others.

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

Yong succeeds in his intention to give us a 'grander view of life' and does so without falling prey to grand, unifying explanations that are far too simplistic. He presents our inner ecosystems in all their wondrous messiness and complexity. And he offers realistic optimism that our growing knowledge of the human microbiome will lead to great new opportunities for enhancing our health. [source]

Eric Schmidt

CEO/Google

When you finish this book, which takes a long time, you conclude that the world is in a much, much better place than it has been in the past. [source]

Mark Zuckerberg

Founder/Facebook

My second book of the year is The Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker. It's a timely book about how and why violence has steadily decreased throughout our history, and how we can continue this trend. Recent events might make it seem like violence and terrorism are more common than ever, so it's worth understanding that all violence -- even terrorism -- is actually decreasing over time. If we understand how we are achieving this, we can continue our path towards peace. A few people I trust have told me this is the best book they've ever read. It's a long book, so I plan on taking a month to read it rather than two weeks. I'll add a third book in two weeks that will be a shorter read to complement this. If you want to follow along with the books I'm reading and participate in conversations with the authors, you can like the page A Year of Books. [source]

16

Tristes Tropiques

Claude Levi-Strauss, John Weightman, Doreen Weightman

4.2

Tristes Tropiques begins with the line ‘I hate travelling and explorers’, yet during his life Claude Lévi-Strauss travelled from wartime France to the Amazon basin and the dense upland jungles of Brazil, where he found ‘human society reduced to its most basic expression’. His account of the people he encountered changed the field of anthropology, transforming Western notions of ‘primitive’ man. Tr

Recommended by Larry Rohter.

Larry Rohter

My original intention was to choose only Brazilian books because it’s good for us to hear Brazilian voices, but this one is so good that I had to throw aside my Brazilian choice and give you this. It’s mostly but not entirely about Brazil. Levi-Strauss was in São Paulo, which is now the world’s third largest city, in the 1930s. He draws a lovely, fascinating portrait of the city, but then he also goes off into the Amazon and that’s where he’s at his best. He stays with four different indigenous peoples and he does a portrait of each. I’ve been doing the same since the 1970s, and even though he’s writing in the 1930s he really captures the dilemma of these people who are being overwhelmed by the modern world, and also the perplexity of being a foreigner plopped down among them and the adjustments he had to make. So, in a way it’s a guide book and in a way it’s a novel. [source]

17

The Selfish Gene

Richard Dawkins

4.2

Preview Summary

Inheriting the mantle of revolutionary biologist from Darwin, Watson, and Crick, Richard Dawkins forced an enormous change in the way we see ourselves and the world with the publication of The Selfish Gene. Suppose, instead of thinking about organisms using genes to reproduce themselves, as we had since Mendel's work was rediscovered, we turn it around and imagine that "our" genes build and mainta

Recommended by Charles T. Munger, Ev Williams, Brian Armstrong, and 7 others.

Charles T. Munger

Vice Chairman/Berkshire Hathaway

recommends this book in the second edition of Poor Charlie’s Almanack. [source]

Matt Ridley

Turned evolutionary biology on its head and was written like a great detective story. [source]

Phil Libin

CEO/Evernote

Had a profound influence on me pretty early on. [source]

18

A Short History of Nearly Everything

Bill Bryson

4.2

Preview Summary

In Bryson's biggest book, he confronts his greatest challenge: to understand—and, if possible, answer—the oldest, biggest questions we have posed about the universe and ourselves. Taking as territory everything from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization, Bryson seeks to understand how we got from there being nothing at all to there being us. To that end, he has attached himself to a host of the

Recommended by Amanda Palmer, David Goldberg, and Fabrice Grinda.

Amanda Palmer

Amanda Palmer recommended this book in the book "Tools of Titans". [source]

David Goldberg

What I really liked about A Short History of Nearly Everything is that it gives an excellent account of a lot of the personalities and the interconnectedness of important discoveries in cosmology and elsewhere. He does such a great job of bringing together our understanding of cosmology, evolution, paleontology, and geology in a very, very fluid way. [source]

Fabrice Grinda

I have lots of books to recommend, but they are not related to my career path. The only one that is remotely related is Peter Thiel’s Zero to One. That said here are books I would recommend. [source]

19

The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History

Elizabeth Kolbert

4.2

Preview Summary

Over the last half-billion years, there have been five mass extinctions, when the diversity of life on earth suddenly and dramatically contracted. Scientists around the world are currently monitoring the sixth extinction, predicted to be the most devastating extinction event since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. This time around, the cataclysm is us.

In prose that is at once fran

Recommended by Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and 6 others.

Barack Obama

Former USA President

The president also released a list of his summer favorites back in 2015: All That Is, James Salter The Sixth Extinction, Elizabeth Kolbert The Lowland, Jhumpa Lahiri Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates Washington: A Life, Ron Chernow All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr [source]

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, by Elizabeth Kolbert. Climate change is a big problem—one of the biggest we’ll face this century—but it’s not the only environmental concern on the horizon. Humans are putting down massive amounts of pavement, moving species around the planet, over-fishing and acidifying the oceans, changing the chemical composition of rivers, and more. Natural scientists posit that there have been five extinction events in the Earth’s history (think of the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs), and Kolbert makes a compelling case that human activity is leading to the sixth. Unlike a lot of people who write about the environment, Kolbert doesn’t resort to hype. She just lays out the facts and wraps them in memorable anecdotes. It’s a sobering but engaging and informative read. [source]

Jeff Bezos

Founder/Amazon

"In his autobiography, Walmart's founder expounds on the principles of discount retailing and discusses his core values of frugality and a bias for action — a willingness to try a lot of things and make many mistakes. Bezos included both in Amazon's corporate values," Brad Stone writes. [source]

20

The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies?

Jared Diamond

4.2

The bestselling author of Collapse and Guns, Germs and Steel surveys the history of human societies to answer the question: What can we learn from traditional societies that can make the world a better place for all of us?

Most of us take for granted the features of our modern society, from air travel and telecommunications to literacy and obesity. Yet for nearly all of its six million years of ex

Recommended by Bill Gates.

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

It’s not as good as Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel. But then, few books are. Diamond finds fascinating anecdotes about what life is like for hunter-gatherers and asks which ones might apply to our modern lifestyles. He doesn’t make some grand pronouncement or romanticize tribal life. He just wants to find the best practices and share them. [source]

21

21 Lessons for the 21st Century

Yuval Noah Harari

4.2

Preview Summary

In Sapiens, he explored our past. In Homo Deus, he looked to our future. Now, one of the most innovative thinkers on the planet turns to the present to make sense of today's most pressing issues.

How do computers and robots change the meaning of being human? How do we deal with the epidemic of fake news? Are nations and religions still relevant? What should we teach our children?

Yuval Noah Harari's

Recommended by Bill Gates, Brajesh Kumar Singh, Eh Bee Family, and 2 others.

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

Harari is such a stimulating writer that even when I disagreed, I wanted to keep reading and thinking. All three of his books wrestle with some version of the same question: What will give our lives meaning in the decades and centuries ahead? So far, human history has been driven by a desire to live longer, healthier, happier lives. If science is eventually able to give that dream to most people, and large numbers of people no longer need to work in order to feed and clothe everyone, what reason will we have to get up in the morning? It’s no criticism to say that Harari hasn’t produced a satisfying answer yet. Neither has anyone else. So I hope he turns more fully to this question in the future. In the meantime, he has teed up a crucial global conversation about how to take on the problems of the 21st century. [source]

Brajesh Kumar Singh

Harari, currently, the world's best historian and future analyst, is a gay! He is a Jew and writes his books in Hebrew! Got universal acclaim for his first book Sapiens, followed by Homo Deus and now the latest, 21 lessons for the 21st century! Salute to this genius, keep it up! https://t.co/s7R6oEbwiN [source]

Eh Bee Family

@harari_yuval This book is amazing. After every chapter...I pause...then freak out...then gather myself and keep reading. [source]

22

Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen

Christopher McDougall

4.2

Full of incredible characters, amazing athletic achievements, cutting-edge science, and, most of all, pure inspiration, Born to Run is an epic adventure that began with one simple question: Why does my foot hurt? In search of an answer, Christopher McDougall sets off to find a tribe of the world’s greatest distance runners and learn their secrets, and in the process shows us that everything we tho

Recommended by Ed Stafford and Turia Pitt.

Ed Stafford

An honour to be asked to do an impromptu little talk tonight after #christophermcdougall. Great to see the big man in the flesh in the UK. #BornToRun was a book that definitely changed the path of my life. #legend @vivobarefoot #barefootrunning https://t.co/3QgVKZ0OQ4 [source]

Turia Pitt

If people are interested in running, I give them this book. [source]

23

Patterns of Culture

Ruth Benedict

4.2

"Unique and important . . . Patterns of Culture is a signpost on the road to a freer and more tolerant life." -- New York Times

A remarkable introduction to cultural studies, Patterns of Culture is an eloquent declaration of the role of culture in shaping human life. In this fascinating work, the renowned anthropologist Ruth Benedict compares three societies -- the Zuni of the southwestern United S

24

The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection: Or, the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life

Charles Darwin

4.2

Darwin's theory of natural selection issued a profound challenge to orthodox thought and belief: no being or species has been specifically created; all are locked into a pitiless struggle for existence, with extinction looming for those not fitted for the task.

Yet The Origin of Species (1859) is also a humane and inspirational vision of ecological interrelatedness, revealing the complex mutual in

Recommended by Neil deGrasse Tyson, Mark Kurlansky, Adam Maloof, and 3 others.

Neil deGrasse Tyson

Astrophysicist, Author & Science Communicator

Which books should be read by every single intelligent person on planet? … On the Origin of Species (Darwin) to learn of our kinship with all other life on Earth. If you read all of the above works you will glean profound insight into most of what has driven the history of the western world. [source]

Mark Kurlansky

It is one of the most important books written, and I always urge people to read it. [source]

Adam Maloof

For me (and many others) this book forms the foundation for modern biology. It is all about humans’ concept of themselves. [source]

25

Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo

Mary Douglas

4.2

Professor Douglas makes points which illuminate matters in the philosophy of religion and the philosophy of science and help to show the rest of us just why and how anthropology has become a fundamentally intellectual discipline.

Recommended by Mary Beard.

Mary Beard

It’s regarded as quite old-fashioned now and the author Mary Douglas, who died recently, somewhat recanted on many of the things that she said. But, for me and still for many of my students, it’s a book that really opened my eyes. It showed me that you could theorize about things that you had always taken for granted and thought didn’t need explaining. Douglas set out to defamiliarize our own culture. One of her favourite party pieces is she goes through all the dietary prohibitions in Leviticus. She said, look at these carefully and you will see there’s a logic to them. What’s being prohibited in terms of eating is very often those animals or foodstuffs which don’t fit into a set category. For example, pigs don’t fall into any particular category because of their feet. In order to make sense of society, cultures like to group things. When objects fall outside those groups they are either reviled or revered. [source]

26

The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom

Jonathan Haidt

4.2

Preview Summary

In his widely praised book, award-winning psychologist Jonathan Haidt examines the world’s philosophical wisdom through the lens of psychological science, showing how a deeper understanding of enduring maxims-like Do unto others as you would have others do unto you, or What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger-can enrich and even transform our lives.

Recommended by Eric Schmidt, Tony Hsieh, Chelsea Frank, and 4 others.

Chelsea Frank

I read everything with an open mind, often challenging myself by choosing books with an odd perspective or religious/spiritual views. These books do not reflect my personal feelings but are books that helped shape my perspective on life, love, and happiness. [source]

David Brooks

He argues that most of our moral decisions are that kind of an instant reaction. It’s like aesthetics: when we see a scene we know instantly if it’s beautiful or not. [source]

Emrys Westacott

Haidt has a formula for happiness: Genetics + conditions + choices. This is a formula for a realistic approach to trying to achieve the good life. [source]

27

Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches: The Riddles of Culture

Marvin Harris

4.2

This book challenges those who argue that we can change the world by changing the way people think. The author shows that no matter how bizarre a people's behavior may seem, it always stems from concrete social and economic conditions. It is by isolating and identifying these conditions that we will be able to understand and cope with some of our own apparently senseless life styles. In a devastat

Recommended by Tristram Stuart.

Tristram Stuart

Harris looks at why vegetarianism first took root in India and why cows came to be held sacred. [source]

28

The Naked Ape: A Zoologist's Study of the Human Animal

Desmond Morris

4.2

Recommended by Angela Saini and Stephane Grand.

Angela Saini

This is a book that demonstrates the misogynistic lens through which some male biologists have viewed the past. Morris routinely and repeatedly peddles the view that women have evolved to be monogamous, stay-at-home caregivers while men have pushed up human intelligence through their actions as hunters and providers. [source]

Stephane Grand

When a look back at my career path, it is the one of an entrepreneur. I have built various businesses, from accounting and financial advisory firms to tech and security businesses. I have also spent most of my adult life in China, a country that is quite hostile to foreigners and very unfair. I have accepted to suffer the hardships of building my business without any investment from anybody, and stick very firmly to my values. I would recommend young people to read about adventure, hardships, and moral choices. Of course, it would be important to also read about the drivers of our humanity, hence the motley list below: … The Naked Ape, Desmond Moriss’s classic zoological study of the human being. [source]

29

The Golden Bough

James George Frazer

4.2

A world classic. "The Golden Bough" describes our ancestors' primitive methods of worship, sex practices, strange rituals and festivals. Disproving the popular thought that primitive life was simple, this monumental survey shows that savage man was enmeshed in a tangle of magic, taboos, and superstitions. Revealed here is the evolution of man from savagery to civilization, from the modification of

30

Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging

Sebastian Junger

4.1

Sebastian Junger, the bestselling author of War and The Perfect Storm, takes a critical look at post-traumatic stress disorder and the many challenges today’s returning veterans face in modern society.

There are ancient tribal human behaviors-loyalty, inter-reliance, cooperation-that flare up in communities during times of turmoil and suffering. These are the very same behaviors that typify good so

Recommended by Emma Watson, Ryan Holiday, Andrew Youderian, and 2 others.

Ryan Holiday

Author

To balance out that depressing book, I highly recommend David Brooks’ The Road To Character, Sebastian Junger’s Tribe and Chuck Klosterman’s What If We’re Wrong. [source]

Andrew Youderian

And finally, the book "Tribe" by Sebastian Junger reinforced in my the importance of relationships and in-person community, and made it something I'm trying to prioritize more in my life. [source]

Jason Kander

After years of people recommending it, I finally picked up Tribe by @SebastianJunger. I’m halfway done and it’s already the best non-fiction book I’ve read in years. [source]

31

Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (Revised Edition)

Benedict Anderson

4.1

Preview Summary

What makes people love and die for nations, as well as hate and kill in their name? While many studies have been written on nationalist political movements, the sense of nationality--the personal and cultural feeling of belonging to a nation--has not received proportionate attention. In this widely acclaimed work, Benedict Anderson examines the creation and global spread of the 'imagined communiti

Recommended by Jon Calame.

Jon Calame

We looked into divided cities not because we had a morbid fascination with these traumatised cities, but because they seemed to be a keyhole through which you could glimpse this larger phenomenon relatively clearly. [source]

32

White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism

Robin J. DiAngelo

4.1

Preview Summary

The New York Times best-selling book exploring the counterproductive reactions white people have when their assumptions about race are challenged, and how these reactions maintain racial inequality.

Referring to the defensive moves that white people make when challenged racially, white fragility is characterized by emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt and by behaviors including argumentation and

Recommended by Elizabeth C. Mclaughlin, Marshall Kirkpatrick, and Todd Nesloney.

Elizabeth C. Mclaughlin

I've recommended the book White Fragility on here many times, and this interview is a great place to start. If you're a white person who believes you're not racist, please read this article. And then go read the book. https://t.co/S5plH3wS5m [source]

Marshall Kirkpatrick

@jhagel This is a great book btw! [source]

Todd Nesloney

@SarahSuggs13 I love that book, have spoken with the author, and did an entire staff book study. Again, had you even tried to see my work that I do, you'd have learned that. You seek to divide and that is it. Great lesson for our students. [source]

33

Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis

J. D. Vance

4.1

Preview Summary

From a former marine and Yale Law School graduate, a powerful account of growing up in a poor Rust Belt town that offers a broader, probing look at the struggles of America’s white working class

Hillbilly Elegy is a passionate and personal analysis of a culture in crisis—that of white working-class Americans. The decline of this group, a demographic of our country that has been slowly disintegratin

Recommended by Bill Gates, Ryan Holiday, Ben Shapiro, and 2 others.

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

The disadvantaged world of poor white Appalachia described in this terrific, heartbreaking book is one that I know only vicariously. Vance was raised largely by his loving but volatile grandparents, who stepped in after his father abandoned him and his mother showed little interest in parenting her son. Against all odds, he survived his chaotic, impoverished childhood only to land at Yale Law School. While the book offers insights into some of the complex cultural and family issues behind poverty, the real magic lies in the story itself and Vance’s bravery in telling it. [source]

Ryan Holiday

Author

In terms of other surprising memoirs, I found JD Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy to be another well-written gem. [source]

Ben Shapiro

A very well-written book. … The whole thing is a critique of individual decisions. [source]

34

Euphoria

Lily King

4.1

Inspired by the true story of a woman who changed the way we understand our world.

In 1933 three young, gifted anthropologists are thrown together in the jungle of New Guinea. They are Nell Stone, fascinating, magnetic and famous for her controversial work studying South Pacific tribes, her intelligent and aggressive husband Fen, and Andrew Bankson, who stumbles into the lives of this strange coupl

35

Essay on the Gift: The Form and Sense of Exchange in Archaic Societies

Marcel Mauss, Jane I. Guyer

4.1

Scan down a list of essential works in any introduction to anthropology course and you are likely to see to see Marcel Mauss’s masterpiece, Essay on the Gift. With this new translation, this crucial essay is returned to its original context, published alongside the profound works that framed its first publication in the 1923–24 issue of L’Année Sociologique. With a critical foreword by Jonathan Pa

Recommended by Will Davies.

Will Davies

A classic of economic anthropology. Its central argument is that gifts of all kinds require reciprocity and that this plays a fundamental role in how societies cohere. [source]

36

The Mismeasure of Man

Stephen Jay Gould

4.1

The definitive refutation to the argument of The Bell Curve.

How smart are you? If that question doesn't spark a dozen more questions in your mind (like "What do you mean by 'smart,'" "How do I measure it" and "Who's asking?"), then The Mismeasure of Man, Stephen Jay Gould's masterful demolition of the IQ industry, should be required reading. Gould's brilliant, funny, engaging prose dissects the mo

Recommended by Carol Dweck, Jerry Coyne, and Susan Gelman.

Carol Dweck

I was raised in the heyday of the IQ craze. My sixth grade teacher seated us around the room in IQ order and assigned all privileges on the basis of IQ. This book made me realise the effect it had on us and I saw that my work could play a role in bringing that era to a close. [source]

Jerry Coyne

He had this Marxist viewpoint towards biology which in the end made him almost reject natural selection. [source]

Susan Gelman

This is a classic book. It was published in 1981 and got a lot of attention when it came out. Gould just does this beautiful job of laying out the ‘biology as destiny’ idea – and then ripping it to shreds. [source]

37

Pegando fogo: Por que cozinhar nos tornou humanos

Richard Wrangham

4.1

Neste livro, o antropólogo biológico americano, Richard Wrangham, redesenha completamente nossa compreensão sobre nós mesmos. Para ele, ao contrário do que se pensa desde Darwin, passamos a cozinhar antes de nos tornarmos humanos, e nos tornamos homens justamente porque passamos a cozinhar os alimentos.

Essa "hipótese do cozimento" afirma que um antepassado imediato do Homo sapiens, o Homo erectus,

Recommended by Steven Raichlen and Suzana Herculano-Houzel.

Steven Raichlen

People have deep emotions about grilling. The act of lighting a fire and creating a barbecue seems to bring a sense of comfort, satisfaction and community that you just don’t get with other cooking methods. Why? There is the pleasure of sitting around a fire, the incredible aromas and flavours you get with cooking over fire and then there’s the long human history of open-fire cooking. [source]

Suzana Herculano-Houzel

Essentially what Richard proposes is that the turning point in human evolutionary history was the invention of cooking. [source]

38

Europe and the People Without History

Eric Wolf

4.1

The intention of this work is to show that European expansion not only transformed the historical trajectory of non-European societies but also reconstituted the historical accounts of these societies before European intervention. It asserts that anthropology must pay more attention to history.

39

Between the World and Me

Ta-Nehisi Coates

4.1

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER [[ LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD [[ Hailed by Toni Morrison as "required reading," a bold and personal literary exploration of America's racial history by "the single best writer on the subject of race in the United States" (The New York Observer)

"This is your country, this is your world, this is your body, and you must find some way to live within the all of

Recommended by Barack Obama, Jack Dorsey, Doug McMillon, and 5 others.

Barack Obama

Former USA President

The president also released a list of his summer favorites back in 2015: All That Is, James Salter The Sixth Extinction, Elizabeth Kolbert The Lowland, Jhumpa Lahiri Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates Washington: A Life, Ron Chernow All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr [source]

Jack Dorsey

Co-Founder/Twitter

Q: What are the books that had a major influence on you? Or simply the ones you like the most. : Tao te Ching, score takes care of itself, between the world and me, the four agreements, the old man and the sea...I love reading! [source]

Doug McMillon

CEO/Walmart

Here are some of my favorite reads from 2017. Lots of friends and colleagues send me book suggestions and it's impossible to squeeze them all in. I continue to be super curious about how digital and tech are enabling people to transform our lives but I try to read a good mix of books that apply to a variety of areas and stretch my thinking more broadly. [source]

40

Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World

Tracy Kidder

4.1

Preview Summary

This powerful and inspiring book shows how one person can make a difference, as Kidder tells the true story of a gifted man who is in love with the world and has set out to do all he can to cure it.

Tracy Kidder is a winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the author of the bestsellers The Soul of a New Machine, House, Among Schoolchildren, and Home Town. He has been described by the Baltimore Sun as the

Recommended by Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Cecile Richards, and 1 others.

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

On Bill Gates's reading list in 2011. [source]

Richard Branson

Founder/Virgin Group

Today is World Book Day, a wonderful opportunity to address this #ChallengeRichard sent in by Mike Gonzalez of New Jersey: Make a list of your top 65 books to read in a lifetime. [source]

Cecile Richards

Everyone has to read this book. I guess I just picked it for anyone who hasn’t read it and if you’re a progressive and you’re trying to figure out what to do with your life. Tracy Kidder is a great writer so that doesn’t hurt, but Paul Farmer’s story, the story of one person who decides they want to change the world, is so compelling. I think even for the most cynical, hard-bitten progressive you can’t help but read this book and feel inspired. So it’s a lot of levels. [source]

41

The Forest People

Colin Turnbull

4.1

The bestselling, classic text on one anthropologist’s incredible experience living among the African Mbuti Pygmies, and what he learned from their culture, customs, and love of life.

In this bestselling book, Colin Turnbull, a British cultural anthropologist, details the incredible Mbuti pygmy people and their love of the forest, and each other. Turnbull lived among the Mbuti people for three years

Recommended by Emrys Westacott.

Emrys Westacott

Colin Turnbull is a well-known anthropologist who wrote popular books. This book, The Forest People, is about the pygmies of the Congo and he paints a portrait of their lives. Some people would probably say it’s an idealised portrait, and maybe it is. The book had a big influence on me, because it portrayed a form of life which is very different from our own, and very different to the kind advocated by Haidt or Nietzsche. What strikes me about the form of life the pygmies live is that they’re not trying to achieve anything beyond what they already have. We almost take it as a given that we should be striving for things. In The Forest People they hunt, they gather, they set up their houses (they’re nomads), and then they sit around the fire and eat and sing songs in the evening. And they do the same the next day. The kids play, splashing around in rivers and climbing trees. They don’t think there’s any need to do anything more. I find that fascinating. I think it’s a very interesting and important counterpoint to what we take for granted – the preferability of a purpose-driven life. I don’t live like the forest people, but I think contemplating how they live is very worthwhile. When I read this book it raised a question mark for me about some of the values we take for granted. [source]

42

Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle

Daniel Leonard Everett

4.1

A riveting account of the astonishing experiences and discoveries made by linguist Daniel Everett while he lived with the Pirahã, a small tribe of Amazonian Indians in central Brazil.

Everett, then a Christian missionary, arrived among the Pirahã in 1977–with his wife and three young children–intending to convert them. What he found was a language that defies all existing linguistic theories and r

43

Cannibals and Kings: Origins of Cultures

Marvin Harris

4.1

In this brilliant and profound study the distinguished American anthropologist Marvin Harris shows how the endless varieties of cultural behavior -- often so puzzling at first glance -- can be explained as adaptations to particular ecological conditions. His aim is to account for the evolution of cultural forms as Darwin accounted for the evolution of biological forms: to show how cultures adopt t

44

Structural Anthropology

Claude Levi-strauss

4.1

Structural Anthropology provides an introduction to his distinctive approach to anthropology as the study of a science of general principles. The now renowned 'structural method, ' which has changed the face of social anthropology, views man and society in terms of universals--kinship, social organization, religion and mythology, and art.

45

Dead Men Do Tell Tales: The Strange and Fascinating Cases of a Forensic Anthropologist

William R. Maples and Michael Browning

4.1

From a skeleton, a skull, a mere fragment of burnt thighbone, Dr. William Maples can deduce the age, gender, and ethnicity of a murder victim, the manner in which the person was dispatched, and, ultimately, the identity of the killer. In Dead Men Do Tell Tales, Dr. Maples revisits his strangest, most interesting, and most horrific investigations, from the baffling cases of conquistador Francisco P

46

Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End

Atul Gawande

4.1

Preview Summary

Medicine has triumphed in modern times, transforming the dangers of childbirth, injury, and disease from harrowing to manageable. But when it comes to the inescapable realities of aging and death, what medicine can do often runs counter to what it should.

Through eye-opening research and gripping stories of his own patients and family, Atul Gawande, a practicing surgeon, reveals the suffering this

Recommended by Barack Obama, Malcolm Gladwell, Indra Nooyi, and 4 others.

Barack Obama

Former USA President

President Obama is spending his Hawaiian vacation playing golf, getting together with high school friends and reading a handful of dark novels set in foreign lands, according to a book list released by the White House Wednesday. The presidential reading list includes … two works of non-fiction for the trip: … "Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End" by Dr. Atul Gawande. [source]

Malcolm Gladwell

Writer & Journalist

American medicine, Being Mortal reminds us, has prepared itself for life but not for death. This is Atul Gawande's most powerful--and moving--book. [source]

Indra Nooyi

Board of Directors/Amazon

Just finished "Being Mortal" by Atul Gawande. A beautifully written book. Captivating. [source]

47

The Serpent and the Rainbow

Wade Davis

4.1

A scientific investigation and personal adventure story about zombis and the voudoun culture of Haiti by a Harvard scientist.

In April 1982, ethnobotanist Wade Davis arrived in Haiti to investigate two documented cases of zombis—people who had reappeared in Haitian society years after they had been officially declared dead and had been buried. Drawn into a netherworld of rituals and celebrations, D

48

Nisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman

Marjorie Shostak

4.1

This classic paperback is available once again--and exclusively--from Harvard University Press. This book is the story of the life of Nisa, a member of the !Kung tribe of hunter-gatherers from southern Africa's Kalahari desert. Told in her own words--earthy, emotional, vivid--to Marjorie Shostak, a Harvard anthropologist who succeeded, with Nisa's collaboration, in breaking through the immense bar

49

In Search of Respect

Philippe Bourgois

4.1

Philippe Bourgois's ethnographic study of social marginalization in inner-city America, won critical acclaim when it was first published in 1995. For the first time, an anthropologist had managed to gain the trust and long-term friendship of street-level drug dealers in one of the roughest ghetto neighborhoods--East Harlem. This new edition adds a prologue describing the major dynamics that have a

50

Watching the English: The International Bestseller Revised and Updated

Kate Fox

4.1

In WATCHING THE ENGLISH anthropologist Kate Fox takes a revealing look at the quirks, habits and foibles of the English people. She puts the English national character under her anthropological microscope, and finds a strange and fascinating culture, governed by complex sets of unspoken rules and byzantine codes of behaviour. The rules of weather-speak. The ironic-gnome rule. The reflex apology ru

Recommended by Cat Williams-Treloar.

Cat Williams-Treloar

I remember very fondly when I moved from Australia to the UK. The cultural differences were small, but there were still things I didn't understand such as why people talked about the weather or decorated bathrooms. In 2006 I bought "Watching the English" by Kate Fox. It was a treasure trove of explanations about British behaviour. It certainly kicked off an enjoyable five years in the UK. [source]

51

Coming of Age in Samoa: A Psychological Study of Primitive Youth for Western Civilisation

Margaret Mead

4.1

Rarely do science and literature come together in the same book. When they do -- as in Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, for example -- they become classics, quoted and studied by scholars and the general public alike.

Margaret Mead accomplished this remarkable feat not once but several times, beginning with Coming of Age in Samoa. It details her historic journey to American Samoa, taken w

52

1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created

Charles C. Mann

4.1

A deeply engaging new history of how European settlements in the post-Colombian Americas shaped the world, from the bestselling author of 1491. Presenting the latest research by biologists, anthropologists, archaeologists, and historians, Mann shows how the post-Columbian network of ecological and economic exchange fostered the rise of Europe, devastated imperial China, convulsed Africa, and for t

Recommended by Harsh Gupta, Louise Fresco, and Tim @Realscientists.

Harsh Gupta

Have you read the 1491 and 1493 book series? About the discovery of Americas and what it meant. Fascinating stuff. Have been reading 1493 by Charles Mann on Kindle. [source]

Louise Fresco

Charles Mann has many interesting stories about many foods, but the main message is the importance of trade and the fact that there have been massive movements of foods backwards and forwards. [source]

Tim @Realscientists

I highly recommend @CharlesCMann's fantastic book "1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created" for perspective on Andean potato history and its outsized influence on world history (see: Irish potato famine). https://t.co/soMV0uzawP [source]

53

The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge

Carlos Castaneda

4.1

Decades ago the University of California Press published a remarkable manuscript by an anthropology student named Carlos Castaneda. The Teachings of Don Juan initiated a generation of seekers dissatisfied with the limitations of the Western worldview. Castaneda's now classic book remains controversial for the alternative way of seeing that it presents & the revolution in cognition it demands. In a

Recommended by Aubrey Marcus.

54

The Savage Mind

Claude Lévi-Strauss

4.1

An examination of the structure of the thought of primitive' peoples, and has contributed significantly to our understanding of the way the human mind works.

55

The Chrysanthemum and the Sword: Patterns of Japanese Culture

Ruth Benedict

4.1

A recognized classic of cultural anthropology, this book explores the political, religious, and economic life of Japan from the seventh century through the mid-twentieth, as well as personal family life.

56

The Gene: An Intimate History

Siddhartha Mukherjee

4.1

Preview Summary

Recommended by Bill Gates, Reid Hoffman, Amit Paranjape, and 1 others.

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

"Mukherjee wrote this book for a lay audience, because he knows that the new genome technologies are at the cusp of affecting us all in profound ways," Gates wrote. Mukherjee is what Gates calls a "quadruple threat." He's a practicing physician, teacher, researcher, and author. [source]

Amit Paranjape

@vikramsathaye @DrSidMukherjee @kiranshaw Great book. [source]

Bryan Johnson

A great book. [source]

57

A Primate's Memoir: A Neuroscientist's Unconventional Life Among the Baboons

Robert M. Sapolsky

4.1

In the tradition of Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey, Robert Sapolsky, a foremost science writer and recipient of a MacArthur Genius Grant, tells the mesmerizing story of his twenty-one years in remote Kenya with a troop of Savannah baboons.

“I had never planned to become a savanna baboon when I grew up; instead, I had always assumed I would become a mountain gorilla,” writes Robert Sapolsky in this wi

Recommended by Nick Pyenson.

Nick Pyenson

Sapolsky’s book is my favourite in the modern scientist-author canon.He places you in his shoes, and shows you how his ensemble cast of baboons (generations of them, actually) have personality, agency, and succumb to the same foibles that we do. [source]

58

Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed

James C. Scott

4.1

Compulsory ujamaa villages in Tanzania, collectivization in Russia, Le Corbusier's urban planning theory realized in Brasilia, the Great Leap Forward in China, agricultural modernization in the Tropics - the 20th century has been racked by grand utopian schemes that have inadvertently brought death and disruption to millions. Why do well-intentioned plans for improving the human condition go tragi

Recommended by Marvin Liao, Clare Lockhart, Dan Sullivan, and 2 others.

Marvin Liao

Partner/500 Startups

I tend to jump from book to book and may switch if I am interested in some new topic. This is a pleasure for me (which I also do benefit work wise from too). It’s quite a random list because I have eclectic interests (or just scatterbrained most likely) on tech business, AI, general global economy, geopolitics, rising Biotech economy & history. I'm basically 15% to 50% into all these books. [source]

Clare Lockhart

Seeing Like A State. He’s quite similar to Dewey in a way. He also sees the state as only a mechanism. But he thinks that the way that the state chooses to count, or the way it chooses to see, will inform how it behaves and what kind of animal it becomes. Scott explains, for example, how in France, in early modern times, the state decided to count two things. It decided to count how much salt there was and how many able-bodied men there were, because it wanted to tax the salt and send the able-bodied men off to war. Now perhaps the state decides to count other things, how many healthy people there are, how many well-educated people they are… So that what the state chooses to count determines the parameters of what the state chooses to do. [source]

Roger Pielke Jr

A good lesson for people thinking about climate change, whether to create a global policy for carbon dioxide emissions. [source]

59

Lucy: the beginnings of humankind

Donald C. Johanson, Maitland Edey

4.1

“A glorious success…The science manages to be as exciting and spellbinding as the juiciest gossip” (San Franscisco Chronicle) in the story of the discovery of “Lucy”—the oldest, best-preserved skeleton of any erect-walking human ancestor ever found.

When Donald Johanson found a partical skeleton, approximately 3.5 million years old, in a remote region of Ethiopia in 1974, a headline-making controve

60

Orientalism

Edward Said

4.1

Preview Summary

More than three decades after its first publication, Edward Said's groundbreaking critique of the West's historical, cultural, and political perceptions of the East has become a modern classic.

In this wide-ranging, intellectually vigorous study, Said traces the origins of "orientalism" to the centuries-long period during which Europe dominated the Middle and Near East and, from its position of pow

61

All About Love: New Visions

bell hooks

4.1

Preview Summary

All About Love offers radical new ways to think about love by showing its interconnectedness in our private and public lives. In eleven concise chapters, hooks explains how our everyday notions of what it means to give and receive love often fail us, and how these ideals are established in early childhood. She offers a rethinking of self-love (without narcissism) that will bring peace and compassi

Recommended by Emma Watson, Are You Valet, Juliana Castro, and 1 others.

Are You Valet

Love this book https://t.co/BRuxfaWaq3 [source]

Juliana Castro

@the_jennitaur @jessicahelfand @jiatolentino 8. All about love by Bell Hooks. Essay. The first book I read this year, after a recommendation of an already then ex. Heartbreaking, but good for those open to the challenge. A book about psychology, self-respect, feminism, and care. https://t.co/99xi6w9ZPl [source]

Skye C Cleary

hooks argues that love can be transformative, both individually and socially, but we’re not taught to love well, we’re not taught what love is, and we’re not talking about love in any meaningful way. [source]

62

The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure

Greg Lukianoff, Jonathan Haidt

4.1

Preview Summary

A timely investigation into the campus assault on free speech and what it means for students, education, and our democracy.

The generation now coming of age has been taught three Great Untruths: their feelings are always right; they should avoid pain and discomfort; and they should look for faults in others and not themselves. These three Great Untruths are part of a larger philosophy that sees you

Recommended by Mark Manson, Max Levchin, Bryan Johnson, and 3 others.

Mark Manson

Founder/MarkManson.net

The kids aren’t alright. No, really—I know every generation says that, but this time it’s true. Kids who grew up with smartphones (and have begun to enter the university system) are emotionally stunted, overly fragile, and exhibiting mental health issues at alarming rates. I expected this book to be another, “Let’s all shit on social media together,” party, but it’s not. Social media, of course, does get its own chapter. But most of the book is focused on cultural shifts that have happened over the past couple generations. [source]

Max Levchin

Co-founder/PayPal, CEO/Affirm, Investor

Highlights the need to continue to have such discussions about sensitive topics instead of ignoring them for the sake of comfort. [source]

Bryan Johnson

Excited to read this new book by my friends. [source]

63

Food of the Gods: The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge

Terence McKenna

4.0

s/t: A Radical History of Plants, Drugs & Human Evolution
For the first time in paperback, the critically acclaimed counterculture manifesto by the wildly popular McKenna. "Deserves to be a modern classic on mind-altering drugs & hallucinogens."--The Washington Post. Photos & illustrations.

64

The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World (CBC Massey Lecture)

Wade Davis

4.0

Every culture is a unique answer to a fundamental question: What does it mean to be human and alive? In The Wayfinders, renowned anthropologist, winner of the prestigious Samuel Johnson Prize, and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Wade Davis leads us on a thrilling journey to celebrate the wisdom of the world's indigenous cultures.

In Polynesia we set sail with navigators whose ancestors se

65

Myth and Meaning: Cracking the Code of Culture

Claude Levi-Strauss

4.0

Ever since the rise of science and the scientific method in the seventeenth century, we have rejected mythology as the product of superstitious and primitive minds. Only now are we coming to a fuller appreciation of the nature and role of myth in human history. In these five lectures originally prepared for Canadian radio, Claude Lévi-Strauss offers, in brief summations, the insights of a lifetime

66

Your Inner Fish: A Journey Into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body

Neil Shubin

4.0

Preview Summary

Why do we look the way we do? What does the human hand have in common with the wing of a fly? Are breasts, sweat glands, and scales connected in some way? To better understand the inner workings of our bodies and to trace the origins of many of today's most common diseases, we have to turn to unexpected sources: worms, flies, and even fish.

Neil Shubin, a leading paleontologist and professor of ana

67

Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors

Nicholas Wade

4.0

Nicholas Wade's articles are a major reason why the science section has become the most popular, nationwide, in the New York Times. In his groundbreaking Before the Dawn, Wade reveals humanity's origins as never before--a journey made possible only recently by genetic science, whose incredible findings have answered such questions as: What was the first human language like? How large were the firs

68

Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City

Matthew Desmond

4.0

Preview Summary

In Evicted, Princeton sociologist and MacArthur "Genius" Matthew Desmond follows eight families in Milwaukee as they struggle to keep a roof over their heads. Evicted transforms our understanding of poverty and economic exploitation while providing fresh ideas for solving one of 21st-century America's most devastating problems. Its unforgettable scenes of hope and loss remind us of the centrality

Recommended by Bill Gates, Satya Nadella, Noah Kagan, and 1 others.

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

If you want a good understanding of how the issues that cause poverty are intertwined, you should read this book about the eviction crisis in Milwaukee. Desmond has written a brilliant portrait of Americans living in poverty. He gave me a better sense of what it is like to be poor in this country than anything else I have read. [source]

Satya Nadella

CEO/Microsoft

Nadella is using this season to learn more in a variety of subjects. By the looks of it, he is interested in, among other things, virtual reality, the refugee crisis, and housing for the urban poor. [source]

Noah Kagan

Founder/Sumo

Surprising insights into the lives of people who were evicted. I make a lot of assumptions about these people. Turns out I was wrong WHY they get evicted. [source]

69

A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived: The Stories in Our Genes

Adam Rutherford

4.0

This is a story about you. It is the history of who you are and how you came to be. It is unique to you, as it is to each of the 100 billion modern humans who have ever drawn breath. But it is also our collective story, because in every one of our genomes we each carry the history of our species births, deaths, disease, war, famine, migration, and a lot of sex.

Since scientists first read the huma

Recommended by Jim Al-Khalili.

Jim Al-Khalili

Rutherford tells the story of our genetic makeup, how it has shaped human history and what history can now tell us about our genes. It’s a hugely illuminating and fresh take on who we are and how we came to be. [source]

70

Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology

David Graeber

4.0

Everywhere anarchism is on the upswing as a political philosophy—everywhere, that is, except the academy. Anarchists repeatedly appeal to anthropologists for ideas about how society might be reorganized on a more egalitarian, less alienating basis. Anthropologists, terrified of being accused of romanticism, respond with silence . . . . But what if they didn't?

This pamphlet ponders what that respon

71

Righteous Dopefiend

Philippe Bourgois and Jeffrey Schonberg

4.0

This powerful work of gonzo journalism, predating the widespread acknowledgement of the opioid epidemic as such, immerses the reader in the world of homelessness and drug and alcohol abuse in the contemporary United States. For over a decade Philippe Bourgois and Jeff Schonberg followed a social network of two dozen heroin injectors and crack smokers in the San Francisco drug scene, accompanying t

Recommended by Karl T. Muth.

Karl T. Muth

@Dannyhbrown @womenofcrypto If you're curious how it got this bad, or what it was like while it was becoming this bad, I suggest the definitive ethnographic study on drug use and homelessness in SF, Righteous Dopefiend. It is a fantastic, though depressing, book. [source]

72

Death's Acre: Inside the Legendary Forensic Lab the Body Farm Where the Dead Do Tell Tales

William Bass and Jon Jefferson

4.0

Dr. Bill Bass, one of the world's leading forensic anthropologists, gained international attention when he built a forensic lab like no other: The Body Farm. Now, this master scientist unlocks the gates of his lab to reveal his most intriguing cases-and to revisit the Lindbergh kidnapping and murder, fifty years after the fact.

73

From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death

Caitlin Doughty

4.0

The best-selling author of Smoke Gets in Your Eyes expands our sense of what it means to treat the dead with “dignity.”

Fascinated by our pervasive terror of dead bodies, mortician Caitlin Doughty set out to discover how other cultures care for their dead. In rural Indonesia, she observes a man clean and dress his grandfather’s mummified body. Grandpa’s mummy has lived in the family home for two ye

Recommended by Dylan Thuras.

Dylan Thuras

Caitlin Doughty is razor sharp, and writes about death with exceptional clarity and style. From Here to Eternity manages to be both an extremely funny travelogue and a deeply moving book about what death means to us all. [source]

74

Guests of the Sheik: An Ethnography of an Iraqi Village

Elizabeth Warnock Fernea

4.0

A delightful, well-written, and vastly informative ethnographic study, this is an account of Fernea's two-year stay in a tiny rural village in Iraq, where she assumed the dress and sheltered life of a harem woman.

75

Death Without Weeping: The Violence of Everyday Life in Brazil

Nancy Scheper-Hughes

4.0

When lives are dominated by hunger, what becomes of love? When assaulted by daily acts of violence and untimely death, what happens to trust? Set in the lands of Northeast Brazil, this is an account of the everyday experience of scarcity, sickness and death that centres on the lives of the women and children of a hillside "favela". Bringing her readers to the impoverished slopes above the modern p

76

The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon

DAVID GRANN

4.0

A grand mystery reaching back centuries. A sensational disappearance that made headlines around the world. A quest for truth that leads to death, madness or disappearance for those who seek to solve it. The Lost City of Z is a blockbuster adventure narrative about what lies beneath the impenetrable jungle canopy of the Amazon.

After stumbling upon a hidden trove of diaries, New Yorker writer David

Recommended by The Jupiter Girl.

The Jupiter Girl

The Lost City of Z (I have the book and it remains unread in Australia) is an odd little film, it's really more about the father-son relationship rather than what motivates Fawcett. It's a slow and dreamy film about a dreamer searching for some great achievement in his life [source]

77

Veiled Sentiments: Honor and Poetry in a Bedouin Society (updated with a new preface)

Lila Abu-Lughod

4.0

Updated Edition With a New Preface

Lila Abu-Lughod lived with a community of Bedouins in the Western Desert of Egypt for nearly two years, studying gender relations and the oral lyric poetry through which women and young men express personal feelings. The poems are haunting, the evocation of emotional life vivid. But her analysis also reveals how deeply implicated poetry and sentiment are in the pl

78

The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature

Matt Ridley

4.0

Referring to Lewis Carroll's Red Queen from Through the Looking-Glass, a character who has to keep running to stay in the same place, Matt Ridley demonstrates why sex is humanity's best strategy for outwitting its constantly mutating internal predators. The Red Queen answers dozens of other riddles of human nature and culture -- including why men propose marriage, the method behind our maddening n

Recommended by Naval Ravikant, Seth Godin, and Aubrey Marcus.

Naval Ravikant

CEO & Co-Founder/AngelList

Getting into the more evolution, science kind of books, I really highly, highly recommend picking up … The Red Queen. [source]

79

The Moral Animal: Why We Are the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology

Robert Wright

4.0

Are men literally born to cheat? Does monogamy actually serve women's interests? These are among the questions that have made The Moral Animal one of the most provocative science books in recent years. Wright unveils the genetic strategies behind everything from our sexual preferences to our office politics--as well as their implications for our moral codes and public policies. Illustrations.

Recommended by Reid Hoffman and Ryan Holiday.

Ryan Holiday

Author

This is probably the definitive beginner text on evolutionary psychology and one of the easiest to get into. It’s a little depressing at first, realizing how ruthless many of our so called “good” feelings are. But then you realize that truth is better than ignorance, and you emerge seeing the world as it truly is for the first time. [source]

80

The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language

Steven Pinker

4.0

Preview Summary

The classic book on the development of human language by the world’s leading expert on language and the mind.

In this classic, the world's expert on language and mind lucidly explains everything you always wanted to know about language: how it works, how children learn it, how it changes, how the brain computes it, and how it evolved. With deft use of examples of humor and wordplay, Steven Pinker w

Recommended by Lane Greene and Simon Baron-Cohen.

Lane Greene

There are two achievements in this book. One is to smuggle Linguistics 101 into a popular book, which is just fantastic. The other is his own argument about the nature of language, and the title says it all. [source]

Simon Baron-Cohen

It’s a really wonderful example of what you can do: take research into something as fundamental to human nature as language and make it accessible to a wide audience. [source]

81

The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge

Jeremy Narby

4.0

This adventure in science and imagination, which the Medical Tribune said might herald "a Copernican revolution for the life sciences," leads the reader through unexplored jungles and uncharted aspects of mind to the heart of knowledge.In a first-person narrative of scientific discovery that opens new perspectives on biology, anthropology, and the limits of rationalism, The Cosmic Serpent reveals

Recommended by Aubrey Marcus and Dan Engle.

Dan Engle

Amazing for me. [source]

82

The Silk Roads: A New History of the World

Peter Frankopan

4.0

Preview Summary

The sun is setting on the Western world. Slowly but surely, the direction in which the world spins has reversed: where for the last five centuries the globe turned westwards on its axis, it now turns to the east...For centuries, fame and fortune was to be found in the west - in the New World of the Americas. Today, it is the east which calls out to those in search of adventure and riches. The regi

Recommended by Professor Frank Mcdonough and Raoul Pal.

Professor Frank Mcdonough

Christmas is coming and if you want to give a thought-provoking book to that history fan in your life then the recent books by the brilliant @peterfrankopan will satisfy. Some write books, this guy changes perceptions. https://t.co/gWZWZnv5TN [source]

Raoul Pal

@The92ers @zerohedge It’s fascinating. The Peter Frankopan book on the Silk Roads told history well from the perspective of Iran in particular [source]

83

The Clan of the Cave Bear (Earth's Children, #1)

Jean M. Auel, Sandra Burr, et al

4.0

This novel of awesome beauty and power is a moving saga about people, relationships, and the boundaries of love. Through Jean M. Auel's magnificent storytelling we are taken back to the dawn of modern humans, and with a girl named Ayla we are swept up in the harsh and beautiful Ice Age world they shared with the ones who called themselves the Clan of the Cave Bear.

A natural disaster leaves the yo

84

Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights and the New War on the Poor

Paul Farmer, Amartya Sen

4.0

Pathologies of Power uses harrowing stories of life—and death—in extreme situations to interrogate our understanding of human rights. Paul Farmer, a physician and anthropologist with twenty years of experience working in Haiti, Peru, and Russia, argues that promoting the social and economic rights of the world’s poor is the most important human rights struggle of our times. With passionate eyewitn

85

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World

Jack Weatherford

4.0

The name Genghis Khan often conjures the image of a relentless, bloodthirsty barbarian on horseback leading a ruthless band of nomadic warriors in the looting of the civilized world. But the surprising truth is that Genghis Khan was a visionary leader whose conquests joined backward Europe with the flourishing cultures of Asia to trigger a global awakening, an unprecedented explosion of technologi

Recommended by Ben Horowitz, Daymond John, Lisa Ling, and 2 others.

Ben Horowitz

Co-founder/Andreessen Horowitz

Unexpectedly the most interesting book on the topic of how you think about inclusion. [source]

Daymond John

Founder/FUBU

Daymond John said this is one of his most-recommended books. [source]

Lisa Ling

Genghis Khan was a great democratizer. His Mongol Empire conquered more territory in 25 years than the Romans did in 200. [source]

86

The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion

Mircea Eliade and Willard R. Trask

4.0

In the classic text The Sacred and the Profane, famed historian of religion Mircea Eliade observes that even moderns who proclaim themselves residents of a completely profane world are still unconsciously nourished by the memory of the sacred. Eliade traces manifestations of the sacred from primitive to modern times in terms of space, time, nature, and the cosmos. In doing so he shows how the tota

Recommended by Cristina Riesen.

Cristina Riesen

First, a word on career paths. In time, I realised that career paths are like one-way streets. Magic happens in unexplored territories. Plus life is how you choose to live every moment, every day. So today, rather than building a career, I prefer to make lateral moves in life, working with great people and being part of ambitious projects impacting the world. There are a few books that got me here: Mircea Eliade “The Sacred and the Profane”. [source]

87

The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World

David W. Anthony

4.0

Roughly half the world's population speaks languages derived from a shared linguistic source known as Proto-Indo-European. But who were the early speakers of this ancient mother tongue, and how did they manage to spread it around the globe? Until now their identity has remained a tantalizing mystery to linguists, archaeologists, and even Nazis seeking the roots of the Aryan race. The Horse, the Wh

88

Writing Culture: The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography

James Clifford, George E. Marcus

4.0

In these new essays, a group of experienced ethnographers, a literary critic, and a historian of anthropology, all known for advanced analytic work on ethnographic writing, place ethnography at the center of a new intersection of social history, interpretive anthropology, travel writing, discourse theory, and textual criticism.
The authors analyze classic examples of cultural description, from Goet

89

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea

Barbara Demick, Karen White, et al

4.0

Nothing to Envy follows the lives of six North Koreans over fifteen years—a chaotic period that saw the death of Kim Il-sung, the unchallenged rise to power of his son Kim Jong-il, and the devastation of a far-ranging famine that killed one-fifth of the population.

Taking us into a landscape most of us have never before seen, award-winning journalist Barbara Demick brings to life what it means to

Recommended by Hyeonseo Lee.

Hyeonseo Lee

She includes great details that show everyday life in North Korea. [source]

90

Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History

Sidney W. Mintz

4.0

Traces the history of sugar production and consumption, examines its relationship with slavery, class ambitions, and industrialization, and describes sugar's impact on modern diet and eating habits.

Recommended by Louise Fresco.

Louise Fresco

England’s Industrial Revolution wouldn’t have been the same without sugar because the poorer classes wouldn’t have had enough energy. [source]

91

Steps to an Ecology of Mind: Collected Essays in Anthropology, Psychiatry, Evolution, and Epistemology

Gregory Bateson

4.0

Gregory Bateson was a philosopher, anthropologist, photographer, naturalist, and poet, as well as the husband and collaborator of Margaret Mead. With a new foreword by his daughter Mary Katherine Bateson, this classic anthology of his major work will continue to delight and inform generations of readers.

"This collection amounts to a retrospective exhibition of a working life. . . . Bateson has co

92

Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past

David Reich

4.0

A groundbreaking book about how technological advances in genomics and the extraction of ancient DNA have profoundly changed our understanding of human prehistory while resolving many long-standing controversies.

Massive technological innovations now allow scientists to extract and analyze ancient DNA as never before, and it has become clear--in part from David Reich's own contributions to the fiel

Recommended by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Author

I will write a longer review, but this is a monument, not just a book. And the beginning of a new cultural program. On a scale of 0 to 100, paternity tests count as 99.99 and written/oral history should count for .01. Apply that to populations. That’s plain statistics/probability. We are seeing science in action: information theory displaces BS, the handwaving just so stories we got from historians. [source]

93

Gods of the Upper Air: How a Circle of Renegade Anthropologists Reinvented Race, Sex, and Gender in the Twentieth Century

Charles King

4.0

A dazzling group portrait of Franz Boas, the founder of cultural anthropology, and his circle of women scientists, who upended American notions of race, gender, and sexuality in the 1920s and 1930s--a sweeping chronicle of how our society began to question the basic ways we understand other cultures and ourselves.

At the end of the 19th century, everyone knew that people were defined by their race

Recommended by Damakant Jayshi, Elizabeth Taylor, and Ibram X. Kendi.

Damakant Jayshi

About to finish this wonderful book, Gods of the Upper Air by @charleskingdc. It's been a fascinating read so far! https://t.co/YHMeMlRk6P [source]

Elizabeth Taylor

At the centre of King’s fascinating book is Columbia University’s Franz Boas (1858–1942), the father of cultural anthropology who challenged his era’s prevailing wisdom that race, gender and sexuality were destiny. While Boas championed cultural diversity and scientific discovery, he also created an environment that inspired a circle of visionary women researchers whose who were pathbreaking. [source]

Ibram X. Kendi

@charleskingdc @JimGoldgeier Oh, thank you. But Charles your new bestseller, Gods of the Upper Air, is so necessary too for our times with eugenics and newer versions of pseudoscientific bigotry ascendant. I’m so glad for the great reception to your wonderful book. [source]

94

The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog: And Other Stories from a Child Psychiatrist's Notebook

Bruce D Perry and Maia Szalavitz

4.0

Preview Summary

A renowned psychiatrist reveals how trauma affects children--and outlines the path to recoveryHow does trauma affect a child's mind--and how can that mind recover? In the classic The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog, Dr. Perry explains what happens to the brains of children exposed to extreme stress and shares their lessons of courage, humanity, and hope. Only when we understand the science of the mind

95

The Innocent Anthropologist: Notes from a Mud Hut

Nigel Barley

4.0

Note: This book was originally published as Not a Hazardous Sport. When British anthropologist Nigel Barley set up home among the Dowayo people in northern Cameroon, he knew how fieldwork should be conducted. Unfortunately, nobody had told the Dowayo. His compulsive, witty account of first fieldwork offers a wonderfully inspiring introduction to the real life of a cultural anthropologist doing res

96

Kon-Tiki

Thor Heyerdahl

4.0

Kon-Tiki is the record of an astonishing adventure -- a journey of 4,300 nautical miles across the Pacific Ocean by raft. Intrigued by Polynesian folklore, biologist Thor Heyerdahl suspected that the South Sea Islands had been settled by an ancient race from thousands of miles to the east, led by a mythical hero, Kon-Tiki. He decided to prove his theory by duplicating the legendary voyage.

On April

Recommended by Ovidiu Drugan.

Ovidiu Drugan

Expedition books from north pole to across the oceans with ships or rafts. [source]

97

The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature

Steven Pinker

4.0

“In a work of outstanding clarity and sheer brilliance Steven Pinker banishes forever fears that a biological understanding of human nature threatens humane values.”
—Helena Cronin, author of The Ant and The Peacock

“A mind blowing, mind openingexpos. Pinker's profoundly positive arguments for the compatibility of biology and humanism are unrivalled for their scope and depth and should be mandatory,

Recommended by David Brooks.

David Brooks

An argument against the old view that there is no such thing as human nature, that we’re all culturally determined. He brings together a ton of evidence that that’s wrong. [source]

98

Ishmael

Daniel Quinn, Anthony Heald, et al

4.0

An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit

The narrator of this extraordinary tale is a man in search for truth. He answers an ad in a local newspaper from a teacher looking for serious pupils, only to find himself alone in an abandoned office with a full-grown gorilla who is nibbling delicately on a slender branch. "You are the teacher?" he asks incredulously. "I am the teacher," the gorilla replies. Ish

99

The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins

Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing

4.0

What a rare mushroom can teach us about sustaining life on a fragile planet

Matsutake is the most valuable mushroom in the world--and a weed that grows in human-disturbed forests across the northern hemisphere. Through its ability to nurture trees, matsutake helps forests to grow in daunting places. It is also an edible delicacy in Japan, where it sometimes commands astronomical prices. In all its

100

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

Mary Roach

4.0

Stiff is an oddly compelling, often hilarious exploration of the strange lives of our bodies postmortem. For two thousand years, cadavers—some willingly, some unwittingly—have been involved in science's boldest strides and weirdest undertakings. In this fascinating account, Mary Roach visits the good deeds of cadavers over the centuries and tells the engrossing story of our bodies when we are no l