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Joe Henrich's Top Book Recommendations

Want to know what books Joe Henrich recommends? We've researched interviews, social media posts, podcasts, and articles to build a comprehensive list of Joe Henrich's favorite book recommendations of all time. At Shortform, we know books. Our book guides are the best in the world. Learn why.

The Selfish Gene book cover1

The Selfish Gene

Richard Dawkins

4.4
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
Charles T. Munger portraitEv Williams portraitBrian Armstrong portrait Recommended by Charles T. Munger, Ev Williams, Brian Armstrong, and 7 others.
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Joe Henrich

I think for lots of people, it was an entry point into thinking about applying evolutionary principles to human behaviour. [source]

Matt Ridley portrait
Matt Ridley

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

Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies book cover2

Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies

Jared Diamond

4.3
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
Bill Gates portraitCharles T. Munger portraitCharlie Munger portrait Recommended by Bill Gates, Charles T. Munger, Charlie Munger, and 12 others.
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Joe Henrich

The book is a masterpiece in terms of integrating a vast range of material from different disciplines. [source]

Daniel Ek portrait
Daniel Ek

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

The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition book cover3

The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition

Michael Tomasello

4.4
Ambitious and elegant, this book builds a bridge between evolutionary theory and cultural psychology. Michael Tomasello is one of the very few people to have done systematic research on the cognitive capacities of both nonhuman primates and human children. The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition identifies what the differences are, and suggests where they might have come from.

Tomasello argues that
Helene Guldberg portraitJoe Henrich portrait Recommended by Helene Guldberg and Joe Henrich.
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Joe Henrich

He is interested in something he calls the ‘ratchet’ effect. This is something we only see in humans. [source]

Helene Guldberg portrait
Helene Guldberg

This book I am equally or even more persuaded by. Tomasello argues that evolution must have endowed us with something uniquely powerful. He says the only possible solution to the puzzle of this explosion in creativity, the only biological mechanism that could have brought about these changes in such a short period of time, is a new capacity for social and cultural transmission. In other words, what he’s saying is that there is a new, uniquely powerful way of social learning. [source]

Not by Genes Alone: How Culture Transformed Human Evolution book cover4

Not by Genes Alone: How Culture Transformed Human Evolution

Peter J. Richerson, Robert Boyd

4.1
Humans are a striking anomaly in the natural world. While we are similar to other mammals in many ways, our behavior sets us apart. Our unparalleled ability to adapt has allowed us to occupy virtually every habitat on earth using an incredible variety of tools and subsistence techniques. Our societies are larger, more complex, and more cooperative than any other mammal's. In this stunning explorat
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5

The Creation of Inequality: How Our Prehistoric Ancestors Set the Stage for Monarchy, Slavery, and Empire

Kent Flannery, Joyce Marcus

3.9
Flannery and Marcus demonstrate that the rise of inequality was not simply the result of population increase, food surplus, or the accumulation of valuables but resulted from conscious manipulation of the unique social logic that lies at the core of every human group. Reversing the social logic can reverse inequality, they argue, without violence.
Joe Henrich portrait Recommended by Joe Henrich.