Tom Phillips

Humans: A Brief History of How We F*cked It All Up (Paperback)

$12.70
(4.25) 4.25 stars out of 4 reviews 4 reviews
$12.70
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Humans: A Brief History of How We F*cked It All Up (Paperback)

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4.25 out of 5stars
(4 reviews)
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Most helpful positive review

5.00 out of 5 stars review
Verified Purchaser
05/05/2019
I loved this book! What could have been a depressing overview of how badly we humans have screwed up instead made me laugh out loud most of the way through. Tom Phillips writes with a combination of humor, sarcasm, and academic honesty. He's clearly an incredibly smart guy, but he doesn't take himself too seriously, and so we readers get to sit back and enjoy ourselves. Along the way we learn a few things and should probably be horrified by some of it, and yet the tone keeps us from sinking into hopeless misery. In a weird way, this book made me feel better about our situation in the world. It's not that we're better off now than I previously thought; it's that we have a long history of making a mess of things, which makes current events seem less perilous. I highly recommend this book to every human out there. *I received a review copy from the publisher, via Amazon Vine.*
Darcia

Most helpful negative review

4.00 out of 5 stars review
Verified Purchaser
03/23/2019
3.75 stars This is a ...
3.75 stars This is a (somewhat) humourous look at history and errors that humans have made in the realms of agriculture, science, war, international relations, etc. I quite enjoyed this. I originally expected there to be a lot of environmental stuff, and there was some, but there was much more. Some of the humour is sarcastic, but that's ok. The funniest was the photo at the very end, after a paragraph of doom, then a paragraph of positive, then a photo (not going to say what it's of - I don't want to spoil it!). That photo really made me laugh after the positive words in the previous paragraph! Some of the anecdotes were short and some were longer and went into more detail. I did lose a bit of interest in a couple of the longer ones, but mostly it was interesting. Some of it was history I (broadly) knew about and some of it was stuff I either didn't know about, or just didn't know much about (i.e. Ghengis Khan - no, he wasn't he one who make the stupid mistake...). Overall, though, quite enjoyable!
LibraryCin
  • 4.00 out of 5 stars review
    Verified Purchaser
    09/09/2020
    Funny (but in a sad way at times...) historical anecdotes that show how easily we can screw up things without even meaning too sometimes. Not really a history book, since there's not really any in-depth analysis here, mostly just entertaining stories that do make you think at times.
    Guide2
  • 5.00 out of 5 stars review
    Verified Purchaser
    05/05/2019
    I loved this book! What could have been a depressing overview of how badly we humans have screwed up instead made me laugh out loud most of the way through. Tom Phillips writes with a combination of humor, sarcasm, and academic honesty. He's clearly an incredibly smart guy, but he doesn't take himself too seriously, and so we readers get to sit back and enjoy ourselves. Along the way we learn a few things and should probably be horrified by some of it, and yet the tone keeps us from sinking into hopeless misery. In a weird way, this book made me feel better about our situation in the world. It's not that we're better off now than I previously thought; it's that we have a long history of making a mess of things, which makes current events seem less perilous. I highly recommend this book to every human out there. *I received a review copy from the publisher, via Amazon Vine.*
    Darcia
  • 4.00 out of 5 stars review
    Verified Purchaser
    03/25/2019
    3.75 stars This is a (somewhat) humourous look at history and errors that humans have made in the realms of agriculture, science, war, international relations, etc. I quite enjoyed this. I originally expected there to be a lot of environmental stuff, and there was some, but there was much more. Some of the humour is sarcastic, but that's ok. The funniest was the photo at the very end, after a paragraph of doom, then a paragraph of positive, then a photo (not going to say what it's of – I don't want to spoil it!). That photo really made me laugh after the positive words in the previous paragraph! Some of the anecdotes were short and some were longer and went into more detail. I did lose a bit of interest in a couple of the longer ones, but mostly it was interesting. Some of it was history I (broadly) knew about and some of it was stuff I either didn't know about, or just didn't know much about (i.e. Ghengis Khan – no, he wasn't he one who make the stupid mistake…). Overall, though, quite enjoyable!
    LibraryCin
  • 4.00 out of 5 stars review
    Verified Purchaser
    03/23/2019
    3.75 stars This is a ...
    3.75 stars This is a (somewhat) humourous look at history and errors that humans have made in the realms of agriculture, science, war, international relations, etc. I quite enjoyed this. I originally expected there to be a lot of environmental stuff, and there was some, but there was much more. Some of the humour is sarcastic, but that's ok. The funniest was the photo at the very end, after a paragraph of doom, then a paragraph of positive, then a photo (not going to say what it's of - I don't want to spoil it!). That photo really made me laugh after the positive words in the previous paragraph! Some of the anecdotes were short and some were longer and went into more detail. I did lose a bit of interest in a couple of the longer ones, but mostly it was interesting. Some of it was history I (broadly) knew about and some of it was stuff I either didn't know about, or just didn't know much about (i.e. Ghengis Khan - no, he wasn't he one who make the stupid mistake...). Overall, though, quite enjoyable!
    LibraryCin
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