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

I love this book so much. I'm learning history while I'm laughing.If you never studied history, this book is for you. He writes about all of the stupid things people did, like diverting rivers to help but it meant that a lake dried up completely.When he writes about Hitler, it gave me chill. Family member said, "Wow, he's describing Trump perfectly."Really glad I bought this book; the author, Tom Phillips, is really funny.

As a retired educator, I've always bemoaned the fact that we don't teach the details of history in a linear fashion--what lead directly to what and why--but in a kind of episodic way that leaves the connections to the imagination. This book, with all its scholarly detail and spoonful-of-sugar humor could be taught at the high school level starting tomorrow and we'd all be better for it.

What a wonderful book! It is not only accurate and informative, it’s hilarious! It takes a lot to make me laugh and this book managed to make the tragic history of human being funny. In a disturbed way, of course. Highly recommended!

There are times you need to read a book that can be something of a downer. This is one of those books. 😱 It's not a feel good, happy book, but it does present the reader with information that needs to be heard. I really hope more people will take the time and get through this. The information is important.

Attention grabbing, and at times hilarious presentation of some historical screw-ups. Presents some hard to face facts about our current decision making in a straight forward but not preachy way. I am glad I read this book.

What a great story. Funny, eye opening and very well written. It’ll make a person think about our miscalculations over time.

Eeveryone should read this book!

Well researched and often had this primate laughing out loud. A view of why we may not deserve the sapien part of our species name.

The clue is in the title - this really is a brief history of human civilisation, a whistle stop tour through some of the more hilariously daft mistakes folk have made throughout the ages. Tom Phillips writes in an easy, conversational style and never labours over minute points, producing a very readable book that should have mass appeal. There are several tongue-in-cheek digs at the current political climate, so the book may not age particularly well, however, this doesn't take away from the fun provided in the historical narratives. Fans of Horrible Histories will appreciate the mickey taking of aforementioned stupid mistakes, and there is quite a nod to the butterfly effect theory, as almost all of these mistakes created unintended seismic changes, some of which still resonate today. Sadly, some of these are more shocking than funny, but Phillips himself acknowledges this and signals the doom and gloom appropriately.I finished the book a little over a week ago and am still thinking about some of the details, which is always a sign of an interesting read. It's definitely one to dip back into for a reference, and I'd recommend this for anyone who enjoys history, quirky stories, light reads, social sciences and who has a sense of humour.

Extremely entertaining and deeply depressing in equal measure. Packed with eclectic examples from across human history and the planet of humanity's ongoing propensity to make seriously disastrous mistakes by getting sucked into a whole range of cognitive biases, it reads like a hybrid of Daniel Kahneman, Malcolm Gladwell and Jared Diamond - but with jokes and pop-culture references galore.The simple message? Don't be like the rest of humanity - learn from history. (Even if that's also incredibly difficult due to our tendency to spot patterns and assume similarities that may not be there, and our near-impossible-to-shake assumption that this time it's different, because - well - it's *us*...)

It's genius. Funny, informative, humiliating for the general population & our severe lack of learning from our mistakes. We seem to have stopped evolving or learning from the past. History repeating? Depressing? Hell yes, but only for the few minutes until Mr Phillips fires a funny & you can't help but smile, chuckle or laugh out loud. I recommend this book to everyone. Especially kids from high school age & up. We need you to look, laugh, but be horrified & angry & hopefully learn in a way that is a bit too late for our lead poisoned minds.

A really entertaining, very amusing, easy to read wander through many great examples of humanity's stupidity - some big, with big consequences; some small, with big consequences; some very personal, with very personal consequences; some repeated time after time - and with heavy, dark messages underneath it all.My has been wife avoiding me, because she was fed up with me sitting chuckling or insisting on reading one passage after another to her.I had heard or read about many of them previously but there is a host of pure gems which I had never come across before - such as: Ala ad-Din Muhammad II and his vast and powerful Khwarezmian Empire [and his and its rapid downfall and disappearance, apparently just because Ala was a bit miffed about how someone, without intending any slight at all, had addressed him; Mary Ward's place in history; Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge's place in history.This should be compulsory reading for all politicians, business leaders and, maybe, people in general, although, as it is at times delivered in fairly....um....er....forthright language, it might not be everybody's cup of tea.An excellent read from a highly accomplished writer with a delightful sardonic sense of humour.

Extremely entertaining and depressing in equal measure. Do you enjoy history, quirky stories, and social sciences? Well, this could be the book for you.As one would expect from a former Buzzfeed writer, ‘Humans’ has is written in a very informal, conversational style. Tom Phillips packs his book with well researched eclectic examples from human history of our desire to make disastrous mistakes. He presents these in no particular order, and turns the oft-used narrative upside down. By touching upon only the critical elements needed to construct the mental final picture of each historical event, he enriches the text by adding lots of examples to send a compelling message in each chapter.Nish Kumar narrated, which helped to convey the grim sarcastic humour. Whether we learn from these errors or not is a different matter entirely and as this book illustrates, it's not always as easy or black and white as it seems.