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Ratings: ★★★★★ (4.7 / 5)
Genre: Popular Science, History, Human Biology, Evolutionary Science

Book Review:
This is history made flesh. In Being Human, Lewis Dartnell—bestselling author of Origins and The Knowledge—takes us on a mind-expanding journey across time to show how our biology has determined the course of world history.

Our bodies are wonders of evolution, but they are also deeply, inescapably flawed. To be human is to live with this extraordinary contradiction. Dartnell argues that to understand the path humanity has taken—from prehistoric times through the age of empire and into the modern era—we must understand who, and what, we are.

The book is filled with fascinating examples:

How epidemics brought peasants freedom by disrupting feudal systems

How vitamin deficiencies gave rise to the Mafia

How cognitive biases caused military catastrophes in Crimea and Iraq

How our evolutionary heritage shapes our economies, relationships, and societies

Dartnell shows that our biology is not just a backdrop to history—it is a driving force. The way our bodies work, the diseases we are vulnerable to, the nutrients we need, the ways our brains process information—all of these have shaped the world we live in.