A Brief Natural History of Civilization by Mark Bertness is incredibly interesting and packed full of information about culture and identity throughout the globe in a brief, compact way.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book is interesting for a general reader looking for an intelligent summary of the recent thinking on evolution. 

The topics covered are wide ranging, from the dawn of time when we were all microbes cavorting in a primeval sea to early man coming down from the trees, learning and building fires, farms, cities and empires while ignoring to cost to the environment from our increasingly unsustainable ways. It ranges from mythology and religion in the past to artificial intelligence in the future.

However, there are three main themes which emerge, the first of which, cooperation vs competition is a timely reminder that we as a species work best when we cooperate with each other rather than compete. The author illustrates this with many examples of this beneficial model in the plant and animal world. The second and third themes are co-evolution and self organization.

While interpolation of observations of plant and animal systems to our current society seemed a bit of a stretch, the section on viruses was spot on, especially in the current context of the Covid-19 virus, and that alone is worth the price of admission.

The author, like Jared Diamond, raises some interesting points that we must consider before the selfish demons of capitalism, tribalism, greed destroy our planet, the main lesson being that cooperation is the only way we as a species will have chance to survive.