Human Culture

Evolutionary theory has long established that humans are animals: Modern Homo sapiens are primates who share an ancestor with monkeys and other great apes. Our genome is 98 percent identical to a chimpanzee's. And yet we think of ourselves as exceptional. Are we? In this original and entertaining tour of life on Earth, Adam Rutherford explores the profound paradox of the "human animal".

Finalist in the Business Book of the Year 2024 awards! The Chief People Officer role has finally taken its rightful place on the Executive Committee and human resource management is recognised as a true differentiator of success for modern organisations. However, CPOs face a challenge. In a world of increasing regulation and litigation, and with greater expectations than ever of how organisations should support their people, the HR role risks being overwhelmed. Managers are drowning under the weight of people-related tasks, while staff demand ever more from their workplace. CEOs and Boards ...

From the world’s most influential psychologist and bestselling author of the “compelling” (Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com) Flourish, a landmark work spanning ancient Greece to the age of AI that identifies agency—the fusion of efficacy, optimism, and imagination—as the hidden engine of...

Ever caught yourself people-watching and thinking, what on earth are we doing? Humans: we’re curious creatures - brilliant, social and just a little bit weird. In A Spotter’s Guide to Humans, behaviour expert Mark Earls unpacks the odd habits, copycat moments and social quirks that make our...

What if the sacred texts you thought you knew were only part of the story? For centuries, scripture has been presented as timeless and unchanging. But hidden beneath the familiar pages lies a world of lost gospels, suppressed voices, and forgotten manuscripts—words erased, altered, or buried in the sands of history. The Hidden Codex pulls back the curtain on this untold story, revealing how power, politics, and chance shaped the very foundations of faith. What you’re about to discover isn’t dry scholarship—it’s a journey through secret caves, imperial courts, monastic scriptoria, ...

Although we usually think of technology as something unique to modern times, our ancestors began to create the first technologies millions of years ago in the form of prehistoric tools and weapons. Over time, eight key technologies gradually freed us from the limitations of our animal origins.

The first all-encompassing biography of Elliott Smith, offering an intimate portrait of his life and musical legacy with brand-new interviews, lyrics, and correspondence from the people closest to him, many speaking for the first time Nobody Broke Your Heart is a tender, nuanced narrative of...

The story of human civilization can be read most deeply in the materials we have found or created, used or abused. They have dictated how we build, eat, communicate, wage war, create art, travel, and worship. Some, such as stone, iron, and bronze, lend their names to the ages. Others, such as gold, silver, and diamond, contributed to the rise and fall of great empires.

Scholars of US and transatlantic slavery have largely ignored or dismissed accusations that Black Americans were cannibalized. Vincent Woodard takes the enslaved person's claims of human consumption seriously, focusing on both the starvation of the slave and the tropes of cannibalism on the part...

Humanity in the age of AI How will we be changed by the rise of artificial intelligence? In this scintillating essay, Anna Goldsworthy argues that AI is a rupture that makes us confront what it is to be human – what we do, and want. As it learns human ways, AI raises big questions about work, leisure and education. It brings new existential, social and ethical risks. Above all, it invites us to consider what is irreplaceable in us, starting with the body and the friction of others. The God We Made is a brilliant inquiry into identity and a transformed future.

In an era of exponentially evolving AI, the most important “code” we must rewrite is our own. It is up to us for love to conquer fear—the only path that leads humanity to an Age of Abundance for All. To navigate the convergence of AI, Quantum Computing, Robotics, and Brain-Computer Interfaces—the Superfecta—we must move beyond the Scarcity Mindset and embrace a new way of being.

In Jezebel Unhinged Tamura Lomax traces the use of the jezebel trope in the Black church and in Black popular culture, showing how it is pivotal to reinforcing men's cultural and institutional power to discipline and define Black girlhood and womanhood. Drawing on writing by medieval thinkers and travelers, Enlightenment theories of race, the commodification of women's bodies under slavery, and the work of Tyler Perry and Bishop T. D. Jakes, Lomax shows how Black women are written into religious and cultural history as sites of sexual deviation.

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER | The New Yorker's Best Books of 2025 | The Guardian's Best Books of 2025 | A 2025 Booklist Editors' Choice Pick The scramble to create superhuman AI has put us on the path to extinction—but it’s not too late to change course, as two of the field’s...

Plants That Healed the World is a global, story-driven exploration of the medicinal plants that shaped human survival, culture, and connection across civilizations. This book follows healing plants as they traveled through ancient trade routes, indigenous traditions, monasteries, households, and early medical systems, revealing how deeply plant knowledge is woven into human history. Rather than focusing on how plants are used medicinally, the book tells the human stories behind the plants—how cultures understood them, revered them, protected them, and passed knowledge across generations. ...

The book we need NOW to avoid a social recession, Murthy’s prescient message is about the importance of human connection, the hidden impact of loneliness on our health, and the social power of community. Humans are social creatures: In this simple and obvious fact lies both the problem and the...

Generations of dogs have been labeled training lemons for requiring actual motivation when all along they were perfectly normal. Numerous other completely and utterly normal dogs have been branded as canine misfits simply because they grew up to act like dogs. Barking, chewing, sniffing, licking, jumping up, and occasionally (just like people) having arguments are as normal and natural for dogs as wagging tails and burying bones.

“One of the 12 best business books of all time…. Timeless principles of empowering leadership.” – USA Today "The best how-to manual anywhere for managers on delegating, training, and driving flawless execution.” —FORTUNE Marquet was a Naval Academy graduate and an experienced officer...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER MORE THAN 1 MILLION COPIES SOLD WORLDWIDE The oldest cultures in the world have mastered the art of raising happy, well-adjusted children. What can we learn from them? “Hunt, Gather, Parent is full of smart ideas that I immediately wanted to force on my own kids...

Aiden is an unlucky-in-love influencer who’s made a career out of documenting his dating disasters online. On a whim, he downloads a mysterious new dating app called LunaLove—known for matching users with their “perfect mate.” His first match? Dylan—drop-dead gorgeous, ruggedly outdoorsy, and… strangely intense about “pack loyalty.” What Aiden doesn’t know is that LunaLove was actually created for supernatural matchmaking, and Dylan is a real, live alpha werewolf looking for his fated mate. Their first date is a comedy of errors—Aiden thinks Dylan is a weird wilderness ...

From the bestselling author of Thinking, Fast and Slow, the co-author of Nudge, and the author of You Are About to Make a Terrible Mistake! comes Noise, a revolutionary exploration of why people make bad judgments, and how to control both noise and cognitive bias.​ Imagine that two doctors in...