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Work
- A Deep History, from the Stone Age to the Age of Robots
- Narrated by: Nicholas Guy Smith
- Length: 13 hrs and 47 mins
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Publisher's summary
"This book is a tour de force." (Adam Grant, New York Times best-selling author of Give and Take)
A revolutionary new history of humankind through the prism of work by leading anthropologist James Suzman.
Work defines who we are. It determines our status and dictates how, where, and with whom we spend most of our time. It mediates our self-worth and molds our values. But are we hardwired to work as hard as we do? Did our Stone Age ancestors also live to work and work to live? And what might a world where work plays a far less important role look like?
To answer these questions, James Suzman charts a grand history of "work" from the origins of life on Earth to our ever more automated present, challenging some of our deepest assumptions about who we are. Drawing insights from anthropology, archaeology, evolutionary biology, zoology, physics, and economics, he shows that while we have evolved to find joy meaning and purpose in work, for most of human history our ancestors worked far less and thought very differently about work than we do now. He demonstrates how our contemporary culture of work has its roots in the agricultural revolution 10,000 years ago. Our sense of what it is to be human was transformed by the transition from foraging to food production, and, later, our migration to cities. Since then, our relationships with one another and with our environments, and even our sense of the passage of time, have not been the same.
Arguing that we are in the midst of a similarly transformative point in history, Suzman shows how automation might revolutionize our relationship with work and in doing so usher in a more sustainable and equitable future for our world and ourselves.
Critic reviews
"His book meticulously charts the evolution of labor over 300,000 years, a strategy that brings welcome perspective to our current economic woes. While ostensibly a science book, it is also a devastating critique of consumer capitalism and a kind of self-help guide, underlying just how abnormal our lives are by our ancestors’ standards." (The Irish Times)
"A fascinating exploration that challenges our basic assumptions on what work means. As automation threatens to completely disrupt the global job market, it is urgent to rethink the economic, psychological and even spiritual importance of work. By examining the lives of hunter-gatherers, apes and even birds, Suzman highlights that what we consider ‘natural’ is often just the questionable legacy of industrial gurus and agricultural religions. Knowing the history of how we have spent our time in the past will hopefully enable us to make more sensible choices in the future.” (Yuval Noah Harari, New York Times best-selling author of Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind)
“Here is one of those few books that will turn your customary ways of thinking upside down. An incisive and original new history that invites us to rethink our relationship with work - and to reimagine what it means to be human in an ever-more automated future.” (Susan Cain, New York Times best-selling author of Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking)
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A detailed explanation
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By: David S. Landes
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The Ages of Globalization
- Geography, Technology, and Institutions
- By: Jeffrey D. Sachs
- Narrated by: Steve Menasche
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Today's most urgent problems are fundamentally global. They require nothing less than concerted, planetwide action if we are to secure a long-term future. But humanity's story has always been on a global scale. Sachs takes listeners through a series of seven distinct waves of technological and institutional change, starting with the original settling of the planet by early modern humans through long-distance migration and ending with reflections on today's globalization.
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Narrator.
- By ROGER QUESADA on 08-03-20
By: Jeffrey D. Sachs
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Unbound
- How Eight Technologies Made Us Human, Transformed Society, and Brought Our World to the Brink
- By: Richard L. Currier
- Narrated by: Noah Michael Levine
- Length: 10 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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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.
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Good facts, not much else
- By Joel B. Gordon on 10-30-16
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The Journey of Humanity
- The Origins of Wealth and Inequality
- By: Oded Galor
- Narrated by: Kobna Holdbrook-Smith
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Why are humans the only species to have escaped—only very recently—the subsistence trap, allowing us to enjoy a standard of living that vastly exceeds all others? And why have we progressed so unequally around the world, resulting in the great disparities between nations that exist today? Galor’s gripping narrative explains how technology, population size, and adaptation led to a stunning “phase change” in the human story a mere two hundred years ago.
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promoting innovation and industrial disease
- By Anonymous User on 01-18-24
By: Oded Galor
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The Nutmeg's Curse
- Parables for a Planet in Crisis
- By: Amitav Ghosh
- Narrated by: Sam Dastor
- Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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A powerful work of history, essay, testimony, and polemic, The Nutmeg’s Curse argues that the dynamics of climate change today are rooted in a centuries-old geopolitical order constructed by Western colonialism. At the center of Ghosh’s narrative is the now-ubiquitous spice nutmeg. The history of the nutmeg is one of conquest and exploitation—of both human life and the natural environment. In Ghosh’s hands, the story of the nutmeg becomes a parable for our environmental crisis.
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performance....
- By Bonnie on 11-15-22
By: Amitav Ghosh
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The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight: Revised and Updated
- The Fate of the World and What We Can Do Before It's Too Late
- By: Thom Hartmann, Neale Donald Walsch - associate editor
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 18 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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While everything appears to be collapsing around us - ecodamage, genetic engineering, virulent diseases, water shortages, global famine, wars - we can still do something about it and create a world that will work for us and for our children's children. The inspiration for Leonardo DiCaprio's feature documentary movie The 11th Hour, The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight details what is happening to our planet, the reasons for our culture's blind behavior, and how we can fix the problem.
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One of the Most Important Books of our Time
- By Jana on 04-24-20
By: Thom Hartmann, and others
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The Dawn of Everything
- A New History of Humanity
- By: David Graeber, David Wengrow
- Narrated by: Mark Williams
- Length: 24 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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A trailblazing account of human history, challenging our most fundamental assumptions about social evolution—from the development of agriculture and cities to the emergence of "the state", political violence, and social inequality—and revealing new possibilities for human emancipation.
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exactly what I've been looking for
- By DankTurtle on 11-10-21
By: David Graeber, and others
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How Soon Is Now
- From Personal Initiation to Global Transformation
- By: Daniel Pinchbeck
- Narrated by: Nathan Osgood
- Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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The world needs to change. We have unleashed an ecological mega-crisis which is threatening the future of life on Earth. The actions we take over the next decade are critical. They will determine the destiny of our descendants and the fate of our world. How Soon Is Now presents a compelling manifesto for personal and planetary change. It proposes a revolutionary new narrative for a unified social movement. Through global cooperation, we can face this collective threat ecologically, socially, politically and spiritually.
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Relevant!!!!
- By Anonymous User on 12-11-23
By: Daniel Pinchbeck
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Collapse
- How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
- By: Jared Diamond
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 27 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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In Jared Diamond’s follow-up to the Pulitzer-Prize winning Guns, Germs and Steel, the author explores how climate change, the population explosion, and political discord create the conditions for the collapse of civilization. Environmental damage, climate change, globalization, rapid population growth, and unwise political choices were all factors in the demise of societies around the world, but some found solutions and persisted.
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Jared Diamond Downs You in Explanation
- By Rob on 07-20-18
By: Jared Diamond
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The Future of Life
- By: Edward O. Wilson
- Narrated by: Ed Begley Jr.
- Length: 7 hrs and 21 mins
- Abridged
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Today we understand that our world is infinitely richer than was ever previously guessed. Yet it is so ravaged by human activity that half its species could be gone by the end of the century. These two contrasting truths - unexpected magnificence and underestimated peril - have become compellingly clear during the past two decades of research on biological diversity. In his dazzlingly intelligent book, Wilson describes the treasures of the natural world we are about to lose forever and how we can save them.
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A scientifically-grounded case for the environment
- By Lucas on 01-24-10
By: Edward O. Wilson
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Guns, Germs and Steel
- The Fate of Human Societies
- By: Jared Diamond
- Narrated by: Doug Ordunio
- Length: 16 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Having done field work in New Guinea for more than 30 years, Jared Diamond presents the geographical and ecological factors that have shaped the modern world. From the viewpoint of an evolutionary biologist, he highlights the broadest movements both literal and conceptual on every continent since the Ice Age, and examines societal advances such as writing, religion, government, and technology.
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Compelling pre-history and emergent history
- By Doug on 08-25-11
By: Jared Diamond
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What listeners say about Work
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Anonymous User
- 03-25-21
Wow
Really makes you rethink the priorities and mechanisms of our modern economic systems.
Great book!
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- Olivia Lovell
- 10-13-21
its not what you think it is, and thats ok
This book has a lot more to do with anthropology and how humans have evolved our purpose throughout time. It also talks about how changing circumstances effect us as a human race, and therefore how that affects our work/life. I enjoyed this book regardless, just be aware it doesn't really dig in to the "why we work" the way one might think.
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- Michael G.
- 09-20-21
Great description of origins of work
Excellent description of origins, different phases of work and how we got here. Could be different as well as fairer and better for everyone. Coming challenge is making AI cooperate
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- Milan
- 10-04-22
Required reading for modern humans.
This one goes right next to other similarly great books such as Guns, Germs &Steel and Sapiens.
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- Karen
- 12-16-21
Didn't think I'd like it so much.
A brief history of our worst curse, work. We see how we impede our own progress by refusing to give up a 40 hour work week which was established when agriculture was our main source of work. We get a peek into how other cultures that do not live to work and hoard experience a deeper level of humanity
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- Ryan D
- 05-10-22
interesting, but heavy emphasis on ancient history
I did enjoy the book, but expected it to focus more on work in the modern Era. It covered societal forces over time that shaped work, but had a heavy emphasis on ancient history.
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- Anonymous User
- 01-20-23
Long but interesting
Narration excellent. Helped me sleep, but is also a great listen while doing work. I would listen to it again despite it being quite long.
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- William H Fiege
- 04-19-22
Well done!,
Fantastic research, nicely organized, factual, and informative. Enjoyed the presentation, good pace and easy to listen to.
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- Anonymous User
- 03-25-23
Life-changing
If you want to know why I say this, read the book. Every human needs to read it.
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- Owen Davis
- 04-13-23
Strong in the first 2/3, fumbles through modernity
The book is phenomenal in the early parts dealing with human evolution, early human groups and tool use, hunter gatherer societies, dawn of agriculture, and growth of cities. Then the author sprints through 2000 years of modern history and narrows his focus mostly to advanced western capitalist societies and sometimes touching only tangentially on work in these sections. He has interesting throughlines for the modern era, but overall it is rushed and patchy after 1000 AD or so. Very little attention to modern labor institutions and modes of work organization.
My advice is to listen to the first three quarters or so of the book, which is fascinating, erudite, and engrossing. The last part has good moments but falls flat overall.
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