James Suzman - Böcker

_______________‘A fascinating exploration that challenges our basic assumptions of what work means' - Yuval Noah Harari'There is eminently underlinable stuff on most pages ... Fascinating' - The Times'One of those few books that will turn your customary ways of thinking upside down' - Susan Cain'Illuminating' - New Statesman_______________A revolutionary new history of humankind through the prism of work, from the origins of life on Earth to our ever more automated presentThe work we do brings us meaning, moulds our values, determines our social status and dictates how we spend most of our time. But this wasn’t always the case: for 95% of our species’ history, work held a radically different importance.How, then, did work become the central organisational principle of our societies? How did it transform our bodies, our environments, our views on equality and our sense of time? And why, in a time of material abundance, are we working more than ever before?

_______________‘Insightful ... Avoiding both modern conceits and romantic fantasies, Suzman chronicles how economics and politics have finally conquered some of the last outposts of hunter-gatherers, and how much humankind can still learn from the disappearing way of life of the most marginalized communities on earth.' - Yuval Noah Harari, author of Sapiens and Homo Deus'Fascinating' - Sunday Times'Elegant and absorbing' - Financial Times'Profoundly moving' - Irish Times_______________From acclaimed anthropologist James Suzman, a portrait of the 'original affluent society' – the Bushmen of southern Africa – and what their way of life can teach us today.What can we learn from the Bushmen? If the success of a civilisation is measured by its endurance over time, then the Bushmen of the Kalahari are by far the most successful in human history. Anthropologist James Suzman spent twenty-five years in Southern Africa documenting their way of life and encounters with modern society, gathering invaluable lessons about work, wealth, happiness, equality and time.'To know what it is like to live as people lived for most of human history, you would have to find one of the places where traditional hunting-and-gathering practices are still alive…Fortunately for us, the anthropologist James Suzman did exactly that…The news here is that the lives of most of our progenitors were better than we think. We’re flattering ourselves by believing that their existence was so grim and that our modern, civilized one is, by comparison, so great.' - John Lancaster, The New Yorker