Explores how evolutionary inheritance, shaped by millennia of natural and cultural selection, continues to influence human behaviour and societal development. From the origins of agriculture to the complexities of modern geopolitics, Whitehouse’s research offers insights into the forces driving human history and the challenges.
The Hindu - Sudipta Datta
A compelling, thoughtful, nuanced, and ultimately hopeful new perspective on our history, present crises, and future potential. The human biases that Harvey Whitehouse examines all have a dark side, but as he shows, these same capacities for belonging, belief, and bonding can also be channeled in positive directions. This book is a masterpiece—important, thought-provoking, and great fun to read.
A bold and sweeping analysis that ranges widely through time, across geographies, and through different kinds of human societies. A book of rare ambition and scope.
Fascinating…Whitehouse explores these topics from various angles, addressing the role of ritual, the role of intense emotional experiences in forging violent groups, and the possibility of fundamentally reimagining the materialistic basis of society…[he] ranges widely across disciplines and timescales to formulate his exhilarating narrative of human history.
Inheritance describes how Harvey Whitehouse’s efforts to understand a culture in Papua New Guinea led ultimately to a new account of how empires rise, stand, and fall. This lucid and original book is important not only as a guide to underlying dynamics in contemporary society but also as an exemplary interweaving of approaches from the natural and social sciences.
A profoundly important book of breathtaking scope. Harvey Whitehouse shows how evolution sculpted our psychological makeup, how we overcame its limitations over the course of world history, and how we can wield this knowledge to face the challenges of the future. Full of deep insights into human nature, this is a work of compelling conviction by a master in the field.
Traditionally, we are seen as victims of our biology and environment, but Whitehouse offers the intriguing (and even fun) view that we are masters of our destiny…[Inheritance] is lively, even entertaining, and highly quotable.
New York Journal of Books - Robert S. Davis
A very powerful, provocative, and inspiring analysis of the human condition which seeks to explain where our societies are going wrong today—and how to put them right. Whitehouse bravely takes an ambitious interdisciplinary view that captures the sweep of history, tackling topics ranging from social media and modern political polarization to ancient religious cults, nomadic societies, and more. His arguments about the three core features shaping humans—conformity, religiosity, and tribalism—are thought-provoking and offer an excellent lens to frame events today. Compelling and highly readable, this book shows why anthropology matters.
An insightful and breathtaking exploration of humanity’s evolutionary baggage that explains some of our species’ greatest successes and failures.
One of the best books on the evolutionary inheritance of the modern human world which you are likely to read…In a crowded intellectual field, not always notable for underclaiming or sophistication, [this book] buzzes with ideas that demand attention.
Church Times - Nick Spencer
Convincingly argues that we must draw on the lessons of history to manage our evolved psychology more creatively in the future.
Psychology Today - Mark Bekoff
Harvey Whitehouse has written a scientifically robust book with profound implications. As a scholar of how group identities form and what binds people strongly or weakly to cooperate across many cultures, he identifies the biasing domains of behavior that define us: conformity, religiosity, and tribalism. He explores how we have evolved from living in small groups to not-always-cohesive mega-societies. He then asks how we could use this knowledge to address global challenges—can we get beyond our local selfish interests to cooperate on a global level? A constructive, provocative, and hopeful perspective on our futures that merits deep reflection.
This is a tour de force, a compelling work of scholarship and advocacy that astonished me by providing an entertaining analysis of human social change and growth over the last ten millennia, and then a blueprint for a future transformation of human civilization. I recommend this gripping read to anyone interested in the questions of why human civilization is careening forward so recklessly, without coming to grips with the dangers of climate change, nuclear war, or pervasive misinformation, and what cultural innovations might empower a collective change of direction.
This fascinating book combines groundbreaking research with compelling storytelling to reveal how humanity's deepest tendencies toward conforming, believing, and belonging have profoundly shaped our many histories and current realities. Crucially, Harvey Whitehouse goes further to explore how the very tendencies that have got us here can now become invaluable tools for reshaping our collective futures. The result is profoundly thought-provoking—dive in.
A thought-provoking journey through human history, challenging readers to recognize their biases, learn from the past, and forge a more sustainable future.
A thought provoking look at social forces, and the ways ordinary people can change the world.
The Guardian - Sophie McBain
Inheritance is a brilliant synthesis of insights from psychology, anthropology, and big historical data analytics that throws penetrating light on the evolutionary trajectories of human societies, and on how we collectively can shape a better future for humanity.
Scans a broad and long sweep of sociological history from times ancient to modern in a fairly breezy and accessible style.
Arts Fuse - David Mehegan
