Humans: A Monstrous History
"Surekha Davies invites readers to imagine the lives of historical monsters and to empathize with their often-wretched treatment." ― Science Magazine

A history of how humans have created monsters out of one another—from our deepest fears—and what these monsters tell us about humanity's present and future.
 
Monsters are central to how we think about the human condition. Join award-winning historian of science Dr. Surekha Davies as she reveals how people have defined the human in relation to everything from apes to zombies, and how they invented race, gender, and nations along the way. With rich, evocative storytelling that braids together ancient gods and generative AI, Frankenstein's monster and E.T., Humans: A Monstrous History shows how monster-making is about control: it defines who gets to count as normal.
 
In an age when corporations increasingly see people as obstacles to profits, this book traces the long, volatile history of monster-making and charts a better path for the future. The result is a profound, effervescent, empowering retelling of the history of the world for anyone who wants to reverse rising inequality and polarization. This is not a history of monsters, but a history through monsters.
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Humans: A Monstrous History
"Surekha Davies invites readers to imagine the lives of historical monsters and to empathize with their often-wretched treatment." ― Science Magazine

A history of how humans have created monsters out of one another—from our deepest fears—and what these monsters tell us about humanity's present and future.
 
Monsters are central to how we think about the human condition. Join award-winning historian of science Dr. Surekha Davies as she reveals how people have defined the human in relation to everything from apes to zombies, and how they invented race, gender, and nations along the way. With rich, evocative storytelling that braids together ancient gods and generative AI, Frankenstein's monster and E.T., Humans: A Monstrous History shows how monster-making is about control: it defines who gets to count as normal.
 
In an age when corporations increasingly see people as obstacles to profits, this book traces the long, volatile history of monster-making and charts a better path for the future. The result is a profound, effervescent, empowering retelling of the history of the world for anyone who wants to reverse rising inequality and polarization. This is not a history of monsters, but a history through monsters.
29.95 In Stock
Humans: A Monstrous History

Humans: A Monstrous History

by Surekha Davies
Humans: A Monstrous History

Humans: A Monstrous History

by Surekha Davies

Hardcover(First Edition)

$29.95 
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Overview

"Surekha Davies invites readers to imagine the lives of historical monsters and to empathize with their often-wretched treatment." ― Science Magazine

A history of how humans have created monsters out of one another—from our deepest fears—and what these monsters tell us about humanity's present and future.
 
Monsters are central to how we think about the human condition. Join award-winning historian of science Dr. Surekha Davies as she reveals how people have defined the human in relation to everything from apes to zombies, and how they invented race, gender, and nations along the way. With rich, evocative storytelling that braids together ancient gods and generative AI, Frankenstein's monster and E.T., Humans: A Monstrous History shows how monster-making is about control: it defines who gets to count as normal.
 
In an age when corporations increasingly see people as obstacles to profits, this book traces the long, volatile history of monster-making and charts a better path for the future. The result is a profound, effervescent, empowering retelling of the history of the world for anyone who wants to reverse rising inequality and polarization. This is not a history of monsters, but a history through monsters.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780520388093
Publisher: University of California Press
Publication date: 02/04/2025
Edition description: First Edition
Pages: 336
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Dr. Surekha Davies is a British author, speaker, and historian of science, art, and ideas. Her first book, Renaissance Ethnography and the Invention of the Human, won the Morris D. Forkosch Prize for the best first book in intellectual history from the Journal of the History of Ideas and the Roland H. Bainton Prize in History and Theology. She has written essays and reviews about the histories of biology, anthropology, and monsters in the Times Literary SupplementNature, Science, and Aeon.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations 

Introduction
1 • On the Ecology of Monsters 
2 • Human or Animal?
3 • Race-Nations
4 • Race-Nations II 
5 • Gender, Sex, and Monstrous Births 
6 • Monstrous Performance and Display
7 • Gods, Magic, and the Supernatural
8 • Machines
9 • Extraterrestrials
10 • Monstrofuturism 
Epilogue

Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
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