The Invention of Prehistory
Empire, Violence, and Our Obsession with Human Origins
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Narrated by:
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Elizabeth Wiley
About this listen
Books about the origins of humanity dominate bestseller lists, while national newspapers present breathless accounts of new archaeological findings and speculate about what those findings tell us about our earliest ancestors. We are obsessed with prehistory—and, in this respect, our current era is no different from any other in the last three hundred years. In this coruscating work, acclaimed historian Stefanos Geroulanos demonstrates how claims about the earliest humans not only shaped Western intellectual culture, but gave rise to our modern world.
The very idea that there was a human past before recorded history only emerged with the Enlightenment, when European thinkers began to reject faith-based notions of humanity and history in favor of supposedly more empirical ideas about the world. From the "state of nature" and Romantic notions of virtuous German barbarians to theories about Neanderthals, killer apes, and a matriarchal paradise where women ruled, Geroulanos captures the sheer variety and strangeness of the ideas that animated many of the major thinkers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, including Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Charles Darwin, and Karl Marx. Yet as Geroulanos shows, such ideas became, for the most part, the ideological foundations of repressive regimes and globe-spanning empires.
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From batting averages and political polls to game shows and medical research, the real-world application of statistics continues to grow by leaps and bounds. How can we catch schools that cheat on standardized tests? How does Netflix know which movies you'll like? What is causing the rising incidence of autism? As best-selling author Charles Wheelan shows us in Naked Statistics, the right data and a few well-chosen statistical tools can help us answer these questions and more.
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Starts well then becomes non-Audible
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Reentry
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From launchpad explosions to a pernicious cricket infestation to the demanding management style of Musk himself, the rise of SpaceX was beset with challenges and far from inevitable. Find out how the startup beat the odds and flew high enough to outpace their rivals... and where they're going next.
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Just phenomenal
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Plant Science: An Introduction to Botany
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Needs accompanying documentation and visual aides
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misleading title
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What listeners say about The Invention of Prehistory
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Alison Stanton
- 05-18-24
A brave, insightful work
This is a monumental piece that explores and critiques the history of people, almost entirely from the dominant group, inventing some narrative regarding the prehistory of humans. This narrative inevitably supports the cohort that wants to stay in power. Geroulanos is fascinated with the seemingly extreme and curious need that people have to invent these stories and then hold them close as essential to their identity. I have wondered about this too but knew of no one exploring the phenomenon.
Since the scholars and advocates of these theories hold them dear, I see Geroulanos’s work as an act of courage. He must have experienced significant push back and perhaps ostracism for delving into this unquestioned quagmire. But I say bravo - I thoroughly enjoyed and grew from reading this great work of scholarship.
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- Zen Fox
- 06-15-24
An important critique
The author critiques the history of human origins research, not from the point of view of the accuracy of the research but rather focusing on how that research is "used" to legitimize power relationships in the modern world.
The book makes many excellent points, and should be ready by paleoanthropologists and archaeologists alike. At times the critique becomes facile and/or tenuous. And at times the author surely overstates the influence of human origins stories. But these shortcomings don't overshadow the importance of the overall critique.
The author's writing has what feels like a very sanctimonious tone to it, which is unfortunately made much worse by the audio narration.
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- Historic Philosopher
- 04-23-24
Too much judgement
the author reflects so much attitude in his opinions that it takes away from the scholarship.
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1 person found this helpful