Ultrasocial: The Evolution of Human Nature and the Quest for a Sustainable Future

'Building on fresh understandings of evolution, this amazing book revolutionizes our understanding of the past and explores a future in which our humanity may be rekindled on a planet likely to be too hot to sustain conventional agriculture. A tour de force.' Peter G. Brown, McGill University 'The evolutionary economist John Gowdy has written a grand narrative tracing how over thousands of years the global human society has become complex, stratified, and interconnected, turning into a vast self-regulating superorganism. And now this superorganism has fallen prey to the ideological virus of neoliberalism, which subordinates the well-being of individuals to the needs of the global market. Ultimately, Ultrasocial is a scathing indictment of neoliberal ideology and market fundamentalism from the evolutionary point of view.' Peter Turchin, University of Connecticut and author of Ultrasociety: How 10,000 Years of War Made Humans the Greatest Cooperators on Earth 'Gowdy puts forward the provocative case that as we came under the yoke of states, humans became closer to ants and termites. Individually we may still be social primates, but collectively we are now closer to a leafcutter ant colony. A stimulating read that reworks the fabric of history away from a simple narrative of increasing complexity and prosperity, to one in which we have traded autonomy and humanity for power. A book that might just change your mind on what it means to be human.' Luke Kemp, Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, University of Cambridge 'In this highly original, stimulating, and provocative interdisciplinary analysis, John Gowdy bridges the agricultural societies of African mound-building termites and fungus-gardening ants with human nature to generate deep insights into modern economics and sustainability.' James Traniello, Boston University