Civilized to Death
One of the best books I’ve ever read. Actually I had planned on writing a book on this topic but now I think I can just recommend this one. It summarizes ideas and facts from many other books and studies to show the reader how the effects of civilization are not as good as many are led to believe. Before reading this book, I had already read quite a bit on this topic, so I was expecting that it would mostly be repeating things I’ve already read, but I was surprised that there were lots of things I hadn’t heard before, many of them quite mind-blowing. And even though I was already convinced of the thesis before starting, I found that reading this book had a big impact on my perspective. It contrasts civilized life with the life of hunter-gatherers and shows that there are so many ways in which civilized life is like a poorly designed zoo for humans. Christopher Ryan treats this topic with impressive rationality and thoroughness. I hope everyone reads this book.
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