Unabridged Audiobook
The book’s main thesis is that humans through hundreds of thousands of years of evolution in hunter gatherer tribes are conditioned to join groups and then try to excel within those groups, to secure a long survival. Or to put in simple modern terms we naturally try to “get along and get ahead”. How we strive to be of value (or “get ahead) within our groups Storr frames playfully as “status games”. Mapped to my own experiences in life most if not all of Will’s theories ring true. It’s the kind of book where you feel like someone is articulating something you have always suspected to be true but didn’t have the slightest clue how to express it much less even pursue the thought. Perfectly read by the author himself. Highly recommended for all human beings living amongst other human beings.
I found this book interesting. Will Storr pulls together a lot of disparate research and specific historical details to craft his story, but it is just that- a story and not a novel one, but one we have heard many times before in the dominant western academic paradigm. There is a lot left out and I recommend readers/listeners balance this book with, 'The Dawn of Everything' by anthropologist David Graeber and archaeologist David Wengrow. They point out the pitfalls of these types of dominant Euro-based narratives and viewpoints using archaeological evidence and wide-ranging anthropological research to re-frame the 'story'. Also- for sensitive readers/listeners there is, in my opinion, way too much unnecessary macabre detail in parts. An astute reader will get the point very quickly without a full list of horrors which, again in my opinion, are not very much related to the thesis of the story anyway. This was my first ever audio book and I enjoyed having it narrated by the author- nice touch.
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