Lost Worlds - by Patrick Wyman (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

"Lost Worlds convinces us of the value of slowing down to recognize the tremendous diversity of the human past. But he presses hard against the conclusion that there was any direction or pattern behind its complexity." --The Wall Street Journal

"A spellbinding tour de force!" --Walter Scheidel, author of What Is Ancient History?

"This is non-fiction storytelling at its finest." --Eric H. Cline, author of 1177 B.C.

The creator of the hit podcast Tides of History offers a new look at humanity's deep past, showing us how our world was built not by inevitability, but by trial and error on a global scale.

There's a familiar story about us humans: we went from hunting and gathering to farming, wandering bands to villages and cities, clans and chieftains to states and kings. But Lost Worlds offers a new narrative of humanity's deep history. Here beloved podcast host Patrick Wyman focuses on the 10,000-year span between the end of the Ice Age and the decline of the Bronze Age--the period when civilization as we understand it emerged, introducing social hierarchies, urbanism, complex political organizations, and the written word.

In this nuanced retelling, human progress is no longer a straight march from caves to cities: Farming didn't always replace foraging, villages didn't automatically spark agriculture, and cities didn't necessitate rigid hierarchies. For thousands of years, humans merely improvised. By the end of the Bronze Age, the world had become unrecognizable: mammoths and giant sloths replaced by cattle and sheep, scattered nomadic bands replaced by millions living in cities, and farming on nearly every continent. Wyman argues that the rise of states and steady food production wasn't inevitable, but rather, the outcome of countless choices that reshaped the planet and made us who we are today.

Combining cutting-edge science with gripping storytelling, Lost Worlds explores:

• A Sweeping New History of the Ancient World: Discover how early societies rose, adapted, and collapsed across thousands of years of human history.
• The Archaeology Revolution: Ancient DNA, climate science, and new excavation methods are revealing how prehistoric people lived, migrated, and fought.
• From Ice Age Hunters to Early Civilizations: Follow the dramatic transformation that led from nomadic foragers to farming, cities, and powerful states.
• Why Societies Rise--and Fall: Learn how climate change, migration, population growth, and conflict shaped the fate of early civilizations.

Review Quotes

"This book is great. Wyman manages to move both quickly and patiently through a vast swath of time, focusing on a period before many histories even begin. His research and artful storytelling doesn't shy away from the darker side of events, but the tales he tells us about the deep past reveal something almost magical about our shared humanity." --Matthew Gabriele and David M. Perry, co-authors of The Bright Ages and Oathbreakers

"Propelled by the latest archaeological methods and discoveries, Patrick Wyman transforms cutting-edge science into vivid human history as he reconstructs the lifeways of long-forgotten societies and upends outdated linear narratives about the emergence of civilization around the world. A spellbinding tour de force!" --Walter Scheidel, author of What Is Ancient History?

"This is non-fiction storytelling at its finest--an impressive and well-written narrative full of interesting facts, observations, and discussions that will challenge and change your understanding of humanity's earliest history and accomplishments across much of the known world." --Eric H. Cline, author of 1177 B.C.

"The book is a panoramic survey of human societies around the globe between the end of the Ice Age (some 13,000 years ago)and the dramatic collapse of Bronze Age civilizations (a little more than 3,000 years ago). . . . It is helpful to remember what Mr. Wyman is writing against: any version of social-evolutionary history in which the primary role of people in the past was to bring our present world into being. Here is a version of history in which a strong sense of unintended consequences plays a leading part. . . . Lost Worlds convinces us of the value of slowing down to recognize the tremendous diversity of the human past. But he presses hard against the conclusion that there was any direction or pattern behind its complexity." --The Wall Street Journal

"Behind mysterious ruins and aged artifacts lie the stories of vibrant peoples: their innovations, their failures, their perseverance, their ties to one another. In Lost Worlds, Patrick Wyman opens up the landscapes of these pasts to us, giving us a meticulously researched and refreshingly approachable view of humanity's past in all its glorious variation." --Jennifer Raff, author of Origin

"An illuminating history of prehistory." --Kirkus