Vanished - by Sadiah Qureshi (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Shortlisted for the Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize 2025

"A vital and important book." -- David Olusoga

From award-winning historian of race, science, and empire Sadiah Qureshi comes a groundbreaking and deeply moving history of extinction -- as a scientific idea, an imperial legacy, and a political choice.

Anyone alive today belongs to a tiny fraction of all who have ever lived: more than 90% of species that once existed are now extinct. How did we come to see ourselves as survivors in a world where species can disappear forever -- or even as agents capable of driving a sixth mass extinction?

Qureshi reveals that extinction is a surprisingly modern concept -- and not nearly as "natural" as we imagine. Until the late eighteenth century, Europeans believed species were perfect and unchanging creations of God. But as revolutions reshaped the world, scientists began to recognize that fossils -- like mammoth bones -- were not relics of still-living creatures, but evidence of species lost forever. Extinction, once a theological impossibility, became an accepted, even inevitable, truth.

Yet Vanished demonstrates that extinction is more than a scientific discovery -- it is also a political act. European and American colonizers quickly used the idea of "natural" extinction to justify violence and genocide, claiming that Indigenous peoples -- from Newfoundland's Beothuk to Aboriginal Australians -- were destined to disappear.

Drawing on pioneering research and breathtaking storytelling, Vanished explores the intertwined histories of extinction and empire to reveal how the concept has shaped our understanding of life, death, and survival -- and what it means for our planet's future.

Review Quotes

A compelling homage to living and extinct beings, Qureshiâ (TM)s masterpiece is a superbly written, urgent and heart racing volume. Unweaving the threads of centuries of teleological explanations, imperial scientific approaches and offering a new path to understanding mass extinction is a stroke of genius. Vanished is enthralling, devastating and yet empowering--Olivette Otele, author of African Europeans

Dark, persuasive, detailed, poeticâ ] exquisitely attuned to the (often overlooked) historical and political contexts in which scientific ideas thrive--Anjana Ahuja "Financial Times"

Groundbreaking--Andrew Robinson "Nature"

Highly readable and academically rigorous... traces the entanglements of race, empire and colonialism to better understand extinction--Maya Goodfellow "Guardian"

Illuminating and disturbing in equal measure. A poignant and powerfully written account of the intellectual revolution that birthed the concept of extinction; a concept deployed to both justify and animate colonialism and even extermination. A vital and important book--David Olusoga

One of our most innovative historians guides us with grace, humility and conviction through the daunting, tangled thickets of species extinction and human extermination. Qureshi warns us that scientific advancement and enlightenment are not necessarily compatible but encourages us that they can be--Professor Alan Lester, Professor of Historical Geography, University of Sussex

A marvellous, troubling, moving and important book lit with hope, Vanished is an intellectually acute history of both the idea and the reality of extinction. In a series of fascinating examples ranging from the fates of entire peoples to the remains of a single bird in a museum, Qureshi illumines how our ideas of extinction have been forged and shaped by myriad things, from the intellectual debates of eighteenth-century naturalists to the brutal history of colonialism and the political context of the Cold War. I learned so much from Vanished and am so grateful for it--Helen Macdonald, author of H is for Hawk

A poignant, compassionate exploration of the tangled and unnatural histories of extinction and empire. Professor Qureshi skilfully interweaves fascinating original research and compelling storytelling to show us that extinction is both an evolutionary process and a human act: one which illuminates our past, and may alter our future-- "Forbes"

Both authoritative and readable, panoramic in its scope and incisive in its argument... a truly original, challenging and consequential book--Gary Younge

About the Author

Sadiah Qureshi is a writer and historian of science, race and empire. Currently a Chair of Modern British History at the University of Manchester, she has written for the London Review of Books, Times Literary Supplement and New Statesman. She cannot bear the thought of living in a world without trees or tigers.