The Human Planet

Understanding what it means for humans to have become a geological force reshaping the workings of the Earth is both a deep intellectual challenge and a political necessity. Richly thought through and provocative from its title onwards, The Human Planet rises to that challenge, bringing together Earth history and human history in a new way. Its reassessment of the past will equip its readers to understand the future -- and perhaps to improve it

Oliver Morton, author of The Planet Remade

Immensely readable. . . Simon Lewis and Mark Maslin provide a compelling narrative, stretching from the emergence of hominins from Earth's long history some 3 million years ago, to our position today, as a species with planetary reach

Nature

A relentless reckoning of how we, as a species, got ourselves into the mess we're in today. . . told with determination and in chiseled, almost literary prose. Indeed, the book's main story - how one species, Homo sapiens, fresh off the trees of Africa, came to rule the Earth so completely that it now stands a good chance of wrecking it - has the force of a Greek tragedy

Wall Street Journal

A clear, intelligent and engaged history of and argument about the Anthropocene. . . If readers want a judicious and engaging marker of where the debate has reached, The Human Planet is it

Robert J. Mayhew, Times Higher Education

That humans now dominate the 'natural' systems of our planet is the key fact of our time -- this book does a remarkable job of explaining how that came to pass, and why it matters so much

Bill McKibben, author Falter

Profound and thought-provoking, this book does a remarkable job explaining where the current proposal to define a new human-dominated era properly fits

Thomas E. Lovejoy, winner of the Blue Planet Prize

Today scientists increasingly believe that we have entered a new era, the Anthropocene. In this succinct but sweeping re-evaluation of the human story, Simon Lewis and Mark Maslin show exactly why this abstract-sounding contention should radically affect our views of today and tomorrow. The Human Planet packs more ideas into a small space than I would have thought possible

Charles C. Mann, author of The Wizard and the Prophet

A careful explanation of what society is doing to this amazing planet and its people. I was absolutely gripped. Brilliantly written and genuinely one of the most important books I have ever read

Ellie Mae O’Hagan