If hunter-gatherer societies sustained themselves for the overwhelming majority of human existence, is there something modern civilisation has forgotten? That's Samuel Layne's central question, and whether you end up agreeing with his conclusions or not, it's a genuinely interesting one to dig into.

Layne draws on anthropology, economics and environmental science to argue that our earliest societies have real lessons to teach about sustainability and cooperation. The research is extensive but presented accessibly, so you don't need a background in any of those fields to follow along.

Where I found myself unconvinced was in the leap to the present. It's hard to imagine principles that worked for small, relatively self-contained communities scaling to a global population that depends on modern agriculture, medicine, […]
Review Non-Fiction