AN ECONOMIST BOOK OF THE YEAR

'Blending insights from evolutionary biology, cognitive science and anthropology, Sauer has made a heroic effort to chart how morality has changed' Economist

'The best thing on morality I have ever read' Paul Bloom

'A brisk, engaging survey covering five million years of human history' Financial Times

The history of humankind is punctuated by a series of transformational leaps. Just as good and evil cannot exist without the other, each new configuration for how we live together - how we distinguish and enforce right from wrong - was accompanied by new sins.

Collaboration gives rise to division; culture requires exclusion; and justice demands punishment. The morality of early civilisations is markedly different from that in the dark ages or the enlightenment. As for the present day, did morality follow us here? Or did it lead the way?

Philosopher and professor of Ethics Hanno Sauer traces the path of our moral transformations from our earliest ancestors to this very moment and beyond.

AN ECONOMIST BOOK OF THE YEAR

'An ambitious and anecdote-rich sweeping history of morality's growing influence over our lives' WALL STREET JOURNAL

'This fat, complex, good-natured and intriguing book is full of such memorable material...startling and often thrilling' SPECTATOR

'A heroic effort...rich with complex narrative, full of unexpected twists like the inquisitors' tale' ECONOMIST

For almost five million years, humans have been locked in a relationship with morality, inventing and reinventing the concepts of 'Good' and 'Evil', and weaving them into our cities, laws and customs.

Morality is a concept that can feel joyless and claustrophobic, associated with restraint and coercion, restriction and sacrifice, inquisition, confession and a guilty conscience. For many, it is a device used to shame us into compliance. This impression is not necessarily incorrect, but it is most certainly incomplete.

Hanno Sauer traces humanity's fundamental moral transformations from our earliest ancestors through to the present day, when it can often seem that we have never disagreed more over what it means to be good, and what it means to be right. But we can use our past as a basis for a new understanding of our future. Our current political disagreements may feel like the end of the world, but where will the evolution of morality take us next?

AN ECONOMIST BOOK OF THE YEAR

'Blending insights from evolutionary biology, cognitive science and anthropology, Sauer has made a heroic effort to chart how morality has changed' Economist

'The best thing on morality I have ever read' Paul Bloom

'A brisk, engaging survey covering five million years of human history' Financial Times

The history of humankind is punctuated by a series of transformational leaps. Just as good and evil cannot exist without the other, each new configuration for how we live together - how we distinguish and enforce right from wrong - was accompanied by new sins.

Collaboration gives rise to division; culture requires exclusion; and justice demands punishment. The morality of early civilisations is markedly different from that in the dark ages or the enlightenment. As for the present day, did morality follow us here? Or did it lead the way?

Philosopher and professor of Ethics Hanno Sauer traces the path of our moral transformations from our earliest ancestors to this very moment and beyond.

AN ECONOMIST BOOK OF THE YEAR

'An ambitious and anecdote-rich sweeping history of morality's growing influence over our lives' WALL STREET JOURNAL

'This fat, complex, good-natured and intriguing book is full of such memorable material…startling and often thrilling' SPECTATOR

'A heroic effort…rich with complex narrative, full of unexpected twists like the inquisitors' tale' ECONOMIST

For almost five million years, humans have been locked in a relationship with morality, inventing and reinventing the concepts of 'Good' and 'Evil', and weaving them into our cities, laws and customs.

Morality is a concept that can feel joyless and claustrophobic, associated with restraint and coercion, restriction and sacrifice, inquisition, confession and a guilty conscience. For many, it is a device used to shame us into compliance. This impression is not necessarily incorrect, but it is most certainly incomplete.

Hanno Sauer traces humanity's fundamental moral transformations from our earliest ancestors through to the present day, when it can often seem that we have never disagreed more over what it means to be good, and what it means to be right. But we can use our past as a basis for a new understanding of our future. Our current political disagreements may feel like the end of the world, but where will the evolution of morality take us next?