The Day Before Yesterday: Five Million Years of Human History [Paperback]

A breathtakingly wide-angled history of the past five million years and a wonderful account of some of the most magnificent animals the world has ever seen. 'History at its most subversive, history that inspires and terrifies'. WASHINGTON POST

This brilliant and ambitious book is an account of the events that made our world the place it is - geologically, climatically and ecologically - and a call for a new way of thinking about history. 'We learn', Tudge writes, 'to think only in desperately trivial twinklings of time. . . But this contracted view of time is not merely comic. It is dangerous. ' The proper sense of time, he argues, is one that allows us to appreciate the world and see what we are doing to it. If humankind is to survive, we must UNLEARN most of what made us good at dominating our environment up to now.

WINNER OF THE BP CONSERVATION BOOK PRIZE

'I want to tell the story of human beings beginning at the beginning, around 5 million years ago. I also want to put that history into perspective, by showing what went before it and why our own history began in the first place. The past 2,000 years of conventional history are effectively the present. The past 40,000 years, when our own species truly got into its stride, is only yesterday. The 5 million years that are the main focus of this book are "the day before yesterday".' Colin Tudge, from the 'Prologue'

Here is a breathtakingly wide-angled history of the events that have made our world the place it is - geologically, climatically and ecologically. It shows us huge mammals of great beauty that once dominated the Earth. It makes vividly clear why humankind is the way it is. It argues for a radically new way of thinking about the past.

'The Day Before Yesterday has a major message and tells it well.' Observer

'He gives us history at its most subversive, history that both inspires and terrifies.' Washington Post

'Tudge tells a story of human evolution that is fast-paced, exciting and deeply interesting...and a cracking good tale it is.' New Scientist