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The Invention of Yesterday

A 50,000-Year History of Human Culture, Conflict, and Connection

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The Invention of Yesterday

By: Tamim Ansary
Narrated by: Tamim Ansary
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About this listen

 Through vivid stories studded with insights, award-winning author Tamim Ansary tells the story of how humans invented history, from the Stone Age to the Virtual Age.

Fifty thousand years ago, we roamed the world as countless autonomous bands of hunter-gatherers, each one telling itself a story of the world with itself at the center. We used narratives to organize for survival and explain the unfathomable, and these stories evolved into the bases for cultures, empires, and civilizations. When disparate narratives collided, the encounters produced everything from confusion, chaos, and war to cultural efflorescence, religious awakenings, and intellectual breakthroughs.

Traveling across millennia and cultures, The Invention of Yesterday illuminates our propensity to invent a shared symbolic universe, and argues that world history is a narrative we’re constantly inventing.

“A well-written and valuable take on the diverse narratives that have shaped human history.” ―Kirkus Reviews

“Chatty, breezy, and capacious.” ―Publishers Weekly

“Terrific.” ―San Francisco Chronicle

 Anthropology Civilization World Technology Imperialism Africa War World History

Critic reviews

"Ansary offers a remarkable big-picture synthesis that draws upon geography but resists determinism, and celebrates diversity while embracing humanity's commonalities."—Booklist
"In his terrific new book, Tamim Ansary explores the underappreciated ways that empires, nations and smaller sets of people have responded to their surroundings, influenced one another and developed stories that give their lives meaning."—San Francisco Chronicle
"A beautifully written world history focused on the stories different civilizations have told about who we are. It ends with a fundamental question: In today's extraordinary world, can we build new narratives that are inclusive and global enough to encourage worldwide cooperation in the task of building a better future for humanity?"—David Christian, distinguished professor, MacquarieUniversity, Sydney, Australia, and author of Maps of Time: An Introductionto Big History and Origin Story: A Big History of Everything
"Tamim Ansary has done it again, writing an expansive, wonderfully readable account of our present world. With deft examples drawn from across history, he skewers the idea that there's anything pure about culture or race. Ideas have blended and meshed across space and time to make the modern world what it is. Ansary is a charming guide to this blesh of civilizations, and to the world's permanent-and hopeful-capacity for change."—Raj Patel, author of Stuffedand Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System
"Brimming with essential insights and yet always approachable, this is the global history we need now."—Lynn Hunt, author of WritingHistory in the Global Era
"Weaving together multiple complex strands of the human experience into a single compelling storyline, Ansary delivers-in his usual down-to-earth yet erudite style-an engaging global 'narrative of narratives' informed by decades of critical study, reflection, and personal transcultural experience. A deeply enriching, highly relevant read from an important, unique voice of our day."—R. Charles Weller,Central Eurasian and Islamic world history, Washington State and KazakhNational University
"The Invention of Yesterday is an insightful guide into human civilization packed with information that shows how we have been connected globally since the beginning of history. Tamim Ansary unpacks complicated theories to make sense of how we became who we are today."—Fariba Nawa, authorof Opium Nation: Child Brides, Drug Lords and One Woman's Journey throughAfghanistan
All stars
Most relevant
Best world history book to date! Well-read by the author himself. (I read this kind of stuff work work. Trust me: this is the best to date.)

What Sapiens wished it was.

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an absolutely excellent recap of history that puts into perspective our current world. 10 out of 10

History told from all perspectives

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The storytelling is very captivating but then I started noticing some errors such as the number of people that died building the Great Wall of China (the author states 1 million, when it was a maximum of 400.000), that Chinese peasants wore silk (not true), that Mithra and Jesus share a similar life (not true that the Mithra myth states that he was born of a virgin mother, that he had 12 disciples, that he died in a cross etc).
Unfortunately, I cannot fully trust this book and it’s a shame that it wasn’t more well researched. History books shouldn’t be just about ‘stories’.

Not reliable enough

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The Invention of Yesterday is a highly readable and enjoyable narrative of many different threads of the world’s cultural history. The grand narrative is written with an entertaining style which uses humour (and often sarcasm) as well as personal stories to make the book relatable.

At the same time however the narrative is broadly reductive and often unbalanced. While the history of Muslim’s cultural contribution is underscored by admiration, the contribution of Europe’s “Christendom” (as the author describes it) is reduced to stories about crusades, catholic oppression and religious backwardness (all of which are narrated with scathing sarcasm). While we learn that the idea of university is effectively a Muslim brainchild (!), the birth and contribution of exceptional European universities in the 16th and 17th centuries receive the briefest mentions.

A wide-ranging, but at times unbalanced, narrative of world’s “yesterday”

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