Humans (Headline Publishing Group)

'This book is brilliant. Utterly, utterly brilliant. Apart from the epilogue, which is idiotic' Jeremy Clarkson 'F*cking brilliant' Sarah Knight AN EXHILARATING JOURNEY THROUGH THE MOST CREATIVE AND CATASTROPHIC F*CK-UPS OF HUMAN HISTORY In the seventy thousand years that modern human beings have walked this earth, we've come a long way.

Art, science, culture, trade - on the evolutionary food chain, we're real winners. But, frankly, it's not exactly been plain sailing, and sometimes - just occasionally - we've managed to really, truly, quite unbelievably f*ck things up.

From Chairman Mao's Four Pests Campaign, to the American Dustbowl; from the Austrian army attacking itself one drunken night, to the world's leading superpower electing a reality TV mogul as President...

it's pretty safe to say that, as a species, we haven't exactly grown wiser with age. So, next time you think you've really f*cked up, this book will remind you: it could be so much worse...

FURTHER PRAISE FOR HUMANS: 'Very funny' Mark Watson 'A light-touch history of moments when humans have got it spectacularly wrong... Both readable and entertaining' The Telegraph 'chronicles humanity's myriad follies down the ages with malicious glee and much wit...

a rib-tickling page-turner' Business standard 'A timely, irreverent gallop through thousands of years of human stupidity' Nicholas Griffin, Ping-Pong Diplomacy: The Secret History Behind the Game That Changed the World This book is brilliant.

Utterly, utterly brilliant. Apart from the epilogue, which is idiotic -- Jeremy Clarkson Tom Phillips has proven beyond a doubt that humans are goddamn lucky to be here and are doing nearly nothing to remain relevant and viable as a species - except, that is, for writing witty, entertaining, and slightly distressing-but-ultimately-endearing books about same.

And if you care to avoid orbiting the earth in a space-garbage prison of your fellow humans' design, you should probably read it -- Sarah Knight * The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F*ck * In dark times, it's reassuring to learn that we've always been a bunch of clueless f*cking nitwits -- Stuart Heritage * Don't Be a Dick, Pete * If you find yourself looking at the news and wondering how humanity has got so many things wrong, over and over again, this book is a very funny answer to just that question' -- Mark Watson, comedian A light-touch history of moments when humans have got it spectacularly wrong...

Both readable and entertaining * Telegraph * Tom Phillips is a very clever, very funny