Catalog Search Results
Author
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
It's a belief that unites the left and right, psychologists and philosophers, writers and historians. It drives the headlines that surround us and the laws that touch our lives. From Machiavelli to Hobbes, Freud to Dawkins, the roots of this belief have sunk deep into Western thought. Human beings, we're taught, are by nature selfish and governed by self-interest. Humankind makes a new argument: that it is realistic, as well as revolutionary, to assume...
Author
Language
English
Appears on these lists
2025 Reading Challenge—New York Times 100 Best Books of the 21st Century (Reader Favorites)
NYT - Culture
NYT - Science
NYT - Culture
NYT - Science
Description
One hundred thousand years ago, at least six different species of humans inhabited Earth. Yet today there is only one--homo sapiens. What happened to the others? And what may happen to us? Most books about the history of humanity pursue either a historical or a biological approach, but Dr. Yuval Noah Harari breaks the mold with this highly original book that begins about 70,000 years ago with the appearance of modern cognition. From examining the...
Author
Pub. Date
2018.
Language
English
Description
Have you ever wondered why we stop to watch the orange glow that arrives before sunset, or why we flock to see cherry blossoms bloom in spring? Is there a reason that people -- regardless of gender, age, culture, or ethnicity -- are mesmerized by baby animals, and can't help but smile when they see a burst of confetti or a cluster of colorful balloons? We are often made to feel that the physical world has little or no impact on our inner joy. Increasingly,...
Author
Language
English
Appears on these lists
2025 Reading Challenge—Essays or Short Stories
2025 Reading Challenge—New York Times 100 Best Books of the 21st Century (Reader Favorites)
NYT - Combined Print & E-Book Nonfiction
More Lists...
2025 Reading Challenge—New York Times 100 Best Books of the 21st Century (Reader Favorites)
NYT - Combined Print & E-Book Nonfiction
More Lists...
Formats
Description
"An inspired weaving of indigenous knowledge, plant science, and personal narrative from a distinguished professor of science and a Native American whose previous book, Gathering Moss, was awarded the John Burroughs Medal for outstanding nature writing. As a botanist and professor of plant ecology, Robin Wall Kimmerer has spent a career learning how to ask questions of nature using the tools of science. As a Potawatomi woman, she learned from elders,...
Author
Publisher
Penguin Books
Pub. Date
2021.
Language
English
Description
"Our troubled relationship with being an animal-and why we need a better one." Humans are the most inquisitive, emotional, imaginative, aggressive animals on the planet. And we also happen to be the only animal that doesn't like to think it's an animal. So how well do we really know ourselves? 'How to Be Animal' argues that at the heart of our existence is a profound struggle with being animal. We possess a psychology that seeks separation between...
Author
Publisher
Crown
Language
English
Formats
Description
"The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sixth Extinction returns to humanity's transformative impact on the environment, now asking: After doing so much damage, can we change nature, this time to save it? That man should have dominion "over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth" is a prophecy that has hardened into fact. So pervasive are human impacts on the planet that it's said we live in a new geological epoch:...
Author
Publisher
Columbia Global Reports
Pub. Date
[2023]
Language
English
Description
"From Silicon Valley boardrooms to rural communes to academic philosophy departments, a seemingly inconceivable idea is being seriously discussed : that the end of humanity's reign on earth is imminent, and that we should welcome it"--
Author
Pub. Date
2019.
Language
English
Description
Modern humans have come a long way in the seventy thousand years they've walked the earth. Art, science, culture, trade -- on the evolutionary food chain, we're true winners. But it hasn't always been smooth sailing, and sometimes -- just occasionally -- we've managed to truly f*ck things up. Weaving together history, science, politics and pop culture, Phillips offers a panoramic exploration of humankind in all its glory, or lack thereof. From Lucy,...
Author
Publisher
The Experiment
Pub. Date
2019.
Language
English
Description
"A concise, illustrated update on our earliest ancestors (Homo erectus, ergaster, the Neanderthals, Denisovans, and other) and what accelerated Homo sapiens' evolution and left us the sole surviving species among many other ancient bipedal "humans""--
Author
Series
Hollow kingdom (Buxton) volume 2
Publisher
Grand Central Publishing
Pub. Date
2021.
Language
English
Description
"Once upon an apocalypse, there lived an obscenely handsome American crow named S.T., which was, of course, short for Sh*t Turd . . . When the world last checked-in with its beloved Cheeto addict, the planet had been overrun by flesh-hungry, zombie-like beasts, and all things natural had started staking claim to territory that had previously been inhabited by humans. And S.T., alongside his Bloodhound-bestie Dennis, had set about saving pets that...
Publisher
PBS Distribution
Pub. Date
[2016]
Language
English
Description
Numbering no more than a few thousand, tiny groups of intrepid humans began to move out of Africa, eventually dominating the planet. How did these early humans acquire the skills, technology, and talent to thrive in every environment on Earth? Take a global journey through the past, following the ancestors' footsteps out of Africa along a trail of scientific clues to help unravel the mystery of how humans got where they are.
Author
Publisher
Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers
Pub. Date
[2021]
Language
English
Description
A Dartmouth anthropologist whose team discovered two ancient human species explores how our evolution toward bipedalism rendered us dominant, innovative, more compassionate, and more susceptible to health problems.
Author
Publisher
Hachette Book Group, Inc
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Description
"One of the most stunning achievements of moral philosophy is something we take for granted: moral universalism, or the idea that every human has equal moral worth. In What We Owe the Future, Oxford philosopher William MacAskill demands that we go a step further, arguing that people not only have equal moral worth no matter where or how they live, but also no matter when they live. This idea has implications beyond the obvious (climate change) - including...
18) Origin: a novel
Author
Series
Accelerated Reader
IL: UG - BL: 7.6 - AR Pts: 25
Language
English
Description
Robert Langdon, Harvard professor of symbology and religious iconology, arrives at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao to attend the unveiling of a discovery that "will change the face of science forever". The evening's host is his friend and former student, Edmond Kirsch, a forty-year-old tech magnate whose dazzling inventions and audacious predictions have made him a controversial figure around the world. This evening is to be no exception: he claims he...
Publisher
A&E Television Networks
Pub. Date
2008
Language
English
Description
What will the world be like when mankind is extinct? The pyramids may stand forever, but the cities will disappear. Our greatest masterpieces will fade and crumble. As global warming and the depletion of natural resources become ever more pressing issues it is critical to consider how we can reduce our impact on the planet. Journey to locations around the globe already going through the processes of a lack of human intervention. See the changes wrought...
20) Old Turtle
Author
Publisher
Pfeifer-Hamilton
Pub. Date
c1992
Accelerated Reader
IL: LG - BL: 3.8 - AR Pts: 1
Language
English
Description
All of nature argues about the forms of God, so people are sent as a reminder of all that God is, although they do not seem to understand the message themselves.
Interlibrary Loan Request
Didn't find what you need? Items not owned by Des Moines Public Library can be requested from other libraries to be delivered to your local library for pickup.
Didn't find it?
Can't find what you are looking for? If the item was published recently, submit a purchase suggestion. Submit Request