The Invention of Good and Evil
A World History of Morality
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The Invention of Good and Evil
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Narrated by:
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Callum Coates
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By:
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Hanno Sauer
About this listen
What makes us moral beings? How do we decide what is good and what is evil? And has it always been that way? Hanno Sauer's sweeping new history of humanity, covering five million years of our universal moral values, comes at a crucial moment of crisis for those values, and helps to explain how they arose—and why we need them.
Modern societies are in crisis: a shared universal morality seems to be a thing of the past. Hanno Sauer explains why this appearance is deceptive: in fact, there are universal values that all people share. If we understand the origin of our morality, we can understand its future too.
Sauer explains how processes of biological, cultural, social, and historical evolution shaped the moral grammar that defines our present. Seven chapters recount the crucial moral upheavals of human history showing how the emergence of humankind five million years ago, the rise of first civilizations 5,000 years ago, and the dynamics of moral progress in the last fifty years are interrelated. This genealogical perspective allows us, on the one hand, to see the contradictions and potential conflicts of our moral identities; on the other, it makes clear that we share fundamental values that apply to all human beings at all times. Sauer's elegant prose brings the history of humanity to vivid new life.
©2023 Hanno Sauer; Translation copyright 2024 by Jo Heinrich; copyright 2024 by Oxford University Press (P)2024 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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A powerful exposé
- By Jeff on 12-22-24
By: Catherine Nixey
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How the World Made the West
- A 4,000 Year History
- By: Josephine Quinn
- Narrated by: Alix Dunmore
- Length: 15 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 49
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 44
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Story4 out of 5 stars 44
In How the World Made the West, Josephine Quinn poses perhaps the most significant challenge ever to the “civilizational thinking” regarding the origins of Western culture—that is, the idea that civilizations arose separately and distinctly from one another. Rather, she locates the roots of the modern West in everything from the law codes of Babylon, Assyrian irrigation, and the Phoenician art of sail to Indian literature, Arabic scholarship, and the metalworking riders of the Steppe, to name just a few examples.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Middling
- By Amazon Customer on 11-14-24
By: Josephine Quinn
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Impossible Monsters
- Dinosaurs, Darwin, and the Battle Between Science and Religion
- By: Michael Taylor
- Narrated by: Michael Langan
- Length: 15 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 14
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 13
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Story4 out of 5 stars 13
Impossible Monsters reveals the central role of dinosaurs and their discovery in toppling traditional religious authority, and in changing perceptions about the Bible, history, and mankind's place in the world.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Repetitive and not that interesting
- By Michael on 09-09-24
By: Michael Taylor
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Origin Story
- The Trials of Charles Darwin
- By: Howard Markel
- Narrated by: Mike Cooper
- Length: 7 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 6
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 6
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 6
In Origin Story, medical historian Howard Markel recounts the two-year period (1858 to 1860) of Darwin's writing of On the Origin of Species through its spectacular success and controversy. Simultaneously, Markel delves into the mysterious health symptoms Darwin developed, combing the literature to emerge with a cogent diagnosis of a case that has long fascinated medical historians.
By: Howard Markel
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Spycraft
- Tricks and Tools of the Dangerous Trade from Elizabeth I to the Restoration
- By: Pete Langman, Nadine Akkerman
- Narrated by: Nan McNamara
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 3
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3
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Story4 out of 5 stars 3
In this engaging, accessible account, Nadine Akkerman and Pete Langman explore the methods spies actually used in the period, including disguises, invisible inks, and even poisons. Drawing on a vast array of archival sources, they show how understanding the tricks and tools of espionage allows us to reimagine well-known stories such as the Babington and Gunpowder plots.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Needs accompanying PDF
- By Amazon Customer on 09-26-24
By: Pete Langman, and others
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The Book-Makers
- A History of the Book in Eighteen Lives
- By: Adam Smyth
- Narrated by: Adam Smyth
- Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 8
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 8
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Story4 out of 5 stars 8
Books tell all kinds of stories—romances, tragedies, comedies—but if we learn to read the signs correctly, they can tell us the story of their own making too. The Book-Makers offers a new way into the story of Western culture’s most important object, the book, through dynamic portraits of eighteen individuals who helped to define it.
By: Adam Smyth
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How Tyrants Fall
- And How Nations Survive
- By: Marcel Dirsus
- Narrated by: Richard Burnip
- Length: 8 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 17
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 16
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Story5 out of 5 stars 16
Meeting with a revolutionary (codename 'Satan') who risked Stasi capture to undermine an oppressive regime, an American-Gambian activist who plotted to liberate his homeland on breaks during his construction job and the unapologetic former leader of a Burundian rebel group which carried out a massacre, internationally renowned security expert and political scientist Dr Marcel Dirsus draws on extensive field research and personal interviews with coup leaders, rebels and soldiers to examine the workings and malfunctions of tyrants.
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5 out of 5 stars
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this is for anyone in any country.
- By david on 03-17-25
By: Marcel Dirsus
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Raiders, Rulers, and Traders
- The Horse and the Rise of Empires
- By: David Chaffetz
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 13 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 7
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 6
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Story5 out of 5 stars 6
No animal is so entangled in human history as the horse. The thread starts in prehistory, with a slight, shy animal, hunted for food. Domesticating the horse allowed early humans to settle the vast Eurasian steppe; later, their horses enabled new forms of warfare, encouraged long-distance trade routes, and ended up acquiring deep cultural and religious significance.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The authors love of his material
- By Jim7 on 05-02-25
By: David Chaffetz
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All That Glitters
- A Story of Friendship, Fraud, and Fine Art
- By: Orlando Whitfield
- Narrated by: Orlando Whitfield
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 62
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 50
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 50
Orlando would eventually set up his own gallery and watch as Inigo quickly immersed himself in a world of private jets and multimillion-dollar deals for major clients. Inigo seemed brilliant, but underneath the extravagant façade, his complicated financial schemes were unraveling. With debt, lawsuits, and court summonses piling up, Inigo went into a tailspin of lies and subterfuge. At around the same time, Orlando would himself experience a nervous breakdown and leave the art world for good.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Gripping
- By Anonymous User on 09-01-24
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The Identity Trap
- A Story of Ideas and Power in Our Time
- By: Yascha Mounk
- Narrated by: JD Jackson
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 193
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 166
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 166
For much of history, societies have violently oppressed ethnic, religious, and sexual minorities. It is no surprise that many who passionately believe in social justice came to believe that members of marginalized groups need to take pride in their identity to resist injustice.
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5 out of 5 stars
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May It Mark A Turning Point
- By Larry on 09-28-23
By: Yascha Mounk
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The Ultimate Hidden Truth of the World . . .
- Essays
- By: David Graeber, Nika Dubrovsky - editor
- Narrated by: Jacques Servin, Savitri D
- Length: 13 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 31
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 31
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Story5 out of 5 stars 31
"The ultimate hidden truth of the world is that it is something that we make, and could just as easily make differently," wrote David Graeber. A renowned anthropologist, activist, and author of such classic books as Debt and the breakout New York Times bestseller The Dawn of Everything (with David Wengrow), Graeber was as well-known for his sharp, lively essays as he was for his iconic role in the Occupy movement and his paradigm-shifting tomes.
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5 out of 5 stars
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An important read
- By zoia krioukova on 01-28-25
By: David Graeber, and others
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Theoderic the Great
- King of Goths, Ruler of Romans
- By: Hans-Ulrich Wiemer, John Noel Dillon - translator
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 23 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 41
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 38
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 38
In the year 493, the leader of a vast confederation of Gothic warriors, their wives, and children personally cut down Odoacer, the man famous for deposing the last Roman emperor in 476. That leader became Theoderic the Great (454-526). This engaging history of his life and reign immerses listeners in the world of the warrior-king who ushered in decades of peace and stability in Italy as king of Goths and Romans.
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4 out of 5 stars
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More for historians than general readers
- By Bill Staley on 10-29-23
By: Hans-Ulrich Wiemer, and others
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Playing with Reality
- How Games Have Shaped Our World
- By: Kelly Clancy
- Narrated by: Patty Nieman
- Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 18
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 16
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 16
We play games to learn about the world, to understand our minds and the minds of others, and to make predictions about the future. Games are an essential aspect of humanity and a powerful tool for modeling reality. They’re also a lot of fun. But games can be dangerous, especially when we mistake the model worlds of games for reality itself and let gamification co-opt human decision making. Playing with Reality explores the riveting history of games since the Enlightenment.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Fluidity of concept to reality explanation from the author
- By Rony exantus on 01-06-25
By: Kelly Clancy
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Tits Up
- What Sex Workers, Milk Bankers, Plastic Surgeons, Bra Designers, and Witches Tell Us About Breasts
- By: Sarah Thornton
- Narrated by: Sarah Thornton
- Length: 8 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 23
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 20
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 20
Riotous and galvanizing, Tits Up excavates the diverse truths of mammary glands from the strip club to the operating room, from the nation’s oldest human milk bank to the fit rooms of bra designers. Thornton draws insights from plastic surgeons, lactation consultants, body-positive witches, lingerie models, and “free the nipple” activists to explore the status of breasts as emblems of femininity. She examines how women’s chests have become a billion-dollar business, as well as a stage for debates about race, class, gender, and desire.
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5 out of 5 stars
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diverse perspectives
- By Will on 05-18-24
By: Sarah Thornton
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Peak Human
- What We Can Learn from History’s Greatest Civilizations
- By: Johan Norberg
- Narrated by: Andrew Cullum
- Length: 15 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 8
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 8
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Story5 out of 5 stars 8
All golden ages are marked by periods of spectacular cultural flourishing, scientific exploration, technological achievement and economic growth; yet no two are the same. Their beliefs, societies and place in the wider world all vary. Despite this, all previous golden ages have ended, whether it be because of external pressures or internal fracturing; too much hubris or too little wariness.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The consist threads that knit the central theme.
- By C. D. on 06-11-25
By: Johan Norberg
the sheer scope of the book.
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Was good until author got political
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