Nearly everyone assumes that the way we live in the western world today is somehow natural. It is supposedly natural for childcare to be such hard work, for women to be exploited within nuclear families, for kids to feel needy and insecure and for adults to suffer such extreme emotional pressures as to become mentally unbalanced or ill. Many today are unaware of the possibility of organising society in such a way that playfulness is a central value, childcare the most basic priority and free time the measure of our wealth. We have forgotten how to rear children so that they become spontaneously generous and caring.

This book by Suki Pryce surveys compelling evidence that for 90 per cent or more of our evolutionary history, humans have lived as egalitarian hunter-gatherers. The author reminds us that childcare throughout most of our evolution was co-operative, each child having several carers at all times. The effect was to produce emotionally balanced and joyous people. Anthropologist have long been aware of these facts, but this is the first book aimed at a general readership to break the conspiracy of silence on so much of our history. I do hope it is read widely and that its recommendations are taken up by all those who have ever asked themselves, Isnt there a better way?

An important book, full of fascinating research and ideas, which helps create a revised picture of human nature, away from the bleakness of Neo-Darwinism and back to our peaceful and harmonious origins.