Work: A Deep History, from the Stone Age to the Age of Robots

James Suzman, Ph.D., is an anthropologist specializing in the Khoisan peoples of southern Africa. A recipient of the Smuts Commonwealth Fellowship in African Studies at Cambridge University, he is now the director of Anthropos Ltd., a think tank that applies anthropological methods to solving contemporary social and economic problems. He lives in Cambridge, England.Author Residence: Cambridge, UKAuthor Hometown: Johannesburg, South Africa

A leading anthropologist charts a grand history of "work" from the origins of life on Earth to the ever more automated present, challenging deep assumptions about who mankind is.

PROFOUND AND FASCINATING ORIGINAL RESEARCH: What separates Suzman from other historians and experts who write grand histories is that his work is underpinned by two decades of anthropological fieldwork among hunter-gatherer and simple farming societies in AfricaGRAND NEW THESIS: The big idea at the heart of this book-that work is not hardwired into humanity-has revolutionary implicationsSPEAKS TO THE CURRENT CRISIS: Our relationship to work is as fraught as ever. Some people have too much, others too little. Compensation is wildly disproportionate. The book promises a way out.STRONG INTERNATIONAL PRESENCE: Rights have been sold in 18 territories to leading nonfiction publishers with very strong competitive interest in many cases.DYNAMIC AUTHOR: As well as his academic work, Suzman has private sector experience advising on sustainability, social, and environmental policies, and his fieldwork gives him rich material to discuss in promoting the book.