We Live on the Last Page of a Very Long Book

Fire, writing, money, vaccines, the internet, machines that answer back. We use powers every day that our ancestors would have called magic, and we rarely stop to ask where they came from.

Every one of them was a bargain. The first farmers paid for their harvests with shorter, sicker lives. The steam engines that built the modern world were fed by children working in the mines. Each power made us stronger, and someone always paid.

If we don’t understand those old bargains, it is hard to see the ones we are making right now, with our data, our genes and our machines.

What the book does

Fifteen Powers, Told as One Story

An Almanac of Us follows our species through four ages. Where we started: keeping fire, sharing stories, turning wolves into dogs, and the first farmers who paid for their harvests with shorter, sicker lives. What we built: writing that began as a record of debts, laws carved in stone, money that is really a promise, the zero, and the printing press.

What we discovered: the telescope, steam power, and the long war against germs no one could see. What we are doing now: a network that joins billions of minds, the power to rewrite the code of life, and machines that answer back.

Every power made us stronger, and every one came with terms and conditions. The book tells both sides, with stories from every continent and many from India: the rock paintings of Bhimbetka, the zeros carved at Gwalior, and a payment code at a roadside tea stall.

What you take away

History You Don’t Just Learn, but Feel

This revised and updated edition is written in plain language for curious readers aged 13 and up. It adds a new chapter on artificial intelligence, the Almanac Clock that runs through every chapter, and four Almanac Pages that sum up each age.

It also includes more than 50 illustrations, maps and diagrams, a timeline, notes on sources, and questions for readers and book clubs.

See the Whole Story
The Almanac Clock places every power on one 300-page timeline, so you can feel how recent, and how fast, the modern world really is.
Both Sides of Every Power
Each chapter shows what a power gave us and who paid for it, from the first farmers to the children who worked in the mines.
Stories From Everywhere
Stories from every continent, with many from India, including the author’s own memories of growing up in a village in Bihar.
Made for Conversation
A timeline, notes on sources and questions for readers and book clubs make it easy to read together and talk about.

A Word From the Author

From a Simple Question to an Epic Story

I’m Ujjwal Ganesh. For years, my work has been about helping people navigate the present. But to understand a world of breathtaking magic and quiet anxiety, I had to look backward and ask a simple, childlike question: where did our powers come from?

This book is the answer I found, told as a story rather than a list of facts, with memories from my own childhood in a village in Bihar. The story of our past is written. The next page is blank. What will we write?

More about me