Can’t-Wait Wednesday: The Ape That Understood the Universe by Steve Stewart-Williams

Posted May 23, 2018 by Stephanie in can't-wait wednesday / 25 Comments

Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted at Wishful Endings, to spotlight and talk about the books we’re excited about that we have yet to read. It’s based on Waiting On Wednesday hosted at Breaking the Spine.


The Ape That Understood the Universe: How the Mind and Culture Evolve by Steve Stewart-Williams
Expected publication: September 30th 2018 by Cambridge University Press


The Ape that Understood the Universe is the story of the strangest animal in the world: the human animal. It opens with a question: How would an alien scientist view our species? What would it make of our sex differences, our sexual behavior, our child-rearing patterns, our moral codes, our religions, languages, and science? The book tackles these issues by drawing on ideas from two major schools of thought: evolutionary psychology and cultural evolutionary theory. The guiding assumption is that humans are animals, and that like all animals, we evolved to pass on our genes. At some point, however, we also evolved the capacity for culture – and from that moment, culture began evolving in its own right. This transformed us from a mere ape into an ape capable of reshaping the planet, travelling to other worlds, and understanding the vast universe of which we’re but a tiny, fleeting fragment.

This is a nonfiction that I stumbled upon the other day while I was browsing Amazon. It doesn’t release until September but I think it sounds super fascinating. It already has some amazing advanced praise so that makes me even more excited. I’ve always had an interest in evolutionary psychology but I haven’t found any books about this certain subject recently so I was excited right away when I read the synopsis. It just sounds like some great brain food for me. 😀



Don’t forget to enter my giveaway that I’m hosting to win a book of choice from TBD. 2 winners, open INTL — Click here


25 responses to “Can’t-Wait Wednesday: The Ape That Understood the Universe by Steve Stewart-Williams

  1. OMG, Steph!! This sounds absolutely AMAZING!!! Although my main blog is eclectic, I don't review nonfiction on it anymore. However, I can certainly review this book on my other blog, which is for literary fiction, as well as nonfiction, and is sadly neglected….

    Thanks for putting this on my radar!!! Hope you enjoy it!! I'm adding it to my Goodreads shelves in a WARP minute!! Lol.

    Thanks as well for commenting on my own CWW post!! HUGS!!! <3 <3 <3 🙂 🙂 🙂

    • Hi, again! Yes, I do! Poor thing, though, it's neglected because of lack of time…..:( It's titled "MindSpirit Book Journeys". (Yeah, the first two words purposefully run together.) If you'd care to take a look, just check under the header at my main blog, "A Night's Dream of Books", and you'll find the link there. Or just click on my Blogger profile pic, and you'll find it listed in my profile. HUGS!!!! <3 <3 <3 🙂 🙂 🙂

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