Did you know that clickbait and fake news were invented in the 16th century, driving the persecution of so-called ‘witches’? That an ancient Japanese city developed a sustainable, circular economy that served over a million people? That Spain has a 1000-year-old water court that still meets in public every Thursday to democratically distribute scarce irrigation water?

You’ll find all this and more in my new book, History for Tomorrow: Inspiration from the Past for the Future of Humanity, which is published this week. The book explores ten urgent challenges facing humanity in the 21st century, from climate change and hyperconsumerism to the risks of AI and threats to democracy, and asks what we can learn from the last millennium of history to tackle them in more effective ways. History, I argue, offers a vision of radical hope that could turn out to be our most vital tool for surviving and thriving in the turbulent decades ahead.

You can find out more and order yourself a copy here.

To get a taste of the book, check out: a short video I’ve made about Valencia’s extraordinary Tribunal of Waters, an article I wrote for the BBC on Japan’s circular, regenerative economy, or an interview on US National Public Radio about how disruptive movements create change.

It would be great to see you at one of the many speaking events I’m doing over the coming months, in the UK and beyond.

I would also be hugely grateful if you shared information about History for Tomorrow with anyone who you think might find hope and inspiration in its pages.

Let us be guided by the Māori proverb, Kia whakatōmuri te haere whakamua – “I walk backwards into the future with my eyes fixed on the past.”

Hello to you all. As fate would have it, my new book, History for Tomorrow: Inspiration from the Past for the Future of Humanity, will be published on the same day as the UK general election, July 4. The good news is that it’s got plenty of historical insights for the future Prime Minister (in fact, a thousand years worth).

The other good news is that there will be a series of launch events over the summer (full list here). These include a sneak preview at the Hay Book Festival on June 1, a big launch in Oxford on July 3 (where I’ll be in conversation with historian Michael Wood and economist Kate Raworth), events in London including at the How To Academy, and festivals such as Wilderness and ALSO (where you can get a discount with the code IKNOWROMAN; offer ends May 31). Later in the year I will be doing launch tours for international editions in the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway and Brazil.

You can pre-order the hardback or ebook here. I have also just spent three days in a studio recording the unabridged audio book (image below), which will be available on multiple platforms here. I was hoarse by the end, but managed to say the final beautiful line from Cicero:

History is the witness of time, the light of truth, the essence of remembrance, the teacher of life, the messenger of times past.

Marcus Tullius Cicero

Hope you enjoy the book and please come and say hello at one of the events!

What can we learn from the last 1000 of history for confronting the challenges of our age, from the climate crisis to the risks of artificial intelligence? This is the subject of my new book, History for Tomorrow: Inspiration from the Past for the Future of Humanity, which will be published in the UK on July 4. I realise that’s quite a long way off, but after having been buried in my Oxford garden study for the last three years writing, I’m itching to start talking about the book!

History for Tomorrow argues that in order to move forwards, we need to look backwards and draw on the generation upon generation of wisdom bequeathed by our forebears. The tyranny of the now governs public life – our politicians are mostly responding to the latest headlines, and social media traps us in the present moment. At the same time, the tech gurus keep telling us that technology will come to our civilisational rescue: who needs history when you’ve got carbon capture, synthetic biology and AI algorithms? In contrast, I’m very much inspired by Goethe, who wrote, ‘He who cannot draw on three thousand years is living from hand to mouth’.

The book explores the insights and inspiration we can find in the past for ten urgent issues facing humanity in the 21st century, from bridging the inequality gap and reducing the risks of genetic engineering, to reviving our faith in democracy and avoiding ecological collapse. It asks intriguing questions like: What can the history of slave revolts teach us about the power of rebellion to tackle the climate crisis? How might understanding the origins of capitalism spark ideas for bringing AI under control? What could we learn from eighteenth century Japan for creating regenerative economies today, or from the coffee houses of Georgian London for taming social media?

HIstory for Tomorrow reveals how time and again, people around the world have risen up together, often against the odds, to tackle challenges and overcome crises. History offers a vision of radical hope that could turn out to be our most vital tool for surviving and thriving in the turbulent decades ahead.

If you would like to find out more:

• You can pre-order a copy via the links on my website
• Come along to one of the events I’ll be doing, which include a launch event in Oxford on July 3 where I’ll be in conversation with historian Michael Wood and economist Kate Raworth
• If you would like me to give a talk or do a podcast, please write to me at info@romankrznaric.com
• For general media inquiries please contact Laura Nicol at LNicol@penguinrandomhouse.co.uk 

With best wishes

Roman

“I’d never heard of this bloody place Guatemala until I was in my 79th year” – Winston Churchill

If you don’t know much about Guatemala, then you’re not alone. But if you’d like to find out more about this country of extraordinary beauty and tragedy, then I invite you have a look at my new book What The Rich Don’t Tell The Poor: Conversations With Guatemalan Oligarchs.

You probably signed up to this blog because of your interest in the topics of my previous books, like empathy, long-term thinking or seizing the day. But long before I began writing on those issues, I was doing academic research on Guatemalan politics. Back in the early 2000s, I spent seven years interviewing members of the country’s economic elite or ‘oligarchy’ to discover how they think about poverty, violence, race and power, and how they have maintained their privileges in the face of change. What The Rich Don’t Tell The Poor reveals all that I learned, with the oligarchs speaking candidly in their own words.

We hear about Russian oligarchs and other superwealthy business elites in the media every day. But how much do we really know about them? Who are they behind a bland quote in the Wall Street Journal? My hope is that this book isn’t just revealing about Guatemala’s oligarchs, but offers insights into understanding and challenging elite power everywhere.

The book has an unusual publication history. It was originally written in 2006 – based on research in my PhD thesis – and I’ve now published it for the first time in its original version. As I write in a new 2022 Preface, although much has changed in Guatemala in the intervening years, it is staggering just how much has stayed the same. The oligarchs remain a formidable and largely unchallenged force.

Writing this book was actually my introduction to the topic of empathy – the art of stepping into the shoes of other people and looking at the world through their eyes – which I subsequently wrote about in several other books. Speaking to the oligarchs forced me to try to see the world from the perspective of people whose views and actions I deeply disagreed with, from their racism with respect to Guatemala’s Indigenous Mayan population to their support for paramilitary death squads in the long civil war. It was confronting. But also an extraordinary learning experience.

You can find out more about the book and get yourself a copy at my website and also read a sample here.

I would also hugely appreciate if you were able to spread word about the book on social media, and share details of it with friends, activists, scholars, journalists and policymakers with an interest in politics and economic power in Latin America and beyond.

Thanks for all your support.

Roman

PS. And if you’re wondering about the cover photo, it’s by the renowned Guatemalan photographer Daniel Hernández-Salazar and is called ‘Para que todos lo sepan’ (‘So That All Shall Know’). It depicts an angel created from two negatives: a young mestizo man and the shoulder blades of a murder victim from Guatemala’s civil war, found in a clandestine grave.

My adventures with my new book The Good Ancestor continue apace.

The US edition has just been been released (please support your local bookstore!) and there will be editions coming out soon in Dutch, Chinese and other languages.

If you haven’t yet read the book, you can get a taste of it in this 7-minute TED talk I did for their recent Countdown event on the climate crisis (it received over half a million views in its first 48 hours). From the same event I can really recommend the talks by David Lammy, Severn Cullis-Suzuki and Andri Snaer Magnason.

If you want a deeper dive into the book, the Long Now Foundation has produced a fantastic cinematic version of a 45-minute talk I did for them, full of photos and video footage, and followed by Q&A with long-term gurus Stewart Brand and Kevin Kelly.

There are clearly a lot of people out there intrigued by how to be a good ancestor: I’ve found myself giving talks about the book to government ministers, direct action climate campaigners, activist school kids, radical architects, staff at Google and much more.

And I love what can come out these events. In one of them I was speaking about how we need to invent a Buy Later Button to replace the ultra-short-term Buy Now Button. This new button would offer a dropdown menu where you can buy the item immediately, but also have options to buy in week, buy in a month, buy in a year or borrow from a friend. So if you click ‘buy in a year’ you would get an email in a year asking if you really want to buy that third yoga mat.

Anyway, I then discover that someone at the talk has picked up on the idea and created a website called mindfulcart.com, with the strapline ‘Long Term Thinking, Slow Down Shopping’. Clever. They are now in the process of creating the app to do the job of the Buy Later Button.

I’ve also had the privilege of working with many inspiring and creative people, amongst them a group of cartoonists from magazines such as The New Yorker and Esquire. In a project with the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, the cartoonists read The Good Ancestor and created original cartoons in response to its themes. Below is one of my favourites (you can view the whole collection here).

And just to finish, if you don’t know it, let me introduce you to one of the most powerful poems I’ve encountered on being a good ancestor: Hieroglypic Stairway by Drew Dellinger. Listen to him read it here. And here is an excerpt to mull over:

it’s 3:23 in the morning

and I can’t sleep

because my great great grandchildren

ask me in dreams

what did you do while the earth was unravelling?

So here it is, after more than three years of toil. My new book, The Good Ancestor: How to Think Long Term in a Short-Term World, is published today.

The book explores six different ways we can learn to think long term and overcome the pathological short-termism of the modern world, and celebrates the ‘time rebels’ who are reinventing democracy, economics and culture to create a better tomorrow. Ultimately it is an attempt to answer what I consider the most urgent question of our times as we emerge from the COVID-19 crisis: How can we be good ancestors?

You can get yourself a copy from places including Hive, Amazon and Waterstones (20% discount code: ANCESTOR20).

I’ve launched a new microsite which contains graphics, data and other goodies from the book. There are plenty of free online events you can join too.

Today I’m also launching a new animation based on the book called The Marshmallow and the Acorn. You may have already seen my other animation, The Legacies We Leave. I would hugely appreciate if you could share whichever video resonates most with you.

Please let me know what you think of the book, and thank you for all your support!

Best wishes, Roman

“This is the book our children’s children will thank us for reading.” The Edge, U2

“Beautiful to read, heartfelt and persuasive, The Good Ancestor is one of those landmark books with the power to shift a mindset.” Isabella Tree, author of Wilding

It’s been more than a year since my last blogpost – but I can explain my absence…I’ve been finalising my latest book, The Good Ancestor: How to Think Long Term in a Short-Term World, which will be published in the UK on July 16 by Penguin Random House.

The book has a simple question at its heart: How can we be good ancestors? It explores how we can overcome the frenetic short-termism of the modern world and become long-term ‘cathedral thinkers’, so we can tackle the challenges of our age, from the climate crisis to threats from AI and the next pandemic on the horizon.

To give you a taste of the book, today I’m launching a new animated video based on its ideas called The Legacies We Leave (created by the brilliant Tom Lee at rocket-visual.co.uk).

Please do share the video, especially with organisations and individuals (maybe your local MP!) who could do with a healthy dose of long-term thinking.

If you’d like to pre-order the book, you can do so from outlets including Hive, Amazon and Waterstones (20% discount code: ANCESTOR20).

Also look out for upcoming speaking events I’ll be doing. These include a free online event with Salon London on July 23 where I’ll be in conversation about the book with author of Doughnut Economics Kate Raworth and musician Brian Eno.

Hope to see you at one of the events!

Best wishes, Roman

‘We treat the future like a distant colonial outpost devoid of people, where we can freely dump ecological degradation, technological risk, nuclear waste and public debt.’

This is a quote from an article I’ve just published on the BBC Futures website called Why We Need To Reinvent Democracy for the Long-Term.

I’d hugely appreciate if you had a chance to read it, share it, and post any thoughts you have in the comments section below. It contains some of the ideas I’ve been developing for a new book I’m writing on the power of long-term thinking (which explains why I haven’t written a blog post for eight months). At the centre of the book is a simple – yet I believe vital – question: How can we be good ancestors?

For those of you who subscribed to this blog due an interest in the subject of empathy, the book explores the great challenge of how we can empathise with future generations. It’s a tough one – any answers, please let me know!

One of the great tragedies of modern culture is death denial. The advertising industry tells us that we are forever young. Death is a topic as taboo as sex was in the Victorian era.

Yet engaging with death is one of the best ways we know to seize the day: it helps us recognise that life is short and the clock is ticking. If you’ve got 3 minutes up your sleeve, have a read of my new ‘click essay’ Dancing With Death, where I explore the issue.

The click essay, based on my new book Carpe Diem Regained: The Vanishing Art of Seizing the Day, is a new digital format for exploring philosophical ideas. Try it out!

And if you’re in London, I’d love to invite you to a book talk I’m doing on Tuesday 2nd May in Brick Lane for the London Talks @ Night series.