Overturns widely held misconceptions about race, war and peace, and human nature itself and asserts that creativity is what has made humans so exceptional among all the species on Earth. --Publisher.

"For hundreds of millions of years, life on our planet flourished with a dazzling diversity of life. And then a different kind of species arose. One that could think about the beginning of the universe and consciousness, could imagine sailing across oceans and space and of making worlds. How could that have happened? In this paradigm-shifting look at human evolution, Agustin Fuentes argues that your child's finger painting comes essentially from the same place as innovation in hunting and gathering millions of years ago--and throughout history in making war and peace, in intimate relationships, in shaping the planet, in our communities, and in all art, religion, and even science. This progress requires imagination and collaboration. Every poet has her muse; every engineer, an architect; every politician, a constituency. The manner may vary widely, but successful collaboration is inseparable from imagination, and it has brought us everything from knives and hot meals to smartphones and interstellar spacecraft. Weaving fascinating stories of our ancient ancestors' creativity, Fuentes finds the patterns that match modern behavior in humans. It is this key quality, passed down over millennia, that has propelled the evolutionary development of our bodies, minds, and cultures, both for good and for bad. It is this ancestry, and not the drive to reproduce; nor competition for mates, or resources, or power; nor our propensity for caring for one another; that has separated us out from all other creatures. To make something lasting and useful today, you need to understand the nature of your collaboration with others, what imagination can and can't accomplish, and, finally, just how completely our creativity is responsible for the world we live in. Agustin Fuentes's resounding multimillion-year perspective will inspire readers--and spark all kinds of creativity."--Jacket.