Almost everyone thinks they have one, but nobody knows what it is.
For thousands of years the soul was an ‘organ’, an entity, something that was part of all of us, that survived the death of the body and ventured to the underworld, or to heaven or hell.
The soul could be saved, condemned, tortured, bought.
And then, mysteriously, the ‘soul’ disappeared. The Enlightenment called it the ‘mind’. And today, neuroscientists demonstrate that the mind is the creation of the brain.
The ‘religious soul’ lives on, in the minds of the faithful, while the secular ‘soul’ means whatever you want it to mean.
In The A History of the Human Mind critically acclaimed historian Paul Ham embarks on a journey that has never been to restore the idea of the soul to the human story and to show how belief in, and beliefs arising from, the soul/mind have animated and driven the history of humankind.
The Soul is much more than a mesmerizing narrative and uniquely accessible way of explaining our story. It transforms our understanding of how history works. It persuasively demonstrates that the beliefs of the soul/mind are the engines of human history.
PAUL HAM is a historian specialising in 20th century conflict, war and politics. Born and raised in Sydney, Paul has spent his working life in London, Sydney and Paris. He teaches narrative non-fiction at SciencesPo in Reims and English at l'École de guerre in Paris. His books have been published to critical acclaim in Australia, Britain and the United States, and include: 'Hiroshima Nagasaki', a controversial new history of the atomic bombings (HarperCollins Australia 2010, Penguin Random House UK 2011, & Pan Macmillan USA 2014-15); '1914: The Year The World Ended' (Penguin Random House 2013); 'Sandakan' (Penguin Random House 2011); 'Vietnam: The Australian War' and 'Kokoda' (both published by HarperCollins, 2007 and 2004). Paul has co-written two ABC documentaries based on his work: 'Kokoda' (2010), a 2-part series on the defeat of the Japanese army in Papua in 1942 (shortlisted for the New York Documentary prize); and 'All the Way' (2012), about Australia's difficult alliance with America during the Vietnam War, which he also narrated and presented (it won the UN's Media Peace prize). Paul is the founding director of Hampress, an independent ebook publisher, and a regular contributor to Kindle Single, Amazon's new 'short book' publishing platform, for which he has written '1913: The Eve of War' and 'Young Hitler', co-written 'Honey, We Forgot the Kids', and published several titles by other authors. Hampress welcomes your ideas! A former Australia correspondent for The Sunday Times (1998-2012), Paul has a Masters degree in Economic History from London School of Economics. He lives in Sydney and Paris, and takes time off now and then to organise the Big Fat Poetry Pig-Out, an annual poetry recital, for charity.
I loves me a good macrohistory book. There's a lot to admire about a well-done sweeping history of big concepts like war, love, and the soul or mind. There's a sheer amount of research that author. Admittedly and understandably, they'll put any nearby research assistants to use on this, particularly if they have a better expertise match up. Nonetheless, someone has to collate, correlate, mix, and remix this immense amount of information, and then write about it. Hopefully, write well about it.
Paul Ham manages do to this wonderfully in The Soul: A History of the Human Mind. The title and subtitle together convey the basic tension we are still struggling with today regarding what it is that makes us intelligent, self-aware thinking beings: mind or soul, or mind and soul, or are these just two words for the same thing. It depends on who you ask and when.
Ham traces the various conceptions of and characteristics attributed to the soul/mind over the last few thousand years as well as the often horrific consequences these ideas and our disagreements over them have had.
This is a good segue into my only quibble with the book: there's a lot of what I'll call conventional history in it, where I would have preferred delving more into the philosophical and theological idea more deeply. I don't think there's a 'right' balance here — this is a personal quibble from someone who's read an awful lot of history. If you're not well-read in history, you will likely appreciate historian Ham giving you a nice helping of history!
Regardless of how much history you know, the point of Soul is to tie conventional history to humans' ideas about the mind. To help us understand the why of Marxism, Fascism, The Great War, World War Two, various revolutions and revolts, successful and otherwise.
For me, the best writing came in the last chapter and the epilogue. The eloquence and sincerity of these last two sections grabbed me and moved me. There's a lot of disagreement and confusion about AI and our future, about how consequential the present era is, about how much danger we face, be it economic or existential, Whether you agree with Ham on all points or not, his addressing of and writing on these issues was marvelous.
This is certainly an intimidating book, and not just for its size (900 pages, 39 hours in audio form), but for its subject matter. However, it's perfectly accessible to anyone who read popular history or other science books. Anyone with an interest in either topic, let alone both, owes it to themselves to pick this up.
Wow what an epic book!! I enjoyed it and I learnt a lot. The idea of this book is to trace what people thought of the human soul from people who lived thousands of years ago until now. The book moves from big religious time periods such as Greco Roman period, Jewish, Christian, early church fathers, Islam, medieval times, post modernism until today.
The book sort of side tracks often and gives us a whole bunch of interesting historical elements with no talk of the soul at all. I didn’t mind it because I love reading about history but I often thought to myself - what does this have to do with the soul.
He covers a ton of history and wars and tries his best to explain the theology and ideas behind the leaders at the time.
I learnt a lot of history that’s for sure.
The book definitely has a negative view of Christianity which is blatantly obvious throughout the entire book which is frustrating at times, however still a good read.
Also for people who want to know the audiobook is over 35 hours!!
Not what it says on the tin. It’s a history of religious malfeasance, not the history of theories of mind I had expected or hoped for.
Also, not exactly finished. I’ve just waded through the inquisition and the conquistadors… there is nothing so abhorrent as a mob of Christian zealots… other religions aren’t much better but Christians of all flavours are the worst.
I don’t know if I can cope with another 500 pages!
To jedna z najbardziej monumentalnych książek, z jakimi miałam ostatnio do czynienia, nie tylko ze względu na swoją imponującą objętość, ale przede wszystkim przez ogrom pracy włożonej w analizę źródeł. Nie ma co ukrywać, że autor podszedł do historii ludzkiej myśli – od starożytnych wierzeń po współczesne teorie naukowe, z niezwykłym rozmachem!
Autor wprost przyznaje, że to dzieło jego życia, książka, która zmieniła jego sposób patrzenia na świat, a lektura szybko pokazuje, że nie mamy do czynienia z chłodnym naukowym opracowaniem, ale z głęboko osobistą podróżą intelektualną. Ham nie tylko analizuje on poszukuje, strategicznie i kompletnie, niczym w jego wcześniejszych tekstach o historii wojskowości.
W centrum jego rozważań znajduje się teza, która staje się motorem napędowym całej książki: to wiara, nie w sensie religijnym, ale jako pierwotna potrzeba sensu, była siłą kształtującą ludzkie dzieje.
Nie będę ukrywać, że nie przeczytałam jeszcze całości. To nie jest książka, którą da się pochłonąć w kilka wieczorów. To raczej podróż, w którą wyrusza się powoli, z notatnikiem pod ręką, by przemyśleć każde zdanie. Na początek skupiłam się na dwóch pierwszych księgach: „Genezie wiary” i „Byciu i stawaniu się”. To właśnie tam znalazłam rozdziały o ożywieniu, reinkarnacji i nieśmiertelności duszy.
Zaskoczyło mnie też, jak bardzo autor odchodzi od sucho naukowej narracji. Zamiast przytaczać daty i nazwiska filozofów, pokazuje sposób myślenia epok, ich emocjonalny puls, to, co sprawiało, że ludzie w różnych czasach pojmowali duszę tak, a nie inaczej.
Nie sposób też nie zauważyć, że Ham pisze z wyraźnym przekonaniem. Jego sądy bywają stanowcze, czasem niemal surowe, ale rzadko argonckie.
„Dusza. Historia ludzkiego umysłu” to lektura wymagająca, nie tyle literackiego zacięcia, a przede wszystkim otwartości filozoficznej i gotowości do rozważań.
Bibliografia tej książki mogłaby stanowić osobne, obszerne opowiadanie gdyż to prawie siedemdziesiąt stron źródeł i literatury uzupełniającej, rozpisanych według kolejnych rozdziałów i tematów. Autor pokazuje, że dusza i umysł są ze sobą splecione w nieustannym dialogu, że nasz rozwój to historia tego, jak próbowaliśmy zrozumieć własną duchowość/świadomość.
Ham dotyka tego, co w człowieku najwrażliwsze: pragnienia, by istnieć nie tylko ciałem, ale i świadomością. Książka nie przypomina wykładu, a jest raczej esejem o wędrówce przez rozumienie ludzkiego ducha/umysłu przez wieki.
I really wanted to give this book 5 stars. The idea is a 5 star book, unfortunately, the way it's sold and the actual contents are a bit different, which leads me to only give it 4 stars.
The Soul: A History of the Human Mind, as the title suggests, sells itself as a history of all the various ways in which civilisations have conceptualised this thing we call the soul, the mind, or the self. And the first few hundred pages do that brilliantly. Paul Ham covers early animist beliefs, the ancient Hindu, Egyptian, and Chinese beliefs as well as the great Greek philosophers such as Aristotle, Plato and Socrates. Then we turn to organised religions (especially the big three: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) and the book becomes much more like a regular history book, with pages and pages of people, events, and lots of fighting. The discussion of Enlightenment ideas and modern views of the mind (e.g., Freud and Jung) does return to the more humble roots of the book's aim, but still, there are many pages discussing historical events more than the concept of the soul.
Really, the book should be called The Soul: A History of Human Belief. In fact, in the preface, Ham does state that "The idea at the core of The Soul is that belief is the engine of human history, regardless of whether the thing you believe in - a god, a messiah, a promised land, a prophecy, a political utopia -exists or will ever exist." He repeats this throughout, so in a sense, he makes the intention of this 800+ page epic pretty clear. Though, if the book was a more modest attempt at simply discussing the various views of the mind/soul across history, as it's marketing suggests, it could easily be 400 pages shorter.
My other main critique of the book is that Ham has obviously read widely to understand these different beliefs yet he leaves it up to the reader to make any sense of them; to find any commonalities or major differences between them all. I would have loved either a chapter at the end or a discussion throughout about how all of these beliefs have in common or how they differ. Some kind of overview of the huge amount of information being offered.
Overall, though, this is a really good book and one that, at the very least, I will return to time and again as a reference for some of the interesting ideas humans have believed in across time.
Wow. Paul Ham zderzył się z tematem, który wydaje się być niepokrywalny. Ponadto zaprezentował to w przystępnej formie. Szokuje ilość bibliografii, odniesień, badań, które musiały zostać wykonane by napisać tak kolosalną książkę.
Autor śledzi podejście do ludzkiego umysłu od wczesnych czasów antycznych, poprzez nowożytność oświecenie do czasów współczesnych. Oddaje głos religiom i nauce. W sposób klarowny acz nierozwleky pokazuje historię świata kształtowaną przez nasze podejście do zagadnień ludzkiego umysłu, duszy i ich interpretację. Jest to historyczna podróż przez wieki ludzkiego doświadczenia kształtowanego wydarzeniami doniosłej wagi, ale też tymi mniej oczywistymi, walką dnia codziennego.
Najbardziej zainteresowała mnie końcówka w której autor bierze na warsztat ja biologiczne i ja cyfrowe, co budzi, w dobie sztucznej inteligencji, wiele pytań i wątpliwości. Książka opiera się na faktach, mniej tu filozofii, rozważań. Daje niezwykle szeroki pogląd na świat i pokazuje przyczyny skutków, w którym przychodzi nam żyć śledząc łańcuch zależności i odwołań.
Polecam, aczkolwiek 800 stron trzeba czytać powoli, smakować i dać się porwać tej fascynującej lekturze.
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Monumentalne przedsięwzięcie, które czyta się z przyjemnością, niemniej są braki. Jest to megamakrohistoria i cierpi na przypadłości tego gatunku: miejscami pobieżna, anegdotyczna, zawala faktami. W miejscach dla mnie znanych przyjmuje funkcję wstępną, prześlizguje się po tematach, ALE w miejscach obcych daje satysfakcję obcowania z wielka opowieścią, autor to dobry gawędziarz. Pewna wadą jest budowa całości przechodząca od historii ducha do historii ideologii. Na poziomie mitu jest wciągająca, ale im bliżej końca, tym mniej przykuwa. A może to nie wina książki, może to nasza dusza zmierza ku nudzie, rozmieniając się na rzecz politycznych idei, zamiast angażować w dziedziny bogów i herosów? Niemniej rzecz zachowuje na półce, będę do niej wracał, w jak mój syn dorośnie, dam do przeczytania - sam lubiłem takie rzeczy, gdy byłem młodszy.
This one was a chonker but a very enjoyable one. I, personally, wouldn't say that this was a story about the human mind, but more about our different faiths & beliefs. I kinda regret not writing notes as I was reading this cause there was so much to cover that I cannot recall but, in particular, I liked how the author segmented the sections into the different religions and how as we went through each era of humanity, that he inserted different indicators of time (Islamic calendar, Gregorian, etc.) to indicate just how vast and variable our interpretations of our history are.
Amazing book! Paul is such an amazing writer. He covers vast amounts of history and presents it in such a way to keep you reading and invested. So many sections left be baffled and shocked. He also made me laugh out loud a few times with his witty humor.
I was nervous to take on this book because it is thick and covers a topic that is somewhat personal to me. But it left me enlightened and altered the lens of which I view the world and to me that is the biggest compliment an author can ever get.
I enjoyed listening to this book about the belief systems that have shaped the history of the world up to the present day. Paul Ham has thoroughly researched a massive amount of information and succinctly condensed it into an interesting read. It does however, raise the question that if all of our beliefs are just figments of our collective imaginations (our minds and our souls) then…what is the meaning of life? And…. why are we here?
This is a huge, and hugely interesting book - a potted journey through the history of the mind / soul. I really enjoyed it, although it sort of came apart at the seams towards the ends and I think the author is a lot more utopian and trusting in humanity than I am!
An absolutely fantastic book. Thought provoking doesn’t describe it enough! But to pen a pun it gets into your soul!!! A certainly must must must read ! Thanks Paul Ham for a wonderfully brilliant book.
I am already incensed and I haven’t even passed the first page, viz ‘… Sapiens cerebral history began with the creation of the gods by Stone Age men’. Men. Firstly an unfounded assumption. Secondly, outdated language for a book published in 2024. Will I read beyond this page …?