(2/26/25 PREORDER) Tamed: From Wild to Domesticated, the Ten Animals and Plants That Changed Human History

An “epic and joyous” (Adam Rutherford) history of our species, using recent scientific discoveries to explore humanity’s domestication of the ten most essential plants and animals—from wheat, corn, and potatoes to dogs, horses, and cattle—that allow human civilization to thrive

Dogs became our companions

Wheat fed booming populations

Cattle gave us meat and milk

Corn fueled the growth of empires

Potatoes brought feast and famine

Chickens inspired new branches of science

Rice promised a golden future

Horses gave us strength and speed

Apples allowed harvestable sweetness

Humans tamed them all.

For hundreds of thousands of years, our ancestors depended on wild plants and animals to stay alive—until they began to tame them. Domestication has led to the building of civilizations our prehistoric ancestors never could’ve imagined. Tamed draws on the findings of geneticists, evolutionary biologists, archaeologists, paleontologists, and anthropologists working at the cutting edge of their disciplines to vividly, brilliantly recount ten essential processes of this vital human invention.

Dogs, our first natural ally, first aided Ice-age era hunters and gatherers in Europe and Asia 15,000 years ago. Then, around 12,500 years ago, Natufians in the Southern Levant became some of the first humans to settle down, using recently-discovered rock mortars to grind barley grains into flour—thus becoming an early example of a settled civilization reliant on a singular crop.

When ideas of domestication spread, so did the possibilities for cities, nations, and empires to flourish. The reliability of corn gave rise to unprecedented civilizations in South America; horses led to new ideas about hunting and combat in the Eurasian Steppe. As she introduces each domestication, Professor Alice Roberts uncovers its astounding global implications, giving readers a fresh understanding of human history.