The author focuses on the British Isles, exploring a period of immense social change—the Neolithic era—through the most iconic object of this age: the polished stone axe. Using an ancient axe given to him by a local quarry worker, he analyzes the revolution that changed the world. These dynamic creations were not only fundamental tools that allowed the early farmers to clear forests, but also objects of great symbolic significance, highlighting status and power, inscribed in expressions of religion and politics.

Blending personal stories, ethnography, and archaeological analysis, the author vividly captures how archaeology reveals the evolving worldview of a species increasingly on the move to change its landscape. Thus, people began to settle, investing in agricultural lands and collectively erecting overwhelming ceremonial monuments to establish their new communal identities. As a direct result of the invention and strengthening of agriculture, the planet entered the Anthropocene epoch, an era in which we change the world around us in significant, accelerated, and often unpredictable ways.

As the author concludes, our ancestors led us to the path of the modern world we now live in, where seven billion people must face the challenges this entails. The book includes 76 illustrations, of which 24 are in color. Pages: 448, Year of Publication: 0225, Dimensions: 12.9x12.9cm.