What is civilization? How does a “civilizational” approach to history differ from a “formational” one? And why are societies that did not try to change the world around them, but, on the contrary, adapt to its requirements, excluded by official science from the list of highly developed civilizations? Nomads of the African deserts and Islanders of Polynesia. Eskimos and Inuits of the Arctic, Indians of North America and Australian aborigines. For centuries they were considered at best “noble savages”, and at worst - semi-humans, barbarians at the lowest level of development. But is this so in reality? Felipe Fernandez-Armesto suggests in his stunning book, which caused a lot of controversy and discussion, a completely new and unexpected look at the history of “low-developed” societies, which, in his opinion, stand much higher than highly developed societies...