Originally funded by 30,000+ believers
400,000+ copies in homes around the world
Highest-funded publication in Kickstarter history
(4.9)
1039 reviews
The Book
The Ultimate Guide to Rebuilding Civilization
30-day money back guarantee
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400k+
books sold worldwide
Somewhere between sacred text and explorer's codex lies an object unlike any other ever bound between two covers - a monument five thousand hours in the making, rendered entirely by human hand.
Every word within these pages was wrestled from the world by human minds. Every illustration born from a human hand. Five thousand hours — not of processing, but of thinking, questioning, drawing, and beginning again. There is no algorithm here. Only people, and their extraordinary devotion to getting it right.
Where can I track my delivery?
You can track your delivery progress using the tracking page on our website. Input your tracking code to access the information.
Are other language options available?
For now, you can enjoy it in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French and Japanese languages. If we notice a rising demand for other languages, we will promptly work on providing them.
What type of paper are the books printed on?
The Book is printed on high-quality paper using offset printing.
How can I expedite order shipping? Do you offer express shipping or anything similar?
We don’t offer any type of express shipping or anything similar, yet you are more than welcome to reach out to support@hungryminds.com and ask our team to prioritize your order in the queue!
Is The Book appropriate for children under 18 years old?
Yes, it is appropriate. However, the book set also includes a sealed envelope with additional 18+ content related to intimate technologies. This material was removed from The Book and included separately in a closed envelope to ensure it is not easily accessible to children.
What is the ISBN?
978-0-578-37745-2
What are the dimensions?
Weight: 4.96lb / 2.25 kg
Size: 9.0 x 2.0 x 13.4 in / 23 x 4.9 x 34 cm
Order Processing
All orders are processed within 5 business days. We do not ship orders on weekends or national holidays. Once the order is placed, we can only make changes before it’s entered in our processing system, which is usually within one hour of placing an order.
Order Tracking
Tracking information will be emailed to you as soon as the package ships. If you don’t have your tracking number within 5 business days after the order was placed, please contact us at support@hungryminds.com with your order number.
Shipping
Please be aware that shipping times vary by location. Shipping and taxes are calculated at checkout. For more information about delivery times and shipping costs in your country, visit our Shipping Policy page. We provide express delivery within the United States. You may select express delivery at checkout.
For further assistance or concerns regarding your order's whereabouts, feel free to reach us at support@hungryminds.com.
1039 reviews
Originally funded by 30,000+ believers
400,000+ copies in homes around the world
Highest-funded publication in Kickstarter history
Who are you buying this book for?
What if you could carry all of human
civilization in your hands?
Сonsider the question seriously. Empires have risen on the strength of a single idea. Civilizations have perished for want of knowledge that was simply... lost. The wheel. Penicillin. The arch. The printing press. The power grid. For ten thousand years, humanity has accumulated a vast and fragile inheritance - discoveries and inventions that transformed our species from cave-dwellers into builders of cities that touch the clouds.
Now, you can possess it all.
Every essential mechanism. Every critical process. Every foundational material. Rendered not as dry encyclopedia entry, but as a living, breathing illuminated manuscript for the modern age - illustrated with the fervor of a medieval monk, verified with the rigor of a contemporary scientist, and bound with the permanence of an heirloom meant to outlast its owner.
This is The Book. It is not ignorable. It is not a coffee table ornament. It is a testament of our species - and one of the most extraordinary objects ever made.
5,000+ Hours of Creation
400+ Pages of Knowledge
1,000+ Hand-Drawn Illustrations
$3M+ Raised by Believers
Translated into 6 languages worldwide
Every detail deliberate. Every
material chosen.
In an age of disposable content, this is a declaration that some things deserve to be made properly - slowly, obsessively, and without compromise. The Hungry Minds collective is, by their own description, "proudly slow, painstakingly deliberate, and utterly uncompromising." Every element of The Book was selected not for convenience, but for consequence.
I. Lithographic Printing
with Soy Inks
The pages of The Book are not merely printed - they are pressed. High-quality lithographic printing using soy-based inks produces colors of extraordinary depth and fidelity, each illustration rendered with a richness and sharpness that digital reproduction cannot approximate. The result is a chromatic intensity that feels, quite literally, alive.
II. 157gsm Uncoated
Paper Stock
The leaves of this volume are printed on 157gsm premium paper - substantial, cream-toned, and possessed of that particular quality that invites the fingertip to linger. Each page has a tactile authority. It is paper that knows its own importance, that resists the crumple of time and the indignity of dog-ears.
III. Silver Embossed
Cover
The cover announces itself before a single page is turned. Premium silver embossing catches the light at every angle - precise, restrained, and unmistakably intentional. This is not decoration. It is signature. The mark of an object that knows exactly what it is and makes no apology for the statement it makes upon a shelf.
IV. Expertly Sewn
Binding
Where mass-produced books are glued and prayed over, The Book is sewn. Traditional sewn binding ensures that no page loosens, no spine cracks, no section departs from its companions. This is a volume built not for a season but for a generation - one to be passed, with love, from one hungry mind to the next.
V. Every Illustration,
by Human Hand
Each of the thousand-plus illustrations within began as pencil on paper. One line. One idea. One invention at a time. The team of artists brought a medieval illuminator's devotion to a steampunk encyclopedist's canvas - hiding literary allusions in margins, layering mythological references beneath scientific diagrams, and imbuing every image with a wit that rewards the attentive eye.
VI. Every Fact,
Verified by Experts
Verified by Experts The Book's 5,000+ hours were not spent in illustration alone. Scientists, historians, engineers, and subject-matter experts subjected every claim within these pages to rigorous scrutiny. What you hold is not one person's opinion of how civilization works - it is the distilled, verified consensus of those who have dedicated their lives to understanding it.
A hefty, comprehensive, and stunningly illustrated tome... The book creates a feeling that you have travelled back in time, accessing secretive information reserved
only for a select few.
From the first flame to molecular
gastronomy
Twenty-three chapters span the full breadth of human civilization - from the most elemental act of survival to the most rarefied pinnacles of culture. There is no hierarchy here. The fire-maker and the architect stand as equals, as they always have in the history of our species.
| Fire & Survival | Food & Agriculture | The Human Body & Medicine |
Materials & Manufacture |
| Mechanics & Engineering |
Architecture & Construction |
Navigation & Seafaring |
Energy & Power Grids |
| Chemistry & Alchemy | Communication & Language |
Mathematics & Logic | Governance & Society |
| Commerce & Economy | Aviation & Transport | Music & Acoustics | Art & Aesthetics |
| Astronomy & Cosmology |
Rites of Passage | Molecular Gastronomy |
Weapons & Defense |
| Plants & Botany | The Animal Kingdom | + Much More Within |
Chapters to explore
Turn a page at random. You may find yourself studying the anatomy of the human bloodstream, the chain of accidents that gave us penicillin, or the surprisingly elegant geometry of why a chair holds your weight. Every spread is a doorway. Every margin hides a joke for the careful reader. Mythological creatures lurk beside engineering diagrams. Sly references reward the close eye. The Book does not simply teach - it invites you to wander.
Anatomy & Blood
The human body is a universe unto itself. Everything is interconnected, energy and nutrients flowing from one place to another through the body’s supply system — blood. Hopefully, your blood generally stays inside your own body, but in certain life-threatening situations, it can be shared with another person. And luckily, finding someone with a similar blood type is easier than finding someone with shared interests, political views or musical tastes.
Bicycles
Some inventions happen naturally, as if spontaneously willing themselves into existence, such as the wheel. Others require a chain of happy accidents to come into being. But for the most part, discovery is a long, uphill road illuminated only by brief flashes of insight. By connecting two wheels to a solid frame and throwing on a chain and a couple of pedals, you’re left with a fun and efficient vehicle suitable for both transporting heavy cargo and carrying friends in tow. Using the basic principles behind its design, you can also come up with a variety of other helpful devices and even start generating electricity.
Animation
Animation works by taking advantage of a simple optical illusion. When you present a sequence of still images in quick enough succession, the viewer’s mind interprets them as a continuous moving image. This effect is achieved by using a large number of sequential images that differ minimally from the previous image in the series. But persistence of vision is only one small part of the bigger picture. When we watch animated characters, we start to empathize and identify with them. We laugh, cry and scream in horror along with them. This is where cinematography comes into play.
Festivals
For humans, taking breaks from the daily routine and the fight for survival is vital. Otherwise, they are unable to create. Negative thoughts start to accumulate in their minds, they become more prone to conformism and society enters a period of stagnation. Festivals and carnivals help relieve the tension and reboot the creative mind. Festival culture is a living contradiction to the hierarchies, dogmas and norms meant as societal safeguards. These kinds of celebrations bestow a sense of freedom, allowing people to leave their duties and responsibilities behind for a while and immerse themselves in the festive atmosphere, becoming truly spontaneous and authentic.
Sushi
Food is, of course, important for its caloric and nutritional value. But it’s also so much more than that! Food is an opportunity for personal growth and self-expression. New flavors and sensations cause new connections to form in your brain, and a good meal can heal more than just your body. You know what they say — you are what you eat. So why not create the best version of yourself by preparing a well-balanced meal? It’s time to learn how to make sushi. The only thing you’ll have to cook is the rice. This is the main secret of sushi: do not complicate what can be done simply.
Made for those who never
stopped asking, "why?"
The Book was born from a childhood question - one founder, lying awake in the dark, wondering: if I were alive in the Middle Ages, what would I make a bowstring from? That restless curiosity is the spirit this volume was made to honour and to feed.
It is for the engineer who suspects the ancients knew things we have forgotten. For the artist who wants to understand the mathematics of beauty. For the parent who wishes to hand their child not a screen but a portal to the entire history of human ingenuity. For anyone who has ever looked at a bridge, a ship, a loaf of bread, or a symphony and thought: how, exactly, does that work?
And it is, without question, the most extraordinary gift one curious mind has ever been able to give another.
It arrives with considerable presence
At nearly five pounds and over thirteen inches tall, The Book does not merely sit upon a shelf — it commands one. This is an object with physical authority, the satisfying weight of something that means to last.
The world
has taken notice
We want to make magic artifacts
Timur Kadyrov,Co-Founder, Hungry Minds
Select the form worthy
of its contents
All that you may
wish to know
The Book is printed on 157gsm premium uncoated paper using high-quality offset lithographic printing with soy-based inks — chosen specifically for their color depth, tactile quality, and longevity. The cream-toned leaves have a slight warmth that gives the volume its aged, manuscript quality.
Yes — The Book is appropriate for all ages. The current edition has removed an earlier section on intimate technologies from the main volume. It is now included separately in a sealed envelope for adult readers, so the book itself may be freely shared with curious young minds.
The Book is currently available in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, and Japanese. Further languages may follow should demand warrant the undertaking.
The Book weighs 4.96 lb (2.25 kg) and measures 9.3 × 13.6 × 2 inches. Its physical presence, we are told, is part of what makes the first encounter with it so memorable.
All orders are processed within 5 business days. Tracking information is sent upon dispatch. Express delivery is available for US orders.
978-0-578-37745-2
Some objects are purchased.
Others are inherited.
The Book is the kind of object that outlasts its first owner. That sits on a shelf for decades. That a child picks up one afternoon and carries into adulthood. That is passed along with a handwritten note tucked inside the cover. It was made to survive. It was made to matter. And there is, we would suggest, no finer thing to give - or to give yourself.
Free shipping · Award-winning · Est. 2022
