The Great Remembering
Powerful Ancient Practices That Modern Life Lost - and the New Science Bringing Them Back
Will be published approx. on 6. October 2026
Book
Hardback
304 pages
978-1-911742-42-5 (ISBN)
Description
A quest to re-discover the ancient wisdom behind today's most resonant wellness trends, exploring the science that underpins resilience, connection and healing - perfect for readers of Michael Pollen and Robin Wall Kimmerer.
'What a revelation, what an invitation... a cathedral of meaning' Maria Popova, author of Figuring
What if the most powerful solutions for the crises of modern life are ten thousand years old?
Modern life is full of advice about how to feel better, think better and live better - yet many of us still feel anxious, lonely and cut off from meaning. What if the problem is not that we have forgotten how to look after ourselves, but that we have forgotten how to do it together?
In The Great Remembering, June Cohen travels across cultures, continents and centuries to uncover the wisdom systems our ancestors built to help human beings endure upheaval and feel more fully alive. From epic physical ordeals and communal festivals to sauna and cold plunge, psychedelic ceremony and shared rituals of grief, these were not superstitions or quaint traditions, but sophisticated social technologies grounded in close observation of the body, the mind and the bonds between people.
Blending reportage, cultural history and new science with unusual range and clarity, Cohen shows how modern research is beginning to validate what older cultures already knew: that resilience is embodied, that healing is social, and that meaning cannot be reduced to personal optimisation. The Great Remembering is a bold, hopeful book about how we might live now - by recovering what modern life has left behind.
'What a revelation, what an invitation... a cathedral of meaning' Maria Popova, author of Figuring
What if the most powerful solutions for the crises of modern life are ten thousand years old?
Modern life is full of advice about how to feel better, think better and live better - yet many of us still feel anxious, lonely and cut off from meaning. What if the problem is not that we have forgotten how to look after ourselves, but that we have forgotten how to do it together?
In The Great Remembering, June Cohen travels across cultures, continents and centuries to uncover the wisdom systems our ancestors built to help human beings endure upheaval and feel more fully alive. From epic physical ordeals and communal festivals to sauna and cold plunge, psychedelic ceremony and shared rituals of grief, these were not superstitions or quaint traditions, but sophisticated social technologies grounded in close observation of the body, the mind and the bonds between people.
Blending reportage, cultural history and new science with unusual range and clarity, Cohen shows how modern research is beginning to validate what older cultures already knew: that resilience is embodied, that healing is social, and that meaning cannot be reduced to personal optimisation. The Great Remembering is a bold, hopeful book about how we might live now - by recovering what modern life has left behind.
Reviews / Votes
With compassionate curiosity about what makes us human, June takes us on an archeological tour of the ancient yearning pulsating beneath all of our evolving technologies and changing moral fashions - to make sense of our mortality and rejoice in our aliveness, to salve our suffering and give shape to our joy. What a revelation, what an invitation, to discover that people who had no notion of gravity, genetics, or democracy answered the questions we live with more wisely than we do - a beckoning to rethink how we make of our fragile embodiment a cathedral of meaning. -- Maria Popova, creator of The Marginalian June Cohen's essential book hooks you from the very first sentence and takes you on a journey of rediscovery that will fill you with joy and rouse you with determination to implement the wisdom she animates with effortless grace. The Great Remembering is an urgent and important book that you won't soon forget. -- Bruce Feiler, seven-time best-selling author of Walking The Bible, Life is in the Transitions and A Time to Gather An electrifying, dizzying, wondrous celebration of humanity, then and now. I finished it feeling connected, inspired, hopeful. -- Keith Ferrazzi, best-selling author of Never Eat Alone June Cohen is such a friendly, open-hearted, deeply informed guide to recovering the wisdom that can make us whole and alive once more. She knows all the science, she writes with a professional's clarity and precision and, most of all, she can make us feel joyful and in love again as we go about the beautiful business of living. -- Chip Conley, Founder, Modern Elder Academy; Founder, Joie de Vivre Hospitality Group I've never seen the science explained better for a lay audience. -- Charles Raison, Professor of Psychiatry and Human Ecology, University of Wisconsin-MadisonMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Transworld Publishers Ltd
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 30 mm
Weight
537 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-911742-42-5 (9781911742425)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
June Cohen
The Great Remembering
Powerful Ancient Practices That Modern Life Lost - and the New Science Bringing Them Back
E-Book
approx. 10/2026
Transworld Digital
€14.99
Not yet available
Person
June Cohen is co-producer of the Masters of Scale podcast. Prior to that, she headed up media for TED, building its digital media operations from the ground up, launching TED Talks on the Internet, the TED Open Translation Project and TEDWomen. Before that, June was VP of Content at HotWired.com, the pioneering website from Wired magazine.