Vanished: An Unnatural History of Extinction

Shortlisted for the Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize 2025

"A vital and important book." -- David Olusoga

From award-winning historian of race, science, and empire Sadiah Qureshi comes a groundbreaking and deeply moving history of extinction -- as a scientific idea, an imperial legacy, and a political choice.

Anyone alive today belongs to a tiny fraction of all who have ever lived: more than 90% of species that once existed are now extinct. How did we come to see ourselves as survivors in a world where species can disappear forever -- or even as agents capable of driving a sixth mass extinction?

Qureshi reveals that extinction is a surprisingly modern concept -- and not nearly as "natural" as we imagine. Until the late eighteenth century, Europeans believed species were perfect and unchanging creations of God. But as revolutions reshaped the world, scientists began to recognize that fossils -- like mammoth bones -- were not relics of still-living creatures, but evidence of species lost forever. Extinction, once a theological impossibility, became an accepted, even inevitable, truth.

Yet Vanished demonstrates that extinction is more than a scientific discovery -- it is also a political act. European and American colonizers quickly used the idea of "natural" extinction to justify violence and genocide, claiming that Indigenous peoples -- from Newfoundland's Beothuk to Aboriginal Australians -- were destined to disappear.

Drawing on pioneering research and breathtaking storytelling, Vanished explores the intertwined histories of extinction and empire to reveal how the concept has shaped our understanding of life, death, and survival -- and what it means for our planet's future.