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Description:  A work of unprecedented scale in the genre, it describes the history of humanity from the present onwards across two billion years[1] and eighteen distinct human species, of which our own is the first. Stapledon's conception of history is based on the Hegelian Dialectic, following a repetitive cycle with many varied civilisations rising from and descending back into savagery over millions of years, but it is also one of progress, as the later civilisations rise to far greater heights than the first. The book anticipates the science of genetic engineering, and is an early example of the fictional supermind; a consciousness composed of many telepathically-linked individuals. In 1932, Stapledon followed Last and First Men with the far less acclaimed Last Men in London. His other novel, Star Maker (1937), could also be considered a sequel to Last and First Men (mentioning briefly man's evolution on Neptune), but is even more ambitious in scope, being a history of the entire universe. It is the 11th title in the SF Masterworks series.