Overview

Based on a groundbreaking synthesis of recent scientific findings, critically acclaimed New York Times science reporter Nicholas Wade tells a bold and provocative new story of the history of our ancient ancestors and the evolution of human nature. Just in the last three years a flood of new scientific findings--driven by revelations discovered in the human genome--has provided compelling new answers to many long-standing mysteries about our most ancient ancestors--the people who first evolved in Africa and then went on to colonize the whole world. Nicholas Wade weaves this host of news-making findings together for the first time into an intriguing new history of the human story before the dawn of civilization. Sure to stimulate lively controversy, he makes the case for novel arguments about many hotly debated issues such as the evolution of language and race and the genetic roots of human nature, and reveals that human evolution has continued even to today. In wonderfully lively and lucid prose, Wade reveals the answers that researchers have ingeniously developed to so many puzzles: When did language emerge? When and why did we start to wear clothing? How did our ancestors break out of Africa and defeat the more physically powerful Neanderthals who stood in their way? Why did the different races evolve, and why did we come to speak so many different languages? When did we learn to live with animals and where and when did we domesticate man's first animal companions, dogs? How did human nature change during the thirty-five thousand years between the emergence of fully modern humans and the first settlements? This will be the most talked about science book of the season.

Full Product Details

9798200147939

Table of Contents

Reviews

Author Information

Nicholas Wade is a British-born scientific reporter, editor, and author who currently writes for the Science section of the New York Times. His book Before the Dawn received a 2007 Science-in-Society Journalism Award. Wade is the author of several other books as well, including The Ultimate Experiment, The Nobel Duel, Betrayers of the Truth, A World Beyond Healing, Lifescript, Before the Dawn, and The Faith Instinct. He was born in Aylesbury, England, and educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge. Wade received a BA degree in natural sciences in 1964. Alan Sklar, a graduate of Dartmouth, has excelled in his career as a freelance voice actor. Named a Best Voice of 2009 by AudioFile magazine, his work has earned him several Earphones Awards, a Booklist Editors' Choice Award (twice), a Publishers Weekly Listen-Up Award, and Audiobook of the Year by ForeWord magazine. He has also narrated thousands of corporate videos for clients such as NASA, Sikorsky Aircraft, IBM, Dannon, Pfizer, AT&T, and SONY.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available