A Pocket History of Human Evolution

November 1, 2019
For those who need their science compelling and efficient in the style of Neil deGrasse Tyson's Astrophysics for People in a Hurry (2017), this slim volume is full of scientific wonders. Of all the primates, humans are arguably the ones most likely to produce a book like this, what with our giant baby heads and our bipedalism and our hands able to fashion sophisticated tools. Journalist Savatier and paleoanthropologist Condemi join forces to take the mystery out of our very human development. Their use of new scientific evidence clarifies some of the great questions about human evolution, from more accurate dating of early prehuman migration to understanding the social aspects of culture that we and our prehuman cohorts shared as we mixed and mingled. While this volume is not for the true beginner (it assumes that the reader has a passing familiarity with basic biology and some fairly sophisticated vocabulary), even knowledgeable readers will find themselves marveling at the incredible journey we have taken to become the preeminent life-form on our planet.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)