Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors

Front Cover
Penguin, 2006 - Human evolution - 312 pages
29 Reviews
Reviews aren't verified, but Google checks for and removes fake content when it's identified
In just the last few years an explosion of discoveries - driven by information from the human genome - has empowered researchers to address many long-standing questions about the deep human past. Nicholas Wade has drawn on the new findings to present the first portrait of a special and hitherto mysterious group of human ancestors - the ancestral human population that lived in Africa 50,000 years ago and from whom everyone in the world today is descended. The human line evolved slowly from African apes until, quite recently in the timescale of human history, it acquired a novel faculty, the gift of language. With this transformation, humans became more innovative and their societies more cohesive. People were at last able to burst out of the African homeland where the stronger Neanderthals had long confined them, and then to inhabit the rest of the world.
 

What people are saying - Write a review

User ratings

5 stars
14
4 stars
8
3 stars
7
2 stars
0
1 star
0

Reviews aren't verified, but Google checks for and removes fake content when it's identified

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - JBGUSA - LibraryThing

Absolutely fascinating book about the dawn of man. The book traces the travels of the human race after groups of them left the great rift Valley of Africa. Read full review

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - LisCarey - LibraryThing

Nicholas Wade discusses how the growing science of genetics expands and deepens our understanding of human evolution, our relationship to our closest relatives, and how we became the species we are ... Read full review

Contents

GENETICS GENESIS
1
FIRST WORDS
35
EDEN
51
EXODUS
74
STASIS
100
SETTLEMENT
123
SOCIALITY
139
RACE
181
LANGUAGE
202
HISTORY
233
EVOLUTION
264
Notes
281
Acknowledgments
297
About the Author 313
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

About the author (2006)

Nicholas Wade received a BA in natural sciences from King's College, Cambridge. He was the deputy editor of "Nature" magazine in London and then became that journal's Washington correspondent. He joined "Science" magazine in Washington as a reporter and later moved to "The New York Times," where he has been an editorial writer, concentrating on issues of defense, space, science, medicine, technology, genetics, molecular biology, the environment, and public policy, a science reporter, and a science editor.

Bibliographic information