How Humans Evolved

Any textbook that makes it to four editions has to be a good one, in use at a lot of places and one that fits the current collected wisdom of the subject. I say this bit about the current wisdom because all of the sciences are moving forward at an extremely rapid rate. New theories, new discoveries make science change. This book is rare, if not unique, in how it presents controversy. Some scientists believe this, some believe that. Most authors tend to have beliefs that lean one way or the other. In this book the tendency is instead to present both views and give the evidence for each. This approach is more adapted to how science really works, but it is unusual, especially in a book intended for undergraduate use. This book is somewhat of a combination between anthropology and evolutionary biology. As such it brings a better understanding of how human beings became what they are today, one slow step at a time. It also presents all of the known evidence from both field observations and laboratory testing. It shows a picture of Lucy's bones, and it goes into DNA and gene theory. It is complete a text as you are goign to find.

I was assigned this book for my physical anthropology class. Overall, it's very easy to understand. THe authors explain difficult concepts well for the most part, and they usually include diagrams or pictures to reinforce the point. Granted the chapters on genetics weren't the easiest things on earth to understand, but I had a firm biology background from high school so it was not an issue. The authors also do a good job of making the concepts very interesting and alive, a difficult task for a college textbook.Overall, it's a great book and very informative.

I never thought that I would enjoy biological anthropology, let alone understand it well, but this text has made the class easy and even fun (seriously, I'm not joking). The book is layed out simply with outlines at the beginning of each chapter and clear subheadings within the chapters to help get across the main points. The points are all connected together nicely to leave the reader with a complete picture of human evolution.

This book was the required text for an anthropology course I took recently. The book explained things well and actually made complex biological concepts simple to understand, even for a undergraduate. It provides a very detailed and easy to understand overview of human evolution and the biology of human culture. I would recommend this book.