World Famous Comics: Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors
Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors
By: Nicholas Wade Publisher: Penguin Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 320 Publication Date: March 27, 2007 Studio: Penguin
An amazing story of early human history ^ History can be a very fascinating subject, and one can easily spend a whole lifetime exploring different historical periods and events. However, the recorded history can take us back only to roughly the beginning of the fourth millennium BC. Most of human history lies well before that date, and it has long been supposed that we'll never get a complete picture of the earliest epochs of our species. That is still the case insofar as particular events and individuals are concerned, but in recent years we've been getting an increasingly detailed and fascinating picture of that "pre-historic" age. A variety of new research techniques and tools have come of age, and they are employed to shed more and more light on pre-historic events from a variety of different angles. Evolutionary psychology, DNA analysis, and linguistic analysis are some of the tools that have augmented our knowledge of the past as they have gone well beyond what we've been able to glean from just archeology. All of these tools and the remarkable discoveries that they elicited are described in "Before the Dawn." The book reads like a cross between a popular science book and a historical novel. At every turn of page there is a new twist to the story, and some of the insights are quite remarkable and unexpected. On an occasion one gets a sense that some of the tales have been oversold as compared to the available evidence, but overall the book is based on solid scholarship and multiple sources of evidence that mutually support the same conclusions. If you are interested in the early human history, I could not recommend a better book to read as an introduction to this exciting subject that promises to reveal even more surprising insights in the upcoming decades.
As good as ever ^ Although this book is based on cutting-edge research circa 2006, I found it just as fascinating to read now as it would have been when first published.
The History of Man's Evolution Updated ^ Charles Darwin first told the story of human evolution back in 1871 in the Descent of Man. That was more than 50 years before the discovery of DNA, and although Darwin made numerous insightful observations and educated guesses about our past, there was much he did not know. Over the 100-plus years since Darwin's death, we have learned more and more about our own past. I think Charles Darwin would love this book.
Before the Dawn tells the story of our own evolution, as best we know it today. Wade considers and discusses the evidence from language, culture and especially the newest form of information -- genetics. Much of the story is the same. As Darwin conjectured, humans originally evolved in Africa. But the story is now far more detailed. It now appears that we are all the ancestors of a small group of people who left Africa at about the same time, and gradually replaced the "archaic" humans, e.g., the Neanderthals, who had left Africa before us.
Before the Dawn is very readable, but at the same time is not condescending. Moreover, Wade does not shy away from controversial topics; he does his best to tell it like it is. This is an excellent book, and I highly recommend it.
Comprehensive, interesting, intellectually stimulating ^ Nicholas Wade cites an amazing variety of primary research (with the citations) and synthesizes their findings with reasonable speculation that is thought provoking. At first, some of the presentations seemed "thin" and incompletely thought thru. Well, turns out this was just a preliminary treatment, and later in the book these topics were re-visited with treatments of the points that came to my mind. I didn't find any one specific part stunning by itself, but the whole work rises above the sum of its parts. It is an interesting perspective the workings of evolution, and what can be learned about human history from recent genetic findings.
I like to read the 1-star ratings of a book before buying it. It struck me that most of the 1-star ratings for this book were motivated by the rater's dislike of non- politically correct topics appearing in this book. Finding a thoughtful book that is willing to speak to non-pc topics was appealing to me. This book's treatment of genetic differences between races seemed fair to me, based on cited research. It is not a broad assertion of the superiority of some races compared with others, but rather some specific (minor) genetic differences that have been documented. For purposes of this book, "race" is defined genomically, based on the continent inhabited. The continent of a person can be reliably determined by genetic analysis, so at least this "definition" of race is factually supported. For example, the book states that the malaria parasite, while very ancient, is thought to have become a common disease among people only in the last 10,000 years or so. "... and perhaps within the last 5,000 years or so when slash-and-burn agriculture was introduced into West Africa." Different genetic mutations confering some protection to malaria have arisen in different populations. Of course there is the sickle cell anemia genes that are present in Africa. This book cites 2 variants of a "G6PD" gene that also help resist malaria, one found in African populations and another in the Mediterranean.
Another variation of the "CCR5" gene evolved about 1,300 years ago, according to this book, and occurs in 14% of Swedes, 5% of Mediterraneans, and not elsewhere.
None of this detail is all that interesting in itself, but it does serve to support 2 interesting ideas. There is such a thing as race, which can be identified by genetics, and there are genetic differences between races. Also, humans have continued to evolve, with important new genetic changes having been documented as evolving as recently as a few thousand years ago.
A must read for anyone interested in human history ^ Nicholas Wade is a writer who makes even the most difficult subjects understandable. I feel this is a must read for anyone interested in learning more about the story of the history of our human ancestors.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Tony's Online Tips
Trevor
