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A landmark book of popular science that gives us a lucid and engaging account of how the human body evolved over millions of years—with charts and line drawings throughout.“Fascinating.... A readable introduction to the whole field and great on the making of our physicality.”—NatureIn this book, Daniel E. Lieberman illuminates the major transformations that contributed to key adaptations to the body: the rise of bipedalism; the shift to a non-fruit-based diet; the advent of hunting and gathering; and how cultural changes like the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions have impacted us physically. He shows how the increasing disparity between the jumble of adaptations in our Stone Age bodies and advancements in the modern world is occasioning a paradox: greater longevity but increased chronic disease. And finally—provocatively—he advocates the use of evolutionary information to help nudge, push, and sometimes even compel us to create a more salubrious environment and pursue better lifestyles.
I haven't quite finished this book yet (it's a very LONG read), but I can say with certainity that this is a fantastic book that covers just about every aspect of human evolution, from beginning to current day.Ostensibly, the author sets out to explain certain diseases or seemingly redundant features of the human body through an evolutionary explanation. However, readers should know that he will do this by beginning at the very beginning of proto-human development and move foward slowly through history to the current day. Therefore, this book is not simply an evolutionary biologist's take on modern diseases, but a multipart accounting of human biological development. This is not necessarily a bad thing if you're willing to undertake something like a college-level introduction to evolutionary biology and human history.The book is very informative, though, as well as thorough. This book actually helped to answer a lot of questions or gaps in knowledge I had regarding the progression of human evolution. And once the author gets to the present day, the previous chapters help the reader understand completely why certain diseases or conditions of the human body exist in the first place. For example, in the chapter I'm in now, he explains why wisdom teeth are such a problem in industrialized society, but why they AREN'T a genetic mistake ... he also offers information on why allergies are on the rise and germs are not your enemy.Overall, this is a very good book. My only complaints (and they're minor, given how informative and well researched this book is) is that the author tends to lapse into industry jargon every now and again. For the most part, he does a great job of breaking down complicated concepts piece by piece and making them understandable to the layman, but occassionally he drops some terms or words that are beyond my reading comprehension. Further, there are multiple sections where he could more succinctly explain or sum up something than he does (he tends to repeat himself a lot), but this is perhaps understandable if he comes from a college professor type environment.I highly recommend this book, all things considered. It's a relatively easy read, thorough, and will answer any and all questions you have regarding the mysteries of the human body. If nothing else, it'll make you marvel at just how incredible the story of human evolution is, how many things happened to shape us into the current version of ourselves, and how many adversities we overcame as a species to be here now.
