A Pocket History of Human Evolution

This book is very helpful as an "update" for a reader who hasn't studied prehistory in some time! The authors, a paleoanthropologist and a science journalist, make a solid attempt at answering the questions that come out of scientific findings. The future of humankind is addressed.

Crisp overview of human evolution

I enjoyed this book. There are a lot of good books out there that go into a lot of detail about human evolution, but what’s nice about this book is that it is reads crisply and it’s written in a conversational tone. As a pocket guide, it can’t go into all the details, but it gives a great overview and has many clarifying illustrations. Kudos to Thomas Haessig for the illustrations. The translation of the book was seamless, so kudos to Emma Ramadan. I strongly recommend this book for anyone interested in human evolution.

There are many secrets that lie in our history. Studying our roots is definitive way to trace from where we came and to guess where we are going.

This is a small book which tries to convey our evolution, moulding, selection and impact.
Book has simple and little technical language and guiding pictures to show in time lapse what sapiens did.

It focuses on main events and changes which fartured simple monkey to the top of the food chain.
How we migrated, developed tools, tribes, communication, killed so many, developed arts and how we reached here.

Everything is explained based on scientific research and archaeology and genetics.
It is information filled, entertaining book which helps reader to gain insights into complexity of life which is being rapidly disrupted by man.

It is amazing to read about interesting fossils and to see them on Google. A very immersive way to read and discover while reading.

Last chapter focuses on ecological disruption by humans and it is the most important lesson to be learned from this true story.

Afterall we didn't adapt, evolve and struggle; to destroy our own adobe at last.
Thanks netgalley and publisher for the review copy.

This is a short, but incredibly informative book about the evolution and history of man. It was very good, easily readable and incredibly interesting. I absolutely loved it.

The book starts with how primates slowly turned into humans and what were the stepping stones - which behaviors pushed us to turn into what we are now, and finishes with the migration and dispersion of Sapiens throughout the world, as well as the direction we are moving now (biological vs social and cultural evolution). It talks in short about all the human subspecies before us and what was different about them. The book contains a lot of very interesting facts - such as why humans are born so relatively helpless - our brains and skulls are much too huge to be able to pass through the birth canal as complete as those of other animals, so human babies have to finish maturing after they're born instead of before. There are many such seemingly little details that made us who we are in the span of millions of years. This book really gives you the feeling of respect for the human body - because it explains how many things had to change and adapt to enable us to survive. We are often taught that the human is nothing compared to an animal - we're frail, puny, weak. But it's not quite like that - we're also economical energetically, cunning and able to form a social structure that nurtures us like no other species in the world.

I was particularly happy to read about how important the domestication of the wolf (dog) has been to us as a species. The dog had so many jobs to do in human society, and not just early society - jobs that dogs still do in our society even now (rescuers, guides, hunting partners, finders, peace keepers and more). The love for dogs is programmed deep into the minds of a lot of us.

I also really loved the charts in this book - there are many. Some have timelines, branches of species and there are even brain size charts for some of the subspecies. I was most fascinated with the charts that detailed how Sapiens (essentially, us) mixed with Neanderthals and other human species to make us who we are right now.

I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.

A Pocket History of Human Evolution is a quick update on history and new discoveries in anthropology. This well written and easily accessible book took me back to my undergraduate anthropology class. This was an accessible read that I thoroughly enjoyed.

**I received an ARC from NetGalley for a fair and unbiased review of this book.