Category: Nonfiction
Subcategory: Anthropology
Description: Richard Leakey, of the famous Leakey family who have been responsible for many key anthropological finds, summarizes in this slim book the state of our current understanding of the evolution of human beings. In a friendly and clear voice, he walks the reader through historical ideas, modern excavations, archaeology, genetics, how scientists interpretations of the physical evidence often differs, and what the "tree" (or "bush") of our evolution may look like given the evidence current at the time of publication.
Reading level: Easy. Very little jargon used and when it is, it's explained well.
Writing quality: Above Average. Clear and concise, with a friendly voice.
Content: Excellent and well organized; As an overview, lacks purposely in depth.
Meta-comments: Recommended for beginning your anthrolpological education or just for a few hours of interesting and thoughtful fun. A bit like an Asimov nonfiction book, Leakey has a very relaxed manner about his prose, and yet manages to squeeze a lot of relevant information into a fairly slim volume while keeping it all organized and understandable. He's not afraid to state his own opinions on controversial matters, but gives equal time to opposing views. And just occasionally, he rises above the mechanistic description of basic anthropology and waxes philosophical (even spiritual), most notably in the chapter about the cave paintings at Lascaux (and ones like them in Altamira and elsewhere). There we discover Leakey the romantic, a man with a true passion for his work and a real desire to connect to our species' past. That chapter and other bits of the book, where one suddenly remembers that the author is one of the pre-eminent experts in his field and not some mere science journalist (a fact you might not otherwise catch as he never waves it in your face), stuck with me and make this book, for me, one of those little gems: easy to read, compact, yet written in a deceptively masterful way that makes it difficult to forget. Even if you go on read many more technically sophisticated anthropology books (and I encourage you to - there are a wealth of really good ones available), you'll probably always remember this little one and happily recommended to a friend who expresses curiousity in the discipline. Even as a person who was by no means new to physical anthropology, I still enjoyed Leakey's comforting little summary of this fascinating field and have recommended it myself to several others. This is part of series called "Science Masters" which all aim to be succinct yet not superficial, and are all written by leaders in their respective fields: Richard Dawkins, Jared Diamond, Marvin Minsky, Paul Davies, Stephen Gould, et al. It probably won't be the last in that series I'll review here.
Overall: Highly Recommended.
