The Complete World of Human Evolution (The Complete Series) Paperback – January 2, 2012

AUTHORSThese folks know their stuff.The authors are both prominent anthropologists connected with the Natural History Museum in London. Chris Stringer is a leading anthropologist in more ways than one. Involved since 1970s, he helped develop this field by being among the first: to focus on Modern Human Origins, to bring database analysis to Anthropology and use sophisticated statistical analysis to analyze information “buried” there. He is best known for being a first and leading proponent of “Recently Out of Africa" theory (ROA) for Modern Human origins. (On this he is about as close to the horse’s mouth as you are likely to get).Peter Andrews was the head of Human Origins at the Museum until he retired. He continued there as a research associate and is a Professor Emeritus, University College, London. He is a noted expert on Miocene Apes and the evolution of primates leading to Human Origins, and is interested in their Paleoecology (ancient habitats and ecology).LEVEL AND LITERARY QUALITYSo not surprisingly, this book is not the best book to read if it’s your first introduction to the field. But while not at the beginner’s level, it’s only a step up. You will get more out of it if you do read an introductory book like Carl Zimmer’s “Smithsonian Intimate Guide to Human Origins” or Robie Mckie’s “Dawn of Man- The Story Of Human Evolution” (IMHO – better written than Carl’s but more out of date). Both of those books were well written by talented science writers, and are heavily illustrated.This book’s authors are scientists and the book has just a bit of a academia to it (especially the Miocene apes material). But it was written for the lay-public and it is definitely accessible with even just a little background. They try to avoid scientific jargon for and usually clearly define pretty what they cannot avoid. There is no technical analysis involved, not a bit of math or the like.Chris is a talented wordsmith. His writing is open and conversational and he knows how to add color and interest to make it engaging. But his writing style also suffers from the downside of conversation – it can ramble and jump around and is prone to run-on sentences and paragraphs.Dr Andrews is less open and conversational, but his structure is more coherent. On the other hand, both men tend to cross-references -move back and forth.The publisher is great. Not only did they produce a high quality book, I believe they imposed a format that helps. The material is organized by being broken down into clear readable segments with subtitles. And they use copious illustrations that break up the text that would otherwise run-on. (I have read some other of Chris’s book without this format, and it’s a lot more work). A brilliant move by the publisher.GRAPHICSThere are numerous illustrations: taking up about half the space of the book. But contrary to one reviewer’s comment’s, they are mostly useful and support the text and add clarify and additional information. There are, however, too many site collection and scenery photos which could be reduced.The photos and illustrations are mostly high quality (many are colored) which adds to the reading experience. But I am not a fan of the reconstruction scenes. To me that artist’s interpretations tend to look too much alike (between species) and cartoonish - not of the same quality currently available. But some charts are exceptionally good. The species timeline at the front of book is one of the very best I have seen and it helped to stay organized in reading about the species, especially the apes. The land / sea configuration maps on page 100 is not usually seen in introductory books, but helpful. And generally the fossil comparisons are well done.FOCUSThe book is an up to date (2011-12) overview of the evolution of late primate (especially Miocene Apes) to Modern Human origins. It covers most of the major species of Hominoids. One of the books strongest assets is material on Miocene Apes. Its hard to find such a review, written at this level. The book is worth having for this alone.It mostly deals with the major fossil species but also describes important collecting sites and gives background on their likely habitats. This has a lot of information and detail packed into its 229 pages (about 115 pages of equivalent text). Most of this information is of a summary nature –the book is a good review of the field, but at the same time, gets into sufficient details on specific aspects of fossils that reveal information about our evolution.CONTENTTwo other reviewers Vierhout "noord23" and Jerry Saperstein do a good job of summarizing the general content of the book so there is no point of repeating it here.PROBLEMSThe publisher’s devices help organize the book, but it would help if the writing itself was more organized and coherent. (which is why I initially was going to give it 4 stars). I tried to use the index to overcome the fractured writing but found it to be a minimal ONE. This is a publishing area that could be improved. I also found the illustration credits almost useless.A criticism on content is that it’s very weak in DNA and genetics – which has made major contributions lately, and is likely to become one of the most important subfields. You are going to have to get this information from more advanced reading. The same can be said about inferring behavior and social organization. While some is present at the end of the book there is much more that can be said about it. On the plus side, much in this area currently is really speculation – which this book does not get into. (Chris Springer's more advanced book: "Lone Survivors....." goes into more detail here but the fractured writing is the same, and the publisher is poor.)RATING AND VALUE:Initially I was going to give this 4 stars. But on reflection decided on 5 stars. For the right person, this would be appropriate. This is a very good book for someone who was more informed but hasn’t checked the field for a while and wants to be brought up to date. It’s good for someone who has an introductory level background but wants to begin to gain more advanced background in the area – an ideal transition book. And it’s illustrations, quality and information about Miocene apes and other incidental information make it worthwhile for others.

This is a short yet excellent review of the current state of research, theories and evidence in anthropology, written at the college level (which is quite a relief in a field where most books seemed to be aimed at children or high schoolers), yet with an abundance of excellent photos, charts and such. Highly recommended.

This is an up-to-date and readable account of recent developments in Human Evolution. It presents a balanced account, without pushing any one particular view. So often authors in this area trumpet their own discoveries as being the important finds, and dismiss the finds of their competitors. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in science, and wishing to get current in this area. I myself am a Professor of Chemistry, but try to keep abreast in all major areas of science, and found this an excellent book in this regard. These authors are clearly 'splitters', however - almost every find is a new species. I would have preferred it if they reduced the number of species of hominids to perhaps a dozen at most. I also thought they might have given Robert Broom more coverage and credit - he was the real driving force behind the discovery of further Australopithecus examples, and of paranthropus.

I liked it!

Very thorough and well written.

The book is most satisfactory as ' have expected, both in content and appearance. I have ordered it for my daughter, an archaeology student, but I like to read about such items. However, the most difficult thing for purchasing from Amazon i is to cause the delivery of books to Turkey, where I live due to high delivery dates and customs problems. So it takes a while to get the books in my hands.

This book is an easy way to catch up on where we are in understanding the evolution of modern humans. It includes photographs of the current fossil evidence in ape and genus Homo evolution, including photographs on many of the important fossil collection sites. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in human evolution

I wrote a long, detailed review of this book, showing its strengths and weakness, but while trying to edit my review, I inadvertently deleted it. I don't want to rewrite the whole review! Sorry.