The World from Beginnings to 4000 BCE

In the first volume in The New Oxford World History series, renowned anthropologist Ian Tattersall thoroughly examines both the fossil and archeological records to explore the major turning points in human evolution: the emergence of the genus Homo, the advantages of bipedalism--the trait that most strongly distinguishes humans from other primates--the birth of the big brain and symbolic thinking, Paleolithic and Neolithic tool-making, and finally the enormously consequential shift from hunter-gatherer to agricultural societies 10,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent and elsewhere.

Ian Tattersall is a Curator in the Division of Anthropology at The American Museum of Natural History and has appointments at Columbia University and CUNY Graduate School. His books include The Monkey in the Mirror (OUP 2002), Becoming Human, and The Fossil Trail (OUP, 1995). He lives in New York City.

The book is clearly written and does provide a handy, and accessible introduction to what can be a rather complicated story. The Glasgow Naturalist Ultimately how good is this book? Pleasingly, the answer is that it is very good. It takes a complex subject and produces a gripping read while covering the major themes of human evolution with a refreshing confidence. Simon Underdown, Times Higher Education Supplement