Human Evolution: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) [Paperback]

Bernard Wood (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 12, 2006 | ISBN-10: 0192803603 | ISBN-13: 978-0192803603

The recent discovery of the diminutive Homo floresiensis (nicknamed "the Hobbit") in Indonesia has sparked new interest in the study of human evolution. In this Very Short Introduction, renowned evolutionary scholar Bernard Wood traces the history of paleoanthropology from its beginnings in the eighteenth century to today's latest fossil finds. Along the way we are introduced to the lively cast of characters, past and present, involved in evolutionary research. Although concentrating on the fossil evidence for human evolution, the book also covers the latest genetic evidence about regional variations in the modern human genome that relate to our evolutionary history. Wood draws on over thirty years of experience to provide an insiders view of the field, and demonstrates that our understanding of human evolution is critically dependent on advances in related sciences such as paleoclimatology, geochronology, systematics, genetics, and developmental biology. This is an ideal introduction for anyone interested in the origins and development of humankind.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Bernard Wood is Henry R. Luce Professor of Human Origins at George Washington University and the Smithsonian Institution.

Product Details

• Paperback: 131 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (January 12, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0192803603
• ISBN-13: 978-0192803603
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #128,057 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Short, detailed and small., February 27, 2006

By 

Michael Valdivielso (Alexandria, VA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Human Evolution: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) (Paperback)

Human Evolution by Bernard Wood is just the facts and only the facts. At 131 pages this is all the updated information about human related fossils, up to the year 2005, and the debates about what they mean.

The book starts out explaining about the Tree Of Life, what fossils are, how they are found and how they are used as evidence. Everything is clear and crisp, Mr. Wood treats the reader to a lesson in paleoanthropology, without moving too swiftly but without talking down to the reader. Can be finished in a day or two, no problem.

Great for people new to the subject or as a small guide for those on the go.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Short, detailed and up-to-date., July 3, 2006

By 

Dr. Bojan Tunguz (Indiana, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Human Evolution: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) (Paperback)

This book is everything that the VSI (Very Short Introductions) are supposed to be: it's short, it's to the point and it's up-to-date. It reviews all the major events in the history of thought on human evolution, as well as all the major landmarks of that evolution as we understand them today. When there are several differing interpretations of fossil evidence, Wood impartially points out all the strengths and weaknesses of different positions. Although this is not a book on evolution in general, the early chapters position human evolution within the context of primate evolution, and even more briefly, under the evolution of life. For the review of evolution in general, "Evolution: A Very Short Introduction" would be an excellent choice.

23 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Incredibly, painfully, boring, August 8, 2008

By 

Kerry Walters (Lewisburg, PA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Human Evolution: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) (Paperback)

Did you ever have a high school teacher or college professor who had the unhappy knack of making even the most exciting topics deadly boring the moment he or she began lecturing on them? I bet so. I know I did.

I ask this because struggling through Bernard Wood's Human Evolution took me back to those classes. There are few topics more intellectually exciting than the one Professor Wood takes on. There are few treatments of it more deadly. Readers who pick this book up expecting to read lively prose describing the search for hominid fossils in Africa and Asia will be unpleasantly surprised. Instead, what Wood gives us is a (mercifully short) treatise on methodology and taxonomy, with just enough brief accounts of field work to keep the reader plodding through to the end.

What Wood's written, in short, is a brief textbook, not a narrative intended for an educated lay audience. There are pages of charts outlining hominin taxa and comparing human and chimpanzee anatomical features. And there are lots of sentences like this one: "The shape and size of the true pelvis, combined with what can be extrapolated from adult brain sizes about the brain size of a H. ergaster neonate suggests that the head was small enough to be oriented transversely all the way through the birth canal, and thus it did not need to be rotated after negotiating the pelvic inlet" (86). Holy cow.

Look: I don't expect that every science writer will be a Loren Eiseley, Rachel Carson, or Stephen Hawking. But it would be nice if science writers who take a crack at the popular market would actually try to interest their readers. Use Wood's book as a quick and convenient taxonomic guide, to be consulted but not read straight through, and spend your time on more readable narratives such as (for example) Nicholas Wade's Before the Dawn, Ann Gibbons' The First Human, or Donald Johanson's books on Lucy.