People of the Lake: Mankind & Its Beginnings [Mass Market Paperback]

Richard E. Leakey (Author), Roger Lewin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1979

Paperback by Richard E. Leakey is the story of mankind and its beginnings. Mass market paperback has different cover than pictured, same book.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 252 pages
• Publisher: Avon Books; 1st Avon Printing 1979 edition (1979)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380455757
• ISBN-13: 978-0380455751
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 4.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,358,746 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What does it mean to be human?, November 17, 2007

By 

John Hankey (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: People of the Lake: Mankind & Its Beginnings (Mass Market Paperback)

Are we hopelessly aggressive stupid apes? Is the stupid, aggressive, short-sighted-selfish behavior, which is so typical of our present society, also typical of our ancestors; or were they different. Is the blind and destructive impulse this society an aberration? Leakey argues that the fossil, paleontological, and anthropological evidence from millions of years ago and the present show that our current society is a dangerous aberration and degradation from millions of years of human and pre-human societies based on sharing and altruism. This is arguably one of the most important books ever written.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Homo sapiens, November 4, 2001

By 

M. J. Davern (, Ny) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: People of the Lake: Mankind & Its Beginnings (Mass Market Paperback)

ITs essential to read this book, in order to get a good handle on paleontology, anthropology ,and sociological phenomenon. Really explains alot about humankind.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Does Richard Leaky rewrite the History of man?, December 13, 2009

By 

bernie "webviator" (Arlington, Texas) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: People of the Lake: Mankind & Its Beginnings (Paperback)

Lets face it fame is fickle and fleeting. This book was once a best seller from famed anthropologist Richard Leaky. The lake is Turkana and the time is fifteen million years ago.
This book covers Leakey's finds and his interpretation of such finds. There is s small black and white glossy section that displays the lake and several ancestors (including Australopithecus.)
The table of contents is:
People of the Lake
A question of survival
In the Beginning
A New Perspective on Human origins
The Human Family Unearthed
Lessons from Bones and Stones
An Ancient way of life
The first Affluent society
The nature of Intelligence
The Origins of Language
Sex and the need for Women's Liberation
An End to the Hunting Hypothesis
As you can see this is not just a book about bones. He also quotes a lot of Freud. So I do not know why this book fell out of favor. However it makes for some good background reading.