Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors 1st Edition

by Nicholas Wade (Author)

276 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-1594200793

ISBN-10: 9781594200793

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A provocative alternate history of humanity's ancient ancestry and the evolution of human nature draws on ground-breaking scientific findings to offer insight into such debated issues as the evolution of language and race, the domestication of companion animals, and the defeat of the Neanderthals. 40,000 first printing.

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A Troublesome Inheritance: Genes, Race and Human History by Nicholas Wade Hardcover $34.90
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Scientists are using DNA analysis to understand our prehistory: the evolution of humans; their relation to the Neanderthals, who populated Europe and the Near East; and Homo erectus, who roamed the steppes of Asia. Most importantly, geneticists can trace the movements of a little band of human ancestors, numbering perhaps no more than 150, who crossed the Red Sea from east Africa about 50,000 years ago. Within a few thousand years, their descendents, Homo sapiens, became masters of all they surveyed, the other humanoid species having become extinct. According to New York Times science reporter Wade, this DNA analysis shows that evolution isn't restricted to the distant past: Iceland has been settled for only 1,000 years, but the inhabitants have already developed distinctive genetic traits. Wade expands his survey to cover the development of language and the domestication of man's best friend. And while "race" is often a dirty word in science, one of the book's best chapters shows how racial differences can be marked genetically and why this is important, not least for the treatment of diseases. This is highly recommended for readers interested in how DNA analysis is rewriting the history of mankind. Maps. (Apr. 24)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Genetics has been intruding on human origins research, long the domain of archaeology and paleoanthropology. Veteran science journalist Wade applies the insights of genetics to every intriguing question about the appearance and global dispersal of our species. The result is Wade's recounting of "a new narrative," which also has elements of a turf war between geneticists and their established colleagues. He efficiently explains how an evolutionary event (e.g., hairlessness) is recorded in DNA, and how rates of mutation can set boundary dates for it. For the story, Wade opens with a geneticist's estimate that modern (distinct from "archaic") Homo sapiens arose in northeast Africa 59,000 years ago, with a tiny population of only a few thousand, and was homogenous in appearance and language. Tracking the ensuing expansion and evolutionary pressures on humans, Wade covers the genetic evidence bearing on Neanderthals, race, language, social behaviors such as male-female pair bonding, and cultural practices such as religion. Wade presents the science skillfully, with detail and complexity and without compromising clarity. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product details

Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Penguin Press; 1st edition (April 20, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 9781594200793
ISBN-13: 978-1594200793
ASIN: 1594200793
Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 1.1 x 9.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 276 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #816,550 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #939 in Books > Medical Books > Basic Sciences > Genetics
- #2253 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Anthropology > General
- #2568 in Books > Textbooks > Social Sciences > Anthropology

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Andrew Wyllie

The Evolution of Mankind Told Through Our Genes

May 23, 2017

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

This book describes the evolution of man based on the latest discoveries about the human genome. It talks aboout how science is able to determine how (and when) some of our genetic history was written. How the ancestors of man started in Africa and spread through the rest of the world displacing other types of humans who are no longer around. A lot of the narrative is speculative, but it is careful to label it as such. The most probable scenarios of how different regions of the world were populated are detailed and are explored in turn.

As some other reviewers have mentioned, this book does focus at several points on race, but it cautions anyone from making value judgements based on the genetic findings. The book talks about how people of various races have a higher or lower chance of contracting a particular disease or condition because of genes that might be more common to that race than to others in the world. The races of the world are part of our evolutionary history and can not be ignored just because some people may try to use it as a way to classify people as better or worse than others.

This book appears to be geared towards a person who may be a little above what would be considered a layman understanding of science, but is not so high minded that the layman would be lost in it. The author does a very good job of explaining the terminology that is being used in his narrative and of the various experts that he quotes. I would recommend this book to someone who wants to know about the most recent findings in genetics and how it is helping us understand our ancestors a little better.

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Parker

Very enjoyable and broad outline for someone new to researching the topic

September 28, 2017

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

I have only fifty pages left to digest before finishing this work, but I am confident the remaining text will continue to be both enlightening and engaging. As someone who is just dipping his toes into researching the biological and ancestral past of humans and pre-humans down the line, this book has been gripping from the opening chapter through it's entirety.

Mr. Wade structures each chapter carefully, starting with a broad painting brush of our heritage and "pre-heritage" so to speak, incrementally building up the history of our ancestors (as the subtitle so adequately states): our migratory patters out of Africa, reasons for shifting from nomadic hunter-gatherers into settled communities; the formation of our languages and benefits of communication, as well as earnest postulations on the roots of beliefs and social constructs and question as to why they have evolved as they are.

I am absolutely satisfied with this books concise treatment of the subject without being littered with "ostentatious erudition" if you will. I look forward to reading more works by this author and continuing my very early studies in this area of intellectual discourse.

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Ricardo Mio

Fascinating and Engaging

August 6, 2014

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

It turns out the first humans to walk the earth was not that long ago. It wasn't millions of years ago as once thought, or even hundreds-of-thousands of years ago. It was as recently as 50,000 years ago. That's when man as we know him first appeared. He could solve complex problems, create art, speak in complete sentences, and carried a sophisticated took kit that included a sewing needle made of bone. He was conscious of his appearance too. He combed his hair and wore tailored animal skins.

Thanks to the science of genetics, this latest information on man's evolution has come to light, which is the subject of this fascinating and relatively short book by Nicholas Wade, science journalist for The New York Times.

Not to confuse the issue, man was indeed the result of countless millennia of evolution, but according to the latest studies of genetics, the first modern humans appeared quite suddenly, perhaps within a 2,000 year period. That surprising discovery has scientists scratching their heads for answers. From a population estimated to be 5,000 souls, early man branched out from his ancestral home in northeast Africa (present-day Ethiopia) and began to populate the earth. The number that departed Africa is estimated to be about 150 humans. From these 150 most of the world's population sprung.

They probably crossed the Red Sea at its southern end and stepped bravely into Arabia. Reaching India, the growing population went separate ways. One group traveled along the coasts of southeast Asia, arriving in Australia some 46,000 years ago. In fact, they walked to Australia as the oceans were low due to the ice age. Another group explored the land route northwest from India, reaching Europe. Then, about 20,000 years ago, a climatic catastrophe occurred--a final glacial advance that emptied Europe and Siberia of people. Several thousand years later, descendants of the survivors spread north again. Some of these new northerners, the Siberians in the eastern half of Eurasia, domesticated the dog, and discovered the land bridge that joined Siberia to Alaska and to the Americas.

Around 15,000 years ago, in the Near East, people at last accomplished a decisive social transition, the founding of the first settled communities. Domestication of wheat, sheep, goats and cows occurred here between 9,000 and 12,000 years ago, and to this day we don't know how they did it. The only animal to be domesticated in recorded history is the rabbit, and this was done 2,000 years ago by the Romans.

For more, much more, read Wade's engaging book. At 280 pages its relatively short. Wade being a journalist means it's written to be easily understood. I couldn't it put down. Five stars.

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Ms Ann Thrope

I read "Our Troublesome Inheritance" and enjoyed every word

October 26, 2014

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I'm a Nicholas Wade fan. I read "Our Troublesome Inheritance" and enjoyed every word. I am interested in the sequencing of the genome and what it's teaching us about ourselves, and always have been interested in evolution and man's journey from the trees to the space station. Wade apparently believes evolution is continuing which he suggests is outside the "consensus" of genomics. He also suggests that some of our behaviors are genetic and not cultural, and that definitely means he's wandered away from the consensus party line. (I happen to believe there is never consensus in science. Agreement in matters of opinion? What about facts? New facts? New discoveries? At one time there was "consensus" that the world was flat, that the sun revolved around the earth.
Wade writes in an easy to read style and teaches without lecturing. There's a whole new world out there in genetics; the question is whether the "consensus" scientists are willing to explore it honestly.

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