Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors | Nicholas Wade

Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors | Nicholas Wade | How did I get here?

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Before the Dawn: R...

	Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors Nicholas Wade Penguin, 2007 - 320 pages average customer review:based on 84 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

This field has NOT been standing still!

Wade reports diligently on many breakthroughs in understanding human prehistory made possible by the melding of genetic with archaeological evidence. Much of this insight has been achieved in just the last few years, thanks to computerized tools for analyzing the genome. If you have not been following this field closely, you'll be astonished at the progress.

Sometimes the "asides" are gripping. There are just a few pages about the domestication of the dog, for instance, that alone almost make the book worth the read. It seems that all modern dogs were derived from (most likely) a single litter of wolves in central Asia, and startlingly recently -- 15,000 years ago. They had three genetic changes that specialized them for domestication -- "tamability", a tendency to bark (wolves can bark but hardly ever do), and a knack for reading human body language. The combination of these traits made dogs indispensable, and they spread across Eurasia in the blink of an eye. The initiative for domestication probably sprang from the wolves themselves (Wade explains why). This is just a tiny sample of the book; there's a lot more like it.

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How did I get here?

An interesting explanation of human evolution based on genetic discoveries. If you want to know why you look the way you do, live where you live, talk and behave the way you do this book provides some answers. Many interesting insights into modern animal and human societies. This book covers a lot of ground in an understandable way.

to dispell a lot of current ignorance

excellent update of science largely derived from the human genome project regarding our human origins and evolution. it would be hard to dispute the facts and evidence presented in this book with any rational process and i can reccommend it as essential if not mandatory reading for those who desire to be educated.

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Must read for the History, Sociology and Psychology interested.

IMO, this is one of the most fascinating books on subject "man" to appear in several decades. It summarizes what is known of modern man's 50,000-100,000 history, and attempts to describe contemporary man, on the basis of his/her design and prior behavior. Highly recommended.
IMO, a must read for all students of subject "man" and all related disciplines, but lay and active univeristy level.

Up and Down

As a general round-up of what is known of our human ancestors, Before the Dawn is a concise, fascinating journey. Unfortunately, when Wade touches on more modern matters (Jews and intelligence, Jefferson and Hemings) you begin to realize that there's a great weakness in the book. There has been such an extraordinary leap of understanding since 2003's advances in understanding genetics, that Wade seems like a man being swept downstream. The final fifty pages of the book read like snatches of reports from the front-line of genetics, where theories remain theories and his attempts to see them as facts feels more like tabloid journalism (Jews are smart! Jefferson cheats!) than solid argument. What the book does suggest is that soon, within the next ten years or so, will come a time when a book like this will be rigrorous and indisputable. It will recount history arising from genetic fact rather than the leaps of faith that Wade is still forced to take. Who knows, maybe Wade will even write this book. But unfortunately, despite the promise of the early chapters, this isn't the book I was waiting for.

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