Mapping Human History Tpbk - Softcover

Steve Olson

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0747562563 ISBN 13: 9780747562566

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, 2002

Synopsis

Until just a few years ago, we knew surprisingly little about the 150,000 or so years of human existence before the advent of writing. Some of the most momentous events in our past - including our origins, our migrations across the globe, and our acquisition of language - were veiled in the uncertainty of 'prehistory'. That veil is being lifted at last by geneticists and other scientists. "Mapping Human History" is nothing less than an astonishing 'history of prehistory'. Steve Olson travelled through four continents to gather insights into the development of humans and our expansion throughout the world. He describes, for example, new thinking about how centres of agriculture sprang up among disparate foraging societies at roughly the same time. He tells why most of us can claim Julius Caesar and Confucius among our forebears. He pinpoints why the ways in which the story of the Jewish people jibes with, and diverges from, biblical accounts. And using very recent genetic findings, he explodes the myth that human races are a biological reality.

About this title

About the Author

Steve Olson, a science major who studied writing with John Hersey and Alice Walker, graduated from Yale University in 1978. He has written extensively on biological sciences, often working at the National Academy of the Sciences and the Institute of Genomic Research in Washington D.C. He has written for Atlantic, Science and many other magazines, and his books include Biotechnology: An Industry Comes of Age and Shaping the Future: Biological Research and Human Values.

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0747562563
• ISBN 13: 9780747562566
• Binding: Paperback